Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
It's all well and good to talk about sweeping budget cuts that would never get passed, drastic changes in our governance structures that will never take hold, and quaint individuals running in elections they would never win, but at the end of the day the question is whether conservatives retain the basic core competence required to run a country.
Consider Mark Steyn's recent bashing of DNI James Clapper, a decorated veteran who has spent his career in defense of the nation. Consider Claire Berlinski's accusations that Bruce Riedel is a propagandist "for the enemy" because he disagrees with her analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood, despite the fact that Riedel has similarly dedicated his career to the CIA. In both cases, being an expert appears to be -- at least in the mind of Steyn and Berlinski -- a bad thing.
Consider conservative opposition to New START, even though every single member of the Republican foreign policy establishment including George Shultz, secretary of state for Ronald Reagan, supported the treaty. Consider the right-wing push for national missile defense, even though every missile defense expert (except marginal figures like Frank Gaffney) thinks the idea is a joke. Again, it would appear conservatives think knowing what you're talking about to be an undesirable trait.
Consider the failures of the Bush administration post-Katrina and during the Iraq War, which bear no repeating here.
Rather than learn and practice the nuts-and-bolts of good governance, conservatives, it seems, would rather learn ideology by rote memorization -- never meeting a tax cut they didn't like, a regulation they didn't oppose, or a diplomatic initiative they didn't despise. Where, then, does that leave middle-of-the-road professionals who only really care about politics the month before an election -- with the party of Palin and Bachmann or with the party of people who appear, at least, to want to get things done?
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Dec '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
So, the Muslim Brotherhood is secular?
Defending the nation is a great thing, a necessary thing. But defending one's country doesn't keep one from being completely wrong, even on matters of national defense.
What should Mark Steyn say? That the pinnacle of the US intelligence community just had a bad day?
In the case of Clapper's embarrassing interview a month ago, just having a bad day was a possible explanation. Not a comforting thought that the DNI wouldn't be briefed before an interview on national television, but it is possible to explain by some chance order of events.
In the case of his statements concerning the nature of the Muslim Brotherhood, a lack of a daily briefing just won't wash.
Mark Steyn did not trash James Clapper because he served his country honorably in the Air Force. Claire Berlinsky didn't castigate Bruce Riedel because he'd spent a career working in the Central Intelligence Agency.
Clapper and Riedel received the treatment they got because they were obviously and publicly wrong about issues that they should certainly have known.
Or are you saying we should overlook incompetence if the speaker has enough service time?
Dec '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
Mr. Steyn and Ms. Berlinski are in line to govern? Who knew?
Jul '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
Puzzling post.
By the way, I'm sick of the "Bush screwed up Katrina" canard. The responsibility for that lies with the Democratic Mayor of New Orleans, the Democratic Governor of Louisiana and those people who failed to evacuate while they still could have.
May '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
They're opinion-makers, arguably more important. But who's more out-of-touch -- career journalists or career politicians?
May '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
Kenneth: Puzzling post.
By the way, I'm sick of the "Bush screwed up Katrina" canard. The responsibility for that lies with the Democratic Mayor of New Orleans, the Democratic Governor of Louisiana and those people who failed to evacuate while they still could have. · Feb 15 at 7:04pm
Plenty of blame to go around. Absolving Bush of any responsibility is pretty puzzling.
Jul '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
If Clapper thinks the MB is a "largely secular" organization then he's not an expert on that group. Frankly, his position is ludicrous.
Are the Knights of Columbus a largely secular organization also? The Jesuits? Most Protestants aren't ministers, clearly they're largely secular. Evangelical & Mormon missionaries usually spend small portions of their lives evangelizing, so they're largely secular.
Harlech: It's all well and good to talk about sweeping budget cuts that would never get passed, drastic changes in our governance structures that will never take hold... but at the end of the day the question is whether conservatives retain the basic core competence required to run a country.
Consider the failures of the Bush administration post-Katrina and during the Iraq War, which bear no repeating here.
Rather than learn and practice the nuts-and-bolts of good governance, conservatives, it seems, would rather learn ideology by rote memorization --
The bolded stuff excepted, you're describing incompetent politicking, not incompetent governing. As for Katrina & Iraq, there were plenty of mistakes. Why presume that conservative ideology was the cause?
The query isn't : Can conservatives govern? Rather it's: Can anyone manage this behemoth?
May '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
Jerry Broaddus: Clapper and Riedel received the treatment they got because they were obviously and publicly wrong about issues that they should certainly have known.
Or are you saying we should overlook incompetence if the speaker has enough service time? · Feb 15 at 6:29pm
Eh, Clapper made a pretty big error, but throwing people under the bus for things they say rather than things they do is the liberal modus operandi, and we should be better than that.
The Riedel case is different: Riedel is making an analytical argument that simply reaches a different conclusion than does Claire's. We can say his analysis is incorrect, although we better have a good reason since he's talking from experience while we're blogging in our pajamas, and calling him a propagandist for the enemy is certainly the height of self-satisfied folly.
May '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
That's a fair point, but conservatives are supposed to be better at governance because we're smarter and wiser. We certainly won't be in a position to manage this behemoth if we seek to replace sound judgment with ideology. When Mark Steyn, Mark Levin, and Dennis Praeger are listed as leading conservative intellectuals, there's a pretty serious problem in the conservative movement.
Dec '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
It looks like bait to me.
Edited on Feb 15, 2011 at 7:39pmMay '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
Nickolas
It looks like bait to me. · Feb 15 at 7:36pm
Edited on Feb 15 at 07:39 pm
Oh yes, because anyone who supports New START must be a liberal netroot.
May '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
Yeah, it looks like a bait post. Here's the bite: Conservatives don't want to govern and lord over other folks.
What we want is to be left alone. To create a government that governs least and to that end unleashes the creative genius of an energetic people.
And "getting things done" just for the sake of doing "something" is not a sound conservative principle anyway.
Oct '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
i like this post. promote it to main feed.
Jul '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
I have very limited knowledge of Praeger & Levin, so I'll pass on commenting. As for Mr. Steyn... I have no problem with the "Conservative Intellectual" description.
To be sure, he lacks the Alphabet soup, but I have no problem with that. He's aggressive, yes, but not ignorantly so. In point of fact, I'd argue that the man deserves the "intellectual" label, full stop.
Look, Susan Sontag was an intellectual; I think that Mark's easily her match. Frank Rich & Maureen Dowd couldn't carry Steyn's whiskey on a tray. Ok, I've descended to cheerleading, but I think that's an appropriate response to the notion that his presence intellectually undermines conservatism.
Jun '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
Harlech
Oh yes, because anyone who supports New START must be a liberal netroot. · Feb 15 at 7:41pm
There are a host of very serious problems with New START, primarily the treaty's equivalence of strategic warheads with tac-nukes, secondarily with the treatment of delivery systems (hint: we give up all of ours). The Russians seem to have a much better appreciation for the lopsidedness of the thing than we do. You might want to watch this.
May '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
It doesn't make much difference. They interbreed. Today's journalist is tomorrow's political flack (Jay Carney) and yesterday's flack is today's journalist (George Stephanapolous, Chris Matthews.) And then there's the dual marriage like Andrea Mitchell, Christiana Amanpour or Campbell Brown.
As for Clapper and Reidel you're reduced to the credentialing argument vs the competency argument. I don't care what their credentials are. Jimmy Carter was both an Annapolis grad and a horrible Commander in Chief. Jack Kevorkian has a medical degree but I don't want him making health policy.
Jun '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
Stereotypically speaking, politicians are only competent in one area - being politicians (and even that is often questionable). Governance is something different, and depends much on leadership skills, vision, principles, and the scope of what is to be governed. The proper question is less "Do conservatives know how to govern" and more "Does anybody know how to govern."
Oh, and "every missile defense expert" thinks missile defense is a joke? Please. The only "experts" on ground and sea based missile defense are the folks hard at work to engineer and mature a still-developing integrated technology and capability.
It's easy to cherry-pick policies or programs you don't like, or that you believe should have lower priority. But what does that have to do with the ability or competency to "govern?"
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
Harlech,
Let's review the post in question. I'd ask you to look closely at the argument I've made--click on the links and read them, and watch the videos. I am arguing that anyone who would publicly argue that there is no reason to fear this movement either a) does not realize what the key figures in this movement are saying (these are not cherry-picked but typical examples, a point I've argued again and again on Ricochet), or b) is trying to mislead. The logic of this seems inescapable to me. Is there a third possibility? You would seem to be arguing that Riedel is a devoted lifelong servant of the government and an expert, and therefore need not be constrained by standards of evidence or logic in an appeal for our respect. Do you offer this argument across the board? Are all experts and devoted servants of the government incapable of ignorance or dissimulation, in your view? I suspect this position will lead you quickly to contradictions. They cannot all be right and honest, given how much they disagree with each other.
Dec '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
A classic example of the Halo Effect. Being an expert in one area does not automatically confer expertise in another. Clapper demonstrated vividly that he's no bloody use as DNI -- can't keep track of anti-terrorism ops in Europe, thinks the Muslim Brotherhood is secular. Claire can speak to Reidel.
Sean Penn and Leonardo DiCaprio are expert actors. That doesn't qualify them as experts in politics or climate science. Dr. Shockley was an expert in solid state physics. That didn't qualify him as an expert in eugenics.
Expertise is a good thing, if it's actual expertise in the subject at hand.
Dec '10
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
Harlech
Kenneth: Puzzling post.
By the way, I'm sick of the "Bush screwed up Katrina" canard. The responsibility for that lies with the Democratic Mayor of New Orleans, the Democratic Governor of Louisiana and those people who failed to evacuate while they still could have. · Feb 15 at 7:04pm
Plenty of blame to go around. Absolving Bush of any responsibility is pretty puzzling. · Feb 15 at 7:23pm
What, specifically, was Bush to blame for with respect to Katrina? What were his specific errors of omission and commission?
Or was he to blame simply because he was in office when it happened and it was a Bad, Bad Thing?
Re: Do Conservatives Even Know How to Govern?
The fact that Clapper and Riedel are professionals means next to nothing. Dopey "experts" are a dime a dozen. On the pertinent question -- the character of the Muslim Brotherhood -- Mark and Claire have the goods on them.
Here is the bit, however, that I least like: It's all well and good to talk about sweeping budget cuts that would never get passed, drastic changes in our governance structures that will never take hold, and quaint individuals running in elections they would never win, but at the end of the day the question is whether conservatives retain the basic core competence required to run a count.
Given the fiscal crisis that we are in, there are only two choices: sweeping budget cuts and drastic changes in our governance structures or unsustainable taxes. One or the other will come. The only question is which. To judge by the tone of his piece (which may, of course, be a provocation), Harlech is either a defeatist or a friend to unsustainable taxes. Which is it?