Sunday’s presidential debate got me thinking about a twitter conversation I had this weekend with Jonah Goldberg, a columnist for National Review and other publications. I like Jonah. He’s what I would call an ideological conservative purist. But I break with him on the most critical issue of this election cycle. Jonah and like-minded conservatives refuse to stop trying to help elect Hillary Rodham Clinton president by trashing her opponent.
In his defense, he sees it as standing up for principles and values, which is a good thing. But this conversation made me realize that it is not the left which is threatening to sink America this year; it is the conservative purist who may actually send this country swirling down the crapper.
Now don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of respect for Mr. Goldberg’s position. In fact, I use to think much like him, so much so that I declared myself a libertarian or, more appropriate, in the words of the National Review Online editor Charles C.W. Cooke, a “conservatorial.” However, over the past eight years, and upon deep reflection on the Clinton years, I have realized that this is war which means we have to be focused on winning.
Many conservative purists like to say they are Americans first, conservatives next, and Republicans third. However, the political left does not make that distinction. It focuses on winning. Look at Bernie Sanders. This self-described socialist stood for fighting entrenched interests on Wall Street but he is not clinging to his liberal purism in light of hacked emails detailing some of Hillary Clinton’s secret speeches to Wall Street. Instead, he is on the stump for Hillary because he knows that she is closer to his dream than Donald Trump, and one step closer to his socialist vision is better than no steps.
Hillary Clinton and the left understand how to win and win big. They have little scruples. They launch repeated false attacks on the Republican presidential nominee every time and every chance they get in every election. We saw this ethos reflected in the description of the Affordable Care Act whose MIT-educated architect, Jonathan Gruber, plainly said (after the fact) that he and others deliberately sought to fool the “stupid” American people.
In his defense, he sees it as standing up for principles and values, which is a good thing. But this conversation made me realize that it is not the left which is threatening to sink America this year; it is the conservative purist who may actually send this country swirling down the crapper.
Now don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of respect for Mr. Goldberg’s position. In fact, I use to think much like him, so much so that I declared myself a libertarian or, more appropriate, in the words of the National Review Online editor Charles C.W. Cooke, a “conservatorial.” However, over the past eight years, and upon deep reflection on the Clinton years, I have realized that this is war which means we have to be focused on winning.
Many conservative purists like to say they are Americans first, conservatives next, and Republicans third. However, the political left does not make that distinction. It focuses on winning. Look at Bernie Sanders. This self-described socialist stood for fighting entrenched interests on Wall Street but he is not clinging to his liberal purism in light of hacked emails detailing some of Hillary Clinton’s secret speeches to Wall Street. Instead, he is on the stump for Hillary because he knows that she is closer to his dream than Donald Trump, and one step closer to his socialist vision is better than no steps.
Hillary Clinton and the left understand how to win and win big. They have little scruples. They launch repeated false attacks on the Republican presidential nominee every time and every chance they get in every election. We saw this ethos reflected in the description of the Affordable Care Act whose MIT-educated architect, Jonathan Gruber, plainly said (after the fact) that he and others deliberately sought to fool the “stupid” American people.
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