Muddle-heads who think we have forever to solve our problems

Well, now.  All one has to do is juxtapose these two takes on Karl Rove's Conservative Victory Project  - Rick Moran's at PJ Media and that of Michelle Malkin at her own blog - to see that "rift" is probably a woefully understated way to characterize the current juncture of the Republican party.

It may not be immediately apparent if you live in a city with a Republican mayor and city council in a state with a Republican governor and legislature (as I do), where the emphasis is on the policies, reforms and strategies that one yearns for on the national level.  But methinks that can lead to an insular perspective that can erode any local or regional gains for freedom and common sense.

And even at this late date you can get the occasional glimmer of of excitement on the national level, such as Ted Cruz, who didn't feel the need for an easing-in period as a new Senator, but rather began on day one confronting the regime and forthrightly standing for our principles.

Let me do a bit of cutting to the chase and say that I side with Malkin over Moran in the dichotomy they represent.  I've been wary of Moran for a few years, ever since I read something he wrote for his blog disparaging Rush Limbaugh.  And in the current piece he betrays his willingness to accomodate Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome when he characterizes Richard Lugar as " a conservative pragmatist whose collegiality with Democrats made him suspect with the paranoids who see any collaboration with the enemy as treason."

You just knew where the conversation in the comment threads was going to go on that one - a passionate, yet beside-the-point debate about whether the Pubs need to jettison "social issues" and focus on "fiscal issues," since it was Mourdock's abortion remark that self-immolated his campaign.

But back to Moran himself: He feels the need to sound the alarm about a supposedly significant element within Tea Party-ism as the " kind of hysteria [that] gives the right wing the deserved reputation of being disconnected from reality. Is there anything wrong with marginalizing Tea Party people who believe that Obama is a Muslim or that he’s out to “destroy America”? Or constitutional conservatives who believe our founding document is akin to holy writ? Or libertarians who embrace objectivism? These people don’t have to be shunted off to the fringe. They are the fringe already. Not all Tea Partiers, constitutionalists, or libertarians share these ridiculous views, but shouldn’t an effort be made to kick the crazies to the sidelines?"

Well, no, because it would be a time-waster in a moment of great urgency.  There just aren't enough people who think the Most Equal Comrade is a Muslim, or who put objectivism at the center of their worldview to get worked up about.

Now, he really wanders onto shaky ground with that business about the Constitution.  It is indeed our supreme compass for America's direction, and there is some justification in calling it a sacred document - perhaps not sacred in quite the same way as holy writ, but something that must never be held in relativistic regard.

And then let's get back to the guy whose latest move seems not to discomfort Moran at all.  As Malkin reminds us, Karl Rove is the guy who was:

 behind the disastrous Medicare prescription drug entitlement expansion that created an unfunded liability of $9.4 trillion over the next 75 years, No Child Left Behind federal education expansion, steel tariffs, ag subsidies, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law and the Bush-Kennedy-McCain illegal alien amnesty attempt.

Rove and his boss abused their power and sacrificed core conservative principles at the altar of “compassionate conservatism.”

I  recall an on-air conversation the recently-retired talk show host Neal Boortz had with the Beltway observer with whom he regularly checked in, Jamie Dupree, about what freshmen PUB Representatives and / or Senators might feel, in their Cruz-like confidence, they could tackle.  He asked Dupree, with the requisite tone of facetiousness, knowing the answer beforehand, "How about the Department of Education?  Could they start moving to dismantle that?"  Dupree said tersely, "Ain't gonna happen."

And that's the problem in a nutshell.  The things that this nation actually needs to be addressing aren't being addressed at all.  That was the principle problem with the Ryan long-term budget plans, versions 1.0 and 2.0.  They were long-term.  They didn't achieve a state of balance until 2040, and who knows what kind of electoral and geopolitical twists and turns could be setting the parameters of the possible by then?

The metaphor about drinking Potomac Kool-Aid has been around long enough to have become hackneyed, but it is maddeningly true that principled politicians and wonks go to Washington and begin submitting their deeply held beliefs and values to erosion all too quickly.  The fact that the Washington area is one of the few boom regions in the country even though nothing but laws and regulations are made there is ample evidence of a self-perpetuating entrenched ruling class.

Where Moran, and, more to the point, Karl Rove, seem to either have lost sight of, or, more probably, come to deem irrelevant, is the utter determination of the left side of this entrenched class to obliterate any other elements within it.  Shall I speak plainly?  I think it seems advisable, as a number of folks need to be reminded of a simple fact:  Freedom-Hating Democrats want to stamp out conservatism once and for all.  They hate our guts.

I am not the first blogger nor will I be the last to chime in on Rove's move this week.  The main point I would like to contribute to the mix at this time is that conservatism can ill afford the kind of arrogance he's demonstrating.  The gall.  Who is he to determine which primary candidates are electable?  What qualifies him?  His stinking track record?  His only real accomplishment was to manage the career of George Bush, a nice enough man, but, ultimately, not one of us.


And a quick memo to Moran: collaborating with the enemy is by definition treason and the Most Equal Comrade is indeed out to destroy America.