Reader Mail
The Blame Shame
Social conservatism’s easy target. Consumed with h8. No 007, he. Plus more.
OUT OF HAND
Re: G. Tracy
Mehan’s
Social Conservatives as Scapegoats:
This blaming of Sarah Palin for the election loss has gotten out of hand. It is being fed by “progressives,” many of whom are simply uninformed; a conservative colleague as of yesterday told me he understood that Governor Palin had said that she did not believe in evolution!
Mrs. Palin is the epitome of the All-America gal. Independent, pretty, smart, patriotic, a loving wife and mother. She is a great success as governor, managing a $7 billion budget and 11,000 state employees while running a budget surplus. She has an unheard of 80% approval rating. She’s also a self-made woman. She has not ridden her husband’s coattails like Hillary Clinton or had a wealthy father or husband finance her political career like Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein. In the art of governance her accomplishments far exceed those of Barack Obama. Yet she is called provincial, anti-intellectual, parochial, frightening, shocking, ignorant, even stupid, by resentful feminists-as-victims like Norah Vincent and self-important elites like Mark Lilla. But I expect such vicious and ignoble behavior from the likes of them. What is Peggy Noonan’s, Kathleen Parker’s or David Brooks’ excuse?
The qualities that she exhibits, that used to define the American
creed and American “exceptionalism,” and that were once a
role-model for young people, are a danger to the left in this
country, where statism, corporatism and the subordination of the
individual to the group, led of course by the left’s elite, are
the new models. The saddest part is the degeneration of so many
self-described conservatives into what Margaret Thatcher called
“wets,” who are nothing more than modern day liberals on a
slightly slower schedule.
— Paul DeSisto
Cedar Grove, New Jersey
Mr. Mehan makes some very valid points…about the general election. Unfortunately, however, we social conservatives can be blamed for this loss. It started back in the primaries when social conservatives refused to support Romney for his “late” conversion to the pro-life position along with his Mormon faith. Social conservatives lined up behind Huckabee, who allied with McCain to torpedo Romney, who would have been a much stronger general election candidate. And for that, they got McCain, who had a very inspired VP pick in Palin (I was and am very much in favor of her being on the ticket) but immediately mishandled her. Who refused to attack Obama in areas near and dear to social conservatives such as infanticide and the Freedom of Choice Act. Who basically ceded the culture war to the Democrats.
But the larger question is, primary election influence
notwithstanding, do the social conservatives have much clout? In
several swing states where there was a high evangelical turnout,
like Minnesota, Obama got about a third of that vote.
Evangelicals have certainly shown themselves to be lured by
things like environmentalism. The Dems’ message that it is a
pro-life issue seems to have some influence. Can the acceptance
of socialism be far behind? And young voters are
certainly less exercised about abortion and homosexual
rights. That is the future, especially with Obama’s and
Ayers’ colleagues in charge of our schools. In addition, our
pulpits are filled with the message to love the sinner and hate
the sin. A fine Christian sentiment, but, when carried into
the political realm, it lets people off the hook for policy
decisions as well. Obama may support infanticide, but
shouldn’t we overlook that because we love him? I think that
social conservatives still have a lot of clout, especially if you
look at exit poll numbers, but if we will not stand united, there
is little need to bother with us.
— Andrew J. Macfadyen, M.D.
Omaha,
Nebraska
I thoroughly enjoyed this Tracy Mehan piece on the ritual scapegoating of the social conservatives, usually led by those uber-courageous, raging “moderates” (a code word for spineless RINO) of the Christine Todd Whitman persuasion. After virtually every election whether Republicans (conservatives) win or lose, these Little Johnny One Notes emerge from the fog to tell conservatives the only way to win is to, and they say this with a straight face, become Liberal Lite, which may sound reasonable on its surface, but is actually a recipe for political New Coke.
We lost the ‘08 election in good part because the candidates (with an Alaskan exception) mounted an incoherent and chaotic campaign which failed to address the single prominent issue of the election; i.e. after eight years of Bushian “compassionate conservatism” and GOP congressional stupidity and corruption could the voters trust the GOP to actually govern on conservative Reaganesque principles? The voter’s answer was obviously an emphatic no! The irony that voters would turn to the party that has given us a Pelosi-Reid Congress with a 9% approval rating to lead the country was not lost upon me.
Let me remind those alleged Republicans who want the party to
divorce itself from all that inconvenient social conservatism of
a key historical fact. It was a largely social conservative
movement, growing out of the Great Awakening and rooted firmly in
our churches which stood four square for the abolition of slavery
which created the GOP in the middle of the 19th Century and gave
us our greatest President, Abraham Lincoln.
— Frank Stevenson
Williamsburg, Virginia
Well, this is comforting news.
“The challenges that we are confronting are enormous and they are multiple. And so there are times during the course of a given day where you think: ‘Where do I start in terms of moving — moving things forward?’” Obama just said that on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
We have an incoming president who doesn’t know where to start.
Several times every day.
No wonder he wants to have Republicans in his administration.
Add to that Mehan’s notion about scapegoats and it suggests another reason — so he can co-opt them in 2012 when they won’t be able to place all of the blame on him.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (12) | Leave a comment
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frost| 11.18.08 @ 7:57AM
Garry apparently has a low opinion of our present president? As do I, and a pretty large bunch of others who see him as a totally inept betrayer of what 'way too many of us voted for; he did cut taxes, appointed a few judges.... and, everything else has been a big far Blah! Couldn't discipline his own party's spending, wouldn't or couldn't shut down the Illegal (NOT "undocumented") Alien crap, allowed even more inane government growth; and, why, pray tell, are we still paying for the Iraqi mess? First, he completely mishandled the war for too many years (until Petraeous) because of the McClellans in the Pentagon and his inability to get Victory, and now he allows the Iraqi government to reap the benefits of oil revenue while we're still paying the freight?!?
Yeah, Dubya ranks right down there with Jimmy Carter as the All-Time Worst Ever -- his (and Bush-the-Elder's) hairbrained "Compassionate Conservatism" is nothing more than Liberal Lite. His ethanol/lack of ANWR-offshore drilling ('til oil topped $100-a-barrel) was yet another miserable exhibition in his lack-of-leadership.
Face it, it's been an awful president, and I haven't even scratched the surface!
Democrats HATE Dubya with a passion – we Independents and conservatives bash Bush for a reason! Incompetence cubed, and the rest of the party ('cept Ron Paul and a very few others) also sucks. Guess that about covers it -- for the moment...
There's plenty more, but now, think I want to throw up...
frost| 11.18.08 @ 8:01AM
That "far" in the 4th line should'a read "Fat," okay?
Appleby| 11.18.08 @ 10:23AM
For those who hate President Bush more than they hate the Mommy who would not let them wear hot pants to church, I advise that you get back to me once bin Laden has blown up the Sears Tower and King O stands wringing his hands and crying in the ruins because he can't believe they don't love him unconditionally the way his handlers told him everyone in the world was now required to do.
In six months you will be looking back on the last eight years and wondering how you could have been as stupid as you were before the firebombing of daycare centres started and King O did nothing ...
garry greenwood| 11.18.08 @ 12:09PM
I sincerely hope "frost" is not referring to me in the first line of his comment. If so, he is sadly mistaken. Although I have many problems with what President Bush has done (e.g., amnesty for illegal aliens and out-of-control spending) I honestly find little fault with his actions against islamofascism. My family has not been attacked since 9/11; neither has "frost".
What is also sad is the obsessive and pathelogical hatred the left has for President Bush. It will be interesting to see how history records the contributions of the Clinton administration and the current democrat leadership in congress versus that of President Bush in the war against islamofascism. Somehow I don't believe it will come out the way "frost" would have liked.
frost| 11.18.08 @ 3:11PM
Sorry Garry. You're correct in that we haven't been attacked, but, all things considered, my guess is that that's because of the various failings by the world-be terrorists -- not anything Dubya's done (look at the TSA next time you're in an airport for an illustration). Mine isn't hate, and, God knows, I'm sure no leftist! But I sure do feel betrayed by a guy most of us thought would do a whole lot more to secure this once-great country.
There are two quotations that express those feelings rather eloquently: "We have a two party system. The evil party and the stupid party."
Annnnd, "I don’t trust the GOP; most politicians are pandering whores. BUT, the Republican Party contains fewer certifiable maniacs."
Those pretty much say it all. Hate saying this, but, when it comes to our not having been attacked, two things come to mind: (1) we lucked out; their ineptitude is worse than ours, and (2) in this age of Political Correctness, they're winning without any shots being fired -- Minneapolis foot-baths anyone?
Marc Jeric| 11.18.08 @ 3:12PM
"Liberal elite" (oxymoron, with the stress on moron) ridicules Sarah Palin as a non-believer in evolution. No, Sir. Evolution exists perhaps, even though its proof is a logical idiocy: the variant of a specie survived because it was fitter - this can be also stated as the variant was fitter because it survived. Aristotle warned us against such circular reasoning. Quite another matter is the creation of a single living cell out of that darwinist primordial soup; that has been shown as a mathematical impossibility by various scientists - not once could such a cell, however simplified, be created in the whole known universe by however long it could have been tried, to and including the infinity.
ruth| 11.18.08 @ 4:20PM
The Bush hatred in this country is off the charts. So much so, that he isn't even given credit for his courageous and brilliant national security strategy which has protected us from further horror. Such a fool's errand; it is also sick and ungrateful. I worry for our future.
Quartermaster| 11.18.08 @ 8:01PM
Alas, Lincoln was not a product of the Great Awakening, nor was he a product of the second great awakening. The man was a screaming infidel. The only thing that saved his political career was Herndon, his law partner, seizing a manuscript mocking Christianity from Lincoln's hand and hurling it into the stove. Herndon said that Lincoln lived and died an infidel, and John Hay stated that Lincoln did not change his religious opinion after he came to the District of Corruption.
As to him being the greatest President, I'll allow you your delusions. He refounded the country, destroying the Republic that was founded in 1787, which led directly to the serious problems we have politically today. Without the unitary Federal Government, paying only lip service to the constitution or the position of the states, the left would be completely irrelevant.
If you don't like what the left has been up to these past 70 years, just remember, Lincoln made it all possible.
ruth| 11.18.08 @ 9:50PM
As a social conservative I am not going to accept responsibility for the 2008 election debacle. BS! If a strong, articulate conservative had run, I believe he/she would not only have won the nomination, but would have had a real chance to win the election.
David Govett| 11.19.08 @ 1:39AM
Imagine, some people want to preserve the lessons of 8000 generations of Homo sapiens society. How silly of them.
Michael L. Hauschild| 11.19.08 @ 7:57PM
I would vote for Sarah Palin in a second. She could be the perfect candidate; leading by example, not governmental fiat, would probably satisfy the Social Conservatives, and her simple approach to cleaning house with a partisan broom would satisfy many like myself.