“Conservatives” Will Benefit If Democrats Win The House

by tristero

Yes, and I hope they keep benefitting by losing the Senate. It builds character, trust me. In fact, “conservatives” will surely benefit from, I dunno, 100 years or so of losing. That’s a bare minimum, if you want my considered opinion, before the benefits of losing will kick in.

Dig what Ponnuru, the author of the thoughtful, learned, and ever so civil, “The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts and the Disregard for Human Life” is saying and see if you don’t agree.

He’s saying that congressional Republicans are hopelessly corrupt. In the spirit of comity I’m sure he will appreciate, I’d like to state categorically that I completely agree with him. He’s also saying that Republicans aren’t conservative enough. Now about that, Mr. Ponnuru, and with all due respect, your dishonest rhetorical scam exposes you as a thoroughly reprehensible conniving sleazebag.

Colin Powell is a conservative, Mr. Ponnuru. Christie Whitman is a conservative. Joe Lieberman is a conservative. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Tom Delay, Bill Frist, Tom Coburn, and their ilk are NOT conservatives. They are rightwing extremists. In the sixties, I would have called them Birchers, not having the knowledge of the far right back then to distinguish amongst different flavors of rightwing lunacy.*

Conservatives don’t look at videos of a brain-dead woman twitching and drooling, declare her conscious and then pass a law that eviscerates a 200 plus year old history of jurisprudence in order to deny her a dignified death. And conservatives don’t call out state agents, as Jeb Bush did, to to kidnap the woman from her bed in defiance of federal and state laws, not to mention reality-based common-sense. Conservatives don’t stand for “unitary executive” or have any interest at all in restricting science, let alone teaching our children lies about science. And conservatives don’t neglect to protect their country’s shores, or lead their country’s soldiers into war based on a cynical marketing campaign of lies and distortions.

I don’t like conservatives like Powell, Mr. Ponnuru. I don’t like them one bit. They are biased against working people and favor solutions that benefit managment, and that’s a gross understatement. Their international diplomacy is dangerously shallow because they hold to a foolishly narcissistic exceptionalism that holds American values as the standard by which to measure the rest of the world. Historically, and today, conservatives minimize or ignore potentially serious problems (eg global climate change) until they are so serious that it is nearly impossible to do much good about them. And they are so adverse to government solutions – unless it props up monopolies and other practices benefitting business management – that they fail to understand that failure-of-government-to-act is quite often the problem.

No, conservatives aren’t terribly competent or effective politicians. But they aren’t raving mad like you and your pals.

Note to commenters: Yes, I entertained the thought that it might be useful to encourage Republicans to adopt Ponnuru’s arguments and get in even closer touch with their inner stormtrooper (or Salem judge). The arguments in favor of doing so being:

1. The sooner They take over completely, the sooner The People will realize the depths of their oppression and revolt.

2. If the American people see the full face of Ponnuru’s pals’ radicalism, they will be so nauseated, they won’t elect another Republican for X years.

But then I thought better about it. Why? Because I’m a liberal, that’s why. And liberals hate radical solutions and revolutions, especially if they increase suffering. And liberals don’t believe anyone who tells them that short-term suffering caused by increased oppression will lead to long-term benefits for the people suffering the most. It never has. It never will.

*The Birchers can be recognized because they not only have screwy ideas and a screwy metaphysics but their metaphysics is utterly paranoid, rather than almost entirely so. Clear? For example:

Cheney thinks the world is out to shoot him in the face at any moment and so feels he must shoot first. A Bircher thinks the world’s been plotting to shoot him in the face ever since the Templars were formed. And so feels he must shoot first.

Or something like that. I’m sure you folks can come up with far more precise analogies. And far funnier, so have at it, make it so, make it work, whatever.