Jennifer Rubin is a very
conservative Washington Post columnist.
Her conservative colleague, Kathleen Parker, is less doctrinaire but would never be mistaken for a liberal - unless categorizing Sarah Palin as unsuited for the vice-presidency reveals a quisling.
Her conservative colleague, Kathleen Parker, is less doctrinaire but would never be mistaken for a liberal - unless categorizing Sarah Palin as unsuited for the vice-presidency reveals a quisling.
Subsequently, Parker said this of The Republican Party “Call it the Palinization of the
GOP, in which the least informed earns the loudest applause.”
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Pat Buchanan, the living American who has served longest inside the Oval Office as presidential consultant, adumbrated Parker: "The Republican
philosophy might be summarized thus: To hell with principle; what matters is
power, and that we have it, and that they do not.” "Where the Right Went Wrong"
- http://www.amazon.com/Where-Right-Went-Wrong-Neoconservatives/dp/0312341156
Does character matter to Republicans?
Back in September Right Turn chided certain Republican presidential candidates for appealing to ignorance, glorifying contempt not just for liberal elites but for intellectualism in general. The good news is that voters are rejecting ignorance. The bad news is that they may have forgotten about character.
Kathleen Parker is wrong when she writes that the GOP embraced ignorance. (“Call it the Palinization of the GOP, in which the least informed earns the loudest applause.”) In fact, Republicans very quickly have come to their senses, having sniffed out Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s lack of policy chops and Herman Cain’s appalling ignorance. Parker missed apparently Perry’s plunge in the polls and the beginning of a similar decline for Cain. In the polling average of RealClearPolitics,Perry has gone from over 31 percent to about 8 percent. Cain has gone from a high of 26 percent to less than 19 percent. Cain’s decline was likely stalled by a rally-round-Cain phenomenon in reaction to the sexual harassment claims that some conservatives think was a nefarious plot to bring down a black conservative.
Now atop the polls are Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Neither appeals to ignorance. Neither lacks views on the array of issues facing the country. Neither answers questions with, “My advisers will tell me what to do.” Both have excelled in the debates where verbal acuity and intellectual quickness are prized. Both are widely traveled and interested in foreign policy.
In short, the ignorant candidates are faring poorly. The wonks are in ascendancy.
But now the challenge for Republican voters is whether temperament and character matter...
So we return to the question that may now be at the heart of the GOP primary: Does character, temperament and personal rectitude matter to conservatives? Certain conservative voices who claim to be speaking on behalf of the entire conservative movement have become expert in testing for ideological purity. Not only is this foolhardy and self-defeating, but it suggests that a list of positions on issues is all that matters. But we’ve learned from the Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton presidencies how critical are other matters. A dishonest, self-deluded, undisciplined and personally disloyal (what else is infidelity?) president is a nightmare. If you doubt it, just recall the Gingrich speakership years.
Republicans seem to have rejected know-nothingness. Now we will see if they insist on not only knowledge but character in a standard bearer for their party and the potential leader of the Free World.
By | 11/20/2011
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