Decline and Fall

Several years ago, back when I was a conservative Republican (in the Barry Goldwater sense, not the Sam Brownback sense), I was paid to write. Well, I was paid to write exactly once. I got a hundred bucks from the Claremont Institute for a book review which they published thanks to my close, personal relationship with Ken Masugi, who was at the time their Director for the Center for Local Government. For the record, I still like the guy, although I'm pretty sure he doesn't know that I have gone to the dark side. So yes, I'm a paid writer.

I only bring this up because I ran across (thanks to Sully) a depressingly unsurprising announcement from Claremont: their annual Statesmanship Award in honor of Winston Churchill will be awarded to... wait for it... Donald Rumsfeld.

A Statesmanship Award. To Donald "I Don't Do Diplomacy" Rumsfeld. You have got to be kidding me.

And some people wonder why I left the Right.

Labels: conservatism