"The Conservative Heart"

 “The Conservative Heart”

By: J. Hunter

            

"Tim Pawlenty on Neil Cavuto's Fox Show" (Pic1)

The more I watch the Republican presidential debates and converse with fellow conservatives, the more I notice the striking paucity of a particular quality that had always attracted me to the right—cool, intellectual dispassion. Let me begin with a clarification: I am not arguing that conservatives or the Republican presidential candidates are stupid or bad or pitiful—rather that there is a longing for an appeal to conservative emotion more than to conservative reason. For example, Tim Pawlenty, the presidential candidate with the most impressive resume, and he who best represented the right wing’s policy-wonk lobby, dropped out of the presidential race after finishing a distant third to two firebrands in the much anticipated, and utterly meaningless, Iowa Straw Poll. He was bested by the sharp-elbowed (gaffe prone) Michele Bachmann, and the unwavering (unelectable) Ron Paul. William Kristol, too, yearned for the intellectual’s conservative to enter the race in the form of Paul Ryan.[1] However, the brilliant, energetic congressman from South Wisconsin graciously declined to join the fray, leaving Republicans with a heavy supply of chest-beating, “wrong-but-strong” candidates. Do people like Paul Ryan or Tim Pawlenty have a place in the fore of the Republican Party today? Why is an electorate that boasts of being more intellectually than emotionally motivated, so drawn to candidates who appeal to conservatives’ visceral emotion?

The answer is simple—conservatives have lost patience with meekness in the face of hostility. The hostility to which I am referring is that insipid political rhetoric which has been part of Democratic discourse for years, and has been siphoned throughout every corner of the Democratic electorate like water through the roots of a plant.

"Distasteful protest sign calls for harming  President Bush" (Pic2)

You needn’t know too much history to identify examples of conservative-abuse; simply flash back to the last Bush Presidency. George W. Bush withstood daily attacks on his intelligence, his motivations, his morality and, in many cases, his right to exist. Because he believed it beneath the office of the presidency to use his position to counterstrike, Republican laity were burdened with providing his perpetual defense. The task was a grueling one especially given Bush’s propensity to dive nose-first into white-hot political issues.

Badly scarred from the relentless assault, Republicans were too weary to withstand the left’s attacks for the sake of yet another timid candidate like John McCain. For this reason, the base responded enthusiastically when McCain chose as his running mate a fiery, foxy, Sarah Palin, who unflinchingly took up arms against the liberal establishment. As gaffes, winks and unpreparedness weakened Palin’s punches, Republicans fell into deep despair, and the Obama machine powered through the election virtually unimpeded.

What immediately followed for conservatives was a period of self-loathing. Dejection was inevitable given how John McCain spent his campaign boastfully accentuating when and why he broke ranks with Republicans. In fact, his convention speech was an admonishment of the very people to whom he was speaking. Top GOP officials, like Michael Steele, raced to explain to the country that Republicans had lost their way and had deserved the attacks from the left. Glenn Beck at a CPAC convention echoed that sentiment by conflating Republicans with alcoholics. All the while, liberals smugly nodded and piled on even more criticism. We conservatives felt publicly shamed. Abandoned. In need of solace.

That solace never came, and as we hobbled back to our feet, sharp liberal criticism continued to mount. The Department of Homeland Security, for example, warned police departments nationwide that run-of-the-mill conservatives were prone to becoming rightwing extremists simply because of the president’s race.[2] The Tea Party, too, was smeared as a violent group of thugs—implicated for producing the Times Square bomber,[3] for yelling gay and racial slurs at congressmen who voted for Obamacare,[4] and called terrorists and suicide vest-wearing jihadis by prominent liberals,[5] including Vice President Joe Biden.[6] Liberals blamed Republicans for Jared Lee Loughner’s psychotic attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and called Republicans “Son of a bitches,” [sic][7] and “barbarians” (another Biden gem).[8]

So, how does this relate to the current Republican field, or to the emotional pulse that is surging on the right?

"Rick Perry" (Pic3)

These examples show how Republicans, for years, have been putting up with these kinds of attacks and are longing for a feisty defender. Who better than Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry could defend the honor of the “slighted right?” While Jon Huntsman appears uncomfortable sharing a stage with other conservatives, Perry is cheered wildly for unabashedly supporting one of the most basic conservative institutions—capital punishment for murderers.

"Michele Bachmann" (Pic4)

As a committed conservative, I, too, look forward to the day that liberal ideas are defeated and their rhetoric is finally exposed as truly hateful and unproductive. The only way this can happen, though, is if Republicans win. The only way Republicans win is by relying on our tradition of intellectual—though still spirited—debate. We can succumb to passion, but we must never do so at the expense of reason. That means that we should examine what passions lead our presidential candidates to believe that thumbing their nose at a debt-ceiling increase, while also rejecting John Boehner’s “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan, increases their conservative credentials. We should ask ourselves why we cheer Rick Perry’s harsh characterizations of the Social Security program louder than we cheer a candidate’s plans to solve its crisis.

In the end, I believe that we conservatives will come back to our senses. We must if we want to win. We must if we want to be vindicated—if we ever want to answer, once and for all, the insipid attacks from the left.

Article Sources:

[1] http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/31/kristol-wants-a-ryan-rubio-gop-ticket-for-2012#ooid=hpbWJwMjqlQVv4ve6nMxFsVCBFMiwaxY

[2] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/14/federal-agency-warns-of-radicals-on-right/

[3] http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2010/05/03/cbs-features-ny-mayor-bloomberg-speculating-bomber-was-mad-about-obamac

[4] http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2010/mar/20/congressman-claims-health-care-bill-protesters-hur/

[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/opinion/the-tea-partys-war-on-america.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general

[6] http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/60421.html

[7] http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/09/05/jimmy_hoffa_at_obama_event_on_gop_lets_take_these_son_of_bitches_out.html

[8] http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-spokane/vice-president-joe-biden-calls-republicans-barbarians-for-second-time

Photo Sources: Pic1 from http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/tim%20pawlenty%20cavuto.jpg; Pic2 from http://newsbusters.org/static/2009/08/Press%20Largely%20Ignored%20Hostile%20Protester%20Rhetoric%20Towards%20Bush.jpg; Pic3 from http://doninmass.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/r-rick-perry-large570.jpg; Pic4 from http://paulboylan.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/bachmann-7.jpg