As I sometimes find myself here defending the conservative point of view, it occurs to me that there might be some misunderstanding, especially on the part of those who think "Republican" and "conservative" are synonyms. So, just in case: I’m not a Republican. I’ve never identified myself either officially or philosophically with any political party.
Richard Brookhiser of National Review said something a while back that struck a chord with me. There was some worry going on at the NR blog about what such-and-such would mean to Bush’s poll numbers (or something). Brookhiser threw in two sentences that went something like: "I don’t give a damn about Bush’s numbers. I want the country to be well-governed."
Just so. I don’t give a damn about the Republican Party per se, although I mostly vote for it. Those votes are a means to an end, not an expression of affection or loyalty.
Actually I kind of like Mark Shea‘s nomenclature: the Stupid Party and the Evil Party.
–Maclin Horton
Well put.
I prefer how Hitchens presents our options, his disagreement and dislike of Republicans, and his contempt for Democrats.
I don’t see any reason why they both shouldn’t be called evil parties.
Bush is not perfect, but he at least did some things right…ie, appointment of John Roberts and Alito. Plus the removal of Saddam , who killed millions, is at the top of my list.
I’m not feeling especially combative right now, so I’ll just say I disagree with you, Mr. Bulldog, nearly completely about Bush.
I guess this is one of those things I will never understand. While political philosophy and party politics are different things, they are not unrelated. The former is ends; the latter are means. Maybe the source of this is my unwillingness to believe that someone could only care about a ‘better world’ but have no interest in how we arrive there. If one wants to claim their party support is only a temporary arrangement, I’m fine with that. I just don’t care for the posturing that the Republican (or the Democratic) party could go to hell tomorrow, and one would be fine with that. Don’t get me wrong, doing the calculus here I’m going to be doing a 90% Republican ticket, and I’m not pleased with that.
Parties (in the U.S.) are coalitions. Therefore you are always going to have party members who promote ideas and policies you agree with. Sometimes those party members will have the upper hand. The question is, which evil policy can you stomach the most or which one can you not stomach at all.
The real solution to the trauma of U.S. party politics is to get involved in the parties and change them, to the extent possible, from within. Then vote for the candidate you think will do the most good/least harm.
Third party candidates, esp. for national office, never do anything to change the situation except sometimes put the worse candidate into office.
Um, I meand “disagree with,” not “agree with” on the last comment.
Actually I think good names for the two parties are the Stupid Evil Party and the Evil Stupid Party.
M.Z., I’m not entirely sure I understand your point, but I may agree with it. When I say I don’t care about the Republican party, I mean I don’t care about it for its own sake. There’s no quasi-tribal emotion involved, no sense of loyalty to an institution. I notice in a lot of Catholics of a certain age a very powerful emotional attachment to the Democrats. That sort of thing is completely foreign to me.
Setting aside the Republicans for the moment, to try to escape partisan passions, my view of a party is that I want it to prosper to the extent that it espouses principles and takes actions with which I agree. It’s a very drab and unromantic view, and involves pretty low expectations. It’s somewhat analogous to a commercial relationship. Assuming no ties of friendship are involved, whether I buy a car from Smiling Bob or Happy George is just a matter of which combination of car and price is more to my liking.
Robert, I tend to agree with your view. The third-party argument always rages, and is always the same–”You’re compromising with abomination” vs. “You’re throwing away your vote and helping the Even Worse Candidate.” Both are usually at least partly true. Like you say, that’s politics–you have to choose your poison.
Daniel, that’s funny.
Yep, we’re agreed.