Feb 12 2008
Hannity & Gingrich, Conservatives In “Exile”
Another day, another whine from conservative talk radio. Hannity and Speaker Newt Gringrich were talking today about how they are now “conservatives in exile” – which means they no longer consider themselves Republicans. Clearly they see something not apparent to the rest of regarding the fortunes of the hyper-right in this nation. Why else basically declare they have been defeated in terms of dictating the path of the GOP? Why go in ‘exile’ unless it is clear that they have destroyed their cause and no longer represent the formative views of the GOP?
After years if being a conservative with principled and rational differences with the hyper-partisan right (which I prefer to call the hyper-right to save some key strokes) and being disappointed with their direction and destruction of the governing coalition I find the current ‘exile’ statements quite petulant. When I and others disagreed on Dubai Ports, The Gang of 14 and Comprehensive Immigration reform we were ridiculed and you know those who ran the GOP over the cliff wanted unconditional support and obedience to their views. And now that they have become the minority voice in the governing conservative coalition they are declaring themselves unable to support that coalition unless and until it bows to their views.
Quite a fit of self absorption there if you ask me. I am a conservative. I believe in low taxes, strong defense, sanctity of life, finishing our work in Iraq and strong borders. I also believe that the most prudent path forward on some of the nation’s most nagging issues is to deal with long term illegal workers with fines and back taxes and criminal background checks (toss anyone out who has committed a violent crime, never to be allowed back). I was not spooked by Dubai Ports and to me the Gang of 14 helped pave the way for two conservative justices on the USSC and a plethora of conservatives judges across the federal benches.
For having these positions which are more than defendable (and probably more representative of America overall – that great country the hyper-right claims to love so much) I saw responses such as traitior, fool, quisling and our President attacked and called names like El Presidente Jorge Bush. This one way obedience being demanded by Hannity and his fellow exiles is what destroyed the coalition – they are untrustworthy allies. They don’t get their way they lambast their allies and bolt to the sidelines.
It occurs to me that exile is another word for loser – someone who did not get their way (lost) and cannot handle getting back into the game with respect to those who may have bested them this round. They are not leaders and clearly do not have what it takes to lead – patience and respect for others. All I could see from Hannity’s and Gringrich’s exile as the final admission – they lost and now they know it and now those who disagree will pay the price.
Empty threats from a spent political force IMHO. Compromise is not evil. Working with fellow Americans to find a way forward together is not un-American. Having a modicum of respect for political opponents is not weakness. Running away when one loses a round is a sign of weakness. Somehow I fail to see how Anne Coulter voting for Hillary is the ‘true’ conservative over someone willing to support McCain (despite grave differences) to make sure Hillary and Obama never become President. But that is the twisted pretzel logic coming from those who lost the broader base because they could not deal professionally with those who disagree.
I am not the only one wondering what happened here, just check out Ollie North’s thoughts on this today. This distancing is not helping beat the Democrats.
Update: Reader Crosspatch notes Hannity has just declared himself a RINO – a Rep in Name Only. How ironic, and finally factual.
You don’t want them to respect your opinion, you want them to feel, and be, and do just as you do or you get your panties in a wad! I really see no difference between you other than ideology. Your methods are the same.
No wonder conservatives are confused. Here’s what Newt has to say:
So … conservatives need to be independent of the Republican party … but … uhm .. not really. Huh?
My first posting so please be gentle with me. As a lifelong conservative first hatched and nursed by Ronald Reagan, I feel I must add my two cents to this little gumball machine you have going here. I would no more choose to be a republican first before a conservative any more than I would choose to be a Catholic before being pro life. There is right and there is wrong and what some apparently don’t understand in this little forum is that ‘right” isn’t negotiable. You can call yourselves “middle”, “independent”, “open minded”, or even “bi-partisan” for all I care but it won’t make any difference to history when she writes how badly you have dropped the ball again for your country. Conservatives are trying to win a war against cultural rot in this country and the center is just trying not to lose the next battle. But all is not lost so I give you this little silver lining. Conservatives aren’t going anywhere and we will be here to pick up the party…again…after it’s made yet another in it’s long history of short-sighted maneuvers. Hard for me to believe that the day would come when I would have to defend the giants of our own party…the Coulters, Limbaughs, Hannitys, and Levins to their own party. But our party isn’t exactly known for a grand vision lately, is it?
And one little small note if you will allow me…”suicide voters”? C’mon, there is no such thing. Did you really think an Ann Coulter would walk into a booth and pull the lever for Hillary Clinton? It appears to me that if the centrists listened and read a little more conservatism than took the media’s words for it they just might not be “hyper”-ventilating so badly lately. (yes, pun intended)
LOL! 75 – you mean to tell me the world cannot survive without you!
You are just as egotistical as Sean Shammity. While you sit and pout watch how others stand and do.
Time for new ‘giants’ – ones who get things done and do less self obsessing. BTW – I am not one of these new leaders, I welcome those who will be. Like JC Watts and many others.
“Did you really think an Ann Coulter would walk into a booth and pull the lever for Hillary Clinton?”
It doesn’t matter what SHE would really do, as much as what she would influence others to do. If her rhetoric causes 100 or 1000 or 10,000 other people to do something, then it doesn’t really matter what she does, does it?
Whippet1,
At one time Crosspatch and I considered ourselves conservatives. We have been told by Hannity and others we are not. Therefore ‘we’ don’t care any more about those ‘pure’ conservatives since they have declared us their enemy.
We responded as we should – people decide to wage a battle and we engaged. It’s either battle or negotiate – and negotiate was pulled off the table by the hyper-right.
Which did YOU want – us as allies or enemies??? We only adjusted to changes outside our control by these new conservatives in exile.
AJ,
There’s that name calling again. Funny how it just isn’t the same when you do it, right? You are a reflection of those you mock.
Which others stand and do? McCain, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Hagel, Olympia Snowe? Your dislike is all directed at the “giants” because they are “giants.” Without the Rush’s and Levin’s anyone with a conservative bone in their body would have been left with only the MSM to enlighten us… and we know how honest they are. You can have your disagreements but be careful when you bite the hand that fed you. When they are gone you may like the alternative even less.
Great first post, 75. You’ll keep AJ on his toes!
I am for a strong national defense. I am against nanny government. I am for private enterprise and personal responsibility. I am against “shared responsibility” and socialism.
I am for having control over our borders but I am also against deporting 15 million workers out of our economy. And I would rather make them US citizens and maybe even bring their families here than to keep sending billions back to Mexico to support their family there.
I would also be in favor of an economic (not political) union of Canada, the US, and Mexico that would make us (by far) the world’s larges oil producer, would wipe out over half our oil imports from our trade deficit, and keep all that money that is sent to Mexico every month in our economy. We would be set for the next 50 years if we could do that but there are knuckle-heads that don’t understand the math that would fight that tooth and nail. Because they are ignorant and make emotional choices, we all suffer.
AJ,
I could care less what Rush and Hannity say if I don’t agree with them! No one will tell me who or what I am or what I should believe. No one will make me feel apart from something that I know I am ideologically a part of. I don’t see you going off on Keith Olbermann or Chris Matthews who tell us all every day what idiots we are to not think like them but instead you turn on your own conservatives just as you say they have turned on you.
I feel like I’m watching children fight. They didn’t want us, they declared us their enemies, they decided to wage war… What if they feel that You declared them as enemies and you decided to wage the war by abandoning them and all they have done to bring conservativism into the open? Who’s right and who’s wrong? I know, I know you think you’re right…so do they. Somehow I don’t think either side would be happy with any negotiations.
What do I want? I’d like you as allies but I don’t hear compromise in your tone either.
So here’s my question…What’s the battle worth if no one wins?
Crosspatch,
You’d like to make all of the illegals citizens and bring their familes here so that they don’t send all of their money back to Mexico? Are you kidding me? Do you live in a border state? Do you live in an area with a high population of hispanics? Do you work with them or associate with them in your employment? Because if you do you are the knuckle-head and if you don’t then it makes sense that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Legal or illegal – our money will be making its way across the border.
Whippet – it’s lonely trying to reason with the over-the-top foaming from the hyper-not-true-conservative-and-definitely-not-pure-conservatives-who-are-repubs-first-and-foremost posters here. And I concur with 75.
I mean — who defines themselves first by their party, and then secondarily by their principles and beliefs? Not me, but evidently I’m in the minority here as CP & others made clear they are repubs first.
These folks need to calm down & get a grip. In time (yes – there’s plenty of time to unite and get ready for Nov), conservatives will come around and definitely back McCain. But, just as folks here are railing against the “true” consrvatives to back McCain, it’s incumbent on McCain and his surogates to reach out to conservatives rather than lambasting them. The CPAC speech was a good start; more is needed.
Andy McCarthy summed it up well at NRO the other day. Give it a read (hopefully the link works).
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YWEzN2EyMDcyNmY2OWMwYmNjMzhlYmRlYWVjMGRiNGY=
LOL! I guess as an independent I don’t fall into either camp!
Whippet1,
I only observed the GOP crack up – I did not start it or push for it. Want to get past it? Mea Culpa time for the far right. Time to admit they went too far in the name calling against those who were once their allies.
You want to see a united party? What’s holding you back? I am an independent who is conservative – to a point. After years of respect we got ‘traitor’ and ‘quisling’ thrown out because we agreed with Bush and McCain on immigration.
The civil war was cemented over immigration. It can be ended over the same subject. But don’t expect me to believe in miracles after 2_ years of mudslinging by the now chastised and minority ‘true conservatives’, apparently now in self imposed exile.
Purity over all as been the rallying cry – what makes you think the impure care???
LOL! Whippet1,
75 did nothing but remind me how fresh the air is outside the GOP and its far right stalwarts. Keep it up – I am sure you can expand the conservative losses in November to epic proportions the way you folks are heading.
AJ,
You ignore or dismiss the “racists” and “xenophobes” and other slurs thrown at the conservatives who opposed the immigration bill, McCain being one of the leading practioners. Not to mention the shady, backdoor manner in which they originally tried to ram this bill thru.
Yes, it could be an ugly Nov … McCain has a few months to mend some fences and build up conservative support in order to have a chance. Hopefully, he’ll learn from his poor showings against Huck what he has to do.
AJ,
The way you talk I would assume the “impure” (as you call them) don’t care. And I’d assume they never did. Why? How would that civil war over immigration be ended? I get the feeling it’s your way or the highway…no room for compromise with those who feel differently, right? They wouldn’t compromise with you so you won’t compromise with them, right? Or is it just about power…
And I see you SHOULD understand the difficulty conservatives may have with a McCain since you don’t expect to believe in miracles after 2 years of mudslinging with the so-called hyper-right. That should indicate that some conservatives will need some time to come around to McCain but instead you act like we should just roll-over instantly and drool over him after he stabbed conservatives in the back so many times, right?
You’re absolutely giddy that McCain is the nominee and you don’t even like him! You think it proves that the “true conservatives” are dead or in exile and it proves nothing. You have ignored the unique nature of this primary and the candidates who were running and instead cherry-pick what you want to prove the “moderates have won” the “moderates have won.”
I just dont get the hatred you feel for a few people who don’t think the way you do. And what’s funny is they do think like you on most of the other issues. You’re willing to compromise on a McCain who is probably ideologically more left of you than Rush and the others but you’re finished with the Rush’s of the party. Seems more like spite to me …..
and one last comment before I turn in for the night….
We’re all going to need the Rush’s and the rest to get the truth out to as many people as possible about the socialist ideologies of Obama or Clinton. If you think they’re useless, think again.
Wiley,
I loved that article and agree with it completely. AJ needs to read it also since he thinks conservatives aren’t needed. He needs to really think about who might be causing those ” losses in November to epic proportions.”
What I want to know is, if the conservatives are so enraged about McCain being the GOP nominee, and if there are so many conservatives in the GOP that the GOP just cannot win without them, then where the hell were they six or twelve or eighteen months ago? Why weren’t they pushing Hunter or Thompson or Tancredo or whoever else would have made the conservatives happy a lot harder than they did? After all, that’s what the primary is for — to hash out the candidate who makes the party’s “base” happy. And yet, to hear the conservatives talk, that simply didn’t happen this time around.
But an awful lot of people are voting for McCain in these primaries, aren’t they? Maybe it’s those who’ve been dubbed “RINOs” by the conservatives who are the REAL base of the party and, contrary to popular belief, always have been.
And maybe what we “RINOs” are feeling against the conservatives isn’t anger per se — just disgust at watching our former allies being sore losers about wanting Ronald Reagan and winding up with John McCain instead, and apparently trying to stir up their readers and listeners into making it harder for the GOP to win, and making it easier for the Democrats to win instead.
The time to do something about McCain was months ago, not now. Not unless you can somehow put Huckabee over the top in whatever primaries remain to be won.
The thing is the hyper right can dish it out, but they can not take it. They are the ones who are raising a stink here. The cry babies.
I am sure that McCAin would be happy to make peace with these people, they are the ones making the threats, not him.
Meanwhile, Obama mania is taking over the country.
I don’t think AJ is giddy that McCain is the nominee, I just think he is noting the fact that in spite of Rush’s demands that voters not vote for him, many of them did anyway.
And of course the response to that from the hyper right has been to sulk and pout and say nasty things about other people. And then when those people respond whippet and wiley and their friends defend the cry babies who started the whole embarrassing and incredibly stupid and counter productive hissy fit in the first place.
I think that AJ would have been happier if someone like Rudy had gotten the nomination, but the anointed few did not support him either. All 1% of them loved the hardliner Tancredo, but he fizzled out. And then there was Fred!, yawn….and then there was Brownback, more yawning. They did not like Huckabee even though he could win elections. They only decided they liked Romney too late in the game.
And then when McCain wins fair and square, they pout, they call people names, they make threats, they denounce the party, they do everything but think about what it would really mean to have Obama for president.