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November 15, 2006
Mea Maxima Culpa
A lot of conservative bloggers are upset at the choice of Mel Menendez as RNC Chair. I'm one of them, but this evening I had a thought.
Bush hates us, and I can't blame him at this moment.
While the liberal blogosphere was busy organizing, advocating and getting out the vote, we conservatives spent the crucial months before the election complaining about our party and threatening to sit out the election. I was as guilty as anyone of trashing the GOP, but still voted for Republicans last Tuesday.
Given the level of pure animus we showed toward the president, who can blame him for thumbing his nose at us? We all claimed the war on terror was the most important issue facing the country, but spent all of our time whining about gay marriage, spending, immigration and other issues that weren't nearly as important as defeating the hateful ideology of those who want to kill us.
Sure, the base didn't get a lot of what it wanted in the past two years, but it had a man as president who was willing to fight a war. And we thanked him for fighting by nitpicking over stupid crap that won't matter if we lose the war.
Those who belong to a political party should always feel free to criticize that party when they go astray. I think, though, that at times we went overboard and in doing so, broke Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment far too often.
I will never be in lock-step with the Republican party at all times, but from now on, I will try my best not to be a member of the circular firing squad we all participated in before the election. Sure, Republicans deserved to lose an election. I just hope that in weakening the party so badly, we haven't lost the more important war.
I'll admit - my current slide into despondency is caused in part by SAD, but has much to do with the fact that conservatives around the blogosphere seem more outraged with the selection of Martinez and the 'amnesty' issue than with the fact that we're going to leave a conflict before we've won, and embolden our enemies.
That having been said, though, I still think that if Rove took gifts from a dirty lobbyist, he should resign. Loyalty to one's party doesn't extend to those who may have engaged in unethical behavior.
UPDATE - I'm not saying that conservatives haven't taken quite a bit of nonsense from the Bush administration. Bush has not governed as a conservative, and he has let us down quite a bit.
My loyalties are not to the president here, but to the idea that conservatism should be more than about complaining and tearing down. If conservative bloggers don't like the amnesty bill, what's to stop us from writing our own immigration reform act and pushing it on Congress? What's to stop us from coming up with a second Contract with America and becoming a collective spokes-borg for conservative principles?
I am a pessimist, and tend to look at the negative side of life. But even I have a limit, and it's been reached. The negativity on our side of the aisle has just gotten to be too much, and we need to figure out exactly how the blogosphere can be used to advance positive policy rather than simply complain about what we don't like.
Posted by slublog at November 15, 2006 12:20 AM
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Comments
I agree that negativity can be counterproductive. But I don't think anyone owes the party, or the President, anything just by virtue of that status. The Republicans claim to be the party that represents conservatives in this country -- when their policies belie that, conservatives have an obligation to oppose those policies. If that means that Republicans lose, so be it. Few conservatives would argue that having unconservative Republicans in power is something worth fighting for. The Republicans left conservatives, not the other way around.
Posted by: brett at November 15, 2006 01:37 PM
Slu, I agree with you for the most part. About 95%. Here is the problem that I have. The war on Terror requires allies. Our staunchest ally, next to Britian is Israel. Now, Bush has travelled to many countries, including semi-hostile ones like Indonesia. How many times has Bush visted Israel? None. If Bush was serious about the War on Terror there would have been much more support in Israel thumping the crap out of Hezbullah, Hamas and even expanding the theater to Syria (one of the two true culprits). Instead we have Condi appeasing the Terrorists and further weakening Israel. This is crap. The Bush doctrine has died and Bush killed it by his and the words of his trusted advisors.
Back in 2004 my vote was soley based on the War on Terror. I told my friends and my relatives that if there was someone more determined to fight the War on Terror I would vote for them. Bush was the most vocal voice. This time again, the Republicans were the most vocal voice, but not by much. I voted Republican (straight ticket) but again, if there is a political party more dedicated to protecting the lives of American citizens then they will have my vote.
Posted by: Robert at November 16, 2006 11:16 AM
Slu: Great post.
While I agree, I must also say that on of our biggest failings was to not educate the people about what is really going on in Iraq. All the common person hears about is death and destruction. We need to educate the people to let them know we're making progress, and we need to show them that this is all worth it. We have seriously failed where the Democrats have done a stellar job undermining our efforts in Iraq. This is inexcusable - and I recognize I am part of that problem.
Posted by: Muslihoon at November 17, 2006 07:14 PM