— Which headline is misleading, because it goes beyond the “K Street Republicans” to the very anti-“purist” vocal mainstream Republican opinion outlets — you know, that new brand of conservative that is helping make conservatism more palatable to “independents” and the “moderates” and the “undecideds” by making sure it isn’t terribly conservative. Because the only way for conservatism to gain power — to appeal to the great unwashed — is through stealth.
What the Hobbits don’t seem to understand is that in order to affect policy change, conservatives need first to be in power. Puristy Hobbitry won’t get them there. Too, in order to keep the power necessary to affect policy change conservatives want, it is imperative that the conservatives we vote for avoid any policy initiative or rhetorical flourish that stinks of conservatism — lest they alienate “independents” and the “moderates” and the “undecideds,” thereby losing the very power to affect policy change we wish them to have.
QED!
Sarah Palin, sorry to say, is among those unhelpful conservatives who not only refuses to modulate her conservative rhetoric — but the dumb snowbilly seems actually to want to implement conservative policy at the expense of alienating “independents” and the “moderates” and the “undecideds,” thereby assuring that conservatives won’t stay in power, and so can’t affect policy change.
Dizzy yet? Good. Because say what you will about the left, but for the most part at least they do us the favor of making their allegiances obvious. Whereas “our” side’s “conservative” messaging elite seems far more threatened by its unruly base than it does by the statists they ostensibly oppose.
It’s who they are. It’s what they do.
Yes, you don’t want to be the guy that says the party’s over while there’s still plenty of booze, tunes, and food, but people respect you for ending the party when it’s four in the morning and the only people still talking are the assholes who won’t shut up about “True Blood.”
Now’s the time to appeal to Independents on principle, GOP. Wait any longer and the mob violence will convince people that fascist solutions are the only real answer, and then it will be far too late.
Because say what you will about the left, for the most part at least they do us the favor of making their allegiances obvious.
Obvious to us, perhaps. Ask most people, and they’ll tell you that the Dems/Progs/Left share allegiance to the Earth, the working man, the 99%, and the precious little children. Never mind that all of these thing, like network sitcoms, are really just a means to their real allegiance: power for power’s sake.
As for the establishment GOP, I’ve always found it mind-bogglingly stupid that people continue to buy into the idea that the only way to gain a mandate is to run away from the mandate. Also stupid is the related expectation that these spineless opportunistic compulsive liars will turn into shining angels of reform once they take the oath of office.
Hoekstra and Akin advanced last night, beating out challenges from decent Tea Party proponents. From which I’d conclude the fight is still very much uphill for the Tea Party advocates. Keeping on, staying in the fight is all.
Karl Rove and John McCain say that’s because the subtleties of 3-dimensional chess are beyond a simple-minded hobbit such as yourself. Trust them. They know what they’re doing.
I know next to nothing about Mizzou politics so…Akin’s that bad?
A caveat on Hoekstra v. Durant: Durant knows the political ropes in Michigan. He ran for Senate in 1990, and took runs at the State Supreme Court and Michigan Board of Education, too. He’s not exactly an outsider, having been tabbed by Engler to run for the last two slots. Not a bad guy (nor a wasted vote), but not a TP newbie, either.
Did anybody else hear the Official Romney Bimbo’s response to the “Romney murdered my wife” ad?
No fucking way am I voting for that bunch.
“Because the only way for conservatism to gain power — to appeal to the great unwashed — is through stealth.”
Incorrect.
The only way for conservatism to gain power is by accident, and in the fevered, grandiose imaginations of the ugly twisted little conservatives who are expected to be quietly kept out of the way (sort of like the Ephors) until needed, and regularly encouraged to grow out of their conservatism which is treated like a form of temporary insanity that is holding the party back from their long sighted goal of losing confrontations “the right way” and slowing down the march of the left by up to 20% via negotiation.
Please forgive the off-topic tangent, but this nugget relates to my line of work, and is too good not to share.
So, the school district is borrowing $100 million today, at the cost of $1 billion a couple of generations hence. Is this an example of the most egregious dereliction of fiduciary responsibility and enslavement of future generations, or is this the most shrewd move a finance director can make? The former argument is obvious, and congruent with the complaints we’ve been making here since forever.
The latter argument is one I brought up, and I almost believe it. Almost. See, by the time these debts come due, the feds are going to be looking at dozens of trillions of dollars of debt of their own, and it’s obvious that Washington is not going to have the money to make those payments. So chances are very, very good that we’re going to see a period of very high inflation, as the Fed conjures up the dollars to pay off the debt. So if I’m a school district, I have to figure that a billion dollars in 2035 is going to be comparable to a car payment, making this bond deal all kinds of smart.
Still wouldn’t re-elect that School Board, though.