There’s an Interesting Post Up at “Don’t Go” on the Future of the Conservative Movement

29 Nov, 2008 by Attila Girl

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It has to do with the need for unity within the conservative/libertarian movement. and I agree with 95% of Blue Collar Muse’s conclusions.

The idea of expelling “Christianists” from the Right is intriguing, except that there wouldn’t be anyone left to do the heavy lifting for us, and in a party dominated by hard-core libertarians, everyone might be too stoned to get anything practical done . . .

I’m down with unity—so down, in fact, that I embrace the LDS-ers despite my obvious and profound theological differences with them. When it comes to Second Amendment issues, we have no better allies. And with no Second Amendment, the entire Bill of Rights falls apart. Just ask the Pink Pistol crowd.

I could not sign on to the Ron Paul movement because, among other things (1) he was, as with so many Libertarian Party members, an isolationist who was naive on foreign policy; and (2) the guy was tainted by the anti-Semitism promulgated by colleagues of his whom he would not publicly condemn.

And, yes: I do recognize that not all non-Zionists are anti-Semites; the corollary, of course, is that many anti-Semites use anti-Zionism as a shield to hide their hatred of Jews. Furthermore, no other state in the Middle East serves as the effective beacon of what democracy can accomplish for the common man and woman as Israel: it is this fact that makes Middle Eastern dictators hate Israel’s very existence, as much as theological issues and plain old Jew-hatred. After all, a literal, correct reading of Islam acknowledges the kinship among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: we are all “people of the book.” This was common knowledge before Islam was hijacked—before the “bomb them all and let God sort ’em out” crowd took over Islam’s public face.

And I reject Mike Huckabee because he may be a Christian, but he isno conservative. In fact, he makes John McCain look like Ronald Reagan—which takes some doing, you must admit.

So before we start our march to the guillotine with Christians, libertarians, those from rural states, sexy bespectacled sportswomen and other gun-owners in tow, we might start by kicking the non-conservatives out of the conservative movement. That is, back to basics. Here are your take-home questions:

• Does this person want to make government smaller, when feasible?

• Does this person recognize the need for a strong defense against Islamo-fascism, along with an assertive foreign policy toward Russia, Iran, and China?

• Does this person believe that the Bill of Rights is the law of the land? Does he or she recognize that the first, second, and fourth amendments undergird the others?—and that all three of these are under assault from the Big Government crowd?

• Does this person recognize that an organization being “too big to fail” may indicate that it should fail?

• Does this person realize that there is no contradiction between assimilation into this country and celebration of one’s lineage in other countries and continents? That the Hasidic Jew whose sabbath starts on Friday night, the devout Muslim who prays five times a day—and whose wife and daughter may wear a scarf (but will not be victims or perpetrators of murder), and the Irishman/woman whose garage sports a Saint Brigid’s cross is just as good an American as my Nebraskan grandparents—who never quite realized that the word “wash” does not contain an “r”?

• Does this person realize that the “War on Drugs” is a failure, and&mdahs;while it might not be politically feasible to dismandle it just yet—wouldn’t mind seeing it wither on the vine? Does this person recognize the right of Californians to declare medical marijuana legal? Is he or she profoundly uncomfortable with the use of scarce Federal resources to badger cannabis clinics in the Golden State?

• Does he or she believe that the individual has a right to be left alone, and pursue “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as he/she sees fit?

When we start expelling people from the Conservative movement, we have become what we hate. And given my lifelong aversion to guillotines, I shall be the first to go.

Unity, yes. Accepting anti-Semites and those who substitute their private faiths for the civic traditions of this country . . . not just “no.” Hell, no.

We must all hang together . . . I believe Benjamin Franklin has spelled out the alternative, and pretty clearly.

(Cross-posted at Little Miss Attila.)