Patrick Ruffini lamenting that the Conservative movement is not being taken seriously by anyone, but maybe themselves laments:
Over the last few days, Jon Henke has laid out the case for the Right more strongly disavowing outfits like WorldNetDaily that actively peddle Birther nonsense. To the extent the mainstream Right has weighed in, it has been to urge Jon to ignore WND and move on, in the interests avoiding an intra-movement civil war. Some have even tried to subtly distance Jon from the conservative movement, saying his views don’t represent those of most conservatives. Many on the Right have made the calculation that however distasteful their views, a public fight with the Birthers just isn’t worth it.
As a fiscal and social conservative, I happen to think Jon is completely in the right here, both substantively and strategically. Don’t raise the canard that we ought to be attacking Democrats first. Conservatives are entirely within their rights to have public debates over who will publicly represent them, and who will be allowed to affiliate with the conservative movement.
The Birthers are the latest in a long line of paranoid conspiracy believers of the left and right who happen to attach themselves to notions that simply are not true. Descended from the 9/11 Truthers, the LaRouchies, the North American Union buffs, and way back when, the John Birch Society, the Birthers are hardly a new breed in American politics.
Each and every time they have appeared, mainstream conservatives from William F. Buckley to Ronald Reagan have risen to reject these influences — and I expect that will be the case once again here.
But there is another subtext that makes Jon’s appeal more urgent. As a pretty down-the-line conservative, I don’t believe I am alone in noting with disappointment the trivialization, excessive sloganeering, and pettiness that has overtaken the movement of late. In “The Joe the Plumberization of the GOP,” I argued that conservatives have grown too comfortable with wearing scorn as a badge of honor, content to play sarcastic second fiddle to the dominant culture of academia and Hollywood with second-rate knock-off institutions. A side effect of this has been a tendency to accept conspiracy nuts as a slightly cranky edge case within the broad continuum of conservatism, rather than as a threat to the movement itself.
Via Can We Have Buckley Back? | The Next Right.
However, the real reasons that the Conservative movement is in the shape that it is in, is found right in the comments section of “The Next Right”
First there’s this:
I don’t know if you consider them elites, but I did—and I suspect many Republicans did as well.
Peggy Noonan
David Brooks
David Frum,
And, last but certainly not least, Kathleen Parker.
At a time when we were trying to win the 2008 elections, this crew was bashing Sarah Palin full-time. The time for bashing had past; the time for banding together to win an election was at hand. And what did this crew of elites do? Elites, thank you very little. You played no small part in the fact that we now have an administration that has abandoned our ally Honduras and is spending our grandchildren into poverty.
The real way Bill Buckley saved conservatism was by inspiring Ronald Reagan, Tommy Thompson, John Engler, Newt Gingrich and others to enter the political world. You know—the place where we pick people that actually MAKE LAWS, instead of writing witty op-eds and appearing on Hardball.
Recently, we watched another conservative elite, Charles Krauthammer, tell the world that Sarah Palin was unfit to engage in the healthcare debate…at the same time that her “death panels” charge helped sway the tone of debate against Obamacare.
Sorry, but I’m less than impressed with GOP elites. They stabbed us in the back in 2008. Fool me once..
….and then, there is this:
We didn’t abandon you during the election, you abandoned us by nominating a weak liberal republican and a semi-retarded christian fundy. I’m not going to change my views to “fit in” with the GOP if that’s the way they want to represent me.
During 2008, I was bashing McCain and palin ( as well as Obongo ). I will continue to bash these type republicans until they get out of my party.
I would say that both of these are basically correct. Not to mention electing and then reelecting a President who’s Wilsonian foreign policy forced him to invade a Country that had zero to do with 9/11. That is why McCain was not elected and, too, because black people actually voted in this election. Not say that there is anything wrong with that fact; just making a point. Also, Obama’s campaign was just better ran and his message more clear. John McCain was too damn busy suspending his campaign to look like a hero. Which actually made him look like an idiot. Hence the reason he lost also.
I could go on and on. However, I think you know what I mean.
Update: Robert Stacey McCain basically agrees with me about WND and the Birthers. Now McCain and Palin are another story. He loves that feckless Woman. I, on the other hand, think that she is an idiot.
Update #2: Around the Sphere has a round up on the subject, all the while ignoring me.
