Posted by
Will Turner on Sunday, February 24, 2008 1:51:00 PM
In her 2/24/08 article titled "The Perfect Storm for Conservatives... If They Don't Blow It," Nina May opines that conservatives "squandered the Reagan Revolution by parsing and
dicing an agenda of positions unobtainable from even the most
charismatic, or messianic of candidates." She of course is preparing us for her advocacy of support for John McCain.
Ms. May, the worst thing that could happen is NOT failure to elect John McCain President. Of course there is legitimate room for give and take among conservatives. However, Mr. McCain has demonstrated his disdain for true conservatives and his affinity for liberals. In fact, he has shown more willingness to reach out to the left than to the right. I love my country and I am troubled by the continual movement towards the left over several decades. If I were to follow at least part of your argument, I would stop fighting that leftward movement because apparently Americans have chosen it. While I do not want an Obama (or Clinton) presidency, I know that the stakes are much higher than the next four years. Conservatives (and I do not believe, as you do, that the term is too narrowly defined) are now without representation by either major party.
Republican does not equal conservative. And being too picky is not the main problem for conservatives. There are in fact many problems facing us and I will briefly address just two. First, our nation has been steadily moving towards a uniformity pressed on us by the liberal juggernaut. This movement has been almost as apparent in the Republican party, which for so long has been the political home of conservatives and traditional American principles. The left has effectively used the media and the education establishment in an effort to limit the access conservatives (particularly Christian conservatives, but all conservatives) have in many of the most important venues of the marketplace of ideas. In the last election liberals were enraged at tiny challenges to their control over information, but in the end thought they had won the war of ideas. You could hear the false humility covering the media announcements that the polls were showing a Kerry victory. They were trying not to crow. Once the news changed, they were perplexed, then enraged. Republican leaders almost immediately began offering olive branches. Some, like Lindsey Graham and John McCain, have been stroking liberals for a long time. Conservatives have had to face the fact that our leaders abandoned us, our votes are almost meaningless. Our leaders are more interested in polls than principles. They look at us as voters, but only to be touched with a 20 foot pole. There is no party and almost no leader who is aggressively fighting the principles that matter to us. There are numerous fighters on the left. Certainly, McCain and others have been strong on defense and a few other issues dear to conservatives. But true conservatives have gone from being just angry to being angry and afraid. We see the complicity of our leaders in decisions that could devalue citizenship. We hear leaders trumpeting the need for conservative, even originalist jurists. But they then make back room deals with liberals. We fear a nation where economic consequences are routinely levied against those who don't avow the left wing fundamentals. We fear judiciocracy. We expect our leaders to be unabashedly proud of our nation and protective of the rights of citizenship (legitimate citizenship). We believe that there has never been a nation like this one, with our combination of goodness, freedom, economic power, military power, compassion and stability. We do not think that playing footsie with those who think our greatness is the result of evil, greed, and lack of respect for other nations is helpful or even safe. America was born in a fight, and at their best her citizens have been passionate fighters for their beliefs. Now the Republican party has shown again that it is the party of "can't we just all get along." Well no, Ms. May. We can't. Not for 4 years that may not be Obama style lunacy but will certainly continue the leftward slide of our nation. We survived Carter and Clinton and we'll survive the next 4 years. We have our eyes on a longer term prize. We will not be taken for granted. It is time to stop worrying so much about being nice and merely slowing the liberal juggernaut; it is time to worry about the world we are going to hand to our children, time to FIGHT and regain lost ground.
The second problem I want to address is the modern American voter. Americans have become increasingly dependent on "experts" and government. You can see this dependency, in part, when observing polls. Large numbers of Americans seem to make up their minds, not based on well thought out and closely held principles, but on who someone else supports, or what current polls say. Recently, many conservatives decided to support McCain because the NY Times journalistically raped him! Now I despise the Times. I'm angry about what they did to the senator. But that is NOT a reason to vote for him. Many Americans are just incapable of gathering, evaluating and interpreting information to make solid political decisions. And I'm just talking about voting here. In a Republican Democracy these abilities are crucial. But even our form of democracy can't survive if the vote is all we have. We need voters who can think, who know what they believe, and who go beyond the vote - raise their voices, participate in the decision making process in every way they can, and not just at the national level. Of course there are also many who do possess the ability to meaningfully participate in self government. Your article really does not address those people. It addresses those who make their decisions based on feeling, intuition, not wanting to be too narrow. People who don't really know what they believe or why they believe it may be swayed by your article, just as they are swayed by the majority media and polls. Many people just don't want to exert the effort to think and to fight for what they believe. Many people prefer unity, even if it's unity with someone whose practices and beliefs deeply violate their own. I still have some fight left in me. I would rather have 4 years of liberal tyranny than a conscience soiled by supporting someone who pretends to be conservative. I see this as the time to make ourselves known by refusing to support the candidate who will continue our slide to the left. We want more than that. We expect more than that. We believe that more than that is POSSIBLE. We believe it's time to fight.