What is it about the start of August? In the past couple of days we have seen several pieces by people who create misleading caricatures of conservatives and then use those misleading caricatures to attack a broad swath of those opposed to the Obama agenda.
This tactic is common, but it usually comes from the left. These past two days, however, it comes from the middling right and center.
Professor Stephen Bainbridge wrote a post It’s Getting Embarrassing to Be A Conservative. Beating me to the punch was Patterico, who so aptly took down the ridiculous arguments which amount to nothing more than “the Republican Party was not perfect.” Agreed! That is why the modern conservative movement is at heart a revolt against the establishment Republicans who let spending get out of hand; but such revolt does not justify support for the even more out of control current Democratic Party and Obama agenda.
David Klinghofer also wrote a column From NeoCons to Crazy Cons, which featured a cheap shot at Andrew Breitbart. Donald Douglas beat me to the punch on this article as well:
People are mad. And when people get mad they starting gravitating to more polarizing messages, and some of it can get heated. For me though, Klinghoffer and others like him (which no offense to him, would include idiots like Charles Johnson) simply prop up the left’s Media Industrial Complex, and in that sense they’re enabling the very anti-conservative forces Andrew Breitbart is finally beginning to take down.
Not to be outdone, Doug Mataconis used the Klinghofer column as an excuse for a post provocatively titled Is The Right Losing Its Mind?. Is that a question or a statement? Did the Right beat its wife last night? The most memorable aspect of this post is the now classic observation: “Yes, Obama is a liberal.” Okay, so no one apparently can oppose Obama without being turned into a caricature based upon something Tom Tancredo said.
Last but not least was Rick Moran:
Whatever it is, the very silly season has arrived on the right and with it, diminishing chances that the American people will drink the same flavor of Kool Aid and join conservatives in giving the Democrats a well-deserved paddling at the polls.
Oh really, Rick. I thought the silly season for conservatives arrived last summer; or was it during the 2008 election; or maybe anytime you want it to have arrived because some people do not agree with you. And the polls do not show diminishing prospects, so the entire premise of the post was wrong on the facts, not just the theory.
The common theme throughout these posts is that these concern trolls do exactly what they accuse conservatives of doing, creating caricatures of political opponents which then are easier to attack.
Such strawman arguments would make Obama proud.
Whatever the shortcomings of Republicans in the past pale in comparison to the shortcomings of the current administration.
I’m not going to lose focus as much as the concern trolls may want us to engage in a historical debate about decisions taken a decade ago.
I’m more worried about the next decade than the last decade; more worried about my children and grandhildren (to be) than my grandparents (may they rest in peace).
How about this for a post title: “Do Conservative Concern Trolls Hate Children?”
[Note: There were some minor wording changes made after the original post]
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Comments
Never mind this nonsense. Stick with the message. 20 months into this administration we have:
Record unemployment, record deficits, record trade deficits, record bank failures, record foreclosures, record death toll in Afghanistan, division in the country not seen since the sixties, a failing dollar, record environmental disaster in the US used for political purposes, record Democrat corruption, record number of presidential golf outings, wild weekly taxpayer-financed White House parties and first family vacations, a record number of unelected and unaccountable czars, a health care plan that is nothing but a Marxist-style government takeover of the healthcare and student loan industries, and a stimulus bill that flushed a trillion dollars down the drain.
Not too hard to keep repeating this. Not sure why the GOP hasn't figured it out yet.
You forgot David Stockman's damning NYT piece. Never underestimate the uncanny ability and willingness of the GOP to shoot itself in the foot.
The irony is Intrade bettors now put the probabilty that the GOP will take control of the House is 56%. It's never been higher since the election of Obama.
http://data.intrade.com/graphing/jsp/closingPricesForm.jsp?tradeURL=https://www.intrade.com&contractId;=639646
What I can't understand is how any American could believe that being a Liberal is better. As far as I can tell there is not one thing about being a liberal that is pro American.
It's true, these criticisms of the GOP are to be shrugged off. They signify nothing deeper.
It has long been my contention that as we start toppling the top Assistant Democrats in the GOP, their enablers in the "conservative" media will make themselves known and that would be our signal that we are winning. The house of cards is toppling as the "conservative" onion peels down.
It takes a strong organization staging an elaborate kabuki with a great cast to maintain the appearance of a two-party system when behind the scenes, it is in reality a one-party system.
These squishy Republicans (Assistant Democrats) are afraid and so they are now attacking the Tea Party as being dispirited, without a clear message and lacking a leader while attacking conservatives with the tired old lies (bigoted, extremist purists).
The Tea Party is getting to them for the very reason that we have no leader for them to demonize and destroy. The RINO media and their "stars" are going down the same hole that is swallowing the MSM.
In a democracy founded on individual freedom and rebelling against tyranny, the cultural cannot survive long waging war against the rest of us.
The so-called concern trolls are trying to divide and distract. Don't let them, or they win. One thing almost universally noted by Conservatives, and you mention here, is that the Republican party is full of progressives. That is why Bush and the RINOs followed essentially the same path, but at a slower pace, than this administration.
Don't let them take the message and define and control the conversation. Stay on target. Continue the correct path: pound the people with the truth; remind them of the corruption, oppression, and thug tactics they've continually used to ram these unpopular measures down our collective throats.
Massive debt. Enormous deficit. High unemployment. Unbelievably huge unemployment numbers for the young, blacks, and other minorities. Government in EVERY area of our lives, controlling our choices and our very lives! The ugly truth and the blame is all on THEIR heads – Congress has been Democrat-controlled since 2007. Stay on point!
Pound the issues. Stay on target. Get airtime showing these guys stating (like Stark this past weekend) that the "federal government can basically do anything it wants."
Victory is in sight. Don't lose hope – or focus!
Correction: left out a very important word
In a democracy founded on individual freedom and rebelling against tyranny, the cultural [ELITE] cannot survive long waging war against the rest of us.
I stopped reading Bainbridge when he became Andy Sullivan's blushing handmaiden. A first rate legal mind with good cultural instinct, the slippage on the political front is both remarkable and off-putting.
Can we get rid of the "country club" republicans? They are more concerned with their social status than they are with the policies coming out of this administration.
They are so paralyzed with the fear that someone on the left might call them "mean", they bend over backwards to accommodate every race baiter and class warrior they encounter.
these folks are the LOYAL opposition to the ruling class. they're loyal to the ruling class.