Politico-Journalistic Espionage!

So, apparently Johann Hari took the annual National Review cruise, then wrote about it for The New Republic. He didn't advertise his affiliation, but was willing to acknowledge it if asked. Presumably he revealed himself to WFB Jr. and Norman Podhoretz, as he gained interviews with them. The two lions of conservatism are fighting, and the rank-and-file seem to be abandoning their former hero (WFB Jr.) for the demagogic hawk (Pods). If true, it's a frightening development. Some clips:

Podhoretz is the Brooklyn-born, street-fighting kid who traveled through a long phase of left- liberalism to a pugilistic belief in America's power to redeem the world, one bomb at a time. Today, he is a bristling gray ball of aggression, here to declare that the Iraq war has been "an amazing success." He waves his fist and declaims, "There were WMD, and they were shipped to Syria. ... This picture of a country in total chaos with no security is false. It has been a triumph. It couldn't have gone better." He wants more wars, and fast. He is "certain" Bush will bomb Iran, and "thank God" for that.

...

The audience cheers Podhoretz. The nuanced doubts of Bill Buckley leave them confused. Doesn't he sound like the liberal media? Later, over dinner, a tablemate from Denver calls Buckley "a coward." His wife nods and says, "Buckley's an old man," tapping her head with her finger to suggest dementia.

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D'Souza summarizes the prevailing sentiment by unveiling what he modestly calls "D'Souza's law of immigration": An immigrant's quality is "proportional to the distance traveled to get to the United States." In other words: Asians trump Latinos.

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Steyn's thesis in his new book, America Alone, is simple: The "European races"--i.e., white people--"are too self-absorbed to breed," but the Muslims are multiplying quickly. The inevitable result will be "large-scale evacuation operations circa 2015" as Europe is ceded to Al Qaeda and "Greater France remorselessly evolve[s] into Greater Bosnia." He offers a light smearing of dubious demographic figures--he needs to turn 20 million European Muslims into more than 150 million in nine years, which is a lot of humping--to "prove" his case.

But facts, figures, and doubt are not on the itinerary of this cruise. With one or two exceptions, the passengers discuss "the Muslims" as a homogenous, sharia-seeking block--already with near-total control of Europe. Over the week, I am asked nine times--I counted--when I am fleeing Europe's encroaching Muslim population for the safety of the United States.

...

As I turn my back on the ship for the last time, I feel the judge I met the first day place his arm affectionately on my shoulder. "We have written off Britain to the Muslims," he says. "Come to America."

I wouldn't believe it if there weren't quotes peppered all over the place. It's amazing how an honest intellectual movement become co-opted by ideological crusaders. What stands for "conservatism" these days bears nearly no resemblance to the ideology of its supposed heroes: Burke, Kirk, Buckley Jr. Read the whole thing. It's sort of disgusting, but also illuminating. One starts to understand how Bush still has even 30% of the country supporting him: dogma.