Excellent, even though

Submitted by Malcolm (Israel), Jan 5, 2021 at 09:07

This article is excellent and all too true. There is one slip: Joseph Epstein reproved Jill Biden in the WSJ for calling herself "Dr.," claiming that she had merely obtained an honorary doctorate at age 55. He was wrong and grievously wrong: she earned a doctorate by studying and writing a doctoral thesis at age 55 after a life too busy doing other things. "Mature students" deserve especial encouragement when they study and especial commendation when they succeed, whereas Epstein, despite being a university professor himself, did the opposite and should have apologized. I would add, however, that the greatest danger to conservatism in the USA today is the current widespread split in the Republican Party over Trump's obsessive and increasingly absurd and counter-constitutional attempts to hang on to power, in which he has the support of tens of millions of voters and two thirds of the House Republicans. Just as liberalism, despite its distinguished history, is always endangered by deviations into Marxism and similar weak-minded idiocies, so also conservatism, despite its distinguished history, is endangered by deviations into nationalism and blind devotion to the ruler, the extreme of which is fascism. Civil war is the most vicious kind of war and more dangerous to a country as powerful as the USA than any external enemy. And while the demonization of conservatives has seeped into the institutions that Mr. Pipes mentions, if you look at the comments written on articles on the Fox News website, you will find that the demonization of "Dems" and "liberals" is also rampant today, albeit is other strata of society. Civil war may be less remote than many imagine.

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