Comments on: Where We’re At http://www.theamericanconservative.com/schwenkler/2009/05/27/where-were-at/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=where-were-at Sat, 01 Jan 2011 07:05:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Thomas O. Meehan http://www.theamericanconservative.com/schwenkler/2009/05/27/where-were-at/comment-page-1/#comment-4287 Thomas O. Meehan Thu, 28 May 2009 03:07:06 +0000 http://www.amconmag.com/schwenkler/?p=3188#comment-4287 It's hard for me to dismiss the impression that the left does a better job synthesizing the idealogical and the political. Perhaps this is because their ideology is simpler. They just want our stuff. When I worked in Republican politics it was obvious that practicing GOP politicians truly despised their own conservative troops. They didn't think they were right but needed to tone it down a bit. They really saw conservatives as irritating dolts; a necessary but unsavory adjunct to success. The Democrat politicians on the other hand, always seemed to have at comradely feeling to all the poverty pimps, labor goons, deviates, criminals and others who make up the whole coalition of the left. The GOP has no ideology per se. It is stuck with a history and a set of talking points and bromides that it dare not deviate from too much. But that is pretty much all. The GOP allowed itself to be influenced by the neocons and the Business Round Table and Wall Street because these entities provided the money, votes and talking heads necessary to win elections. We will get no notice from them unless they come to believe that we hold the key to winning. And a persistent critique of the past and present conservative establishment will not get it for us. It’s hard for me to dismiss the impression that the left does a better job synthesizing the idealogical and the political. Perhaps this is because their ideology is simpler. They just want our stuff.

When I worked in Republican politics it was obvious that practicing GOP politicians truly despised their own conservative troops. They didn’t think they were right but needed to tone it down a bit. They really saw conservatives as irritating dolts; a necessary but unsavory adjunct to success.

The Democrat politicians on the other hand, always seemed to have at comradely feeling to all the poverty pimps, labor goons, deviates, criminals and others who make up the whole coalition of the left.

The GOP has no ideology per se. It is stuck with a history and a set of talking points and bromides that it dare not deviate from too much. But that is pretty much all. The GOP allowed itself to be influenced by the neocons and the Business Round Table and Wall Street because these entities provided the money, votes and talking heads necessary to win elections. We will get no notice from them unless they come to believe that we hold the key to winning. And a persistent critique of the past and present conservative establishment will not get it for us.

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