Matt Lewis, echoing Rush Limbaugh
and Erick Erickson, takes conservative
writers to task for daring to question Sarah Palin's readiness for
higher office, even putting quotes around the word "conservative"
as if to question their ideological purity. Given that I've been
critical of Palin in recent weeks and have received some reader
feedback on this myself, I'd like to address this issue.
Let me say right off the bat that I don't get out of bed every
morning and ask myself what I can do to get Republicans elected. If
that were the way I operated, I'd work for the party or join a
campaign. Were I to merely say whatever is helpful to Republicans
at any given moment, I would have no value as a writer. All I can
do is tell the truth as I see it.
Anticipating this point, Lewis writes that, "there is a vast
difference between asking a conservative to be blindly loyal to the
GOP -- something neither Rush or I would suggest -- and asking a
conservative to simply not become a liberal." But how does the mere
act of criticizing a conservative politician mean somebody has
"become a liberal"? If the commentators in question were attacking
Palin for being staunchly pro-life, favoring gun rights, opposing
talks with Ahmadinejad, and advocating lower taxes, then it would
be one thing. But what does one's opinion on whether or not Palin
is prepared to be VP have anything to do with whether somebody is
ideologically liberal or conservative? When I closely watch several
interviews and honestly reach the conclusion that Palin is out of
her depth when talking about foreign policy as well as many
national issues, what should I do? It seems that in Lewis's view, I
should either a) keep quiet or b) lie and say that I thought she
did great and the interviewer is just a biased liberal hack. Or did
I betray conservatives merely by thinking that Palin was
unready?
Lewis focuses on the fact that when conservatives criticize
Palin it provides fodder for liberals. But incidentally, I don't
think it does Palin any favors for conservatives to cover up for
her and convince the campaign that her performances in interviews
have been adequate for the office she's seeking. If it's only
liberals who are doing the criticizing, she can chalk it up to
their built-in biases. But when it's coming from those who should
be her natural allies, it's much more likely that she'll work
harder to improve.
I write this having just completed an essay for our upcoming
issue on the Bush legacy in which I argue that one of the biggest
mistakes conservatives made during his presidency was to circle the
wagons defending him because he was on our "team" against the
liberals. Now, the failures of the Bush administration have come to
be identified as failures of conservatism, even though they are
nothing of the sort. I don't think conservatives should make the
same mistake yet again.
topics:
Taxes, Foreign Policy, Sarah Palin, Conservatism
