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Most of my readers are liberals; imagine yourselves at the Democrats' convention in 1976, as an impassioned liberal candidate nonetheless adopts a pro-life stance, with the unfortunate tag-line "Life is unfair". That was Jimmy Carter, that really happened, and it wasn't until Reagan's campaign that anti-abortion politics became part and parcel of the Republican stance.
Okay, I tend to think of myself as conservative, and I've been embarrassed by neo-cons for the past thirty years (i.e., as long as they've been around). As the electorate told the GOP to go soak its head with the 2008 elections, I was hoping that the chaff would be discarded, and that some principled conservatism would return to the forefront. I considered the brainless "Tea Party" movement, fronted by the brainless Sarah Palin, to be a perfectly good repository for the chaff.
Unfortunately, at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) convention, we are seeing far too many retrenchists, reactionaries, and idiots. Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty put forth four principles, which manage to mix the conservative message with blue-nosed jackassery:
His first is just plain wrong; the Founding Fathers in general, and Thomas Jefferson in particular, were Deists. When Jefferson wrote "endowed by their Creator", he meant "not through the beneficence of royalty or government". He emphatically did not mean "God is in charge".
His second point is more subtly wrong. We clearly can spend what we don't have, when we borrow from others. There is a cost to doing so. Pawlenty ignores this, to the detriment of his own point.
His third point is correct, and actually conservative. He fails to tie it to the 9th and 10th amendments, but it's actually correct as far as it goes.
His fourth point is vile, and demonstrates a very basic misunderstanding of rights: "Miranda rights" are not given to suspects; they are limits on government actions against anybody. After all, even terrorism suspects are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.
Jackass.
So if anything good comes out of this CPAC con, I'm afraid it will be by accident.
Okay, I tend to think of myself as conservative, and I've been embarrassed by neo-cons for the past thirty years (i.e., as long as they've been around). As the electorate told the GOP to go soak its head with the 2008 elections, I was hoping that the chaff would be discarded, and that some principled conservatism would return to the forefront. I considered the brainless "Tea Party" movement, fronted by the brainless Sarah Palin, to be a perfectly good repository for the chaff.
Unfortunately, at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) convention, we are seeing far too many retrenchists, reactionaries, and idiots. Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty put forth four principles, which manage to mix the conservative message with blue-nosed jackassery:
1. "The first one is this: God is in charge," he said. He spoke of the Declaration of Independence and the Founding Fathers, who wrote: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. "If it good enough for the Founding Fathers," he said, "it should be good enough for each and everyone of us."
2. "We can't spend what we don't have," the governor said. He recalled growing up in a family that "didn't have a lot of money" and his mom saying that they had to "live within our means." He then took a shot at the president. If government spending were an Olympic sport, he said, Obama "would be a repeat gold medalist."
3. "People spend money differently when it is their money." He warned about government wasting money -- our money -- on ways that we wouldn't if we were in control of spending it.
4. "Lastly . . . bullies prey on weakness not strength." He spoke directly to Obama. "I have a message for President Obama . . . Mr. President, no more apology tours and no more giving Miranda rights to terrorists."
His first is just plain wrong; the Founding Fathers in general, and Thomas Jefferson in particular, were Deists. When Jefferson wrote "endowed by their Creator", he meant "not through the beneficence of royalty or government". He emphatically did not mean "God is in charge".
His second point is more subtly wrong. We clearly can spend what we don't have, when we borrow from others. There is a cost to doing so. Pawlenty ignores this, to the detriment of his own point.
His third point is correct, and actually conservative. He fails to tie it to the 9th and 10th amendments, but it's actually correct as far as it goes.
His fourth point is vile, and demonstrates a very basic misunderstanding of rights: "Miranda rights" are not given to suspects; they are limits on government actions against anybody. After all, even terrorism suspects are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.
Jackass.
So if anything good comes out of this CPAC con, I'm afraid it will be by accident.
