George Hawley

“Although both parties will pay occasional homage to the principles of local control and autonomy, they are rarely consistent on this issue. On both the mainstream left and the mainstream right, localist arguments are typically made when it suits their ideological preferences. On issues such as abortion, legalized marijuana, the right to discriminate, and the regulation of businesses, few on the right or the left consistently champion the right of communities to determine their own policies.”
― George Hawley, Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism

“Not everyone agrees with these descriptions of Buckley. Other writers on both the left and the right have suggested that contemporary conservatism is still pursuing Buckley’s goals and using his tactics. In American Spectator, a conservative magazine, Jeremy Lott argued that the Tea Party was using the same long-term strategy championed by Buckley, even when it meant sacrificing short-term partisan gains.106 Criticizing conservatism from the left, Rick Perlstein argued that it is a myth that Buckley, or anyone else, ever reined in the “crazier” impulses of the American right, and trends we see within the conservative movement today are merely a continuation of precedents set decades ago.”
― George Hawley, Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism