Faced with the terror of McCain taking the reins of the Republican Party, Bill Kristol (hater of white women) urges Conservatives to stop crying in their beer:
This is an important moment for the conservative movement. Not because conservatives have some sort of obligation to fall in behind John McCain. They don’t. Those conservatives who can’t abide McCain are free to rally around Mitt Romney. And if McCain does prevail for the nomination, conservatives are free to sit out the election.
But I’d say this to them: When the primaries are over, if McCain has won the day, don’t sulk and don’t sit it out. Don’t pretend there’s no difference between a candidate who’s committed to winning in Iraq and a Democratic nominee who embraces defeat. Don’t tell us that it doesn’t matter if the next president voted to confirm John Roberts and Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court, or opposed them. Don’t close your eyes to the difference between pro-life and pro-choice, or between resistance to big government and the embrace of it.
And don’t treat 2008 as a throwaway election. If a Democrat wins the presidency, he or she will almost certainly have a Democratic Congress to work with. That Congress will not impede a course of dishonorable retreat abroad. It won’t balk at liberal Supreme Court nominees at home. It won’t save the economy from tax hikes.
But when you read between the lines, you'll also find something of an obit:
Since then we conservatives have had a pretty good run. We had a chance to implement a fair share of our ideas, and they worked. In the 1980s and 90s, conservative policies helped win the cold war, revive the economy and reduce crime and welfare dependency. American conservatism’s ascendancy has benefited this country — and much of the world — over the last quarter-century.
[...]
Some conservatives can close their eyes to all this. They can choose to stand aside from history while having a temper tantrum. But they should consider that the American people might then choose not to invite them back into a position of responsibility for quite a while to come.
Conservatives are worried. And for good reason. Though it's never too late to repent ...
From the Alternet story you linked: Once you crack the media myths surrounding him, it's unlikely voters are going to go for an angry, unstable, hypocritical warmonger.
How are we planning to do that when the media will do everything it can to perpetuate those myths? I'm very worried about McCain.
Posted by: eRobin | 04 February 2008 at 10:55
Should be amusing, in any event. Kristol, Limbaugh, and Coulter are right, though: If McCain gets the nomination, the radically-right hijacked GOP's power run is effectively over.
Because McCain is good? Hell no. Because McCain didn't always drink his Kool Aid and was officially labeled as one of "Them" ("with us or agin us" -- he wasn't always "with us," therefore, he was "agin us").
They know that if one of "them" takes the reins of party power, even as a candidate, it signifies that the Fascist Wing has lost control and may well be relegated to the periphery of party Power -- perhaps permanently.
They are right to oppose McCain: If they lose this fight, they lose everything, in the Party power structure.
Posted by: Cathexis | 05 February 2008 at 15:00