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Via Alana Post comes this impassioned plea from William Pitt (no, neither of those William Pitts) for ordinary Americans to save the world by voting come November. I heartily agree. As the readship will know, I feel that voting is the absolute minimum that the ordinary American can do to keep America and the world from empire. Therefore, we should go out come November 4 and vote in a healthy conservative majority to Congress. We don't want to eliminate the liberal element, of course. Honest-to-Heaven liberals -- the Pat Moynihans, not the Cynthia McKinneys -- not only serve as a healthy check (in all senses of the word) on conservative dreams in foreign affairs, they also (with the countercheck of conservatism) often make good policy in the economic arena (although I hope that they conclude that we've got enough regulations about now, and concentration on funding their enforcement). We should also have a healthy dose of libertarianism. Conservatives tend to make excellent foreign and military policy, but tend to be...ahem...a trifle cavalier about civil liberties in the process (I'll wait for a liberal to read this and write the appropriate mea culpa for that thread of thought). The ideal would be for every member of Congress and the Administration to be followed on a 24x7 basis by a libertarian with a loaded .45. As this is not practical (I really don't want Perry de Havilland in my bedroom -- nothing personal, Perry, but you're just not my type), the second-best is to have a goodly number of libertarians in Congress, to at least be watching over their fellows' shoulders. But the conservatives are the key element. Pitt is possessed of the usual left-fascist bullshit that assumes the moral equivalency by numbers that his kind strive incessantly to make the unspoken but universally accepted base for all discussion of the Terror War. The Bush Administration seems increasingly confused by a pro-Arab State Department and Powell's apparent desire to be remembered as the Great Peacemaker (although Bush's recent speech on the Middle East may certainly be interpreted as indicating that this confusion has ended). A strong (but not unchecked -- as I said, conservatives will take the bit between their teeth if given a chance) conservative element in government might gently remind Bush that this war is supposed to be about the safety of America and Americans, not about poll numbers, swaying mid-term elections, or appeasing world opinion with a show of evenhandedness. For that matter, there are not lacking either liberals or libertarians who can fulfill this role, although I think that, given the same mesage from all strains of political thought, Bush is most likely to listen to the conservative. This is not an appeal to go out and vote Republican. Whilst we can say that the average Republican is more conservative than the average Democrat, there are plenty of exceptions to this rule, and mere partisanship is inappropriate. Indeed, a Congress under the domination of conservative Democrats would be good for the country and good for Bush, however much he might balk at trying that medicine. John "Akatsukami" Braue Sunday, July 07, 2002 |
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