P.J. O’Rourke Speaks The Truth
November 12, 2008 / 3:05 pm • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierI have the Read This column on the right of links that I think are worthy to read, but I don’t have time to blog about. Well, this is one of those links, but I wanted to emphasize it more. You need to read this whole piece. He is absolutely right about the downfall of the conservative movement.
It is really quite simple: We betrayed our small government mantra with big government action.
He says:
None of this is the fault of the left. After the events of the 20th century–national socialism, international socialism, inter-species socialism from Earth First–anyone who is still on the left is obviously insane and not responsible for his or her actions. No, we on the right did it. The financial crisis that is hoisting us on our own petard is only the latest (if the last) of the petard hoistings that have issued from the hindquarters of our movement. We’ve had nearly three decades to educate the electorate about freedom, responsibility, and the evils of collectivism, and we responded by creating a big-city-public-school-system of a learning environment.
Liberalism had been running wild in the nation since the Great Depression. At the end of the Carter administration we had it cornered in one of its dreadful low-income housing projects or smelly public parks or some such place, and we held the Taser gun in our hand, pointed it at the beast’s swollen gut, and didn’t pull the trigger. Liberalism wasn’t zapped and rolled away on a gurney and confined somewhere until it expired from natural causes such as natural law or natural rights.
Read the whole thing.
5 Responses to “P.J. O’Rourke Speaks The Truth”
By Mat on Nov 12, 2008 | Reply
Melissa,
I read this article a few days ago and I have to say he hit the problem right on the head. That was about as matter of fact as you could get regarding the problem.
I saved it, since I want to read it again in the future.
By Trish on Nov 12, 2008 | Reply
He nailed it, all right.
By Artruen on Nov 12, 2008 | Reply
No. No, he is not right. You cannot sit around wringing your hands about our failure to indoctrinate others. It is not what our people do. We live our lives, we do not live a cause. Our failure was, perhaps, in not recognizing the rising revolution. And then not bitterly opposing it as in a life and death struggle. One that it may well turn out to be.
By Mat on Nov 13, 2008 | Reply
Artruen,
Though I think you have valid points, I think O’ Rourke was trying to point out that our message could have been better. In reality, it could have and should have. Getting our message across is not the same as indoctrination.
Let’s face it, the last two Republican presidents were from the Bush family and they don’t exactly have a good track record of bridging the gap to ordinary people (the presidential candidates Bob Dole and John McCain weren’t much better) Bush Sr. was just as bad as explaining things as Dubya. I remember back in 1992 when the economy turned a little sour. The media goaded Bush with the economy question. Instead of responding, Bush Sr. went to Kinnebunkport to play golf. Seriously, the media had a field day with it.
Whether he knew what he was doing or not, he didn’t communicate it at all with the rest of the people. I mean, we’re talking about a guy that had a 90+% approval rating after Gulf War I and then totally blew it over the next 18 months to lose with just 37% of the popular vote (granted Perot took 19%).
Dubya did the same thing with the Katrina crisis. Bear in mind that I think Governor Blanco (D) and May Nagin (D) had a lot to blame for it as well. While I don’t believe any of the media crap that Dubya intentionally let those people die (only a complete idiot would believe that nonsense), he selected a total doofus (Mike Brown) to handle FEMA. This guy was an incompetent with a capital “I” and yet within days, Dubya is slapping him on the back and saying “You’re doing a heck of a job, Brownie.” I mean, stupid shit like that makes me just cringe.
There is a fundamental lack of communicative skills exhibited by the upper echelons of the Republican Party. If we want to get a fighting chance to get back to at least something resembling parity with the Democrats, then there needs to be a hard look at what needs to be done. T
he Democratic Party took the routs of 2000 and 2004 and studied what they did wrong. They found a solution to give them the driver’s seat. It’s been two years since the Republicans lost control of Congress and I have yet to see any real attempt at adjusting to meet this threat.
By John F Not Kerry on Nov 13, 2008 | Reply
Mat,
While I agree with you about the poor communication, it is really about letting the government spiral out of control that Republicans who should have known better are to blame. One thing a clear-cut loss like this can bring is clarity, if we let it. If we just try to be like the Democrats and be liked by the media (John McCain), we not only lose elections, but our principles get clouded as well.