I didn't know I was conservative :)

[barking_iguana]

Well, I'm not. But compared to the proto-fascists in power, principled conservatives and I have a lot in common, because we both have principles and we both believe in America as something more than just the strongest street gang in the city. From the current issue of The American conservative

GOP Must Go

. . .

Faced on Sept. 11, 2001 with a great challenge, President Bush made little effort to understand who had attacked us and why—thus ignoring the prerequisite for crafting an effective response. He seemingly did not want to find out, and he had staffed his national-security team with people who either did not want to know or were committed to a prefabricated answer.

As a consequence, he rushed America into a war against Iraq, a war we are now losing and cannot win, one that has done far more to strengthen Islamist terrorists than anything they could possibly have done for themselves. Bush’s decision to seize Iraq will almost surely leave behind a broken state divided into warring ethnic enclaves, with hundreds of thousands killed and maimed and thousands more thirsting for revenge against the country that crossed the ocean to attack them.

. . .

Meanwhile, America’s image in the world, its capacity to persuade others that its interests are common interests, is lower than it has been in memory. All over the world people look at Bush and yearn for this country—which once symbolized hope and justice—to be humbled. The professionals in the Bush administration (and there are some) realize the damage his presidency has done to American prestige and diplomacy. But there is not much they can do.

There may be little Americans can do to atone for this presidency, which will stain our country’s reputation for a long time. But the process of recovering our good name must begin somewhere, and the logical place is in the voting booth this Nov. 7. If we are fortunate, we can produce a result that is seen—in Washington, in Peoria, and in world capitals from Prague to Kuala Lumpur—as a repudiation of George W. Bush and the war of aggression he launched against Iraq.

(emphasis added)

Comments

[chemoelectric.livejournal.com]

Is this to suggest that you consider Patrick Buchanan ‘principled’, or is that further than the association is meant to go?

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

I don't think he's above a bit of demagoguery, but I do think he's driven more by actual, thought-out beliefs than most politicans are. In any case, Buchanana is no longer Editor of TAC.

[chemoelectric.livejournal.com]

What you describe would be virtuous of him, if only his beliefs were in touch with a ‘reality’ less like Hitler’s elaborated in two volumes.

You should have heard the tone in Buchanan’s voice just after Al Franken mentioned that his wife was Roman Catholic. He didn’t say anything except ‘Oh’ or the like, but it sounded as if Buchanan had been punched in the gut. This is during the tour to sell his latest pile of bound paper.

Buchanan looks ‘good’ right now, though, because Dick Cheney is so much closer to being a Hitler and George W. Bush is so insane.

Norm Ornstein would be a good example, I suspect, of a ‘principled’ conservative, who is very, very, very unhappy with Bush-Cheney.