Posted by
"Mind and Morals" Michael Coyne on Thursday, November 20, 2008 1:00:00 PM
Am I concerned
about the fairness doctrine? No. It’s blatant censorship, and as dopey as some
of the things that Pelosi and her ilk in Washington will throw at us will invariably be, this should
not be a big fear for our party. I don’t see any version of the Fairness
Doctrine even getting out of committee in Congress. The American people will
see it for what it would be: the victorious Party beating on the losers.
America won’t like that and won’t stand for it, so I’m not afraid of the big,
bad Fairness Doctrine.
I am also not afraid
of The Obama Administration governing from the far left, which they will do. It
failed with Carter, and it will fail again. We just need to be patient. 2010
will see Democratic power substantially weakened, and 2012 will see the end of
The Obama Administration. I’m not afraid because I know that this level of
Democratic power is a temporary condition.
So what am I
afraid of?
Believe it or
not, I’m afraid of Republicans.
It’s true: right
now, we stand to become our own worst enemy. With Mike Huckabee, a man I
greatly respect, releasing his new book this week—in which he attacks just
about anyone who did not support him in the 2008 primary—I see a dangerous
possibility of what our Party could become.
Let’s meditate
on that for a moment; since when did we become the Party of sore losers? Since
when are Republicans the screaming four-year-old who can’t take it when their
brother beats them at “Sorry!”? That’s not us, Mike. At the very least, it
shouldn’t be.
Huckabee is
particularly hard on Governor Mitt Romney, of whom Huckabee says, “[Romney was]
anything but conservative until he changed the
light bulbs in his chandelier in time to run for president.” That’s just
unnecessary, Huckster.
Meanwhile, while we have Romney and Huckabee
getting ready to battle like feuding siblings, we have other names being
haphazardly tossed about for a 2012 run. It’s four years away, people! When I said,
“let’s look to the future” in my last piece, I didn’t mean start campaigning. I
meant hold guarded optimism about the Party’s future. Who knows, maybe we will
get Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination (a scenario of which I’m a big
fan), but it’s too far away for us to allow it to become our primary (sorry)
concern.
What we can
actually worry about is the concept of having too many conservatives on the
stage for the 2012 primary. This past primary, we had Fred Thompson, Mitt
Romney, and Mike Huckabee, among others, all vying for the “Mr. Conservative”
mantle. They wound up cancelling each other out, and so we got stuck with John
McCain. The true conservative base of the party was too divided, so all of the
real conservatives wound up losing. We can’t let that happen again.
Yes, I’ll admit,
I want Mitt Romney to run in 2012. And yes, I realize that this may make me
seem like a hypocrite for a variety of reasons. But I also know that earlier
coalescence around one strong conservative—Sorry,
Mike, but Mitt is indeed a conservative—will
make for a stronger party in the future.
My point is
this: Mike Huckabee has laid out a veritable roadmap on how to allow ourselves
to degenerate to infighting, bickering, and inter-partisan civil war. We have
to remember that the things that unite us are far greater than anything that
might divide us. We are better than sniping at our own allies over who said
what and when.
Let’s save some
argumentative prowess for the Democrats. And, even then, let’s keep it
reasonably civil. OK, Huckster?