Keep A Cool Head
By Mitch Berg
There’s an add running on some online conservative podcasts lately; paraphrasing it, it says something like “join the resistance to Obama!”
Big, dumb mistake.
For starters, applying military metaphors to politics and government is (unless one is fighting a war) always, always a dumb mistake. Back away.
And beyond that? It’s the sort of talk that makes conservatives sound like too many lefties over the past eight years – the shrieking ninnies that spent the last years digracing themselves and their families with the depths of their obsession with Bush Derangement Syndrome.
And Jeffrey Lord is right; it’d be a very bad idea to sink to that level:
It will be well and vividly remembered, of course, that Bush mistakes on, say, weapons of mass destruction were morphed into “lies.” That a philosophical commitment to keeping America safe by taking the fight to enemies abroad was treated not as a serious difference of opinion or judgment but rather as evidence of a lust for deliberate murder in the mode of the infamous mass murderer of six million Jews. That this lust included a desire to murder the children of American citizens. And so on and on and appallingly and drearily so on.THE QUESTION NOW IS, should conservatives pick up the cudgel? Should Obama be Bushed in the style of Mr. Rich and his friends? For example, is President-elect Obama’s trillion dollar spending plan simply a wrong-headed (if spectacularly mammoth) example of even more government financial mistakes that will prove ruinous for generations? Or, in Rich-think, is it the mark of a venal liar (the new President Obama) scheming to rob average Americans blind in perpetuity to reward both his own political cronies and those of his party? Is the push to close Guantanamo a mistaken decision that could allow a collection of vicious killers to go free under the guise of legal protections never given before in American history? Or is it instead the action of a devious fool who has no intention of protecting American citizens because in reality he believes Americans should be murdered for their multiplicity of sins (against blacks, native Americans, all people of color etc., etc., etc.) during their history? Did Obama’s support for the election and re-election of the now-nationally infamous Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich mean that he was just doing the routine rally-around-my-party’s-nominee-for-governor dance common to all politicians? Or was he a sinister cynic and a willing participant if not a leader in the effort to elect as governor a man whose ethics were plenty visible to insiders before caught on tape trying to sell a seat in the U.S. Senate?
What would Mike Malloy do?
This is a serious question for conservatives. There are now (as there have been the last eight years) vital issues at play in the world. Issues of economics, constitutional law, national security, foreign policy, health, immigration and on and on. If conservatives start down the road of these Frank Rich-style Shallow Hal’s of the left — and doubtless there will be some unable, understandably, to resist the temptation — the conservative movement will not be back any time soon. Nor would it deserve to be. The fundamental successes of the Reagan era and, yes, of the George W. Bush presidency are devotion to ideas. In Reagan’s case it was a well thought out and deeply serious commitment to end the Cold War and put right (no pun intended) the American economy. Volumes have been written about the serious approaches inherent in launching the defense buildup that included the 600-ship Navy and Strategic Defense Initiative while rejecting the nuclear freeze or installing Pershing missiles over the vociferous objections of the American and European left. Or the intellectual work that went into supply-side economics and the understanding of tax cuts and monetary policy.
Read the whole thing.
And eschew the dark side.
Much, much more later.
January 13th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I agree. I plan to not think of Obama one way or the other…I’ll just stick with my conservative ideals and principles and see what transpires. If he does well or something not horribly liberal, then fine. If he goes wacko socialist I won’t be surprised but I will not comment and I will not call names and let it ruin and consume my life.
January 13th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I’ve already pledged not to “Peev” the waters.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Some insane person said: “The fundamental successes of the . . . George W. Bush presidency are devotion to ideas.”
Um, “successes”? “Ideas”?
January 13th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Boy, boy, crazy boy,
Get cool, boy!
Got a rocket in your pocket,
Keep coolly cool, boy!
Don’t get hot,
‘Cause man, you got
Some high times ahead.
Take it slow and Daddy-O,
You can live it up and die in bed!
Boy, boy, crazy boy!
Stay loose, boy!
Breeze it, buzz it, easy does it.
Turn off the juice, boy!
Go man, go,
But not like a yo-yo schoolboy.
Just play it cool, boy,
Real cool!
As performed by Mitch McConnell. Available on MCA records and tapes.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Some clown said:
“Angryclown… is… insane… a… kook… and… wrong. …Snif!”
January 13th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
“In Reagan’s case it was a well thought out and deeply serious commitment to end the Cold War and put right (no pun intended) the American economy. Volumes have been written about the serious approaches inherent in launching the defense buildup that included the 600-ship Navy and Strategic Defense Initiative while rejecting the nuclear freeze or installing Pershing missiles over the vociferous objections of the American and European left. Or the intellectual work that went into supply-side economics and the understanding of tax cuts and monetary policy.”
If you would really like insight to the process that Regan went through, read the Regan Diaries. He’s consistent, and cheerful throughout. Repair the Military, Repair the Economy (and he anguishes over deficit spending), defeat the Soviet Union. Three points, very simply stated, and he held to them. I don’t think it’s that difficult a philosophy, it just takes a commitment to see it through.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
I won’t sink to OBS levels, but after 8 years of loonyness on the part of the Democrats, there will be some payback.
Countdown clock until Barry leaves office
http://obamaclock.org/
January 13th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Okay, Mitch; I guess it’s too soon to start talking impeachment and/or indictments. Really ought to wait until Holder testifies at his confirmation hearings.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I understand and agree with the thought, but….after eight years of “Daily Kos” and other stuff being directed at the GOP, boy, it’s getting harder and harder to argue that idiotic attacks don’t resonate with voters.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
“Payback?” Please. It’s all coming your way, you wingnut kooks. Thanks for screwing up the country, now bend over and take your punishment.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Please, AC, no more Eddie Murphy movies. That would be inhuman.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
After hearing so much about “Bush Apologists” over the years, I’m simply looking forward to the term “Obamapologists” being popularly used, mainly because I coined the term. . .
As far as I know. . .
January 13th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Even AC admits it!!! Read his words… he and his party and his president will be “F”ing folks in the “A” for four years.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
The troubled Obama administration continues to be dogged with ethical questions. A dark cloud hangs over the inauguration, as what started out with so much optimism, continues to spiral into one damage control case to another. No cabinent resignations have occured yet this month (except for the scandel ridden Richardson withdrawal), but there are calls from several quarters for congressional investigations into possible wrongdoings.
Blagogate. It’s unclear yet what ties and connections the new President has to disgraced Illinois governor Beaverhead, or what legal actions may result from any associations with the impeached governor.
There are also campaign finance issues being looked at. Did the Obama campaign break any laws with it’s online fundraising? Was counting button sales as a campaign donation illegeal?
January 13th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Joel, it’s never to early to call for impeachment. The Indonesions were dissappointed that the Iranians beat them to burning photos of the Obaminator.
January 13th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
“President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to run the Treasury Department and lead the economic rescue effort disclosed to senators Tuesday that he failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004, a last-minute complication in an otherwise smooth path to confirmation.” (Source, Associated Press, January 13, 2009)
It’s at least time to call for a special prosecutor
January 14th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
angryclown said:
“Thanks for screwing up the country”
Now we can rely on angryclown’s Democrat “A Team” to get us out of trouble? Because they were nowhere to be found in our government previously? Most of the people who were busy “screwing up” the country are back at it again. And in your heart:
“now bend over and take your punishment”
you totally agree.
January 14th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
“Thanks for screwing up the country”
Federal receipts have increased over five hundred billion dollars under Bush. 2008 federal revenues were 131% of 2001 federal receipts. Liberals should be kissing Bush’s feet in thanks.