Because, in the end, Mr. Sullivan is simply not intellectually fit or emotionally mature enough to either understand the true heart of American Conservatism or acknowledge the self-evident fact that the Liberals have been right about the Right all along. Instead, Mr. Sullivan pins his hopes on a Wise Conservative Daddy who will come and make it all better.
You know, it’s not so much that our discourse is so hopelessly polarized and BOTH SIDES DO IT and how awful and mean everyone is. It’s that we’ve decided disclaimers are more important than facts. If you say something correct about someone, does it matter that that person is of another party?
The facts should be the facts. If I say, for example, that Republican policies lead to outcomes X, Y and Z, as demonstrated by historical fact, all that should matter is whether I am right or wrong. Not where I’m coming from, or what my affiliations are. If I am correct, I am correct whether liberal or conservative. If I am wrong, same deal.
This would, of course, require a press corps both able and willing to determine those facts, and we currently have a press corps that is neither, and would rather read name tags and tell you which team the player is on than determine the truth of what the player is saying.
That still doesn’t explain, however, why Democrats only get the benefit of the doubt when criticizing their own party, as exemplified by Joe Lieberman being on every Sunday show every week forever by talking about how Democrats were horrible. Meanwhile, lawmakers who said Bush was horrible were unserious commie traitors who couldn’t be listened to by anyone who wanted Washington street cred.
I’m condensing certain things, of course, but the only major criticism of the GOP given credence comes from the GOP, and even then, the people in the GOP who did speak up were quickly made out to be closet liberals with personal failings anyway, so as to both shut them up and discourage future dissenters.
I’m not sure what Sullivan thinks will happen if his dream comes true and Bush-Cheney is taken down by some imaginary principled GOP stalwart. I mean, bygones, anyway, and everybody lost their minds after 9/11 also, and are we still fighting that war? Let’s look forward, not back. And for God’s sake, keep your powder dry.
A.