A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
Ricochet's own Jennifer Rubin has been following the story of Richard Grenell on her Washington Post blog, Right Turn. Richard Grenell was recently hired by the Romney campaign to serve as a spokesman on foreign policy. As luck would have it for a former governor with little foreign policy experience, this former John Bolton advisor is a registered Republican and staunchly opposes the Obama administration's stance on key national security issues. There is only one problem: Mr. Grenell is gay.
Pieces in two conservative publications, the National Review and Daily Caller, reflected the uproar by some social conservatives over the appointment. [UPDATE, 4:30 p.m.: Although Grenell also raised the ire of liberal commentators with now-deleted tweets about certain prominent women, none of the sources I spoke with mentioned the tweets as a factor in his resignation decision.]
In the National Review, Matthew J. Franck wrote late last week: “Suppose Barack Obama comes out — as Grenell wishes he would — in favor of same-sex marriage in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. How fast and how publicly will Richard Grenell decamp from Romney to Obama?"
I believe we can have a rational debate over gay marriage within the conservative sphere without forcing out those who are gay from our movement. This is a shameful moment for us conservatives and I hope we are beginning the process of rejecting such intolerance. While I am saddened that Mr. Grenell decided to resign from the campaign for personal reasons, I am proud that Governor Romney demonstrated the fortitude to stand by his selection of an imminently qualified advisor like Mr. Grenell and did not take the easy way out by bowing to the less savory aspects of social conservatism.
I would like to know if I am alone with my indignation over the treatment of Mr. Grenell and the pressure for him to resign. In the alternative, I would be happy to hear the counterargument if a fellow Ricochetian feels an openly gay man should not be advising on Republican campaign. How should we proceed as a movement? And, a slightly different question, how do you think we will actually proceed as a movement?
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Apr '11
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
Mothership_Greg
James Of England
Mothership_Greg
I'm not gonna defend Franck's argument, because I don't see any evidence that Grenell would suddenly switch parties over gay marriage. I'm specifically taking issue with the phrase "anti-gay" being applied to Franck - because he makes a bad argument, he's anti-gay?....
Suggesting that Grenell was a bad hire because he's gay? Even if it was a good argument, that would be anti-gay.
Where did Franck say this?
Indeed, as I previously quoted:
Unless we're playing Leftist "dog-whistle" games, or you can provide some evidence that Franck is some kind of homophobe, then this is false. You're some kind of lawyer, right? Let's have some evidence. ·
I believe that the argument that he would abandon his job and his principles if Obama became nominally pro-SSM (a very small shift from his current position of being only de-facto pro-SSM) is based on Grenell's sexuality. Why else would one believe such a preposterous claim?
Jun '10
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
Mothership_Greg
I'd be interested in seeing the Santorum remark in context - I have no idea what the context is. Not sure who "Gingrich's people" are, but I think attacking wives of presidential candidates on Twitter is indicative of poor judgment, and unseriousness. I'm not terribly comfortable with a man helping to craft policy with respect to Iran and China and Russia being the sort of person who engages in ridiculous catfights on Twitter. Maybe that's just me. · 57 minutes ago
Agreed, and agreed. Too many folks on Twitter -- serious people, mind you -- don't quite grasp that everything is permanent these days. Jake Tapper, Jonah Goldberg, Dana Perino, Ari Fleischer, they've all been guilty of falling into the Twitter-as-goofball-outlet trap. I'm willing to extend some forgiveness.
Apr '11
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
Mothership_Greg: Thought this was interesting about Fischer, from hotair:
I have no idea who Bryan Fischer is - but I barely know who Gary Bauer is.
Bryan Fischer is a pretty big guy; he was a problem for Romney in 2008, too. He's obviously not much more persuasive in Romneyworld than Al Sharpton.
Romneyworld didn't fire him, or want him to leave (except, perhaps, some jerk anonymous source for the National Journal). Grenell resigned over objections.
I don't know what made him resign, but I'm inclined to believe it was something private; bigotry was foreseeable.
Nov '11
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
James Of England
Mothership_Greg
Why else would one believe such a preposterous claim? · 29 minutes ago
Why do people make preposterous claims? Why did Glenn Beck say that President Obama has a "deepseated hatred for white people"? Because Glenn Beck is racist? No, because Glenn Beck runs his mouth a lot. Other people get paid to write crap and post it on the internet (Jennifer Rubin, Matthew Franck).
Of course, it's plausible to claim that Matthew Franck's poor argumentation is because he's some kind of bigot. It's also plausible for me to claim that James of England relentlessly deflects criticism away from the Romney campaign on Ricochet because he's a paid operative. But I would never make such a claim, because I can't read your mind or your bank account. As Franck specifically said he wouldn't have a problem with Grenell if he were openly gay, but not actively promoting same sex marriage, I'm inclined to take him at his word.
Apr '11
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
Casey Taylor
I agree, it's supremely dumb, and it plays perfectly into a Leftist trope. So why make it? The great thing about this whole internet thing is that we get to take time to write an argument, instead of spouting off with no recourse for correction. Franck, Bauer, et al, need to remember that. ·
This was a tragedy for the campaign. Grenell is extremely talented and well respected, and would have been a fantastic resource, savaging Obama's foreign policy. He's not Tony Snow, but I think he's the spokesman I've felt second worst about stepping down. He was also a great rebuttal to claims of Romney homophobia (when combined with a host of other data points), and not a rebuttal that will be easy to replace.
This is why I'm tempted to think that Franck, like Fischer, thought that it was more important that we campaign without prominent gay faces than that we win (or, at least more important than that we win the margin we lose from this). "First principles" and all that. The facial argument is simply too stupid, and they could not have failed to understand what they were doing.
Nov '10
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
I'm a conservative. I'm a social conservative. I'm an evangelical Christian. And I believe that the homosexual lifestyle is sinful. But how a person carries on his personal life behind closed doors is his own business. I believe that all are created equal in the eyes of God, and are endowed with equal rights, and have every right to fully participate in any political movement to which their conscience guides them. An influential Canadian Liberal once said, iconically, that the State has no business in the bedrooms of the Nation. It is a sentiment that should resonate with every conservative, regardless of the affilliation of the speaker. I'm happy, even proud, to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with folks who disagree with me on many things, but with whom we have fundamental agreement on how the country should be run. If I required conformity on every moral issue of importance to me I would likely whittle down my allies to about 5% of the population (and that's probably generous). It is not ours to judge and prune the politically faithful based on others lifestyle choices that are, frankly, nobody's business.
Apr '11
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
Mothership_Greg
Why do people make preposterous claims? Why did Glenn Beck say that President Obama has a "deepseated hatred for white people"?.........
.......It's also plausible for me to claim that James of England relentlessly deflects criticism away from the Romney campaign on Ricochet because he's a paid operative. But I would never make such a claim, because I can't read your mind or your bank account. As Franck specifically said he wouldn't have a problem with Grenell if he were openly gay, but not actively promoting same sex marriage, I'm inclined to take him at his word. ·
I promise you, I'm not paid; I was a volunteer in 2008, not even that now. When my green card allows it, the money will flow the other way.
The "good people say dumb stuff" argument is a good one. I think that I have a reasonable basis for my belief (the argument looks and behaves like a fig leaf), but I agree that I could be wrong. If he were on Ricochet, I would be less assertive about his beliefs; I would not even employ apophasis. My instincts, though, say "bigot" about Franck, not about Beck.
Jan '12
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
This is a watershed moment. On one side the GOP will be solely aligned with social conservativism and on the other, there will be room for differences in these precincts.
The conservative position is to support gay marriage - in my opinion. Restricting the rights of others does not somehow magically preserve heterosexual marriage. If that were the case, much more draconian measures toward preserving each sacred bond of each marriage would be normative, at least from the perspective of DOMA folk. But we just don't do that. There is a lot of room in the middle - via media!
Nov '11
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
Having now learned a little bit about Bryan Fischer, it seems anything that he has said is totally irrelevant to the Grenell situation. I imagine Fischer has a certain amount of influence over a small number of people (this article says his radio show gets two million listeners - I'm not sure if I believe that number, but I don't know much about evangelicals). Fischer has a history of saying inflammatory things, and the idea that Grenell is some shrinking violet who would resign because of some "religious" radio host is ridiculous on its face, given that he advocates for the foreign policy stylings of John Bolton. Leftists are using this as an opportunity to complain about extremist homophobic radical rightwing theocrats (the usual), and it's interesting to see that not only Leftists are invoking irrelevancies.
More plausible reasons for Grenell's resignation include
1) Something personal that we don't know anything about
2) Romney's team of Etch-a-Sketchers decided to pressure him out, for whatever political reason they came up with (because there's something about his past they discovered that would be harmful, because he's difficult to work with, whatever)
Nov '11
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
Necessarily, Romney's team is denying that they have anything to do with his resignation, which is either true, or is false (newsflash: political campaigns involve all sorts of falsehoods). Obviously, "Romney hires gay spokesman, forces him out two weeks later" is not a good headline when you're trying to win over undecided voters.
Nov '11
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
1. I wish conservatives would desist from starting a post or conversation with,
'I'm really not a bigot, homophobe...', or 'I have friends who are...'
I personally know it's a hard habit to break. It's telling that we feel obligated to do
this even in a friendly atmosphere.
2. Otherwise conservative or Republican people who believe in liberty in social
Edited on May 3, 2012 at 4:04pmissues do their cause no good by using this sort of thing, and rights
arguments, etc. A better and truer tactic is to fight for less government control
and many of these issues go away. Not all of them but most. Along with this is
the need to separate your political view on the issue with demand for social
agreement.
For instance many of the gay rights problems come from our tax structure.
Fight for a flat tax and spend time garnering support. (let me add that there
is no way to truly win a real argument concerning 'rights' on the gay marriage
issue anyway)
Argue the other way and it's not more liberty: California passes bill to Ask
Vendors About Their Sexuality.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/05/california_assembly_passes_bill_to_ask_vendors_about_their_sexuality.html#ixzz1toZGjg00
Jun '10
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
James Of England
This is why I'm tempted to think that Franck, like Fischer, thought that it was more important that we campaign without prominent gay faces than that we win (or, at least more important than that we win the margin we lose from this). "First principles" and all that. The facial argument is simply too stupid, and they could not have failed to understand what they were doing. · May 2 at 10:36pm
I agree, very much so. I would only add that Franck knew exactly what he was doing. At this stage of the campaign there's still some flux, so he followed the pattern: Create a minor kerfuffle, get a couple of movement people to publicly agree with you, at which point the Left seizes on it and the minor kerfuffle starts to distract from the candidate's message, and the guy you want gone is forced to resign. Several folks working the 2008 McCain campaign were notorious for this sort of thing.
Incidentally, who was the spokesman you felt worst about stepping down?
Apr '11
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
Casey Taylor
James Of England
This is why I'm tempted to think that Franck, like Fischer, thought that it was more important that we campaign without prominent gay faces than that we win (or, at least more important than that we win the margin we lose from this). "First principles" and all that. The facial argument is simply too stupid, and they could not have failed to understand what they were doing. · May 2 at 10:36pm
I agree, very much so. I would only add that Franck knew exactly what he was doing. At this stage of the campaign there's still some flux, so he followed the pattern: Create a minor kerfuffle, get a couple of movement people to publicly agree with you, at which point the Left seizes on it and the minor kerfuffle starts to distract from the candidate's message, and the guy you want gone is forced to resign. Several folks working the 2008 McCain campaign were notorious for this sort of thing.
Incidentally, who was the spokesman you felt worst about stepping down? ·
Tony Snow, who had a better excuse than Grenell. What a great guy.
Jun '10
Re: A Shameful Moment for the Conservative Movement
James Of England
Tony Snow, who had a better excuse than Grenell. What a great guy. · May 4 at 12:51pm
That sound you just heard was my hand slapping my head. Of course it was Tony. He most certainly was a wonderful man.