Because, as we all know, Military Spending Doesn’t Count
The nation’s top military officer said Wednesday that he expected the Pentagon to ask Congress in the next few months for emergency financing to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though President Obama has pledged to end the Bush administration practice of paying for the conflicts with so-called supplemental funds that are outside the normal Defense Department budget. The financing would be on top of the $130 billion that Congress authorized for the wars just last month.
November 5, 2009 12 Comments
Rewriting the conservative narrative
“While I agree that it’s fairly pointless, as a tactical matter, for dissidents to attack the talk radio giants, this comes, I think, out of a deep frustration that people with little more than slogans and attitude have bigfooted discussion among conservatives, and have helped turn the GOP and the movement into something that’s extremely hostile to change (as distinct from skepticism of it, as all real conservatives should be), and almost fanatically opposed to dissent from within. A fairly conservative friend of mine and I were talking the other day about something Glenn Beck had said, and my friend looked disgusted, saying, “I’m sick of being associated with conservatives.” The impulse to take on the Becks and the Limbaughs comes from a sense that these guys are hurting us bad, and preventing the kind of clear thinking that we need to get back in the political game. I’d love to know how Mark and the League propose for dissident conservatives to “engage” the base when the kind of people the base trusts and takes its cues from demonize dissidents as RINOs, closet liberals, squishes, wets, suck-ups, and so forth. I’m asking seriously. I don’t know how to go about this in the current climate.” ~ Rod Dreher
There’s no easy answer to this question, of course. Dreher and other critics of Beckian talk-show conservatism are right: the talking heads do hurt the cause. Think of William F. Buckley back in the days leading up to the launch of National Review. Imagine if he’d had to compete with Fox News for the heart and soul of conservatism. It wouldn’t have been easy. Indeed, on the field of battle, Buckley with his more reasoned and polite approach to political discussion (which isn’t to say he always threw soft punches, the man could be rather straightforward after all) may very well have lost to the populists now manning the airwaves in defense of “true conservatism.” Buckley would be painted like every other East Coast Elite.
But I doubt very much that Buckley would have taken to that particular field. He was too canny to become embroiled in a fight he couldn’t win, and too immersed in ideas to need to resort to those measures – at least until he was sure of victory. What’s the point in taking on the Goliaths of the conservative movement anyways? They have a higher bully pulpit, a wider audience, a louder megaphone. And they’re okay fighting dirty, and dragging you down to whatever level they need to drag you in order to win. Wait until they’re marginal players. Wait until they’ve outworn their welcome.
Conservative dissidents these days have nowhere near enough patience. Impulsively, they attack the easiest and biggest targets they can find: the talking heads. As Dreher points out, the impulse for this fight is two-fold. On the one hand it’s the impulse to remove Rush and co. from the conversation, because they’re “preventing the kind of clear thinking we need to get back in the political game.” But much, much more importantly, I think, is the desire to simply not be associated with that particular brand of conservatism. Guilt by association. We’re not with them, we say. And to prove it, here’s post after post on just why this is so, on why we hate Limbaugh even more than you do.
And it works. Nobody who knows Conor or Rod would ever couple them with Limbaugh or Levin – right? Only, it has unintended consequences. Sure, you’ve blacklisted the pundits, but you’ve also been blacklisted, by a pretty significant portion of the conservative base.
Isn’t there a better way?
I think there is. Let’s call it the Trojan Horse strategy. [Read more →]
October 26, 2009 39 Comments
