A Different Point of View

Has Conservatism been repudiated by the recent election? I would answer no of course not. Conservatism is the Yin to Liberalism's yang and thus will never really go away. Now I wouldn't mind seeing some facets of current conservatism - specifically the Rush Limbaugh school of "you are either a conservative or you hate America" could go without costing us very much.

I suspect, however, that Deroy Murdock would very much like to preserve and expand Limbaugh Conservatism. Heck, reading his latest article, he'd like to get rid of most of his current crop of Republicans for being insufficiently conservative.

The GOP has been laid low, thanks to politicians who swapped their principles for power and lost both. As the chief electoral vehicle for conservative and free-market ideas, the Republican party cannot regain America’s confidence —nor should it — until the guilty have been cast into the nearest volcano.

Comrade George W. Bush has spearheaded the most aggressive federal expansion since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As a delivery system for socialism, he has been the most effective Trojan Horse since that pine steed rolled into Troy.

Hmmmm. I'm not sure now is the ideal time for a witch hunt in the Republican Party. Although I suppose it is a good time from my point of view - the more divided the Republican Party can be the better.

Is Romney a Phoney?

According to Deroy Murdock, there's evidence that he is. In particular he has recently claimed that he wishes he could have been in the military, that he could have served in Vietnam. But in 1994 he said "I was not planning on signing up for the military. It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam." Interesting. Murdock has some comments on this shift.

It is bad enough to reverse course 180 degrees on public-policy matters such as taxes, gay rights, guns, abortion, immigration, the minimum wage, Ronald Reagan’s legacy, or any of the other topics on which the old and new Romneys clobber each other. At least these are political issues on which, at best, new information and thinking can justify changed views or, at worst, electoral mathematics can explain abandoning one position for another.

But for Romney to somersault on something so personal — his own non-involvement in the Vietnam War — makes one wonder if Romney is any different from an exterior set on a Hollywood back lot: Clean and pretty in the front and all flat, plywood planks in the back.

Murdock does seem pretty correct in this analysis. I suspect what Romney really means, when he wishes he had served in Vietnam, is "I wish I could call on the Vietnam War as a positive the way my opponent, John McCain, can."

He shouldn't worry so much; he's the GOP Golden Boy. It's not like they have had any trouble trashing ex-soldiers in their pursuit of power.