Saturday, March 5, 2016

Why I Left the Conservative Movement

This is an absolutely amazing essay.

My only quibble is with his over-reliance on his military service. Very few people have served in the military, but that doesn't mean that their political voice is less significant as those who have. Besides that, though, the guy pretty much nails it.

From John Kluge, at Richochet, "An Open Letter to the Conservative Media Explaining Why I Have Left the Movement":
I really do not care that Donald Trump is vulgar, combative, and uncivil and I would encourage you not to care as well. I would love to have our political discourse be what it was even thirty years ago and something better than what it is today. But the fact is the Democratic Party is never going to return to that and there isn’t anything anyone can do about it. Over the last 15 years, I have watched the then-chairman of the DNC say the idea that President Bush knew about 9-11 and let it happen was a “serious position held by many people,” watched the vice president tell a black audience that Republicans would return them to slavery if they could, watched Harry Reid say Mitt Romney was a tax cheat without any reason to believe it was true, and seen an endless amount of appalling behavior on the part of the Democrats which is too long to list here and which I am sure you are aware. And now you tell me that I should reject Trump because he is uncivil and mean to his opponents? Is that some kind of a joke? This is not the time for civility or to worry about it in our candidates.
RTWT.

Actually, one more thing: I also don't like this guy's paleoconservative talking points, which I think overlook some of the more firm (bellicose) statements Trump has made on national security.

But again, these are just quibbles. I think the overall thrust of his essay is brilliant, and it's thinking like this that's going to clarify the conservative movement going forward, and force the Republican Party to respect the interests of regular, rank-and-file voters.

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