Conor Friedersdorf PO '02 Open Letter to Jonah Goldberg

Over at True Slant, Conor Friedersdorf PO '2002 writes an open letter to Jonah Goldberg, in which he mentioned his time at Pomona College:

It is actually surprising that the gulf separating our attitudes is so deep. As a native of Orange County, California, the people I most respect in this world – my parents and two sets of grandparents – are all self-described conservative Republicans. My involvement in politics began in response to what I regarded as grave flaws in leftist campus politics at Pomona College, and the dubious actions of Democrats during the Gray Davis era in California, when I witnessed giveaways to public employee unions that were arguably the most fiscally irresponsible measures in state history. The political writers I’ve read whose work most resonates are Burke, Hayek, and Milton Friedman. The bulk of President Obama’s domestic agenda strikes me as ill conceived at best—I worry about the unabated growth of the federal government, America’s perilous fiscal situation, and an approach to governance that relies on the enduring wisdom of elected and appointed officials.

Elsewhere, Friedersdorf wrote an interesting take on a NextGen conference that I attended earlier last year with Bryce Gerard and Sam Corcos. I pretty much agree with his assessment about how the right needs to get over its fears of marginalization and do its thing, regardless of the naysayers.

I'm all for ideological diversity on the right, but it seems just as there have been a lot of right leaning gents who make a career of the victimization mentality of the right, there have been a bunch that have made a career over calling these guys out. At the end of the day, what the right needs isn't some kind of post-modern critique of itself, but some serious, conservative ideas that address the challenges of the day and that move the debate, however incrementally, in the proper direction of maximizing the promises of the Declaration of Independence.