Conservatives Crying Wolf

I feel like I am living in bizzaro world.  Normally thoughtful, intelligent people who I respect, if not admire, have lost their friggin’ heads.  Daily on Twitter, blogs far and wide, and conservative media we hear cries of outrage that are making us all look like… liberals.

I always thought we (conservatives) agreed on the following:

1. TRUTH and PERSPECTIVE matter.
2. Emotion will not guide our actions or speech but principle will.
3. These principles include many Judeo/Christian values like:
   1. Honesty
   2. Civility
   3. Integrity
4. Liberals suspend all of these principles to win their point.

EVERY GOP candidate has followers who are acting like Obama-trained Saul Alinsky surrogates intentionally distorting a competing candidate’s record and/or glossing over their own.

Can’t we all just get.. uhh - accurate?

• George Will called the only GOP representative who has reduced the federal government, fought and defeated HillaryCare and balanced the national budget (4 times) a Marxist. 
  
• Bill Buckley Jr.’s legacy, the National Review, declares that Newt’s own party kicked him out as Speaker which is both factually untrue (he resigned) and misleading.  Many former congressmen have declared Gingrich was right and the the $3 Trillion racked up by Boehner and company in the next 6 years following Gingrich’s balanced budget proves it.
  
• The infamous Tea Party usurping, Israel-loving Glenn Beck says Newt is so bad that he would vote for Ron Paul in a third party despite Paul’s blindness to Iran’s daily announcements to wipe out Israel.  And us.  So much for that whole “I love the Jews thing.”

I can’t tell you the number of conservative Tweeters and bloggers outright LYING, about empirical facts.  We castigate Holder, Obama, Pelosi and Reid (much less MSNBC) for much less.  Were these fellow conservatives deprived of the story of the boy who cried wolf growing up?

Would it kill anyone to say “I’m concerned that Newt was in favor of an expansion of entitlements in the Medicare Drug bill but he also forced Welfare reform on Bill Clinton and a Democrat Senate.”  Of course it would.  Especially if you need to distort Newt’s track record to make your candidate look better.  Or if you sincerely HATE Newt and are to dishonest to give him any credibility lest your own agenda fall apart. 

The candidates have done the same thing.  Michele Bachmann claims the man who spent the past three years writing and lecturing against ObamaCare (Newt) won’t repeal it.  Mitt Romney who actually PUSHED AND PASSED Cap and Trade in Massachusetts accused Gingrich of being for it. This despite Gingrich being chosen by the GOP to respond forcefully against it directly following Al Gore’s testimony before Congress.  And Rick Perry who supports giving taxpayer money and preferential treatment to illegal alien students accused Mitt Romney of being “for” illegals simply because a landscaping firm he hired did.

Isn’t this a liberal game you all are playing?

It’s much easier to categorize people as “all” or “nothing.”  But Bing Crosby beat and rejected his children and Hitler loved and lavished kids.  Neither of these define either man.  It is the fundamental tenant of tyranny to pronounce your enemies worst trait as all defining.  Prohibition was enacted to save every family from a drunken father or husband, wildly exclaiming that ALL alcohol is bad.  Even those of us who believe in the Bible know that while it says don’t be “drunk” with wine, it also recounts Paul urging Timothy to drink for digestion or King David who thanked God for wine which made his face “glad.” Extremism has no place in the conservative movement.

Perry is being called a racist, Pawlenty accused Bachmann of accomplishing “nothing,” and Santorum declared Cain’s 9-9-9 plan irresponsible because (like any tax on any plan) the tax could someday be raised.  And we really trust any of these people to not overreact when it’s something REALLY important?  Like whether to bomb Iran?

CASE STUDY: I could do this on any candidate but here is a clear example.  In the last Iowa debate Michele Bachmann accused the former Speaker of the House of being “for” partial birth abortion.  This would be a deal killer for all of the true social conservatives including me.  So is he for killing a baby halfway out of the womb as Obama was?  The facts are that the National Right To Life was urging the Republican National Committee to cut off funds to any Republican who didn’t support the Partial Birth Abortion (PBA) ban back when Newt was Speaker.  Gingrich (and the rest of the GOP) realized that since they didn’t have enough votes to override Clinton’s veto of the first two PBA bills, they would have no chance to in the future if current pro-abortion GOP congressmen left and let their seat go to a Democrat.  Gingrich himself has a 100% lifetime pro-life record with the exception of how Right To Life scored his single vote for welfare reform adjusting it to 98.5%.  Gingrich, is and always has been AGAINST any form of abortion including in the case of rape or incest.  In other words, Bachmann lied.  She thought she could put doubt into the heads of ignorant Republicans that he would not protect the unborn although he had a 30+ year history and TWO PARTIAL ABORTION BANS he helped engineer to get to Clinton.  Gingrich made a decision that they would loose the GOP majority they had, votes on other conservative measures and a chance to change the minds of these people WHO WERE ALREADY SITTING in Congress.  As Tony Blankley wrote this week, Gingrich was a genius in getting votes out of not only Democrats – BUT HIS OWN PARTY.  What good is it if you get rid of a Republican majority to make a statement and get nothing conservative passed?

Going back to our teetotaler analogy, this is like accusing the Southern Baptist groom of being sinner because his new Catholic father-in-law who is paying for the wedding, wants to toast his daughter’s wedding with champagne.

Is this who we want to be?  Dishonest brokers of half truths instead of someone whom people can count on to give them the unvarnished truth whether it leans our way or not?  Isn’t this the fundamental reason we despise the mainstream media?  If not outright lying about news, only telling PART of the truth? Or burying it?

What do we do with these people?  One tweeter told me this week, Bachmann needs to be replaced immediately!  While I’ve argued that her sin of “false accusation” is actually more egregious than Newt’s past personal sins (namely because he has repented and she hasn’t), this is more of the same.

But, do you know how hard it is to find a Republican in Minnesota
A) willing to run, B) conservative, and C) a supporter of the Tea Party?   A joke about finding 3 wise men and a virgin come to mind.  Bachmann is undeniably a secure vote for conservative initiatives, someone who now has a growing influence to recruit and fund other candidates and now, has a donor base to help ensure her next campaign should she loose in her Presidential bid.  How many of those do we have?  Last I counted we were about 213 short in the House and about 94 in the Senate.  Let’s not shoot those who aren’t perfect or we will be in the minority for …ever.

Let’s hold fast to our ideals without alienating every single person who doesn’t agree with us.  The whole purpose of this country is to allow FREEDOM of Religion, FREEDOM of Speech and FREEDOM of THOUGHT.  Let’s show a little faith in people to learn from their mistakes and keep holding a two sided mirror of truth up for ourselves and for others.  But let our speech be seasoned with grace.  And truth.

Otherwise the next time you sell false outrage without facts, it will be to a village that suspects you don’t know what a wolf looks like - even if you held up a mirror.

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