The American Spectator

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Home Alone Conservatism

2.7.08 @ 12:01AM

HOME IS WHERE THE VOTES ARE
Re: Lisa Fabrizio's Not Staying Home:

Lisa Fabrizio's appeal to glum conservatives was quite exhilarating, if you're twelve. Otherwise, it was another tired attempt to keep the Republican base quiet with a reminder of how much worse things could be. But that stuff won't work this year.

I voted for Big Bush against my better judgment. I voted for Little Bush because he was not Al Gore, and then again because he wasn't married to Teresa Kerry. But that was the last time I'll settle for the least repulsive candidate on the ballot. Pounding the tin drum on behalf of some feckless wretch because he's better than Stalin and has deigned to address CPAC won't move me one inch.

McCain seems to be an accomplished liar; and I believe that what is called his "plain speaking" is evidence that he has a couple of screws loose. Huckabee is Slick Willie with a better haircut; he has the same smarmy presence that keeps your hand on your wallet until he's gone.

Romney seems no more dreadful than some previous chief executives, and if he runs against Hillary I may vote for him; I'd vote for the devil himself before I'd vote for Hillary. But if she runs against McCain I will vote Libertarian. Four years of Hillary will do the conservative movement far more good than eight years of McCain.

It's not a matter of running away because I can't get everything I want. It is a matter of standing fast in the hope of getting what we all need to survive. The old coalition cobbled together by Nixon and animated by Reagan has come apart. Each individual group must reevaluate its priorities, come to terms with the American electorate, and make the best deal possible. These last dismal eight years have squandered what may have been our last chance to prevent what now seems inevitable. But, in the event that it was not, Joe Hill summed it up nicely: "Don't mourn. Organize."
-- Edmund Dantes
Coshocton, Ohio

I'm not staying home, but sadly it appears that the prevailing temperament of the population in this election cycle is not favorable for the Republican Party. Many of the tenets of our party such as self reliance, personal responsibility, limited government, etc., simply do not resonate with a large segment of the population. The winning message seems to be: "Hi. I'm from the government and I'm here to help you." That is not the calling card of the Republican Party. Perhaps Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism" got us to this point but the Republican Party, as I know it, cannot hold true to its principles and still be competitive when the sentiment of the voting public tends toward government solutions. That's the domain of the other side.
-- J. Brick
Beaver Dam, Arizona

Lisa may not be staying home if this primary gives us Hillary and McCain in the general, but I will be. I consider choosing between Hillary and Hillary Light McCain not worth the effort it will take to get to the polls. I know what I will be getting with either one. It is a sad day for the Republican Party when its leadership lets a few northeastern and eastern liberal elites pick its nominee. Oh, well I can save some money this year because the RNC will not be getting any of it. Congratulations, RNC, you just gave us at least four years of Socialist rule. One can only hope the country survives it.
-- Jim Karr
Blue Springs, Missouri

Liza Fabrizio is urging us conservatives to suck it up and do our best to deny the White House to the Democrats. Sucking it up is what we did with the Bushes, Dole etc. -- this would be swallowing poison.

After all he has done to sell this country down the tubes (think Guantanamo; torture; gang of 14), as well as slandering Mitt Romney (with the complicity of the media), I cannot reward McCain with my vote.

I have not failed to vote since 1964 (and always for a Republican), but I agree with Ann Coulter: with a Dem we'll get all the bad judges, global warming guff, and bad legislation with none of the blame.

See you in '12.
-- James Sherlock
Waldwick, New Jersey

Why are Conservatives in such disarray? Part of the answer may be that they have been lulled into a malaise by the great wealth and power that the U.S. has accumulated. That we have fought a major war without any strain on the budget, reducing the deficit in fact, and have not been asked to sacrifice because our military volunteers and families did that for us, may have turned the attention of Conservatives toward lesser things. Consider that Congress is currently spending its workdays investigating baseball and that Republican Senator Specter thinks it time to investigate NFL football, foibles of a do-nothing Congress. Add to this the constant din of Liberals asking for more of the goodies to go to them rather than the war. Minds have turned away from the great problems the country faces into a sort of food fight and recitations of petty grievances. Conservatives have been ignoring the future, criticizing present events, and dreaming about the past. The past success that Conservatives have had were based on a commitment to the future. Facing the prospects of possible world wide war and a growing Socialist movement should be enough to revive Conservatives energies toward the future again.
-- Howard Lohmuller
Seabrook,Texas

I hear Republicans making the case for party loyalty. Where does that leave independent conservatives? If I had loyalty, I would be voting for the party I registered with three decades ago; thank you, but no.

I vote for the candidate and the issues. I have been voting Republican of late and I am going to vote for a senate candidate. However if McCain gets the nomination, my choices will be to write in Fred, skip that race or vote wacky third party.

McCain or any Democrat will be bad news for this country. McCain will also be bad news for the conservative movement. Some good friends mention judges but, seeing McCain parse words and assign highly personal interpretation to them, I see not reason to trust him. This campaign has left me doubting his honesty.
-- Laurence

I fear that Americans will be faced with choosing between two "Battered Syndrome" candidates come election time: a former president's wife, battered by the infidelities of a marriage, out for the redemptive powers of self worth; a Senator, secretly ashamed of POW status and batterings by captors in Hanoi, looking for a life do-over.

Both candidates are out to prove, to themselves at the public's expense, they remain unaffected by their pasts. Neither are trustworthy. Both display a lack of integrity. Each feels superior to the actual citizen, the people's opinions be damned. Equally, they carry grudges against real and imagined slights.

The American people can expect four years of battering, no matter the winning candidate.
-- Wolf Terner
Fair Lawn, New Jersey

I believe that unless there is limited, constitutional government there can be no legitimate government. What part of limited, constitutional government does McCain, in his monstrous arrogance, embrace?

I have always framed the "immigration" debate in terms of limited, constitutional government. There cannot be limited, constitutional government if our rulers can transfer our hard-earned wealth to anyone who enters our country illegally. There cannot be limited, constitutional government if our rulers can debase our sovereignty by enfranchising millions of aliens in our country illegally.

The 1986 amnesty, which was sold to us as the last amnesty, turned California from Reagan country to the land of Pelosi. Our rulers will swamp out the last pockets of Reagan Country if we permit them they enfranchise the millions of illegal aliens that have flooded this once Free land since the 1986 debacle. This election is our last chance to stop our rulers from this treason.

We cannot win with McCain. Yet we will have lost if McCain wins. Our last best hope of remaining a Free people is to stop McCain from carrying the mantel of the party that left Reagan into the general election, whatever the price. And then pray God we can soldier on and stop the American hating Left that is the party of moveon.org.

There is limited, constitutional government or there is no legitimate government.

The Reagan coalition has been lost in the Bushes and there will be hell to pay. I will not vote for McCain. Bush is the shipwreck of our hopes. Hillary is the graveyard of our Freedoms. I weep for my beloved country.
-- Ralph Diamond
Annapolis, Maryland

The Republicans lost the White House last night. Conservatives outvoted McCain, but McCain/Huckabee outmaneuvered conservatives. Evangelicals who thought that the party was about to see the light were clearly in the dark about Huckabee's angle. He may not realize it now, but he just kissed any future he might have had in this party goodbye.

What thinking, rational person really believes McCain can unite this party. Quite apart from his past, McCain will remain unable to long disguise his contempt for conservatives. He loathes conservatives and telegraphs that disdain in a million different ways.

We will now have a four-year "palette cleansing" which may help the republican party recover from it's the chronic vertigo which 12 years of Bush presidencies have yielded. The Bushes seem like wonderful men, but conservatives they ain't. They may have some conservative instincts but they lack a deeply imbedded core conservative philosophy; their perspectives are more patrician than reliably conservative.

So 2010 may yield a Republican recovery of both houses and 2012 may find an authentic conservative eagerly embraced by a majority of the party, RINO's notwithstanding.
-- Larry Easton

The rejection of McCain by conservatives won't be the only problem facing the Republican "establishment" if this RINO becomes the party's standard bearer. There will doubtless be a dramatic plunge in campaign contributions to the GOP. The urgency of fighting a Democrat takeover of Washington just won't be there if a Democratic Republican like McCain gets the Republican nomination. As a prior contributor to the "good fight," this committed conservative will absolutely NOT open his wallet to a Republican party that will at best -- if McCain wins -- be a co-conspirator in his brand of half baked, corrupt, left wing populism. Contributing to such a compromised organization would be akin to trying to keep a horse with two broken legs on life support. For this reason, if McCain gets the nod, humane conservatives will do the right thing in November '08 and put the worthless GOP out of its misery.
-- Peter R. McGrath
Winter Park, Florida

QUITE A SIGHT
Re: Mark Tooley's Faith on Deck:

At Fort Benning, Georgia, there is a "Field of the Four Chaplains." When I ran across it in 2004, I knew immediately who it memorialized. My World War Two veteran father and my mother had taken me at a young age to a wax museum, where a life size portrayal of the four chaplains was displayed. The scene showed the four men in their last moments on the deck of the Dorchester. This was an active display with the deck rolling and water pouring back and forth. I will never forget it.
-- David Shoup
Veteran, Operation Iraqi Freedom

Thank you for the reminder. I would offer a petition at this week's mass in the memory of the Immortal Four, but my parish is simply way too progressive to tolerate such sentimental claptrap. I recommend a copy of Dan Kurzman's biography of the chaplains, No Greater Glory. And after you've read it, consider donating it to the nearest school library. I did.
-- Mark K. Zunk
Indianapolis, Indiana

HUCK YES?
Re: John Tabin's The Likable One:

As a Reaganite watching the primary election unfold last night before Texans can vote, three things seemed worth noting.

1. Huckabee probably would have won South Carolina without Thompson in the race.

2. Huckabee probably would have won Missouri and Oklahoma without Romney in the race.

3. If electability and stopping McCain is the goal, why should Reaganites be for Romney instead of Huckabee?
-- Mike Thompson Jr.
Austin, Texas

SENATOR BOMB, BOMB, BOMB, BOMB, BOMB IRAN
Re: Herbert London's What's to Negotiate?:

Iran through its Mullahs and its extended theocracy has been playing a the nuclear weapons card in a (cold) war of attrition. The NIE certainly aided their position. The Iranian leadership has adapted a stoicism that would have stood them well in Masada, if it were the Persians, not the Israeli, who faced the Roman Legions, but the current administration is in its waning days. Despite President Bush's tough talk and inclusion of Iran in the "Axis of Evil," his policies have not sufficiently engaged either the Iranian regime or the populace of Iran. A McCain presidency (still hurts to contemplate that) would be much more forceful. It is possible that when Senator McCain spoke of "other wars," he was warning the Iranians not to get too comfortable in their insistence in building nuclear reactors. For all his faults (well recorded in the pages of TAS), McCain is a stone cold warrior. He may be the leader America truly needs.
-- Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

NEW JERSEY GIANTS
Re: Neal B. Freeman's Take That, Tiki Barber:

Giants victory was sweet no doubt about it! I have a problem with Mr. Tisch! With trophy raised on high, he bellowed "this is for the City on New York!" Last time I checked, his team didn't play in New York. His team plays in in New Jersey. He doesn't even have a training facility in New York. Is he ashamed? Why does he have NY stamped on the side of the helmets when his team doesn't play there? Here's a few other items; he didn't receive $30,000,000 from the taxpayers of New York State to clear a mortgage. He got it from the taxpayers of New Jersey. And he didn't get valuable land from New York State. He received that benefit from New Jersey as well. If he loves the City so much, he should pack his bags and move his team there, lock, stock and barrel, after he pays the taxpayers of New Jersey for the lease on Giants Stadium and any ancillary expenses!
-- Bob Montrose

THE MEANING OF VILE
Re: Nathan Maskiell's letter (under "No McCain in Team") in Reader Mail's Dear John:

Mr. Nathan Maskiell is at it again, I see. Apart from the obvious fact that he doesn't have a clue about economics, his ability to ignore the role that the Democrat Party has played in foisting big government and high taxes on U.S. citizens suggest that he is motivated more by a strong dislike of Republicans rather than a belief in balanced budgets. I also think calling Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh "vile individuals" tells us where Mr. Maskiell is really coming from. If he is truly interested in the meaning of vile, he should spend a little listening to the Democrats' hate speech.

As for his tiresome wailing about deficits, what really matters is government spending. Anyone who ignores this fact is not being serious. And that is putting it politely. Furthermore, President Reagan inherited stagflation from President Carter. In turn, stagflation was a legacy of Keynesian policies.
-- Gerard Jackson
Noble Park, Australia

WATER YOU TALKING ABOUT?
Re: George's letter (under "Chilly Reception") in Reader Mail's Dear John:

I couldn't let the comment by George pass unremarked. Melting ice can never raise the level of the sea -- its basic science, courtesy of Archimedes and his bathtub in ancient Greece. Ice is frozen water and when it floats in the sea it simply displaces its own mass. When it melts the mass of water remains exactly the same, there is no change in sea levels. Melting icebergs raising the sea level is junk science at its worst. Leave this one to Al Gore.
-- Christopher Holland
Canberra, Australia

George from Albany writes: "Once in the ocean, over time melting ice will lead to a rise in ocean levels", but he's wrong. Once floating, ice has already increased the level of the water as much as it's ever going
to. Just think of the ice in your adult beverage; if it melts completely, your glass doesn't overflow. The worst that can happen is you've watered down the scotch.
-- Tricia Carr
Laguna Niguel, California

WHIGGED OUT
Re: W. James Antle III's Mitt's Hail Mary:

Given all of the candidates, Republican and Democrat, Mitt is absolutely the most qualified to lead this nation. Unfortunately, the voting product of our public education system haven't a clue. But if it's any consolation, McCain will NOT be president of the United States, not ever. And how do I know this? It's because there are too many of us REAL Republicans that understand that, while McCain is a true American hero, he is no Republican. He is a left-wing Democrat, which ultimately makes this race a one party race. So given the choice of voting for a Democrat or voting for a Democrat wearing a half-assed Republican mask, this conservative will vote for the real Democrat. It's just that simple, folks.
-- Jim L
Sandwich, Massachusetts

Is it time for the second American Revolution yet? Perhaps the old Whig party should be reconstituted and updated. If I hold my nose any tighter I'll need reconstructive surgery. And a bicarb IV in both arms. And a case of duct tape to keep my head from exploding.
-- Michael Jones
Delaware, Ohio

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Education, Economics, Global Warming, Constitution, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran, Israel, NATO, Conservatism, Immigration, Nuclear Weapons