November 5, 2010

A Reprise of the Goblins

Let’s raise a cup o’ cheer for robust, aggressive debate, especially for a democracy in an election campaign. Truth will out. Sometimes it takes a while, but determined voters can find out what they need to know from many voices, even when the voices are raised (or especially when they’re raised.) The voter, often dismissed by the elites as dumb and unrefined, knows how to select and separate the wheat from the chaff. This week, he left a lot of chaff on the wind.

Let’s raise a cup o’ cheer for robust, aggressive debate, especially for a democracy in an election campaign. Truth will out. Sometimes it takes a while, but determined voters can find out what they need to know from many voices, even when the voices are raised (or especially when they’re raised.) The voter, often dismissed by the elites as dumb and unrefined, knows how to select and separate the wheat from the chaff. This week, he left a lot of chaff on the wind.

So let’s hear it for the Americans who refuse to be characterized by name-calling, who don’t like it when their president calls them “enemies” to be “punished” because they disagree with his policies and initiatives, or to hear that they’re “hard-wired” not to think clearly when they’re scared. Americans think well enough, scared or not. A rush of adrenalin quickens both imagination and the impulse for self-defense.

It must have been the ghosts, goblins and witches (and not just in Delaware) who scoured the graveyards at Halloween and resurrected those conservative voters pronounced dead only two years ago. Fortunately, they were buried in shallow graves by gravediggers who work by day as pundits.

It’s always a mistake to make identifications from a snapshot, or generalizations from fancies that might well be passing. We can leave it to the historians to say what permanent marks this most recent wave of conservatism will have left on the landscape. But Barack Obama, like Bill Clinton before him, will have to recognize the message the voters sent and decide whether to work with it or work around it. He only reluctantly conceded, in his post-knockout press conference, that he sort of “gets it.” The proof is still in the oven.

It’s true enough that most midterm congressional elections go badly for nearly every president, and each one is different and goes badly in different ways. This one ratifies the accelerating pace of information delivery through both the old and new media outlets, and confirmed the fact that conservatism is in the DNA of the American body politic. We have a lot worth conserving.

The Tea Party phenomenon, for all of its considerable force, is still an ungoverned, undisciplined, leaderless organization that coalesced more around anger than creative change. That’s where organized, effective political opposition nearly always starts. What works achieves momentum when it separates from what doesn’t. Independents, by most estimates, comprised a third of the Tea Party voters, maybe more. But angry opposition ultimately requires accomplishment, and that’s the caution for conservatives. Every generation chooses what it wants to conserve.

The most cynical observation about this election was a tantrum written on the eve of the elections by Michael Kinsley, the columnist and sometime editor of left-leaning publications. Disdaining the approaching success of those for whom he felt contempt and disdain, he argued that it’s not only naive but dangerous to put faith in the fundamental wisdom of the American people.

“The important message of this election is not from the voters, but to the voters,” he wrote in Politico. “Maybe it can be heard above the din. It is: ‘You’re not so special.’”

Like many liberals (and liberals who now call themselves “progressives”), he sneers at the pride Americans take in their country, and at the notion of “American exceptionalism,” that America is something special among the nations. He cites Barack Obama as an ally in the sneer, recalling that when the president was asked in 2008 whether he believed America was really exceptional, he said yes, but. “I suspect the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” Americans believe, with no ifs and without the but. That’s what the president has yet to get.

In the New York Review of Books, Michael Tomasky, angry about the way the “progressives” have lost control of the message, argues that Democrats crippled themselves “by ceding to Republicans the strong claims of love of one’s country.” He thinks it’s merely a problem of rhetoric not reality, easily corrected with a profusion of the right words, not understanding that the progressive rhetoric reflects the reality.

The president in his press conference revealed another misreading of what happened to him on Tuesday. His administration, he said, was so eager to get things done that it didn’t take enough care in figuring out how things get done. He’s wrong about that, too, because the rout of the Democrats was accomplished by Americans reacting to both process and substance. The president now promises a civil conversation, and that’s a start, but he’ll have to serve more than civility with the strong tea.

COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.