How to generate some real conservative energy in this country

Republicans attending a joint McCain-Palin town hall-type appearance yesterday repeatedly expressed anguish and fury at the thought of an Obama presidency, and, directly to McCain, their dissatisfaction with him for failing to oppose Obama seriously. They remained silent when he spoke of his trademark desire to work with Democrats.

Again we glimpse the silver lining of an Obama victory: that it would bring out the vast latent energies of the right half of America and transform our politics for the better—the same thing, I wrote eight years ago, that would have happened had Gore prevailed in the Florida election crisis. This is the third presidential election in a row in which I’ve said that there’s no success like failure. We may be about to find out if I was right.

(By the way, this business of McCain and Palin always campaigning together makes them look weak and silly, suggesting they’re not strong enough to campaign individually. As a female reader has said, it also makes them look embarrassingly like a husband and wife team.)

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Jeremy G. writes:

I know you believe that Obama would be better for conservatism in the long run than McCain and I am beginning to agree with you to an extent. I’m getting the sense that the conservative base is starting to radicalize, even with poor leadership from McCain. One can only imagine the level of passion the conservative base will display after four years with Obama as president and with an effective conservative leadership. But, as I’m sure you know, the Democrats in Congress are up by more than ten points in the polls. So Obama may become president with a large Democratic majority in both the House and Senate, giving him lots of opportunity for irreversible mischief making and four more years of irreversible demographic change plus possibly an amnesty for Hispanics. Furthermore, the white working class blames greedy whites for the present economic problem and is moving back into Obama’s camp. So our people will remain hopelessly divided, even under Obama’s rule. Liberalism and an incompetant Republican president work together to divide us. It may take several decades of Democrat rule and a ruined country before whites are united. How long will it take Obama to ruin the economy? But what is the alternative? If McCain wins, then we go essentially the same way, just at a somewhat slower pace. As you say, eventually the far left comes to power. But maybe we’ll have a better leader in four years who can turn the country around, although it doesn’t seem possible.

Gary M. writes:

What we might see if Obama is elected is an actual, real world demonstration of the “frog in a pot of water” metaphor.

With McCain as president, the “frog” (that’s us) will not realize what is hapenning until it is too late. Weakened from the gradually heating water, he will have no strength to jump out of harm’s way. With Obama as president, it will be like throwing the frog into the proverbial pot of boiling water: in obvious and immediate danger, the frog jumps out immediately to save himself.

Will that happen? I’m not making any bets what happens if Obama wins, but if McCain is the next president, we’re definitely the frog in the cold water.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 10, 2008 06:05 PM | Send