Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Still, Small


Several times on this blog I've wondered out loud if there are any thoughtful conservatives left, ones who'd call out their own. Certainly there are none among those who leave their droppings here. But, it turns out, there's at least one more, after David Stockman, which is practically a crowd. I've never heard of him, but still. And he pretty much says everything I've been saying.

These days it's getting increasingly embarrassing to publicly identify oneself as a conservative. It was bad enough when George Bush 43, the K Street Gang, and the neo-cons were running up spending, fighting an unnecessary war of choice in Iraq, incurring massive deficits, expanding entitlements, and all the rest of the nonsense I cataloged over the years in posts like Bush 43 has been a disaster for conservatives.

These days, however, the most prominent so-called conservatives are increasingly fit only to be cast for the next Dumb and Dumber sequel. They're dumb and crazy.

He goes on, to provide a list:

Let's tick off ten things that make this conservative embarrassed by the modern conservative movement:

  1. A poorly educated ex-sportwriter who served half of one term of an minor state governorship is prominently featured as a -- if not the -- leading prospect for the GOP's 2012 Presidential nomination.
  2. Tom Tancredo calling President Obama “the greatest threat to the United States today" and arguing that he be impeached. Bad public policy is not a high crime nor a misdemeanor, and the casual assertion that pursuing liberal policies--however misguided--is an impeachable offense is just nuts.
  3. Similar nonsense from former Ford-Reagan treasury department officials Ernest Christian and Gary Robbins, who IBD column was, as Doug Marconisobserved, "a wildly exaggerated attack on President Obama’s record in office." Actually, it's more foaming at the mouth.
  4. As Doug also observed, "The GOP controlled Congress from 1994 to 2006: Combine neocon warfare spending with entitlements, farm subsidies, education, water projects and you end up with a GOP welfare/warfare state driving the federal spending machine." Indeed, "when the GOP took control of Congress in 1994, and the White House in 2000, the desire to use the levers of power to create “compassionate conservatism” won our over any semblance of fiscal conservatism. Instead of tax cuts and spending cuts, we got tax cuts along with a trillion dollar entitlement program, a massive expansion of the Federal Government’s role in education, and two wars. That’s not fiscal conservatism it is, as others have said, fiscal insanity." Yet, today's GOP still has not articulated a message of real fiscal conservatism.
  5. Thanks to the Tea Party, the Nevada GOP has probably pissed away a historic chance to out=st Harry Reid. See also Charlie Crist in Florida, Rand Paul in Kentucky, and so on. Whatever happened to not letting perfection be the enemy of the good?
  6. The anti-science and anti-intellectualism that pervade the movement.
  7. Trying to pretend Afghanistan is Obama's war.
  8. Birthers.
  9. Nativists.
  10. The substitution of mouth-foaming, spittle-blasting, rabble-rousing talk radio for reasoned debate. Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Hugh Hewitt, and even Rush Limbaugh are not exactly putting on Firing Line. Whatever happened to smart, well-read, articulate leaders like Buckley, Neuhaus, Kirk, Jack Kent, Goldwater, and, yes, even Ronald Reagan?


I like that he seems to get a little self-induced embarrassment as he includes Ronnie in that last one.

The guy is a law professor, so maybe in addition to embarrassment he feels a bit threatened by the aggressive anti-intellectualism of his party. Whatever the reason, he's saying, practically verbatim, the things I've been saying for years. Would that people like him would regain prominence in the Republican party. Because, as I've also said many times, we need two strong parties in this country, each able to function as intelligent, thoughtful, loyal, and reasonable opposition when the other is in power. We're so far away from that now that it's impossible to imagine finding our way back.


4 comments:

  1. "A poorly educated ex-sportswriter who served 1/2 of one term of an minor state governorship"???
    Ummm WHO is that??? Last president who had a sportscasting background was Ronaldus Maximum himself...
    and whoever it is would have more Executive Experience than the current Ayatollah, I mean President had on January 20th, 2009. But hey, he's gotten 772 Americans killed ending the war in Iraq/Afghanistan.
    and if the "Bush Tax Cuts" were so horrible why are they gonna continue for 98% of the country???
    I mean if there so bad and everything.
    Eventhough a 39.6% top rate sucks, I don't make that much over the top bracket, good excuse to take more deductions, I mean Vacation Time.

    Frank "Harry Reed Smells like Cheese" Drackman

    ReplyDelete
  2. "The substitution of mouth-foaming, spittle-blasting, rabble-rousing talk radio for reasoned debate. Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Hugh Hewitt, and even Rush Limbaugh."

    Be fair - If it comes to consistent mental instability, our homophobic RWS DrekMan should on that list. His lack of integrity, ingratitude, shears dishonesty, blind ignorance, vicious racism and bottomless hypocrisy equals Beck and Limbaugh. Any roll call of the Insane Clown Party (ICP). Must include him!

    Look at the facts: even Eric Cantor admits that the Bush tax cuts caused deficits -
    Alan Greenspan says: "end Bush’s tax cuts" - but DrekMan… goes even further – he wants to “Give the money back.” He must want to pay for the health care costs of 9/11 responders - right?

    SomeSay: “The idea that the average American is overtaxed is a nice piece of populist pandering. In fact, federal taxes as a percentage of the economy are at their lowest level since the presidency of Harry Truman.”

    See: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/01/raise-my-taxes-mr-president.html

    But DMan will none of that; ICP SheepleChant says “Deficits Baaaad, Taxes Baaaad” It used to say “Deficits Gooood, Taxes Baaaad”, and they did their best to create economy busting deficits, but with the speed and agility of rabid weasels, they executed - in unison - a mid sewer U-turn and there he is, right in the center if the pack.

    He loves war and soldiers – and hates Muslins and Gooks so much - that like Gingrich, wants to attack Iran AND North Korea simultaneously to enable all of our boys to experience the possibilities of PTSD and suicide.

    This rabidly racist/bigot and anti socialist man - who got everything he has from socialism – student loans, military and medical training - no doubt GI bill assistance and benefits, and tax breaks - should be a poster child for ingratitude on the scale of Clarence Thomas for his willingness to pull up the ladder after getting to the top.

    But no – his contribution to fascism will not be recognized – and only the posters on this blog will appreciate his true value for what he represents to us: A horrible example!

    EugeneInSanDiego

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ahem, I have several times identified as a righty, unless you are limiting yourself to Americans. We're doing only a bit better up here, but our politics work differently. Our Conservatives are only slightly right of Obama, and our lefties range from tolerable to crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, yes, I suppose I'm being provincial here, but my comments about liberal, conservative, left and right refer to the insanity that has overtaken the US right wing, and the fecklessness, for the most part, of our left.

    ReplyDelete

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