{"id":2445686,"date":"2019-06-24T22:40:01","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T04:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/conservatism-a-theme-at-aspen-ideas\/"},"modified":"2019-06-25T08:40:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T14:40:02","slug":"conservatism-a-theme-at-aspen-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/conservatism-a-theme-at-aspen-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatism a theme at Aspen Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
George Will gestures during a conversation with journalist Judy Woodruff at the Aspen Ideas Festival discussion “Conservatism Under Threat” at Greenwald Pavilion on Monday afternoon.<\/strong>
Ricardo Salvi\/Aspen Institute\/Courtesy photo | Ricardo Salvi\/Aspen Institute\/Co<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s that time of the year when business leaders, dignitaries, educators, scientists, officeholders, journalists and others of national and global import descend upon Aspen.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also that time of the year when cracks are made, whether fair or unjust, that the Aspen Ideas Festival and the organization behind it, the Aspen Institute, cater to the left.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s hardly the case this week, however.<\/p>\n

Discussions on Monday\u2019s agenda, for instance, included journalist Judy Woodruff interviewing the prolific columnist George Will in the Greenwald Pavilion in a discussion called \u201cConservatism Under Threat.\u201d During the same noon hour at the Hotel Jerome, USA Today\u2019s Susan Page discussed her biography \u201cThe Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty,\u201d with Eric Motley, the Institute\u2019s executive vice president and corporate secretary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second half of the festival is about conservative thinking in America,\u201d Kitty Boone, the Institute\u2019s director of public programs, said while introducing Will and Woodruff. Boone noted that Paul Ryan, former House speaker and the GOP\u2019s vice presidential nominee in 2012, spoke Sunday, while former New Jersey Gov. and Republican lightning rod Chris Christie talked Monday night at the Jerome.<\/p>\n

Also in town is Karl Rove; National Review Editor Rich Lowry is scheduled to interview him at 9:10 a.m. Thursday at the Hotel Jerome.<\/p>\n

As well, a 10-member panel discussion at 1:20 p.m. Thursday at Paepcke Auditorium is titled \u201cFrom Reagan to Trump and Beyond: The Future of Conservatism in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people ask why aren\u2019t we doing a track on liberalism,\u201d Boone said. \u201cMaybe we\u2019ll do that next summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, however, that this week\u2019s Ideas Fest is a love fest for conservatives and the GOP. There\u2019s plenty of intellectual pie to go around for the left-leaning crowd, as well.<\/p>\n

Not that Ideas organizers want attendees only to attend events that subscribe to their beliefs. On Sunday night at Paepcke Auditorium, Aspen Institute President and CEO Dan Porterfield and his predecessor, Walter Isaacson, discussed the importance of inclusion and of finding common ground. And the topic of discussion at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Belly Up is \u201cWhat Liberals and Conservatives Can Learn From Each Other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the discussions address liberalism or conservatism, another one of this week\u2019s evident themes is that both sides of the political spectrum are doing some soul searching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is really what Ideas is supposed to be about,\u201d said political analyst Amy Walter, editor of The Cook Political Report and a frequent guest on such programs as \u201cPBS Newshour\u201d and \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s supposed to be about this sort of introspection and taking time to take a step back from the day-to-day and think about these issues in a more comprehensive way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walter will moderate the panel discussion \u201cFormidable or Fracture? The Democrats and the Road to 2020\u201d with journalists Jonathan Capehart (Washington Post), Art Cullen (The Storm Lake Times [Iowa]), Adam Gopnik (The New Yorker) and Jemele Hill (The Atlantic). The talk starts at 7 p.m. today at Belly Up.<\/p>\n

Also of political interest this week \u2014 the Democratic presidential debates Wednesday and Thursday. Walter and others will hold a watch party and discussions from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Hotel Jerome Ballroom, and 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Limelight Hotel.<\/p>\n

The cast of contenders is so large that the debate is split into two nights. Twenty candidates, 10 each night, will debate; four candidates did not qualify.<\/p>\n

Walter noted that the second day has the bigger names with Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris. But the campaigns of candidates Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren \u2014 who are in Wednesday\u2019s debate \u2014 have been building momentum, \u201cat least polling in the higher digits at this moment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Coloradans interested in the debate also can take note: Candidates Sen. Michael Bennet and former Gov. John Hickenlooper are on Thursday\u2019s slate.<\/p>\n

With not much time to go around for all of the debaters, the voting public might not have a full grasp of their political positions, but at the very least they will have a better sense of who they are, Walter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think it will give folks the opportunity to size these folks up in a way that gets us beyond the one-on-one interviews or the town halls,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Will, who left the Republican party in 2016, denounced President Trump but suggested the Democrats not go too far to the left if they want to unseat him in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Democrats are making a huge mistake if they think the country wants a transformation,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the country wants restoration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will\u2019s latest book, his 15th, is called \u201cThe Conservative Sensibility,\u201d which makes no mention of the president by name, Woodruff pointed out. Yet Will, a Goldwater Republican in 1964, said he would have written the same book even had Trump not been elected.<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Will gestures during a conversation with journalist Judy Woodruff at the Aspen Ideas Festival discussion “Conservatism Under Threat” at Greenwald Pavilion on Monday afternoon.Ricardo Salvi\/Aspen Institute\/Courtesy photo | Ricardo Salvi\/Aspen Institute\/Co It\u2019s that time of the year when business leaders, dignitaries, educators, scientists, officeholders, journalists and others of national and global import descend upon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2445686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 06:57:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2445700,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445686\/revisions\/2445700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}