Double-Minded Republicans
By Andrew C. McCarthy
After a first term that has been historically abysmal, President Obama stands a good chance of being reelected. How can that be?
Here is the blunt explanation: We have lost a third of the country and, as if that weren’t bad enough, Republicans act as if it were two-thirds.
The lost third cannot be recovered overnight. For now, it is gone. You cannot cede the campus and the culture to the progressive, post-American Left for two generations and expect a different outcome. So even if Obama is the second coming of Jimmy Carter — and he has actually been much more effective, and therefore much worse — it is unreasonable to expect a Reagan-style landslide, and would be even if we had Reagan. The people coming of age in our country today have been reared very differently from those who were just beginning to take the wheel in the early 1980s. They have marinated in an unapologetically progressive system that prizes group discipline and narrative over free will and critical thought.
The narratives are not always easy to follow. In the progressive weltanschauung, good and evil are relative. Good is whatever it is said to be in the moment; don’t ask anyone to explain why “choice” is a value when it involves killing the unborn, though it is seen as an obvious nuisance when it involves the right to choose the double cheeseburger over the salad. Evil is contextualized and root-caused into vaporous abstraction. We no longer know whether it’s wrong — only that, whoever may have done it, it’s our fault.
Yet, even with good and evil enveloped in fog, progressive narratives remain sharply Manichaean: You can always tell the heroes from the villains. Obama is a hero because he cares. Conservatives are villains because they don’t. And Republicans are villains because they are conservative.
None of these statements is true, of course. Obama cares about Obama, which is hardly heroic. Conservatives are repulsed by government intrusions into the private sphere because we believe private citizens are better than government’s social engineers at promoting prosperity for everyone. And today’s Republican party is not very conservative: At a time when the welfare state is — inevitably — collapsing of its own weight, Romney and Ryan run as its guardians. They’ve come to praise Caesar, not to bury him.
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I laughed when I saw the photo with this article - at least two of the "Forward" signs are being held upside down. Perhaps that visual will become popular like the Empty Chair.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you'd post Mark Steyn's column about Sandra Fluke, and I see you have it in the sidebar under Good Reads. I particularly like the line, "All the election will decide is whether America wants to address that reality, or continue to live in delusion — like a nation staggering around with a giant condom rolled over its collective head."
Hi Nancy
ReplyDeleteYes I liked that too, and so true
Oh... A new post :O)
ReplyDeleteAndrew C. McCarthy sums it up nicely.
And I too love that line Number.
Did i change my ID pic?
ReplyDeleteYup!
ReplyDeleteAnd edit;
My i.t. guy changed my Avvy
See what happens when you have someone do things for you? You(I) never learn to to do it on your own.
DeleteAnd today’s Republican party is not very conservative: At a time when the welfare state is — inevitably — collapsing of its own weight, Romney and Ryan run as its guardians. They’ve come to praise Caesar, not to bury him.
DeleteThis is an important statement that the Independents need to hear.
Forget the majority of the Demoncrats(they are lost)
The Left has continually and fairly successfully CLAIMED that the Republicans want to end the Major entitlements.
When the actual truth is that they want to save them. Save by reform. And so far it seems like a good type reform with options. Not one Gov shoe fits all type thing.
I wont speak for all Conservatives and Republicans,but I would like to see Newt and Paul Ryan get together and revamp Gov completely. Thats a 20 year project but I would sure like to see them start.
DeleteNot a bad idea, if Romney loses this I suspect that there will be a BIG restructuring of the GOP.
ReplyDeleteNice outfit!Beautiful image:)
ReplyDeleteVery interesting..... I hope we don't get another 4 yrs old extreme liberalism; not sure we could come back from that...
ReplyDeleteHi Jer and friends. I have not been in the political mood the past few days,but I wanted to stop by and say thanks for the reads. I have enjoyed quite a few. I just had nothing to add.
ReplyDelete