Dean Esmay asks conservatives a question:
Now here is my interesting question: I've made myself some friends among conservatives by speaking this way. But I do find myself wondering: how many of you on the right will embrace such a philosophy if John Kerry should carry the election in November?I don't want to hear why you think it won't happen. Indulge me: pretend it might. How many of you will have the patriotism to say, "I disagree with many of his policy directions, I do not think he is conducting our foreign policy in the right way, but I will do my best to get behind him and support him until elections come around next time?"
I'm genuinely curious. For that is the stance I intend to take. I will refuse to call him traitor, loser, liar, incompetent. He will be my President, my Commander In Chief, the Chief Executive of a great nation, elected by the will of a majority of the electors in these 50 great united States. So even if he does things I disagree with in conducting foreign policy, I will say, "I respectfully disagree with the President's directions, but I will do my best to express my dissent respectfully and hope that I am mistaken and that he has made the proper decisions after all."
That's my pledge. How many of you will take a similar one?
No, I won't make such a pledge as it effectively disenfranchises anyone who does so.
Conservatives for far too long reacted like a herd of deer caught in Liberal headlights, stunned by the left's tactics, we must stuff it back in their face or we may as well not stand candidates.
Fierce opposition and caustic partisanship is a long standing tradition inherited from our British forefathers. Even in the current climate we haven't reached the sheer nastiness of the Hanoverian pampleteers of the 1650's, or our post-revoltionary period when politics was blood sport, as Hamilton discovered. Have look through this site for a little historical perspective. Given that modern Pols have the ability to rehabilite their reputation and careers, Carter is a prime example, our discourse is pretty tame in comparison.
The image that came to mind when I read your post was of passengers on three doomed flights sitting quietly, just as millions of Europeans watched silently as their neighbors disappeared.
Post 9/11 we no longer have the luxury of "going along to get along" or waiting until the next cycle. This ain't a Frank Capra movie or about who fixes potholes quickest or doles out govt. largess best: it's about survival.
Posted by feste at July 28, 2004 10:53 AM | TrackBack