The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Hurray for Hannity?

2.13.08 @ 12:00AM

STUPID PRINCIPLES
Re: Jeffrey Lord's Sean Hannity is Right:

And so is Jeffery Lord....he nails it.
-- Jim Karr
Blue Springs, Missouri

Well, I thought about it and call me stupid. I am self-identified conservative Republican who joyfully voted for Reagan in 1980 and 1984. I will also joyfully vote for John McCain comes November, not because he shares all principles cherished by Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, but because given the choice between McCain, Obama, and Clinton, I will select the candidate who in my opinion will best serve the interests of this country and its citizens. I also know that since Ronald Reagan is unlikely to rise from the dead and run for office, I am left with few options. Speaking as a conservative Republican, I can not see how helping put a liberal Democratic administration in place, perhaps for the next decade, can be viewed as a blessing in disguise. Perhaps that outcome will rejuvenate the Conservative movement, but will the price be losing the war in Iraq, appointment of liberal justices, and cosmic growth of government? If you fight for certain principles because you believe that a conservative philosophy represents the best course for the country, then the choice in the coming election appears stark. To rigidly defend a few principles while abandoning others is senseless. Yes, I thought about and will choose pragmatism over fanaticism. If Sean Hannity is right, then I am proud to be wrong.
-- Peter Killie
Ridgefield, Connecticut

Jeffrey Lord makes the case that Sean Hannity and Rush, etc are correct and the future of conservative thought is in the good hands of the people who attended CPAC…well maybe. I have to ask: which president signed McCain-Feingold? Which president supported McCain-Kennedy? Which president signed the biggest spending bills of all time and grew the size of government to unprecedented level. It was the same president who was greeted at the CPAC with cheers of "4 more years." Seems a little confusing to me. I don't remember Rush, Sean et al spending hours and days of vitriol directed at President Bush on these deviances from conservative thinking; sure, they would mention they disagreed, but in polite terms and were soon on to something else.

I am a reluctant supporter of John McCain and for many years have enjoyed listening to talk radio, but it seems like they are taking their ball and going home or holding their breath till they turn blue if you support McCain. I know they say theirs is a principled argument, well maybe, just 5 or 6 years to late.
-- Glenn Diehl

It was disconcerting to read about the CPAC Convention, considering that the individuals held up as leading lights were all conservative pundits rather than conservative politicians. It is hard to accept that the Republican Party of today has failed utterly in identifying and sponsoring candidates that represent conservative views. But this has been the case for many, many years. Even a blind man must come to realize that this was the end game all along. The nomination of John McCain is just the last nail in the coffin, exposing this sham for all to see. We all will now witness the death throes of the Republican Party and, very possibly, the collapse of the American system of governance we came to rely upon in recent generations. The truth of the matter is that the Republican establishment has viewed those of us who value the uniqueness of the American political experiment in limited government as an albatross. We've only been an impediment in their relentless march toward socialism. They took our money and our votes but could not, would not, deliver what was promised, in election after election. At this point in our history, there is absolutely nothing to be gained for a conservative to continue voting for candidates who baldly advance the destruction of the Constitution, who advocate policies that result in government expansion at every level, who persist in using American blood and treasure to support foreign military adventures unendingly, who embrace cockamamie notions of global warming to enable government interventionism in every aspect of commerce, and who do everything in their power to undermine the principles of life and liberty upon which the American system was founded.

There is no way I will vote for McCain, regardless of how many Republican apologists are trotted out rationalizing his apostasies, regardless of who laments the likely disaster of a Democrat ascendancy. If the people of this country today are hell bent on ushering in a socialist state and casting off the last vestiges of the Republic, then they will have to embark on that terrible course without my imprimatur.
-- Harry Hill

The conservative movement. Conservative principles. Working passionately to lift…blah, blah, blah.

I think it was Mark Twain who said something like:

"There are reasons and there are results"

I'll take results every time. McCain is the best choice for anybody at the center or to the right of center. Complaining, explaining, caterwauling, whining will not change this fact.
-- Doug Santo
Pasadena, California

Substitute the name of another movement, "anti-war, e.g., for "conservative" in Jeffrey Lord's column, and one begins to get the idea of what a "committed bunch of people" look like -- as the world is passing them by.

Uncompromising principles are wonderful things -- until they lead to irrelevance. Conservatives would like to believe none of their own voted for John McCain. The numbers say otherwise.
-- Arnold Ahlert
Boca Raton, Florida

As a Navy reservist and a conservative, my principles are primarily focused on electing a President that will support the troops and the mission.

That man is clearly John McCain. Especially since the alternative is the Democrat Party's inexperienced, unqualified pacifist-appeasers.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Education, John McCain, Religion, Islam, Global Warming, Hollywood, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Military, Iraq, NATO, Socialism, Conservatism, Immigration, Oil