Debbie Schlussel: Weekend Read: "Compassionate Conservatism" Loses Elections & Elects Radicals
A Congressman I once worked for used to say, "If you have two slobs, support your own slob." He meant that Republicans should always support their own liberals as opposed to Democrat liberals running against them.
But, the thing is, our slobs lose elections, especially when the Slob-in-Chief is in the White House and another slob is the next candidate after eight years of fatigue over slop.
As I always say, voters always prefer the real slob (the liberal Democrat who isn't afraid of what he/she is) versus the fake slob (the Republican who tries to pretend he/she is a moderate and votes like a tax-and-spend PC liberal).
Today, former Congressman Dick Armey has a great piece, "'Compassionate' Conservatism Was a Mistake." As usual, he's right on the money (as he is about the threat Islam poses to America). An excerpt:
The liberal pundits who embraced the candidacy of Barack Obama are also eager to issue a death certificate for free market capitalism. They're wrong, and they remind me of what the great Willie Nelson once said: "I'm ragged but I'm right."To be sure, the American people have handed power over to the Democrats. But today there is a categorical difference between what Republicans stand for and the principles of individual freedom. Parties are all about getting people elected to political office; and the practice of politics too often takes the form of professional juvenile delinquency: short-sighted and self-centered.
This was certainly true of the Bush presidency. Too often the policy agenda was determined by short-sighted political considerations and an abiding fear that the public simply would not understand limited government and expanded individual freedoms. How else do we explain "compassionate conservatism," No Child Left Behind, the Medicare drug benefit and the most dramatic growth in federal spending since LBJ's Great Society?
John McCain has long suffered from philosophical confusions about free markets, and his presidential campaign reflected as much. Most striking was his inability to explain his own health-care proposal, or to defend his tax cuts and tax reform. Ultimately, it took a plumber from Ohio to identify the real nature of Barack Obama's plan to "spread the wealth."
Posted by Debbie on November 7, 2008 04:20 PM to Debbie Schlussel