{"id":25284,"date":"2012-01-06T12:20:43","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T18:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=25284"},"modified":"2012-01-06T12:53:31","modified_gmt":"2012-01-06T18:53:31","slug":"what-is-in-a-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=25284","title":{"rendered":"What Is<\/i> In A Word?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Was George H. W. Bush a charlatan?<\/p>\n

I mean, he wasn’t a Reagan-style conservative; during the 1980 nomination drive, he aggressively attacked Reagan’s economic proposals, calilng them “voodoo economics”, proposing a much Sturdevant-friendlier, “moderate”, less-anti-Keynesian approach to the economy.<\/p>\n

He was wrong, Reagan was right.<\/p>\n

And Reagan made damn sure everyone knew it, comdemning the elder Bush’s anti-Austrian apostasy with a vigor that destroyed Bush’s career in the GOP…<\/p>\n

…wait. \u00a0No. \u00a0That’s not right. \u00a0Reagan made his case gently and with good humor and – for better or worse – brought Bush into his inner circle and reached out to his supporters and, most importantly, convinced them he had the right idea<\/em>. \u00a0He beat Bush and the moderate wing of the party with fact, with rhetoric, with a better plan (in a year when the country didn’t want just an incremental rejection of Jimmy Carter and stagflation), and with the understanding that your opponents in February need to be your staunch, solid allies in November.<\/p>\n

Which is why I’m concerned with some of the Romney-bashing I’m seeing.<\/p>\n

Over at LFR, Gary Gross\u00a0tucked into Romney yesterday<\/a>, in a piece called “What’s In A Word”, as he – who is, to be sure, to the right of Romney on the great conservative continuum – has been wont to do this cycle:<\/p>\n

Wednesday night, Hannity interviewed Sarah Palin. Though he didn\u2019t say it in this interview, Hannity has repeatedly said that Mitt\u2019s a conservative. Shame on him for pulling his punches with Mitt. It\u2019s intellectually reprehensible for him to criticize the mediaa for not digging into President Obama\u2019s past, then do a half-assed job of scrutinizing Mitt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, before I get overwhelmed with comments and email from the “Anyone But Romney” (ABR) \u00a0crowd – I’m with Gary so far. \u00a0Scrutinize away. \u00a0Pull like crazy for your candidate, Newt or Santorum or Perry or Paul or Huntsman or, I don’t know, Mitt, even. \u00a0Now’s the time to stand on principle and accept no substitutes.<\/p>\n

Go for it!<\/p>\n

Here’s where I gotta push back, though:<\/p>\n

If the gutless media, Hannity included, did their jobs, charlatans like Mitt Romney wouldn\u2019t gain traction in a GOP presidential campaign. At minimum, they wouldn\u2019t be allowed to call themselves conservatives. They could mouth the words but they\u2019d be ridiculed mercilessly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And as Reagan would say, “there you again”. \u00a0Let’s address Gary’s question, “what’s in a word?” – in this case, “conservative”.<\/p>\n

What’s a “Conservative?” \u00a0In America, the inconvenient truth is that it means three different things, and that’s just counting significant American political movements:<\/p>\n