Common Sense, Uncommon Sense, Paradox and Irony

Dear John,

Check out "Romney calls Santorum's robocall a dirty trick" - http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-02-28/romney-santorum-robocall/53280620/1

If I got a robocall from Rooster, I'd vote for him.  

Obama will cream Santo.

Romney on the other hand...

***

Here's what's "in play."

The puritanical wing of The Republican Party must decide between its "Impossibly Pure Principles" and winning.

Keep in mind that if The Puritans succeed in nominating Santorum, the Dems will certainly"keep the Senate" and could even "get the House back."

This scenario mean that Obama -- re-elected and unfettered by 2016 re-election concerns -- would control both houses of Congress, in addition to making 2-3 Supreme Court appointments thus undermining conservative interests for the next 25 years. 

Nor does the Republican nightmare end there...

Judging by this year's Cast of Clowns, Hillary will be an overwhelmingly popular candidate in 2016, a circumstance that plausibly leads to 12 more years with a Democratic president. 

Merton was dead on. "The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander by Thomas Merton - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton

So...

What are The Puritans going to do?

Will they cling to their Impossibly Pure Principles... and lose?

Or will they "contradict their conscience" -- in effect, deliberately choose to do "The Wrong Thing" -- and thus have a shot at preventing a Democratic tsunami?

In other words, will American neo-puritans become fully human? 

Or, will they prolong the pretense that they're God's vicars on earth?

"Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savonarola

The profoundest truths are paradoxical.

American conservatives think it's "all" about "common sense." They believe that anorexic austerity, radical de-regulation and "No new taxes!" will bring about "The Second Coming" because these three traits are divinely ordained and the conservative "vision" of God never fails. 

And so, blinded by the light of Common Sense, conservatives are unable to see "The Big Picture." 

But it is not about "common sense."

It is about "uncommon sense."

The paradox at the heart of things trumps every simplistic battle cry mouthed by The Right.

Pax on both houses

Alan

PS The Big Picture was masterfully represented on today's Diane Rehm Show - http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-02-28/david-rothkopf-power-inc-epic-rivalry-between-big-business-and-government-and-recko

PPS Here's a twist: "A New Low? Romney Has Admitted Voting in Other Party's Primaries" - http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/02/28/147565335/a-new-low-romney-has-admitted-voting-in-other-partys-primary  Santorum and Romney: two guys in white hats... each of them closet "pots calling the kettle black." And the rank and file Pharisees suck it up.