{"id":2010,"date":"2008-01-23T08:30:24","date_gmt":"2008-01-23T13:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2010"},"modified":"2008-01-23T08:30:24","modified_gmt":"2008-01-23T13:30:24","slug":"the-other-side-of-zeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2010","title":{"rendered":"The Other Side Of Zeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday – among many other times – I wrote about the need<\/a> for conservatives to stand up for their beliefs (and, more importantly, stick with them; work for them; get involved, even tangentially, in the political process).\u00a0 This, I firmly believe; now<\/em> – caucus time – is the time to get out to your precinct cauci and speak up for conservatism.\u00a0 Spit fire.\u00a0 Exude brimstone.\u00a0 Get real conservative candidates, planks and ideals endorsed<\/em>.\u00a0 If you’re elected as a delegate or alternate, go to the convention<\/em> and do more of the same.\u00a0 And so on and so forth, up the party food chain, to the State convention.<\/p>\n

Everyone with me so far?<\/p>\n

Still, that’s kinda the easy part; although conservatives and Republicans tend not to be “go hang out and do political things” people the way Tics are (we tend to have jobs and families and stuff),\u00a0 a lot of us came to conservatism for deeply idealistic reasons.<\/p>\n

And let’s be honest; it’s a hard time to be an idealistic conservative.\u00a0 MOBster and True North<\/em> contrib Kevin Ecker – so conservative he actually laughs at the “Daisy Ad” – writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Starting in 2003, many conservatives were becoming extremely disgusted with the Republican party. We had the Presidency and we had Congress, yet none of the conservative agenda was being accomplished. Instead we had the same inept leadership and massive spending. While conservatives did bite their tongue in 2004, they decided to express their disgust in 2006. Many didn\u2019t show up, others made protest votes, the result being horrible losses across the spectrum for the GOP.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s a tough one for me.<\/p>\n

Back in 1994, in the wake of the ’94 Crime Bill and the GOP’s cave-in, I “expressed my disgust” for the GOP by leaving the party.\u00a0 I sat out the “contract for America”, and joined the big-L Libertarians.\u00a0\u00a0 Standing for absolute principle was important to me, then.<\/p>\n

As it is now, actually.<\/p>\n

I left the Libertarians in 1998 because relentless purism never won an election – not even for Ronald Reagan – and never changed anyone’s history (at least not in a good way).\u00a0 I figured the best way to enact the liberarian-conservatism I believed in was to engage in the long, patient slog within the GOP.\u00a0 And in the long term, I still believe that.<\/p>\n

So I have two questions for conservatives who – like me – are underwhelmed with the remaining choices in this race.<\/p>\n

Question 1: Remember 2002?<\/em>\u00a0 I, like many conservatives, was underwhelmed with Tim Pawlenty’s record in the legislature.\u00a0 Not as a legislator<\/em>, of course – he was a consummate legislative technician.\u00a0 But Pawlenty was nothing if not pragmatic; he was no idealistic conservative.\u00a0 It took the challenge from conservative Brian Sullivan to drive Pawlenty to the right to win the ’02 nomination.\u00a0 Although he’s bowed to some<\/em> pressure in the current term, to the chagrin of many Minnesota conservatives, the fact is that he answered the pressure from the right during the nominating process – the process that starts again a week from next Tuesday – and governed as the most conservative governor Minnesota’s had in a long, long time.\u00a0\u00a0 So – what if all of the conservatives who were disgusted with Pawlenty had stayed home in 2002?\u00a0 Or 2006?\u00a0 What would Minnesota look like today with Governor Roger Moe?\u00a0 Governor Mike Hatch?<\/p>\n

Question #2:\u00a0 Have you checked the EKGs in the Supreme Court lately?<\/em>:\u00a0 In the next four years, between one and three seats on the Supreme Court will open up.\u00a0 Now – Ronald Reagan said that if you agree with someone on 80% of the issues, you oughtta forgive ’em the other 20%.\u00a0 It’s safe to stay that Rudy, JMac and the Huck are stretching to get anywhere close to 80% for me (and while Mitt is probably a safe 80% on the Berg scale, I just don’t see him winning.\u00a0 Not at all).\u00a0 But when it comes to filling three seats on the SCOTUS – in terms that will decide key interpretations of abortion law and the Second Amendment, to say nothing of the scads of issues the new justices will decide during their lifetime careers – I have to ask you:\u00a0 is 70% better than 20%?<\/p>\n

Is\u00a0 50% <\/em>better than 20%?\u00a0 (Are Hillary and Obama even 20%?)<\/p>\n

There is a time and place to stand on rigid principle to save the Republican Party.\u00a0 That time and place is now, and extends through the national convention.\u00a0 It’s a time when we – real conservatives – need to get out and fight like hell<\/em> to save this party from the go-along, get-along crowd; the crowd that wants a moderate in the Third District; the crowd that concedes Minneapolis and Saint Paul to the Tics without a real fight; the crowd that gave us Kennedy-level spending and Strib-approved candidates.<\/p>\n

But remember – the caucuses, the BPOU conventions and District and State and National conventions are where we act for the good of the party; where we save the GOP, and make it a real conservative party.\u00a0 When the national convention ends next September 4 in Saint Paul, there’s another priority, and it’s much bigger.<\/p>\n

We have a nation to save.<\/p>\n

Eight years ago, I supported Steve Forbes.\u00a0 I supported him for reasons that, in retrospect, were absolutely right;\u00a0 I fought hard <\/em>against the George W Bush machine at my caucuses and in my conventions, because I believed that Forbes would be a hard-core spending hawk.\u00a0 In those pre-war days, that was the most important issue – and I was right.\u00a0 Forbes would have been a better economic president than Bush.\u00a0 My opinion of Bush didn’t change until 9\/11 – and when it comes to spending, has yet to change.<\/p>\n

But come election time, disappointed as I was, I reasoned; who’s going to be better for this nation?\u00a0 A deeply-imperfect, barely-conservative Republican?\u00a0 Or a gabbling, lisping, flip-flopping, ingratiating, holier-than-thou wonk like Algore?\u00a0 George W. Bush was maybe a 60% candidate for me; Algore, perhaps 10%.<\/p>\n

So however the convention turns out – and we still have a chance to save things – ask yourself this third, final question.<\/p>\n

It is November.\u00a0 It’s election time.\u00a0 And in one hand, a Jihadi holds the Constitution, waving it menacingly over a bunsen burner.\u00a0 In the other hand, he holds an AK47 aimed at your child’s head.\u00a0 Who do you think is going to do the right thing – not for your party (the party stuff is over, now)<\/em>, but for the United States of America and its future?\u00a0 For your child and the Constitution?
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Rudy (65%)?\u00a0 Mitt (a soft 80%)?\u00a0 JMac (70%)?\u00a0 The Hucker (Maybe 60%, and it’s the wrong 60%)?<\/p>\n

Or Hillary (10%), Obie (5%) or Silkypony (2%, divided between “two Americas”)?<\/p>\n

Come out on Tuesday.\u00a0 Fight for perfect.<\/p>\n

But remember that perfect isn’t just the enemy of good enough.\u00a0 This year, it might just be the enemy of “survivable”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday – among many other times – I wrote about the need for conservatives to stand up for their beliefs (and, more importantly, stick with them; work for them; get involved, even tangentially, in the political process).\u00a0 This, I firmly believe; now – caucus time – is the time to get out to your precinct […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-08","category-republicans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}