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Against so powerful a force as the Jacobins, and the revolutionary order they were inaugurating throughout Europe, prudence, half-measures, compromise, and moderation — all the meats and treats of the Burkean high table — would have to be pushed aside in favor of a more bloody repast. In a series of rhetorically escalating epigrams, Burke called his conservative brethren to the most radical arms.

Guest Post: Corey Robin on the Deep Roots of Conservative Radicalism. | Rortybomb

This is a fun post. Corey Robin explores Burke’s less-quoted revolutionary rhetoric.

Robin’s right about the difference between the historical Burke and the cuddly version that has been sculpted from the eager imaginations of concern trolls like Sam Tanenhaus and Andrew Sullivan. But at some point, “Burke” — as imagined by his fans and propagated by their selective quotations — takes on his own identity and exerts greater influence than the guy who actually wrote The Letters on a Regicide Peace. To say that Zombie Burke’s easygoing conservatism is ahistorical and contrary to the spirit of his real-world prototype might be correct, but that only goes so far toward undermining his influence. Zombie Burke continues to shamble through the opinion factories, infecting “little platoons” of his own.