Let's just move this to the FP, eh? - DocJ
IT'S TIME TO TAKE A HARD LOOK AT BOTH THE LONG WAR AND THE SHORT WAR, THEN DO THE RIGHT THING
Originally posted at RedState - edited mildly to reflect the fact that TMR is largely ALREADY Fred country, and there's no need to tell non-FH's to make nice and stay away ;o)
My fellow Fredheads, let's have a little heart-to-heart, shall we?
Why Listen To EPU Anyway?
(1) I certainly AM one of you – some flatter me with the honorific Ringleader of the Fredheads(not true at TMR). As we say, aw go on…..
(2) I state it here and now: Fred Thompson would have been the best nominee, he would have beaten Obama, and he would have absolutely been the best 44th President out of this field of 20-ish candidates. He would have unified the party around conservative themes and brought in plenty of the political center due to a clear, winning message that all Republicans would have heartily rallied around. And coattails galore.
(3) I have demonstrated my conservative chops – the Russell Kirk diaries, et al.
(4) Like you, I have major difficulties with McCain as the Republican nominee, and with McCain as the 44th President.
And for reasons I'll explain at length, I am here to say to my compatriots....
It's time for the Fredheads to set aside our differences with McCain and get busy getting him elected, for the long-term good of the conservative cause.
Many of you are with me already, some tenuously. I am here to say it's not ideal, but it is a slam-dunk argument. And we need to do it.
The Long War
What is it that conservatives want in the long haul, and by that I mean 15-30 years? We could go into details of all sorts, but let's stick to the most basic:
(1) American freedoms secured much like the Founding Fathers envisioned.
(2) The entire judiciary, from top to bottom -- out of the activism business.
(3) A moral compass in place in American life.
(4) Our national interests and borders secure and respected world-wide.
(5) Small government RADICALLY smaller (say 1/4 current size), most cabinet positions and bureaucracies - GONE. The entire onerous regulatory system – GONE, with only such exceptions as are prudent and constitutionally sound.
(6) Energy independence without surrendering to AGW fantasies, and whatever other alarmist nonsense the stupid commies think up next.
I've probably left out a couple of the basics, but you can easily see how these lead to things like Roe v Wade gone, SS privatized then phased out, other entitlements gone, fences up, military without peer, more drilling, taxes way down, and etc and etc. Let's not get bogged down in details.
So THOSE are what we want. The obvious way to get there is through this:
(1) The Republican Party is the vehicle. Period.
(2) That being the case, conservatives must take over the party, to be direct. There are two methods for that, and I recommend using them both.
(a) Purge the GOP elected ranks of RINOs and trough-sucking pigs. Purge it hard, bitter, and thorough. Primary them with conservatives, and don't think twice about nice manners, the buddy system, or seniority. And for Pete’s sake, quit choosing presumed electability over principles. Look where THAT has gotten us.
(b) Engage in an aggressive, long-term campaign of education and advocacy to sell conservative principles, Reagan- style, to the party faithful, and to the American people.
(3) Having taken over the party, and established that the Republican brand means core conservatism, now take our message -- the REAL message of hope and change-- to the American public and start winning elections. Build it from the grassroots up. Do it in city councils and school boards. (if we get our way, 30 years from now there will be no public school system, no school boards, but for now we gotta deal with ‘em).
Make no mistake, the long war is definitely war. The party of squishes (yes, that's us) will not easily give up it's spot at the trough. There will be blood spilt. Entrenched squishes must be primaried. Up-and-coming squishes must be stepped on. An impolite, bloody business, yes. So be it. My knives are already sharpened.
Not all of the benefits of conservative governance are immediately recognizable (kicking people off of welfare, deporting the crap out of illegal aliens, investing heavily in Iraq's liberation, e.g.), and so stupid people will frankly never get it. But because it's a slightly harder sale does NOT mean that most Americans can't get it. They WILL GET IT if we sell the vision with aplomb and verve, baby! The stupid people? Well, they've always got ACORN, ELF, Code Pink, ACLU, and the New York Times.
The Short War
The short war is NOT the time from now to Nov 5. It is the time from now until Jan 2013. We have minorities in both Houses that figure to get worse in January. We have both GOP and Democrat candidates in place, and largely they are known quantities. Their names are BAD and MUCH, MUCH WORSE. . I choose BAD, and so should you.
Now here is the crux of the short war. At this point read the section below entitled Why We'll Support McCain if you need to, I'm not going to restate it all here. The Short War for conservative Americans is this:
(1) Get McCain elected.
(2) Ensure that conservatives can go on record as saying we helped McCain get elected.
(3) Get as many Republican Senators and Congressmen elected as we can.
(4) Keep McCain from promising away the store before he gets elected.
(5) Once he gets elected, get conservatives a seat at the table, and get enough conservative muscle in Congress to keep his leftisms in check.
I know, I know, these 5 things are HIGHLY contradictory. Oh MERCY, do I know. McCain has no coattails This is what a career of mavericking and media-whoring get you. Republican candidates cannot say "vote for me so I can help enact the McCain agenda". So #3 has to be accomplished by sheer muscular effort. So that means you and me, the Fredheads, working not only on our local and state levels, but also on very-tight races in other states. We have to help.
#4 is particularly dicey. McCain goes on his AGW jags, and pulls stupid stunts like the NCGOP thing. He does these things, and when he does, we can and should castigate him with a modest amount of enthusiasm. He has to learn to respect conservative muscle, and the GOP ain't gonna teach him, nor will the Treason Media. It's Fredheads and talk radio (Rush) that are going to do it.
The other side of the coin, though, is #1. Discipline McCain, but do NOT pull support. Do not, in public, even threaten to pull support - and in public includes 'on RedState'. We need a seat at the McCain table - which means, balancing our need to punish his mavericking with our need to be able to say that we did not undercut his campaign with excessive criticism.
So to coin a phrase, sometimes take the opportunity to just stuff a sock in it.
The Problems With McCain
I could spend a week here. We all know the deal, and that’s why the Fredheads are holding out. But I’ll just hit the highlights, so that there’s no misunderstanding about why we are so……..lacking in Johnny Mac love. Uh, the lowlights. Whatever.
(1) Notwithstanding his 82% ACU rating, he has no true respect for core conservative principles, nor does he pass up many opportunities to aim his guns at conservatives.
(2) His frequent and notable mavericking are always leftward.
(3) He’s on disconcertingly good terms with Democrats. For all his enthusiasm at shooting live rounds at Republicans, he insists on playing the Comity Card when it comes to the Democrats. And he insists that YOU play the same card too.
(4) He’s a stubborn, pig-headed crusader, which would be nice if he were a *conservative* pig-headed crusader. But he got it in his head that the solution to campaign finance corruption required a massively stupid plan which solved nothing, gave Soros great purchasing power, and oh, that little First Amendment right to free political speech now belongs only to lefty unions and the Treason Media. He’s the self-appointed expert on AGW so now we need more obscenely burdensome government regulation. And so on.
(5) His loyalty even to the Party (not just conservatives) is, to be generous, iffy.
(6) He appears to believe the winning strategy for this election is bolting leftward and giving the bird to conservatives.
I think that’s enough to work with.
Why We'll Support McCain
Alright, this is really complicated so pay attention.
THE ALTERNATIVE IS INFINITELY WORSE.
That’s not debatable. Don’t try. If Macho Bambi gets to park his lying, inexperienced, Marxist butt in the Oval office, then:
(1) The war against global Islamist terrorism will face 4 years of full-scale retreat, Iraq will have been betrayed in the worst possible way, and the terrorists will be able and willing to bring it to our shores. It won’t be lost, because in 2013 we will have a Republican president named Bobby Jindal. But we’ll be in desperate straits.
(2) If you enjoyed Bill Clinton stripping the military down to nothing while the storms gathered, then you will REALLY dig what Bambi does.
(3) 3 lefty Supreme Court Justices will immediately retire and be replaced by clones 30 years younger. Roe v Wade will be out of reach until 2035.
(4) Fairness Doctrine, which will hamper future conservative electoral chances even more than McCain-Feingold did. We may not get Congress back for 30 years.
(5) Tax. Spend. Entitlement. Socialized health care.
(6) Economy in a death spiral.
(7) You name it. If you fear it, Bambi and his 60% majorities will perpetrate it.
If you are tempted to fall back on the argument “hey, 4 years in the wilderness will REALLY teach Republicans a lesson”, or the other one, “at least this way the Democrats will get blamed for all the bad things that happen”, I respond with (in order) “when did the Republicans ever learn that lesson?”, and “When did the Dems ever get blamed for anything?”.
No debate. If Obama becomes president (and this would have been true for almost any Democrat candidate, Macho Bambi ain’t special) we lose the Long War. McCain is a setback for conservatism, but he won’t cost us the Long War. Let's not let pride get in the way and cost us more than we could ever imagine by having 4 years of Communist-Marxist rule that our nation, our United States, might never recover from.
To Sum Up
Fredheads, you know I love you. You know I’m yours. But you got to swallow the bitter pill for now, for the sake of winning the Long War. Bobby Jindal is coming, the conservative farm club is looking magnificent at several levels. Conservatism at the grassroots level is making a comeback, and thanks in part to right-bloggery, it’s easier now than ever before to teach people, gather forces, raise money,
But meanwhile we can’t give away the country before Jindal gets here. So…..here’s what we do.
Cowboy up. Anybody can whine.
Support McCain in 08.
Don’t feed the Democrats.
During the campaign season when Johnny does his crazy things, do a proper amount of chastising, then zip it. And no need to recite the whole list of things he’s ever done. We all know. Let it rest.
Work for your local and state campaigns.
If you’re in a swing state, double your efforts.
When you feel the urge to gratuitously bash McCain….
Don’t.
Long War. Hold the fort. Jindal is coming.
So……what say you guys? It's a confab, which means you tell the rest of us what you think too.
Fighting for conservatism one day at a time.