The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Conservatism 101:
Never Let Your Enemies Tell You Who Your Friends Should Be

Posted on | July 19, 2010 | 40 Comments

Conservative Republicans seeking political advice should not take it from a liberal Democrat like Jonathan Chait:

You don’t have to love Sue Lowden to understand that a 90% chance of Lowden winning is better than a 20% chance of Sharron Angle winning. Nor is there any recognition on the right that conservatives paved the way for health care reform by driving Specter out. In conservative lore, the Pat Toomey primary challenge remains a glorious triumph, when in fact it’s a disaster of historic proportions.

You can read the whole thing, but not without minding this important caveat: Jonathan Chait doesn’t want Republicans to win.

If Lowden had won the Nevada GOP primary, Chait would be busy-beavering arguments intended to help Harry Reid defeat Lowden. If Specter had stayed in the GOP and defeated Toomey in the primary, Chait would now be offering arguments to help Joe Sestak defeat Specter in November (as, in fact, the New Republic did throughout the Democratic primary).

Long ago — in February 2009, when the Tea Party movement was just being born – I explained this fundamental issue:

Among the ill effects of liberal bias in the media is that much political “news” amounts to thinly disguised DNC talking-points. The conservative must learn to think critically about news and politics, to filter out that which is misleading, or else he will internalize the funhouse-mirror distortions of reality that define the liberal weltanschauung. . . .
[O]ne of the major problems of the Republican Party, that so many of its supporters have unwittingly accepted liberal beliefs as political truths. . . .

The GIGO principle (Garbage In, Garbage Out) is as applicable to political discourse as to any other information system. If you let liberals like Chait tell you which Republican candidates you should support, you will never support any Republican candidate — except in a GOP primary, when liberals will invariably tell you to support the most liberal candidate on the ballot. As soon as the primary is over, however, your liberal friends will then return to their usual arguments of why you should vote Democrat. Sic semper hoc.

It may well be, as a source tells Ben Smith, that the Nevada GOP primary was a “total f*** up by the state and national Republicans” — Never underestimate the incompetence of the Republican establishment being another basic lesson of Conservatism 101 — but that is neither here nor there as to the task at hand, namely, defeating Harry Reid.

Chait and his friends are trying to do what liberals in the media always do, shape Conventional Wisdom to their own advantage.

“Sharron Angle Can’t Win” is the Meme-O’-Th’-Day, and liberals are going to pound it as hard and as long as they can. Why? Because they know that a lot of Republicans base their political decisions on Conventional Wisdom so that, by promoting this Angle-Is-Doomed message, liberals will erode support for Harry Reid’s opponent — especially from the Dumb and Rich Coalition who comprise the GOP’s big-money donors.

Sharron Angle can win, and should win, and will win, so long as the conservative grassroots don’t allow themselves to be bamboozled into believing the liberal Conventional Wisdom. 

Obviously, you can’t expect the Dumb and Rich to write any fat checks to make that happen, so it’s up to the grassroots to give those small donations — $10, $20, $50 – that will add up to match the millions Harry Reid gets from his Democratic fat-cat friends.

SHARRON ANGLE for U.S. SENATE

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Category: Conservatism 101, Harry Reid, Media Bias, Nevada, Senate

Comments

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  • http://tigeronpolitics.wordpress.com Ben (The Tiger)

    I’d say that Chait’s entirely wrong — this is the year that candidates like Angle certainly can win.

    I learned my lesson in 2008 about listening to moderates or liberals.

    Moderates are confused, and liberals are malevolent.

  • http://tigeronpolitics.wordpress.com Ben (The Tiger)

    I’d say that Chait’s entirely wrong — this is the year that candidates like Angle certainly can win.

    I learned my lesson in 2008 about listening to moderates or liberals.

    Moderates are confused, and liberals are malevolent.

  • http://tigeronpolitics.wordpress.com Ben (The Tiger)

    And Pat Toomey’s a disaster?!

    Toomey’s a razor sharp guy who is the best I’ve seen on talking about economics to a mixed audience since, oh, the 1980s:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g1qF_XgU9Q

  • http://tigeronpolitics.wordpress.com Ben (The Tiger)

    And Pat Toomey’s a disaster?!

    Toomey’s a razor sharp guy who is the best I’ve seen on talking about economics to a mixed audience since, oh, the 1980s:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g1qF_XgU9Q

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  • http://e3gazette.com The Monster

    …in a GOP primary, when liberals will invariably tell you to support the most liberal candidate on the ballot. As soon as the primary is over, however, your liberal friends will then return to their usual arguments of why you should vote Democrat

    Their treatment of your distant cousin should serve as the perfect demonstration.

  • http://e3gazette.com The Monster

    …in a GOP primary, when liberals will invariably tell you to support the most liberal candidate on the ballot. As soon as the primary is over, however, your liberal friends will then return to their usual arguments of why you should vote Democrat

    Their treatment of your distant cousin should serve as the perfect demonstration.

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    What is it about Liberals and their love for blackface?

    Ted Danson went blackface with Whoopi..

    Ned Lamont’s campaign gave Joe Lieberman the blackface treatment on campaign signs..

    Projection.. more than likely.

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    What is it about Liberals and their love for blackface?

    Ted Danson went blackface with Whoopi..

    Ned Lamont’s campaign gave Joe Lieberman the blackface treatment on campaign signs..

    Projection.. more than likely.

  • http://warplanner.blogspot.com The War Planner

    “Conservatism 101: Never Let Your Enemies Tell You Who Your Friends Should Be”

    ..this is rather intuitive, isn’t it?

  • http://warplanner.blogspot.com The War Planner

    “Conservatism 101: Never Let Your Enemies Tell You Who Your Friends Should Be”

    ..this is rather intuitive, isn’t it?

  • http://www.2010blog.net John S

    If you need proof of this phenomenon (and how it goes both ways), look to none other than Rush Limbaugh. Pennsylvania. Hillary.

    Remember?

  • http://www.2010blog.net John S

    If you need proof of this phenomenon (and how it goes both ways), look to none other than Rush Limbaugh. Pennsylvania. Hillary.

    Remember?

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  • kansas

    If I were Angle my campaign slogan would be, “If you like what Harry Reid has done to you then vote for him. If not, vote for me.”

  • kansas

    If I were Angle my campaign slogan would be, “If you like what Harry Reid has done to you then vote for him. If not, vote for me.”

  • Estragon

    Perhaps the greater question should be, “Who the heck is stupid enough to waste their time reading Chait, much less believing anything he says?”

    There is nothing there of any value, and never has been. So the first problem is to stop spreading the baloney put out by these small-exposure leftist rags. I guarantee more people will read Chait as a result of conservative reaction to his idiocy than would have ever bothered, had we only been able to just let it be.

    Leftist hacks are best dealt with in the same manner as comment trolls: ignore them completely.

  • Estragon

    Perhaps the greater question should be, “Who the heck is stupid enough to waste their time reading Chait, much less believing anything he says?”

    There is nothing there of any value, and never has been. So the first problem is to stop spreading the baloney put out by these small-exposure leftist rags. I guarantee more people will read Chait as a result of conservative reaction to his idiocy than would have ever bothered, had we only been able to just let it be.

    Leftist hacks are best dealt with in the same manner as comment trolls: ignore them completely.

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  • http://effingconservatives.blogspot.com Jeff Weimer

    @gg – I like conservatives on defense for a change.

    For a change? Where were you in 2006 and 2008? We’ve only got a wind at our back because your heroes can’t lead produce out of a grocery bag.

    Our problem is, can we get the right people in the right positions to turn the ship of state and, incidentally, keep that wind behind us? The recent history of GOP controlled congresses doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

    The GOP’s only saving grace, and the only reason we prefer them, is that they can be reasoned with, unlike the Democrats.

    And no, we won’t do any of that sackcloth and ashes. You wouldn’t do it if Reid wins. And we know it’s a heavy lift to beat him. That doesn’t stop us from trying – which I think is your (and Chait’s) goal.

  • http://effingconservatives.blogspot.com Jeff Weimer

    @gg – I like conservatives on defense for a change.

    For a change? Where were you in 2006 and 2008? We’ve only got a wind at our back because your heroes can’t lead produce out of a grocery bag.

    Our problem is, can we get the right people in the right positions to turn the ship of state and, incidentally, keep that wind behind us? The recent history of GOP controlled congresses doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

    The GOP’s only saving grace, and the only reason we prefer them, is that they can be reasoned with, unlike the Democrats.

    And no, we won’t do any of that sackcloth and ashes. You wouldn’t do it if Reid wins. And we know it’s a heavy lift to beat him. That doesn’t stop us from trying – which I think is your (and Chait’s) goal.

  • wombat-socho

    Jeff: please don’t feed the troll. It only encourages her, you know.

  • wombat-socho

    Jeff: please don’t feed the troll. It only encourages her, you know.

  • Aruges

    I find it interesting that we never here what the Angle campaign has to say bout their circumstances, just outside observers. Are they really inept? I’d like to see an honest evaluation of her organization. What’s their plan? Did they expect the onslaught from Reid? (they had to, right?) What’s their planned response? When are they going to roll out the ads? How much money do they think they need?

    The answers to these questions would give me a better sense of her viability.

  • Aruges

    I find it interesting that we never here what the Angle campaign has to say bout their circumstances, just outside observers. Are they really inept? I’d like to see an honest evaluation of her organization. What’s their plan? Did they expect the onslaught from Reid? (they had to, right?) What’s their planned response? When are they going to roll out the ads? How much money do they think they need?

    The answers to these questions would give me a better sense of her viability.

  • Ira

    hey, do you remember Dem bigshot Rep Vic Fazio urging Repubs before the 1994 elections to stay way from the anti-abortion crowd? do you remember Rep Vic Fazio? Is it any wonder that the MSM was pushing for John McCain to be the Repub Pres candidate in 2000 and 2008?

  • Ira

    hey, do you remember Dem bigshot Rep Vic Fazio urging Repubs before the 1994 elections to stay way from the anti-abortion crowd? do you remember Rep Vic Fazio? Is it any wonder that the MSM was pushing for John McCain to be the Repub Pres candidate in 2000 and 2008?

  • http://writingclearandsimple.com Roy Jacobsen

    “Conservatism 101: Never Let Your Enemies Tell You Who Your Friends Should Be”

    Actually, the WILL tell you who your friends should be: The people they denigrate, disparage, and demonize–and therefore fear–the most. At the very least, those are the people you should start paying attention to.

  • http://writingclearandsimple.com Roy Jacobsen

    “Conservatism 101: Never Let Your Enemies Tell You Who Your Friends Should Be”

    Actually, the WILL tell you who your friends should be: The people they denigrate, disparage, and demonize–and therefore fear–the most. At the very least, those are the people you should start paying attention to.

  • http://effingconservatives.blogspot.com Jeff Weimer

    gg – I’m glad you agree with me, because the democrats don’t want to be reasoned with, they want followers like you, who will follow the party line rather than question it.

    We could go on about the finer points of all three absurdities you cite, but you’d lose. Mostly because the first surprisingly works in concert with more secular aims, the second is a bit fringe – but that never stops you from lumping the rest of us in it anyway, and the third – have you even HEARD about climategate? I mean, clinging to the hockey stick? Now THAT’S faith-based.

  • http://effingconservatives.blogspot.com Jeff Weimer

    gg – I’m glad you agree with me, because the democrats don’t want to be reasoned with, they want followers like you, who will follow the party line rather than question it.

    We could go on about the finer points of all three absurdities you cite, but you’d lose. Mostly because the first surprisingly works in concert with more secular aims, the second is a bit fringe – but that never stops you from lumping the rest of us in it anyway, and the third – have you even HEARD about climategate? I mean, clinging to the hockey stick? Now THAT’S faith-based.

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  • Tennwriter

    Like Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman, gg? Like Instapundit who supported Al Gore a ways back, but is now a ‘right-winger’?

    Purity tests are for the Left.

    On the Right, just bring your Conservatism to the Party, but leave your unconservative ideas at home. If you’re a wimpy fiscon, or a national greatness conservative, we still can use that part of you that is conservative, but don’t object when the cafe’ serves up Values Stew, Economy Soup, and Smoking Hot Defense Chili. You eat what you like, just don’t tell the chef to make a new meal for you.

  • Tennwriter

    Like Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman, gg? Like Instapundit who supported Al Gore a ways back, but is now a ‘right-winger’?

    Purity tests are for the Left.

    On the Right, just bring your Conservatism to the Party, but leave your unconservative ideas at home. If you’re a wimpy fiscon, or a national greatness conservative, we still can use that part of you that is conservative, but don’t object when the cafe’ serves up Values Stew, Economy Soup, and Smoking Hot Defense Chili. You eat what you like, just don’t tell the chef to make a new meal for you.

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