The value of the willingness to be hated

Daniel Greenfield at Sultan Knish points out a rather thought-provoking lesson we can learn from Margaret Thatcher's life:  If you are correct about something and believe it is important to see that the understanding that it is correct get an ever-wider consideration, you must be willing to be hated.

In other words, even the most principled and thoughtful of today's conservative leaders suffer from a touch of Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome:

 

The missing element is conviction. When conservatives remember Thatcher and Reagan, they hear the echoes of clear and principled messages. Neither of them were perfect as politicians, but their rhetoric was perfect because they knew what they believed, said it clearly and colorfully and enjoyed themselves doing it.

Modern conservative parties eschew that kind of plain talk. They flee from principle selecting candidates who speak as indirectly as possible and mean as little of what they say as they can get away with. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But no cause is advanced in the course of these evolutions from communication to obfuscation. 

Conservatism never wins. It loses. It comes to be associated with slick empty men and women who smile a lot and lie a lot. And that in the long run is far more devastating than the occasional senate candidate who says something horrible or idiotic. Candidates like Mitt Romney are more damaging than a hundred Todd Akins because they fix the image of a soulless party that cares about nothing and no one.

It is better to have the public think that the Republican Party stands for horrible and divisive things than to think that it stands for nothing. There are people who will vote for horrible things... but who will vote for nothing except in opposition to the something that the other party is selling?

Conservatives bemoan that Obama, who blatantly said that he would raise energy prices, redistribute wealth, diminish national power and ram through a radical agenda, could be elected twice. And the wrong lesson that GOP leaders have taken away from that is that the country turned to the left and that they have to turn with it. The real lesson is that voters will choose a radical agenda over no agenda at all.

It's the basic principle of nature abhorring a vacuum.  One thing you can't accuse the Freedom-Haters of is deception.  They're about as upfront regarding what they're about as you could ask for.  And because they didn't care that that made them the object of revulsion to a great many of us, they kept gaining power - to the point where they really didn't have to care, because we didn't matter.

That's how late in the day it is.