Here's Quin Hillyer on the American Spectator's blog today:
Look, I'm on a lonely island here. Conservative activists refuse to acknowledge any fault with the choice of Palin for Veep. Those of us who express doubts are barely tolerated. But, dammit, the reason she has sounded so godawful in some of these interviews is because she did a godawful job in those interviews. And until shown otherwise, it is fair to surmise that she did a godawful job because she doesn't know what she is talking about. And THAT should worry all of us, even as we heartily wish for this woman of high character and principle to rise to the challenge.
When all the recriminations begin, and we sit down to try to analyze why the conservative movement brought itself so low, this will be a signal moment along the path to decline. Daniel Larison gets it right:
This should serve as a reminder that any movement that thrives on vilification and purges is ultimately destined for failure, because once it has given up on persuasion and lost interest in critical thinking, including self-criticism, it will attract less and less support as it ceases to have anything worthwhile to offer.
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your betrayal of EVERYTHING good and decent, and ultimately, mankind itself. Mwah ha ha hah haaah! Welcome to my planet, Rod. The only thing lacking in Cranky's thundering condemnation is that he didn't put in enough exclamation points!!!11! And while I welcome you to the home of all that is inimical to the righteous, I fear you won't keep me company here for long. Soon enough someone from the other fringe will blast you, and then the valkyries of unreason will swoop down and carry you off to their imaginary Valhalla for the irremediably fascistic. Shame, really. It's pretty nice here on Planet Zork, as long as the frybread holds out. I have nothing constructive to add here--I just wanted to enjoy a good laugh. ; )
Gosh, MarkM ...
... if the "Right" is supposedly driven by "intense, aggressive rage" why is it that YOU are throwing a "smackdown" in my direction. Hardly seems like a genteel or civil response on your part :-)
I'm afraid your reaction is a classic case of projection. Grow up!
Oh, sigh. And in enjoying my good laugh, I hope I didn't leave the impression that I'm calling Rod a fascist. No, no--that was sarcasm. I meant that soon enough, he will be TAGGED as such, by some equally deranged factionary.
"Wow. I can't believe this is coming up yet again. A couple of weeks ago, Barack Obama sat down with Bill O'Reilly for an extended interview. Bill O'Reilly, Fox News. Have you really not heard about this yet?"
Sounds to me like he is your typical Republican. He cares less about the truth and more about the spin. If it weren't for the GOP talking points every morning he would have nothing to say.
Greenwald hit the nail on the head. Playing the victim card over and over, whining repeatedly about not being treated fair, and ignoring the realities of the world have become the hallmark of movement conservatism. Both it and it's advocates need to shuffle along out the door of history and let us return to some reality in our political world.
Chris Wrote: When conservatism became "the conservative movement" the die was cast.
Eric Hoffer Quoth: Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.
The Bush/Cheney Republican party surely reflects the racket stage of the conservative movement. The Democratic party has been a vertitable racket club--labor unions, environmental groups, Great Society types, etc--for decades, now. I am convinced that whatever comes next will be more of the same, perhaps because the democracy movement of 230 years ago has become the bigger racket.
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