May 25, 2009

Queen of Scots

Much as I'm free to refer to myself by the subject title, Colin Powell is of course free to call himself whatever he wishes, including "a Republican".

But that doesn't change the fact that I'm neither female nor of Scottish ancestry - and that Colin Powell really isn't any more of a Republican than was Arlen Specter.

He is, after all, pro-Abortion, pro-Affirmative Action, seems to favor (further) massive government intervention in healthcare (and a whole bunch more of the economy) and, as they say, the list goes on and on.  In fact, I cannot seem to find one single, solitary issue (and certainly none of the "hot-button" issues) on which he agrees with the mainstream of the Republican Party (though my search of such topics was hardly what one would consider exhaustive).  He seems to be pretty much a straight-up liberal (in the modern sense) on just about every issue and would almost certainly be no worse than center-of-mass ideologically in today's Democrat Party.

But fine - he wants to call himself a Republican, then who am I to argue?

The thing is though, I spend a pretty fair amount of time arguing with people along the lines of "Why again do you belong to (fill in the blank)?"  Usually this is in regard to the Catholic Church - and usually after Mass with people who try to explain to me how the Church is wrong about abortion, homosexual marriage, divorce, the infallibility of The Pope, and just about every issue that cannot be loosely defined "social justice" (and even on those issues they are on doctrinally dubious ground).  I ask them, honestly, if they disagree with the Church on so many basic, doctrinal issues then why don't they just leave?  They're not Catholics; whatever they want to call themselves, they ain't in communion with The Church and so are living, in effect, a lie.

But, they explain to me, this is their Church, and nobody is going to tell them they should leave it.

In other words, Doctrine be darned, Truth be darned - they need to do as I want.

And I get much the same feeling listing to Colin Powell these days - except that I've long, long thought that Colin Powell's much-publicized decision to "out" himself as a Republican wreaked of convenience.  It was, after all, to his political benefit to declare in that direction and, to my mind, he's done nothing - nothing, whatever - to actually act like a Republican, he's not as far as I know ever put himself out there for a traditionally Republican point of view on any issue.

And yet, he insists that the Party confirm to his vision of the week of what it should look like and how it should act.  And that it should always be more "moderate" - whatever the heck that means.

But when the GOP in 2008 nominated Mr. Big-Tent, jab his finger in the eye of conservatives at every opportunity, Senator reach-across-the-aisle - John Mavericky McMaverick - what did Mr. Powell do?  Why, this life-long true-to-the-end, straight-up Republican endorsed the single most leftist, radical, unqualified nominee in the modern history of the Democrat Party instead.

In other words, Colin Powell - much like the Boston Globe - endorsed a hard-left nominee over someone who should, by all accounts, be the quintessential "moderate" GOP nominee.

So much for the electability of "moderates".

And really this points to the singular flaw in the "moderate to get elected" conventional "wisdom" - the next time it works will be the first time it's worked.  Certainly the Democrats were in no way punished by tacking hard-left after the 2004 election (if not before) - they now have the White House, almost insurmountable majorities in Congress, the majority of Governorships, etc.

Again, so much for the electability of "moderates".

The MSM will, of course, do all they can to feed the fire of this intra-party feud - all the while trying to make-out the nationalization of the auto, financial and healthcare industries to be as American as Apple Pie.  It's part of the reason why they're dying, of course, but it is still somewhat effective.

And I really don't have a problem with moderates in the Republican Party - quite the opposite, in fact.  What I do have a problem with however is their driving the agenda - because it really, seriously doesn't look like they have much of one.  At all.

So I would thank Mr. Powell and his fellow travelers to keep their egotistical noses out of the business of making policy for the party and leave that to people (whomever they may be) who actually have policy ideas that are distinct from the Democrats - they can then decide whether they can live within that frame work and then - here's a novel idea - actually work to get that agenda implemented.

Otherwise, they can take the same advice I give to my self-excommunicated parishioners - Go in Peace, Go with God... but Go.

Posted by: DocJ at 04:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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