A politician who tries to be liberal and conservative at the same time

The traditionalist Australian blogger Mark Richardson writing at Oz Conservative discusses an incoherently high-minded Australian politician, Tony Abbot of the Liberal Party. Abbot simultaneously argues for the Burkean appeal to tradition and for the liberal elevation of freedom as the highest principle, and ends up, oh, for example, treating all family forms as equally valid. Richardson then quotes my point that British-style, non-conceptual Burkean conservatism is worse than useless in a society that has already been radicalized by liberalism.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 29, 2008 09:36 AM | Send