On Conservatism
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009The little blurb on the right-hand side of this site states, “My politics are conservative, but I am an independent.” I documented leaving the Republican Party in 2007.
In that post I stated:
Today, I became independent once again. That does not mean I have moved off any of my positions. Rather, it is affirmation that no party does a good enough job of representing my positions. I am conservative and neither the Democrats or the Republicans are equally conservative.
Interestingly, there is still no party that represents my positions.
There is little that I can point to with Democrats that I agree with. The approach, the issues, etc. are nowhere near where I am. It feels as though every move is to interject government into my life. I favor instead, for government to leave my life.
One would think the Republican Party would be a better fit. Yet, for six years during the Bush Administration, Congress was Republican-led. What did this one-party rule net us? Spending and corruption ad nauseum. Yes, I agreed with the war, but that was not the only issue during those years. Last year, before he left office, President Bush placed government squarely in the middle of financial markets in a manner that made it easy for an incoming President Obama to pass unprecedented spending.
Last evening Virginia and New Jersey elected Republican governors. Listening to Republicans, one keeps hearing about the Republican revolution, a la 1993 when Newt Gingrich ushered in the Contract With America. I voted for Gingrich for POTUS last year. I would not do so at this point.
As the insidious media-spectacle in upstate has demonstrated, the Republican Party is still a mess. Internally, the old GOP (Gingrich et al.) are battling the “conservatives” (Palin, Malkin et al.) for control of the party. It’s a fight I suppose that needs to occur, but it’s going to be messy and in the end, I suspect the Republican Party will be weaker.
While I am admittedly more conservative than the average bear, putting a party in the hands of the fringe is going to be problematic. Palin is nice as a rogue, but she is not a leader. Malkin is great for focusing on issues, but she should not be guiding the debate.
Like it or not, these “conservatives” are equal to the Move On-Soros crowd on the left. It is easy to marginalize the left by demonizing the groups at the fringe. Shoot, locally that is what is occurring. Associate with Millville First or Track Racket, anonymous hatred will be hurled one’s way. So much will said, the message, no matter how accurate it may be, is lost because regular folks don’t want to sift through the sludge.
I suspect that is what happened with Freeholder Lou Magazzu. Magazzu is the poster boy of what is wrong with New Jersey politics, yet he was the top vote-getter last evening in the freeholder race. Why?
Magazzu Watch is a site that popped up to highlight Magazzu’s flaws or as they state it:
We just wanted to share our concerns about all we felt was wrong with Lou’s county government.
There’s a lot of good stuff at the site. Yet every post is accompanied by inane commentary, most of it anonymous. Those who run the site claim there would be retribution from Magazzu if their names were revealed. Yet when one cowers behind pseudonyms, not only is civility lost, so is accountability. In recent weeks Magazzu Watch has stumbled with its reporting and has been rightly called on it. Furthermore, there is an incident where a contributor revealed personally-identifiable information about one of these anonymous posters. He claimed he was not acting on behalf of the web site, but the web site, as far as anyone can tell, has done nothing to rectify the action. It’s wrong.
Nevertheless, it just goes to show that as soon as organization occurs, the straw man attack is underway. It’s easy to discount Magazzu criticism when it comes through Magazzu Watch as the site is little more than The Daily Journal comment section hosted elsewhere.
I don’t where this leaves me. My views are not represented by (m)any I want to associate with. Even when the state ousts an inept governor, it approves to put taxpayers in further debt, and it continues to elect the local politicians who cause the spending problems to continue.
One of the words I am currently teaching my students is insignificant. It is difficult to help but think as a conservative in Cumberland County, NJ that I am insignificant. The machine is stacked against a single person making a difference. As soon as he organizes, the anonymous cowards begin hurling dung at the fan obfuscating the discourse.
I am sure this is just post-election blues. Sigh . . .
