The Contempt of Our Friends By Peter Spiliakos
http://www.nationalreview.com/postmodern-conservative/398512/contempt-our-friends-peter-spiliakos
The great Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry tries to explain to liberals that, among Republicans, moderate does not mean smart and conservative does not mean dumb. Fair enough, but our bigger problem is not that liberal buy into that dichotomy. It is that Republican elites (both establishment and insurgent) act like they agree with the liberals.
I’m just not that worried about liberals thinking conservatives are dumb. Such an attitude has social and individual costs, but it also weakens the American left. Liberals thought Reagan was stupid and ignorant. How did that work out for Reagan? Pretty good. Pat Brown, Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale never knew (and never came close to understanding) what hit them.
But when the Republican candidates act like conservatives are stupid, that leaves conservative voters no good options even as it weakens Republican candidates in the general election. Republican candidates end up treating the party’s conservatives as either obstacles to be overcome or marks to be taken down.
You have the Jeb Bush allies saying that you have to be willing to lose the (Neanderthal-populated) primary in order to win the general election. That is from the alleged moderates looking for the establishment vote. From Bobby Jindal we get:
At some point, the American public is going to revolt against the nanny state and the leftward march of this president. I don’t know when the tipping point will come, but I believe it will come soon.
Why?
Because the left wants: The government to explode; to pay everyone; to hire everyone; they believe that money grows on trees; the earth is flat; the industrial age, factory-style government is a cool new thing; debts don’t have to be repaid; people of faith are ignorant and uneducated; unborn babies don’t matter; pornography is fine; traditional marriage is discriminatory; 32 oz. sodas are evil; red meat should be rationed; rich people are evil unless they are from Hollywood or are liberal Democrats; the Israelis are unreasonable; trans-fat must be stopped; kids trapped in failing schools should be patient; wild weather is a new thing; moral standards are passé; government run health care is high quality; the IRS should violate our constitutional rights; reporters should be spied on; Benghazi was handled well; the Second Amendment is outdated; and the First one has some problems too.
Their philosophy does not work and it got our nation into the mess it’s in.
Eventually Americans will rise up against this new era of big government and this new reign of politically correct terror. In the meantime Republicans — hold fast, get smarter, get disciplined, get on offense, and put on your big boy pants.
I’ve heard it said about Reagan that he came across like your reasonable, responsible neighbor. Jindal (or whoever wrote that article) is making an effort to come across like a belligerent, drunk neighbor. Maybe that’s what Jindal thinks conservatives want in a president.
The irony is that GOP presidential primary voters have already told Republican presidential candidates that condescension is a lousy strategy. Tim Pawlenty thought he could connect with the CPAC crowd with a domestic violence joke. When that didn’t work, he tried a fantasy-based tax cut proposal. That didn’t work either.
Pawlenty had a creditable record as governor of a blue state and had much more credibility than Romney as a social conservative. But Pawlenty could never trust Republican conservatives to see that. The result was that Republican conservatives settled on Rick Santorum – who had the distinction of being Romney’s best prepared and most intellectually honest critic. The conservative Republican primary voters of the 2012 cycle rewarded quality rather than demagoguery.
The Republican party (and America) would be better off if the GOP consultants and candidates did not assume that conservative meant dumb. Let liberal have a monopoly on that mistake.
Comments are closed.
