Romney, Gingrich, Louse, Flea
I worry about you US conservatives. I worry a lot. Sometimes I look at the slow-motion car crash which is your Republican candidates list and I go: "Nah. The reason it looks so depressingly awful to me is that I don't properly understand US politics. There are nuances here I'm missing. If only I but knew it both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are really plausible candidates to put the US on the road to recovery. It's just that I lack the Kremlinological analysis skills of Paul Rahe, or Peter Robinson or Diane or Mollie or the rest of the gang. Darn it, I probably know even less about US Conservatism than Rob....."
Then, in my darker moments, I realize: "No. Things really are as bad as I think. And probably worse."
Here, for example, is a superb, must-read article by George Will (H/T Iain Murray) explaining precisely why Gingrich is entirely unfit to carry the torch for US conservatism. He says:
The Kennedy-Gingrich doctrine is this: What the economist Joseph Schumpeter called capitalism’s “creative destruction” is not really creative. Rather, it is lamentable and, when facilitated by capitalists, reprehensible.
He goes on to quote Paul Ryan after Gingrich had attacked his entitlement reform as "right wing social engineering": “With allies like that, who needs the left?”
I think that the general thrust of Will's piece is that Romney would be a better bet. Yeah, maybe. But for me it just calls to mind Dr Johnson's dictum: "Sir, there is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea."
Face up to it guys: all those of you at Ricochet, day after day, trying desperately to conjure up new excuses as to why Gingrich and Romney really aren't as dreadful as they look on paper - you're living in La La Land.
I've the same thing done by so many British conservatives with David Cameron. It's called projection. You can't bring yourself to accept that your faux-conservative RINO imposter is quite as lame as you suspect he is, so what you do is reinvent him in your imagination with all the attributes you feel you would like him to have. Lipstick on a pig. Makes no difference. It's time you all got real and got behind the only candidate with the gumption and ideological conviction to do the necessary.
I think you know who I mean....
- Comment (62)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments:
Aug '10
Re: Romney, Gingrich, Louse, Flea
Barkha Herman
Paul DeRocco
Maybe so, but "youth" are stupid. Being able to appeal to them doesn't say much for the soundness of one's own ideas. · Dec 14 at 9:38pm
I am sorry but I don't buy that just because you are young, you must be stupid. But, by all means, be the usual republican who talks the fiscal responsibility but dos nothing when it comes right down to it. Or worse, votes for RINOs. You look like you are not young, so you must b e brilliant!
I'm not saying anything of the sort. There are the occasional bright young people. But on the average, they're as ignorant as one would expect of a cohort with so little life experience. There's a reason why OWS looks like a bunch of college kids, while the Tea Party looks more like a bunch of retirees--and the latter's ideas are far sounder.
Jul '11
Re: Romney, Gingrich, Louse, Flea
Paul DeRocco
...
And the tea party supported the likes of Christine O'Donnell. The youth is the only way to recapture conservatism. The Newts and the Romneys of the word are not attracting any of the youth. How do we move the direction of the country? Stodgy old intellectuals that make excuses for RINOs of the past may be a good pass-time for the Ricochet crowd, but unless we turn the hearts and minds of the next generation, we are already doomed.
And it is not the RINOs that are appealing to the young - no matter how bright. It is the Ron Pauls of the conservative movement.
BTW if you want to see what will possibly save the west, go to Y-Combinator. Go to Khan academy. Listen to Peter Thiel. Go to 20 under 20. No old RINOs / tea partiers there. There is a entire sector out there that we need to attract. Or we could engage in empty intellectualism and congratulate ourselves on being old and wise.