"Our parents emulated Roosevelt and Farley, but we just wanna grow up to be like Ev and Charlie!"

The recent mini-flap over Westbrook Pegler reminds me of two things: the time that a well-intentioned friend warned me that paleoconservatism was a "fever swamp," and the happier memory of the first time I heard the song that became my arch-ironic anthem. Youtube does not offer a version but iTunes does, so please drop a buck on a copy. I give you the Chad Mitchell Trio's "Barry's Boys":

We're the bright young men who want to go back to nineteen-ten,
We're Barry's boys,
We're the kids with a cause—a government like grandmama's,
We're Barry's boys!
We're the new kind of youth at your alma mater,
Back to silver standard and solid Goldwater,
Back to when the poor were poor and rich were rich,
And you felt so damn secure just knowing which were which!

We're the kids who agree to be social without security,
We're Barry's boys,
'Cause his hat's in the ring where Westbrook Pegler once was king.
(Now he's too left wing!)
So if you don't recognize any old Red China,
Or Canada or Britain or South Carolina,
You too can join the crew
(Tippecanoe and Nixon too!)
Back to Barry,
Back to cash and carry,
Back to Barry's boys!

And so on for several stanzas.