FYI from BATR

“The West created a conceptual problem for conservatives,” according to Tate. “Traditional institutions, Burke contended, not only ordered human affairs but also protected the individual from direct influence of the government. Traditional institutions thus preserved freedom. Baldwin agreed with Burke, but he noted that America, particularly in the West, had very few organic traditional institutions to defend.” To preserve liberty and establish a viable social order, these satirists first set about exposing the old institutions that were not up to the task: “Baldwin and Hooper inverted the ideas of Edmund Burke.”