Conservative Cabal

A little late, and a little long…

“At Meudon,” says Montgaillard with considerable calmness, “there was a Tannery of Human Skins; such of the Guillotined as seemed worth flaying: of which perfectly good wash-leather was made”; for breeches, and other uses.  The skin of the men, he remarks, was superior in toughness (consistance) and quality to shamoy; that of the women was good for almost nothing, being so soft in texture! - History looking back over Cannibalism, through Purchas’s Pilgrims and all early and late Records, will perhaps find no terrestrial Cannibalism of a sort, on the whole, so detestable.   It is a manufactured, soft feeling, quietly elegant sort; a sort per fide!  Alas then, is man’s civilization only a wrappage, through which the savage nature of him can still burst, infernal as ever?  Nature still makes him and has an Infernal in her as well as a Celestial.

Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution

Where else can you get timely topical commentary one month late?

Where else but here? No where. It’s because we care.
Anyway, there were a couple of things from Obama’s acceptance speech that I wanted to touch on.

First, let us compare and contrast the Constitution and something from TheOne:

First from the Constitution (sing along, you know the words):

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

And now Obama:

We can perfect this Union.

Obama’s statement makes a nice sound bite and calls to mind the Constitution’s phrasing, which it was obviously intended to do.  But the meaning is almost entirely opposed to what the Framers had in mind when they wrote the Constitution.

The Framers chose the phrase “more perfect Union” advisedly.  They understood that human things are necessarily imperfect.  There are conflicting goods in every human life and every human society, there is no such thing as perfect justice.  Tragedy is inevitable and inherent in the human condition.

Obama’s phrasing ignores this reality, dumbs down the content of the Constitution and in doing so perverts it’s meaning.  Either he doesn’t understand that, or he doesn’t care because he doesn’t agree with the Framers and the Constitution on this point.

The Framer’s understanding, the one shared by most conservatives, helps to engender humility in government.  If you understand that no matter what you do, the end result will just be better, maybe good, but certainly not “perfect”, you are less willing to pile up the sacrifices and the bodies to achieve your necessarily limited aims.

But, when perfection is the goal, the all-enduring Utopia the aim, no sacrifice is too great, no pile of corpses too high.  Witness France, Russia, China, Cambodia; all places where no atrocity was too horrible, because perfection was on the line.

Obama is either dagerously unaware of this history or too flip with his phrasing.  Either way, I don’t like it.

And another thing.

Yes We Can!

Is not an American Creed.  It is a socialist worker’s party’s rallying cry.  That manipulative piece of verbiage really pissed me off.

First, remain calm. I’m not the first and won’t be the last to remind us that this is not the end of the world. We survived Clinton and Carter (egad!), we’ll survive this.

The Republican Party has two tasks, one immediate and one more medium term. The first task, set out some red-lines. There have to be some things they stand for and they better have them identified and well understood before January 20th because the Dems are going to try to hit the ground running. The Republicans need to pick the issues they will not surrender on and start getting their message and their talking points down so they can withstand the media onslaught and not come across like a bunch of idiots.

Suggestions:

Border Security. The Dems hate it, most of the establishment Republicans do too, but it’s a winner with voters and the vast majority of Americans. It’s also simple and easy to articulate. If people are coming across, so are drugs, criminals and possibly terrorists and weapons. Secure the border.

Missile Defense. It’s a winner with voters and it’s a good thing, a necessary thing in a world where Obama is going to be tested by every idiot with a SCUD and a dream, read Iran, N. Korea and from the looks of the saber rattling today, Russia too. Missile defense is already working and Democratic attempts to scuttle it should be shot down like a tumbling piece of space junk. Again, easy to articulate and understand.

No Action on Climate Change. In the twenty years since Hansen started his hysterical screed for world domination the globe has warmed exactly 0 degrees. Not a whit of warmth despite the massive amounts of CO2 we have continued to dump into the atmosphere and the extra massive amounts added by China and India. Do not allow the Democrats and misguided Republicans to ram through expensive and idiotic regulations to control a problem that doesn’t exist. Again, it’s a simple argument; the planet hasn’t warmed. The evidence does not support the extremist’s conclusions. Paint them as extremists because the only “scientists” who support the Gore/Hansen understanding of climate change are exactly that.

Others might include stopping any federal action on gay marriage (although I don’t think that will be a problem), defending the Bush tax cuts, defending the 2nd Amendment…

The point is to have several clear, easy to understand positions that Republicans in Congress can fight for. Senators can filibuster but they are going to need a game plan, a strategy to do it effectively and to fight both the Democrats and the media, so they have to pick their battles. Maybe we can’t make them drill, but we can keep them from taxing CO2 (a huge goal of the greens that would be a huge nightmare for all Americans).

So that’s part one. For part two they are going to need a new “Contract with America”, a statement of principles and specific legislative actions they are going to take to advance those principles. They don’t need that before January09, but they will need it pretty well defined before January10 because it will be a necessary component of their campaign to take back the Congress. The American people simply don’t trust the Republicans to act like Republicans anymore, that’s why they lost. They have a lot of work ahead of them to re-establish that trust and only 24 short months in which to do it.

So, no time to sulk. Let’s get to work.

So Fred Thompson’s latest video pretty much says it all. Watch it if you haven’t already. And pass on!

Fred and First Principles (and why they’re important now)

Results of the Happiness Index touted in mainstream media yesterday reveal that “the world is getting happier”. And what, pray tell, is the “surprising” cause of this happiness?

Economic choice, democracy, and increasing respect for human rights in countries around the world. Excellent news! And answers that no conservative would find surprising. It would be unbecoming of us to take credit, naturally, but who has been promoting these very things, to the disgust of certain intellectuals?  Stop, you’re making us blush.

Meanwhile, baby boomers are miserable.

Boomers also say it’s harder to get ahead now than it was 10 years ago. The reality may be a bit different than impressions, however. The Boomers were found to be less strained financially then younger adults and less likely to have been laid off in the past year. But they were also less likely than younger adults to have gotten a raise.

Asked to rate their present life on a scale of zero to 10, Boomers came in with an average rating of 6.2. Those over 62 averaged out at 6.7, and adults aged 18 to 41 came in at 6.5.

You’re bringing us down, man, and for no reason whatsoever.  You gave us -what - the 60s, anti-war chic, a love of murderous thugs like Che and Fidel, and all you’ve done is complain that you aren’t given enough.

This is, sadly, equally unsurprising. Spoiled adults, like spoiled children, are often unhappy.  They were ever the victims of prosperity and peace.

But at least the rest of the world is moving on for real!

Welcome to Conservative Cabal, taking blue back!

This year has long been touted as one that would be difficult for conservatives. We say, Republicans, yes, most likely, but conservative ideology is not gone by a long shot.