Powerline tells anti-McCain conservatives to shut up

John of Powerline, who the other day called John McCain “a great man,” writes:

If there are conservatives who sincerely believe that it makes little difference whether the Executive Branch is run by John McCain or Barack Obama, they are entitled to sit out the election. And if they’re going to sit it out, I’d appreciate it if they would sit it out entirely; in other words, stop attacking McCain for his “impurities.”

- end of initial entry -

Alex K. writes:

At the Powerline discussion forum, here’s a beautiful comment to that “shut-up-McCain-critics” post:

“Here, Here. As far as I’m concerned the proper home for anyone who says they’re a conservative first and a Republican second is the Democrat party.”

Yep, that’s pretty much the philosophy of the Powerline wing of the Republican party.

LA replies.

Amazing. That comment, which is the first comment in that discussion board, perfectly sums up the Powerline philosophy and also the John Podhoretz philosophy (see his article on Iraq and the Republican party in the March Commentary) that Republican party victory is not just the most important thing, it’s the ONLY thing, the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS, the standard of good by which the goodness of all other things is judged. According to this philosophy, if we reject this philosophy, if we refuse to make Republican success the standard of value for all other things, if we judge the Republican party itself by some higher standard, e.g., is it conservative, then we are in reality anti-Republicans, and hence Democrats.

LA continues:

In fact, the comment immediately following that comment shows that all is not lost:

We’re sick and tired of moderates and independents telling us to “suck it up.” The fact is that moderates and independents like those here need the conservative base, we don’t need them. We know what we believe, they haven’t a clue. We would expect the moderate group at powerline to miss it. Conservatives are who they are because they don’t sell out and compromise they’re beliefs out of fear. The only reason given in Paul’s response is “Vote McCain” out of fear of Obama or Hillary.

Quite frankly, that’s chicken-st.

We will clear the party and if it takes sitting it out, so be it. Enough is enough.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 09, 2008 11:33 PM | Send