promoted from The Pub

My brother E-Mailed me this article, written last week. Below is my response to the author and to him.

Ron Dreher of the Dallas Morning News is all verklempt over the behavior of so-called conservatives. In fact he’s so forlorn about his fellow ideologues that he’s convinced that we’ve become “zombies.”

It would be a pleasant surprise if conservatives who took the president of the United States addressing youths as an opportunity to stumble toward the fainting couch realized that they had made fools of themselves. Fat chance. Obama Derangement Syndrome is pandemic on the right – and it’s leaving conservatives like me politically homeless.

I’ll pause at this point and give you an opportunity to weep for poor, homeless Ron.

Of course, poor Mr. Dreher doesn’t consider that some of us were concerned that a) a draft of the speech was not released ahead of time and b) the so called “lesson plan” was heavy on the idea of school children “helping” The President do what he has to do. While the concerns were somewhat over heated, they abated when that portion of the lesson plan was removed and the rather generic speech transcript was released. As a result, the promoting of this response in conjunction with “diagnosing” a pandemic political condition like O.D.S, after eight years of the sort of vitriol experienced by one Bushhitler, might cause us to guffaw, just a little. Mr Dreher might also want to take a break from from pointing fingers at his brethren and Google up the Congressional reaction to similar school speeches given by Reagan and Bush the senior.

Regardless, we’ve heard this before from other tsk-tskers so let’s not interrupt Mr Dreher in his audible sighing. Next up: Anecdotal evidence of Teh Cra-zee Christians!

Last weekend, I tuned into Huckabee, a Fox program hosted by the avuncular former Arkansas governor, of whom I am a fan. There sat actor Jon Voight, staring gravely at the host, who praised the thespian’s “courage.”

“We’re witnessing a slow and steady takeover of our true freedoms,” Voight scowled. “We’re becoming a socialist nation, and Obama is causing civil unrest in this country. … I say that they’re taking away God’s first gift to man: our free will.”

The above followed Mr. Dreher taking some swipes at Fox News and Glen Beck for his “paranoia.” Certainly Beck has upped the volume on a variety of conspiracy theories but right now he’s riding the ACORN hidden video wave, something that hadn’t been revealed when Dreher wrote this sneering little regret piece. John Voight is a celebrity so he’s pretty much dismissed out of hand, even if I find many of his political views in sync with my own. No matter, we are denounced by association and Dreher plows on :

Perhaps conservative elites like Huckabee really believe this kind of vicious invective, which right-wing radio talkers routinely disgorge as well. (A foul-mouthed Rush Limbaugh praised parents who kept their kids out of school for not letting a “socialist radical have at ‘em.”) Or maybe they’re flat-out cynical. That is, they know that Obama is no more a socialist radical than George W. Bush was a fascist authoritarian, but they’re happy to ride the wave of populist spite because it suits their short-term interests.

Whoa! Huckabee as a conservative elite? Seriously? This coming from a Miss Manners conservative declaring himself soiled by contact with the fringier elements of conservatism? The irony is as thick as a brick.

Of course Mr. Dreher can’t miss an opportunity to take several swipes at that drunken, loudmouthed neighbor in conservative politics; namely those boorish “right wing radio talkers.” Notice the trembling mention of “foul mouthed Rush Limbaugh” berated for using the vile curse “socialist radical.” Mr. Dreher sets the language bar conveniently to the height of his own lap. After all Obama “is no more a socialist radical than George W. Bush was a fascist authoritarian.” After all, those “true” conservatives who ponder the deep and complex political issues of the day are uncomfortable with these sorts of characterizations. They may need a second snifter of brandy to calm their nerves while they fan themselves with a day old copy of Barrons.

Which means what, exactly? That winning is the only thing, and to hell with the good of the country, civil society and the possibility of intelligent debate about serious matters? Watching the school-speech insanity blow up on the right, a friend who has been deeply involved for decades at the top of Republican politics, e-mailed to say that she was done. The conservative movement is hurtling off a cliff – and she was bailing out.

Take me with you, said I. And that was before last week’s “You lie!” infamy.

I’m kinda tempted at this point to suggest the whole “don’t let the door hit ya on the…” but I’ll control myself. As to that whole winning is the only thing … it sure would be nice if you and your eye rolling band of hand-wringers would be less worried about the coarseness of the debate and at least express some small desire with winning the debate and, as a result, maybe an election or two!

Perhaps Mr. Dreher is waxing nostalgic for the butterfly days of political collegiality where, over drinks and fine aperitifs, reasonable men clapped each other on the back, told each other amusing little stories, and worked out their differences on the great issues of the day like gentlemen (think McCain and Feingold crafting that ginormous crap pile of Campaign Finance Reform while nibbling on Goose Liver Pate.) Mr. Dreher instructs that behavior is the most important thing; not principles or actions or vision or leadership; controlled, courtly manners are what’s missing from the angry Right of Limbaugh and Beck and O’Reilly and Hannity. This brazen coarseness is just killing, KILLING, the conservative movement, don’cha know. “Real” conservatives need to step forward to do their best to push, as far as mannerly discourse allows, those important suggestions of limited government, fiscal responsibility and individual liberty.

Mr. Dreher joins the hand wringing cabal of David Brooks and Chris Buckley and Kathleen Parker and David Frum and others who wink and wave whenever they pass K Street and count as their soul mates the likes of Lindsay Graham and John McCain and Olympia Snowe and Arlen Spector … whoops, I mean Susan Collins. We conservatives (because I still can’t bring myself to use the word “we” and “Republicans” in connection) have to be better than the hoi-polloi on the Democratic side and conduct ourselves like the courtesans of royal courts past.

My response is: Politely and with all due respect: #%*@ that noise and pass me a beer.

So, if we are not willing to kow-tow to a gentler conservative mindset, guess what?

“Well,” a Democrat chortled to me the other day, “I guess you’re going to have to be a liberal now.” Well, no. Aside from his personal decency, it’s hard to find anything to say for Obama.

Gee, thanks for throwing us knuckledraggers a bone, Ron. Notice that Mr. Dreher wants us to accept, upon the altar of reasonable discourse, the “personal decency” of the President as a matter of course. The amusing part is that Mr. Dreher can’t even bring himself to say anything against Obama, choosing instead to huff n’ puff about the lack of things to say “for” the personally decent fellow.

Take some notes, angry wingnutz!

He is a statist liberal who is continuing and expanding the centralizing policies of his predecessor, whose expansion of the national security state and uncritical embrace of Wall Street finds no real enemy in Obama (much to the surprise of some on the left). Unlike the president, I’m a social and religious conservative. Unlike this or the last president, I believe in fiscal responsibility, limits, localism and foreign-policy realism.

Don’t you see how much more refined and, well, decent our social discourse is when you refer to a President as a “statist liberal” rather than that vile “foul mouthed” appellation “socialist radical?” Also, notice the way Mr. Dreher extends the olive branch of self loathing bipartisanship by connecting Obama and Bush with regards to their “centralizing policies.” So let me see if I have this figured out: In the middle of a historic economic meltdown, our president and his fellow Democrats suggest that the best way to deal with the crisis (having already informed us that they should “never let a good crisis go to waste,”) is to ramrod legislation that will, in effect, rule 25% of the American economy, produce trillions of dollars in deficits and, quite possibly, tank our currency to the point where, somewhere down the road, we may not even be able to finance our 14 trillion dollar and rising national debt, possibly resulting in a catastrophic stagflation scenario … never mind.

“Socialist Radical” is a vile curse phrase. It’s use is killing conservatism!

Me thinks Mr Dreher needs to take another look at his political priorities. You know, Ron, the ones you listed at the end of that paragraph above.

Mr. Dreher is cluelessly unaware that we are in a Texas Style Cage Match for the very soul of this country. If we continue to believe in the fundamental principles as described above then the only clear headed way to look at the legislative vision of our current President and the insane clown posse that is the Democratic congress is as an idealogical tidal wave attempting to wash over 200 years of foundational principles out to sea and and ruin the economy of this country, allowing more and more government control of both the processes of commerce and of people’s daily lives. The fact that, as a result of this transformation, more and more power will rest with a government that has proven to be an unworthy and incompetent steward of our money? Merely a “point of disagreement” and the super smart conservatives will work it out.

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THOSE UNWASHED MASSES ON THE MALL! says Mr. Dreher:

I also distrust the mob and its passions – which is why the degraded state of conservative politics today is so demoralizing.

[…]

…conservatism is not dead. Rather, it’s undead. The conservative movement is herking and jerking like a zombie, dedicated to little more than frenetic gestures execrating Obama, and to regaining power. To what end? Given that they’re birthing a conservative party whose instincts are dictated by loudmouths, reactionaries and crackpots, and overseen by cynics, it’s dispiriting to contemplate.

Where can those who wish to think and debate clearly about a serious politics of the right go? The degenerate form of populism now dominant on the right loves to praise “freedom” – but it has no use for freedom of thought, or thinking much at all. In turn, increasing numbers of thoughtful conservatives have no use for it.

Here’s a thought for you, Mr. Dreher: You, and those of your ilk are what’s wrong with the “conservative movement,” not the “degenerate” populists or the conspiracy mongers or talk show hosts or even the “social cons.” You and your hand wringing elitist pals are trying to set a standard of conduct that simply doesn’t exist anymore. You and your ilk “demoralize” me with your simpering and your head shaking and your discourse idealism that reflects an ideology of political give and take that was buried quite a while ago.You are more interested in civility than you are in winning elections by proclaiming fundamental principles.

Welcome to the internet age, Mr. Dreher, with all of it’s warts and scars and very very inconvenient flaws.

You miss the point completely: Limbaugh and Beck et al, regardless of their excesses, are not creating the wave like some underground topical earthquake, they are, in fact, riding a wave that has swelled from the ranks of common voters, angry, concerned and acting out! You and I may not approve of every last word or image that defines”the mob” that you so distrust, but if you would stop taking calls from other mannerly conservatives and actually look at Obama’s polling, you’d notice that his numbers have fallen precipitously to almost historic levels. Does the mob, in all of it’s unglamorous and shrill presence get at least some credit for actually publicizing the debate and changing some minds, minds that may help the Congress critters not pass legislation like Cap and Trade and Health Care Reform, both of which would violate those precious principles you hold so dear?

Results do count, oftentimes more than some idealistic and impossible metric of “intelligent discourse.”

None of this is to suggest that we on the conservative/classical liberal side need to become as immature and thuggish as the worse of the left (Google Bush Hitler images sometime,) but courtly manners and sneering at our own ideological kin hasn’t worked for a long time. Those of us who are quite concerned about where this country is headed (even as many of us are unsurprised by the direction taken by the “personally decent” stepchild of Chicago machine politics,) are dedicated to declaring, loudly and long, that this must must not stand! Our concern is with principles, many of whom Mr. Dreher confesses to support but, bound by some foggy notion of an applewood paneled study version of proper discourse, would whisper them on the comfy chair rather than proclaim from the public stage. Fine, Mr. Dreher, clutch your chest and hide in the study. The rest of us will stand up and shout, when it is necessary and debate civilly, when it works. No need to soil your courtly and mannered debate rules with us plain talkin’, beer drinkin’ mindless zombies.

We are more than happy to do your “dirty work” for you, even as you sneer at us and our uncultured approach to political discussion. Just don’t be surprised if a groundswell of “mob conservatism” rises up and elects representatives in 2010 we don’t invite you and yours to the victory party. We probably won’t be drinking out of snifters, anyway.

Watch this video, Mr. Dreher, and see if there are any insights into how many of us feel about this debate and the place for something other than cultured discourse.