It's been a while since I've engaged in politics here, but this post from Pruning Shears: The New Authoritarians, found via Andrew Sullivan, makes a case that's dear to my heart so eloquently that I just have to link it.
I see this debate come up on liberal blogs all the time, and often it's painted as "conservatives now trying to distance themselves from George W. Bush by claiming he's a liberal" or some such. Well, GWB is no liberal, but he's also not conservative in any modern meaning of the term. Perhaps he's conservative in the sense that the landed aristocracy in Latin America used to be considered "conservative", maybe still is. But that's not conservative as we mean it in our Western, neo-liberal sense. Anyway, it's a great post and a great theme, because I certainly buy into the Sullivanesque or Goldwateresque nomenclature where libertarians are conservative and big-spending, low-taxing, big-deficit, nannying Republicans are... fascist. Well, proto-fascist for a little while longer.
Although I don't really think my use of the F-word is that unfair, when you read about how badly the GOP (and just enough Dems) want to make it safe for companies to help spy on us in the future. How exactly are police states birthed, again? I think the Founders said it's something about lack of vigilance. But I don't have time to worry about all that crap. Recruiting is over, spring practice is about to begin, and there's a whole new season of American Idol!
Meanwhile, although I've been trying not to get too interested in the primary horserace coverage, since it's really just a battle between a lot of suboptimal options. But there are fun stories in each of the major parties now. On the Dem side, it's just the interesting prospect that Hillary Clinton's campaign may have literally never planned for the race to last this long. I'm pulling for Obama so I'm delighted, but mostly it's just Schadenfreude that the woman who would be queen, the George W. Bush of the Democrats (but somewhat more competent, at least, or so we thought) has been running a campaign premised on the notion that her competition would just roll over and die. Very Hillaryesque.
That's nothing compared to the hijinks on the GOP side, though. So McCain's pretty much won, that much is clear. And the base is rejecting that by supporting Huckabee, which is a lot of fun for those of us hoping for the whole party to implode as punishment for what they've put our nation through. But now, apparently the Washington state party just decided to call off their caucuses with 12 or 13% of the vote left and McCain leading by less than 2%! The whole thing is so fishy that I'm really pulling for it to stand, just to piss off the Huckabee voters and convince them to leave the party. (Really, you were being used all this time. Yeah, I know the truth hurts.) In any event, it sort of undermines the Republicans' notion that speaking up about electoral fraud is just sour grapes for Democrats. So this ought to be a fun situation to watch. Do you think Washington state Huckabee voters are going to turn out in great numbers to support McCain in November? Somehow, I don't.
