The right's civil war continues
September 06, 2009
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Patrick Ruffini, John Henke and Megan McArdle want to isolate WorldNetDaily and bring it to its knees. That's a great idea, provided you're either a leftist or the sort of self-proclaimed libertarian or conservative who, in November of 2008 seriously thought that Obama was the lesser of the two evils, and then became unnerved at his predictable swing to the left. In that case, I could see how you would think that isolating and destroying one of the right's largest publications over a few nominally crazy articles would make sense.
The problem with this approach is that the left does not consider conservatism, and often even libertarianism, to be respectable, defensible positions. The sheer fact that one is a conservative or libertarian is proof of one's mental instability, lack of intelligence and/or education. One of the single greatest reasons for the backlash against intellectuals from within the conservative movement is the fact that so many intellectuals are leftists and so many of them harbor such a dismissive hatred of anything from the right and a sneering condescension toward everyone associated with it.
The left does not police its own, though one might confuse the few occasions where it has merely thrown an inconvenient fellow traveler under a bus for a moment of self-control, poise and civility. A lot of the left-wing bloggers exhibit the same sort of behavior which is leading to denunciations and calls for denunciations on the right, but the left is not outraged over their behavior. The left is in this to win elections, not to win the respect of the right. It only "polices" itself in cases were people become genuine liabilities such as when Wright became a liability to Obama and when Amanda Marcotte had to be let go from Edwards' campaign. The very fact that Ayers was not a liability, despite being largely unrepentant, is damning.
Most of the people who want to banish the birthers are the same sort of people who want to see the religious right banished to the wilderness as well. These are the sort of people who want to see Rockefeller Republicanism and neo-conservatism become the mainstream face of conservatism. These are also the sort of people who so badly mismanaged this country and let it be run down by scoundrels and criminals that the left-wing of the Democratic Party was able to elect a candidate who barely attempted to conceal most of his goals in the primaries and general election. The birthers are merely a distraction for the right compared to the existential threat that these people pose to the future of conservatism. They had the chance to make conservative goals actually come to fruition, and they not only blew it, but now blame everyone but themselves for the disaster.
The problem with this approach is that the left does not consider conservatism, and often even libertarianism, to be respectable, defensible positions. The sheer fact that one is a conservative or libertarian is proof of one's mental instability, lack of intelligence and/or education. One of the single greatest reasons for the backlash against intellectuals from within the conservative movement is the fact that so many intellectuals are leftists and so many of them harbor such a dismissive hatred of anything from the right and a sneering condescension toward everyone associated with it.
The left does not police its own, though one might confuse the few occasions where it has merely thrown an inconvenient fellow traveler under a bus for a moment of self-control, poise and civility. A lot of the left-wing bloggers exhibit the same sort of behavior which is leading to denunciations and calls for denunciations on the right, but the left is not outraged over their behavior. The left is in this to win elections, not to win the respect of the right. It only "polices" itself in cases were people become genuine liabilities such as when Wright became a liability to Obama and when Amanda Marcotte had to be let go from Edwards' campaign. The very fact that Ayers was not a liability, despite being largely unrepentant, is damning.
Most of the people who want to banish the birthers are the same sort of people who want to see the religious right banished to the wilderness as well. These are the sort of people who want to see Rockefeller Republicanism and neo-conservatism become the mainstream face of conservatism. These are also the sort of people who so badly mismanaged this country and let it be run down by scoundrels and criminals that the left-wing of the Democratic Party was able to elect a candidate who barely attempted to conceal most of his goals in the primaries and general election. The birthers are merely a distraction for the right compared to the existential threat that these people pose to the future of conservatism. They had the chance to make conservative goals actually come to fruition, and they not only blew it, but now blame everyone but themselves for the disaster.
