The Courage To Say the Obvious
These days, it takes more courage than usual for conservatives to say the obvious. So Kudos to Christopher Buckley (son of William F.). Somehow, I think the 12,000 emails will still manage to find him:
My colleague, the superb and very dishy Kathleen Parker, recently wrote in National Review Online a column stating what John Cleese as Basil Fawlty would call “the bleeding obvious”: namely, that Sarah Palin is an embarrassment, and a dangerous one at that. She’s not exactly alone. New York Times columnist David Brooks, who began his career at NR, just called Governor Palin “a cancer on the Republican Party.”
As for Kathleen, she has to date received 12,000 (quite literally) foam-at-the-mouth hate-emails. One correspondent, if that’s quite the right word, suggested that Kathleen’s mother should have aborted her and tossed the fetus into a Dumpster. There’s Socratic dialogue for you. Dear Pup once said to me sighfully after a right-winger who fancied himself a WFB protégé had said something transcendently and provocatively cretinous, “You know, I’ve spent my entire life time separating the Right from the kooks.” Well, the dear man did his best. At any rate, I don’t have the kidney at the moment for 12,000 emails saying how good it is he’s no longer alive to see his Judas of a son endorse for the presidency a covert Muslim who pals around with the Weather Underground. So, you’re reading it here first.
I once respected McCain, but the conduct of his campaign (including Palin as his VP nominee) has turned me “off” toward the candidate.
Even though I’m a liberal/progressive/etc., I cannot help but share some sense of disappointment likely being felt by genuine conservatives in our country.
If the situation had been turned around (with Obama stoking the fires of divisiveness), I can only think I’d end up not voting or voting for the opposition.
Political preferences aside, I see the Republican offering as a big disappointment. It’s bringing out the worst in various quarters. Not a pretty picture.
Regarding Buckley’s move:
‘God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform’.
William Cowper (1731-1800),
Perhaps the GOP is realizing that forming a coalition with the kooks means that eventually you can’t just throw them a few bones like a pro-life plank and sanctity of marriage talk. Eventually, they’ll demand a place on the ticket, and once they’re in the glare of full daylight, they look pretty damn scary.
I think this is a good thing.
In the long run, maybe this will make the Republicans a smaller but more faithful party, the kind of party that stands for personal responsibility and fiscal restraint, a party that is a thoughtful check on liberalism, the party of men like Warren Rudman, Colin Powell, Richard Luger, Chuck Grassley, even Orrin Hatch.
During a stop in Grand Rapids on Thursday, Lincoln Chafee, a former Republican U.S. senator from Rhode Island, said he’s voting for Obama and urging others to do likewise.
Here is another Republican;
“McCain campaigned for Chafee’s unsuccessful re-election bid in 2006, but Chafee said he is concerned McCain has swung to the right, a divisive strategy that could make it difficult for him to govern.
“That’s not my kind of Republicanism,” said Chafee, who now calls himself an independent. “I saw what Bush and Cheney did. They came in with a (budget) surplus and a stable world, and look what’s happened now. In eight short years they’ve taken one peaceful and prosperous world, and they’ve torn it into tatters.”
Say it again Sam:
“In eight short years they’ve taken one peaceful and prosperous world, and they’ve torn it into tatters.”
Interesting. It’s odd, however, that Buckley makes so much of not writing about this in National Review; the National Review website already put up an interview with Buckley on the topic: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODgyYzNhZTMyNTZkNmM4ODMyNThmYjc1NTU1ZDQ2ZjE=
We need genuine liberals and genuine conservatives for political balance over the long run. When “kooks” begin taking center stage, as Jean has noted, things begin to, indeed, get “damn scary.”
“Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you what you are.” If I were McCain, I would have to be asking myself right now (in light of the vicious words from audience supporters): “Where the hell did I go wrong???”
(HINT: Palin comes to mind.)
Talking about courage, isn’t about time General Colin Powell, who reportingly did not run for president because of family fears of asassination, call a press conference and tell the McCain campaign [especially Palin] to knock off the fear/race card before it’s too late?