Interesting piece by James Joyner about the Republican battle between McCain and Romney:
The Conservative Movement has morphed from a handful of intellectual true believers trying to shape the debate into something approaching a civil religion with loyalty tests and a clericy that has the power to excommunicate.
We have a winner. Add to that the fact that the folks imposing the loyalty tests simply are not conservatives (something James notes later on in the post). Let’s face it- the same folks pushing Romney on us and telling everyone who will listen that they are the real conservatives and that Romney is the true conservative are the EXACT same folks, who, to this day, struggle to come up with any shortcomings in the Bush administration. Earlier in his piece, James quotes Jon Hinderaker, who states “as the primary season draws to a close, most conservatives are coalescing around Mitt Romney.”
Yes. That is the same Jon Hinderaker who recently won a Golden Wingnut for the following quote:
It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.
Gee- I can’t imagine why folks aren’t rushing to embrace Mitt, Hinderaker’s pick this year.
Cain
hahaha.. golden wingnut! I love it.
cain
searp
Hey, here is the conservative movement in a nutshell:
Two people, one 27 and in good health, and one in his forties in good health, proclaiming that no sacrifice is too great to win in Iraq, except they, of course, just sit there and write blogs and books about the real threat, Democrats.
http://blogsforvictory.com/2008/02/02/the-enemy-we-fight/
I call them on it, point out that I despise the Iraq war and still went, and they… ban me. Contemptible cowards, and not atypical of the bowel movement called “Bush conservatism”.
myiq2xu
Like religion, you are not permitted to pick and choose which commandments to obey. It’s either 100% compliance or get burned at the stake.
McCain departed from orthodoxy and is therefore apostate. Of course they convienently ignore the fact that their patron saint Ronnie Raygun did far worse than McCain.
KG
On the religion point – this is what happens when you start believing myths and legends as literal truths rather than the hard evidence.
The “conservatives” that remain are basically fundamentalists who clamor for imagined days of yore. But if they actually knew what Reagan and Goldwater (the two patron saints of the conservative church) actually stood for, advocated, and did in office, they’d freak out and cast them out of the movement.
Magical Unity Ponies for everyone.
RSA
This is the most commonly quoted line I ever see from Hinderaker. I wonder if he’s embarrassed by his shaky command of idiomatic English? Or if he’s ever noticed?
The Grand Panjandrum
I know this thread is about beating up on the true believers, but how are those on the left different from the Conservative Movement in the criticism of Joe Lieberman? Isn’t this sort of all or nothing requirement also required by Liberals?
KC45s
Along with Sullivan’s “coastal elites” blast from a few days after 9/11, THE defining quote of Bush Age conservatism. What’s great is that every history of the years 2000-2008 will quote it as indicative of how nuts the movement came to be, the same way historians quote McCarthy’s bon mots when writing of the 1950s. I am happy to grant Hinderaker a little piece of immortality because I’m confident future generations will mock him. What a beautiful swap.
The Grand Panjandrum
OK. Let me reword my completely unintelligible question.
How is the left different from the Conservative Movement, when the left criticizes Joe Lieberman?
I’m gonna go eat some gumbo, dirt rice and cornbread now.
TenguPhule
You mean when Honest Joe lies to his district in order to get reelected and then forgets that running oversight means actual oversight? Or are you talking about how that sack of shit has sucked Republican hindtit for the last seven years?
The right embraces the crazy. The ‘left’ also known as those of sane mind and possessing a sense of common decency, reject an Ass who thinks himself an Elephant.
JDRhoades
Two issues that are absolutely vital to the wingnuts: immigration and torture. They don’t like the first, and they ADORE the second. McCain won’t toe the line on either and that enrages the wannabe tough guys that like to fondle themselves while fantasizing about Jack Bauer cutting the fingers off illegal immigrants.
Mike
Conservatism made simple:
“Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan. 9/11. Gay marriage. Ronald Reagan. Spanish-speakers. Ronald Reagan. 9/11. Hillary. Ronald Reagan. 9/11. 9/11. Ronald Reagan.”
myiq2xu
There is a difference between liberal Democrats criticizing a conservative who lost a primary and then abandoned his party and conservative Republicans freaking out because someone they don’t think is conservative enough wins a primary.
RSA
McCain is a reliable conservative when it comes to most of his votes, whereas Lieberman is not a reliable liberal, perhaps? Plus there’s his having taken common cause with the Republicans on one of the most important issues of the past few years, the war in Iraq.
myiq2xu
Fixt
demimondian
Actually, Lieberman was a reliable liberal and a reliable Democrat. Claiming otherwise is inaccurate, and frankly not fair. Lieberman made himself a target by working to undermine other Democrats on Bush’s war — he made himself every Republican’s favorite Democrat. That’s actually extremely similar to what John McCain did in making himself every Democrat’s favorite Republican.
I think it’s entirely reasonable for the Republican party to consider McCain a despicable turncoat. He was, and if he’s re-embraced conservatism in the sense of their party now, it’s a late life conversion, and hard to take to seriously. What’s unreasonable is to treat Romney as if he *were* a true conservative, as he obviously isn’t. He doesn’t appear to believe anything, except that his hair needs to be perfect and his jaw must be firm and solid.
Conservatively Liberal
Improved. ;)
The more McCain pisses off the “conservatives”, the more I like him. It would almost be worth the meltdown these wingnutz would have just to see McCain win this fall. Almost.
But the Magical Unity Pony will not stand still for that. More rainbows and candy for everyone!
myiq2xu
WTF? Holy Joe was a moderate-to-conservative Democrat before he left the party after losing a primary election.
Only the Village Idiots still think he is a “serious” political leader.
Choosing him as a running mate was Gore’s second biggest mistake in 2000.
demimondian
Sorry, myiq, but the numbers don’t lie. Look up Holy Joe’s voting record — it’s actually amazingly far left. The WTF is on the other foot.
jcricket
Hinderacker and Sully’s idiotic quotes were great, but the defining quote of Bush Age conservatism, in all seriousness, has to belong to Ron Suskind:
The pundits, talk-radio hosts and general right-wing nut-o-sphere just parrots the party line. Guys like Suskind were out there on the front lines creating (irony alert) the f*ed up reality we are in right now with the kind of thinking described in his comment.
4tehlulz
protip: Suskind was quoting someone else, not subscribing to it.
Goseph Gerbils
<pedant type=”nitpicking”>clergy</pedant>
Clericy is a dot on the map in Quebec.
Joyner’s point, of course, stands.
Jake
Lessee. St. Ron said Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Another Republican.
The Republicans give lip service to St. Ron (no pun intended), expect everyone else to worship St. Ron and and at the same ignore his commandment.
At least they’re consistent.
Goseph Gerbils
P.S. There was supposed to be a fake-HTML pedant type=”nitpicking” tag around the bold word. Balloon Juice ate my joke.
RSA
Well, I think it’s at least somewhat arguable. Americans for Democratic Action give him a 76 lifetime rating as a liberal, but in two recent Congressional sessions he gets a 28% and 33% from the ACLU. As you say, though, I suspect dislike for him comes mainly for his position on the Iraq war.
Llelldorin
Still, put end-to-end-to-end like that, it’s remarkable how much modern conservatism seems to have moved from inspiring speeches to supervillain rants.
I mean, that “We’re an empire now—we create our own reality” line really deserves to be said atop Skulltop Mountain into a setting sun. I’m slightly disappointed that Suskind missed the opportunity to respond with the traditional, “You’re mad!”—but then, that usually results in sharks and biting, so all in all it’s probably best that he didn’t.
calipygian
Safire = Marx
Goldwater = Lenin
Nixon = Trotsky (He wasn’t a real Leninist, remember)
Reagan = Stalin
Grover Norquist = Suslov
Bush II = Brezhnev
Huckabee = Gorbachev
McCain = Krushchev
Hey, this is fun!
Dennis - SGMM
The wingnuts have been in the driver’s seat since 2000. Every one of their most deeply cherished follies, from cutting taxes while we’re in deficit, to starting a war just because they could, to torturing brown people, to ignoring Congress and shredding those parts of the Constitution of which they don’t approve, has come to pass no matter what the consequences. Romney promises a continuation of that, McCain not so much. A wingnut without power and influence is just a wingnut. The prospect of that terrifies them.
Dennis - SGMM
Well, the game has started. Therefore, I claim this thread in the name of New Spain!
The Other Steve
Apparently, Maria Shriver just jumped on the Magical Unity Pony.
And one more…
Paul Volcker, Former Fed Chairman, jumped on the Magical Unity Pony.
I think the Volcker one is more important, with the economy on people’s minds.
Davis X. Machina
Stand it might, but if you’re going to correct his spelling, do it right:
“Clersy” is rule by an intellectual elite.
Davis X. Machina
…which I then proceeded to spell wrong
Clerisy. With an ‘i’.
D-Chance.
Which is why so many disenfranchised are walking away… despite the rhetoric, the current administration and its propaganda wing on talk radio, FoxNews, and Conservative Blaghistan are not Reagan conservatives.
TenguPhule
I call bullshit.
St Lierman has been a consistant asshole for the last seven years. He’s gone to the mattress for Bush so often that he should have a pay meter implanted in his ass to make it easier.
And his refusal to do his job on the oversight committee makes him just another crook to be lined up against the wall with his FOX friends.
demimondian
You can call bullshit until you’re blue in the face, TenguPhule, but that doesn’t make the claim false.
Sorry, the numbers don’t lie.
TenguPhule
Oversight performed by Lierman since reelection on the Bush Admin: 0
You’re right, numbers don’t lie.
Chuck Butcher
Joe picked the neocons, his “liberal” credentials were pretty good up until then. Since, they’ve evaporated. He won on a Republican vote, so Democrats owe him…what? He caucuses with Dems? Really?
McCain went with their Pres on immigration, so they want his nuts? These people are exactly stupid.
LiberalTarian
You know, sometimes you hate somebody because they are horrible people.
Everytime GW Bush wanted to say bipartisan, he called his buddy Joe Leiberman.
And good Lord, how can anyone watch that sniveling man in TV and not want to HURL?
Joe Leiberman is definitely a perfect example of why term limits are good.
And while certainly we like to have balance in our lives, so we say far left = far right, one of the qualifying characteristics of a “good liberal” is a certain amount of being allowed, and for gawd’s sake *able*, to change your mind. If it doesn’t work, fix it. Don’t go nuts with cognitive dissonance. And Jeebus! A good liberal does not worship at the alter of the cult of personality!!!
Really, anyone who thinks Leiberman is liberal hasn’t been watching him do everything in his power to make sure Likud gets every damn thing they want.
Librarian
That’s a classic Hinderaker quote, but it was almost surpassed last week when he compared Harry Reid to Putin and Bin Laden. He can’t be so stupid as to actually believe what he writes. He just can’t be that stupid. But, maybe he is.