Topic: One of the best Explanations of the Liberal/Conservative Divide Ever.

[Weisshaupt]

http://coldfury.com/2012/08/15/is-romney-learning/

We can only hope that the passionate reaction to Ryan’s selection as VP inspires some reflection and soul-searching on Romney’s part. The nice thing about him being so malleable is, it just might. This is a hopeful sign.

This is an election in which we should be talking about the path ahead, but you don’t hear any answers coming from President Obama’s re-election campaign. That’s because he’s intellectually exhausted, out of ideas, and out of energy. And so his campaign has resorted to diversions and distractions, to demagoguing and defaming others. This is an old game in politics; what’s different this year is that the president is taking things to a new low.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
In 2008, Candidate Obama said, “if you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters.” He said, “if you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.” And that, he told us, is how, “You make a big election about small things.”
That was Candidate Obama describing the strategy that is the now the heart of his campaign.
His campaign and his surrogates have made wild and reckless accusations that disgrace the office of the Presidency. Another outrageous charge came a few hours ago in Virginia. And the White House sinks a little bit lower.
This is what an angry and desperate Presidency looks like.
President Obama knows better, promised better and America deserves better.

PREACH IT, brother. This part, though, is off:

Over the last four years, this President has pushed Republicans and Democrats as far apart as they can go. And now he and his allies are pushing us all even further apart by dividing us into groups. He demonizes some. He panders to others. His campaign strategy is to smash America apart and then cobble together 51 percent of the pieces.
If an American president wins that way, we all lose.

Actually, no. We have been pushed apart over a period not of four years, but of decades. That schism has occurred because the Democratic Party became the Democrat Socialist Party, abandoning the core principles upon which this nation was founded in preference for a mess of collectivist pottage. They sold out our birthright as a nation of free and independent individuals–trusted to make choices that would benefit not only themselves, but the country as a whole, if indirectly–and tried to turn us instead into a nation of sheep: wards of the state, vassals in thrall to an overlarge and too-powerful central government. Such was the core of the original Progressive movement, and such remains the ambition of its bitterly-clinging modern adherents.
As such, this conflict is in no way a bad thing; it is a necessary thing, a vital thing. The division we are seeing is the inevitable result of two incompatible belief systems rubbing against each other and striking sparks. Rancor fueled by molten passion in this case is a feature, not a bug.
Progressivism simply cannot be reconciled with an America whose people are citizens, not subjects. It is not compatible with individual liberty and unrestrained initiative. It is an ideology not of freedom, but of fetters. It is based not on self-determination, but on coercion and compliance. It is Obama, his halfwit lackey Biden, and their ideological confreres–not conservatives and libertarians–who seek to put us in chains.
America works best as a near-chaotic thing, wherein ideas and ambitions are allowed to ferment and develop organically, to succeed or fail on their own and according to their merits–not as some tightly-controlled lab experiment run by gray men far distant from the lives and circumstances of those they direct from on high.
Progressivism is fundamentally an ideology that calls for micromanagement of all aspects of life by supposed “experts” who have no real, practical experience with that which they hope to dominate. They wish to meddle in affairs that are too big for them: to run things that are beyond human control, too complex and unpredictable to be reined in, far beyond the reach of big, broad rules made by small, narrow men.
The original American ideal called for allowing people to direct their own lives as they see fit, without much in the way of interference or restraint, and trusted them in the main to make choices and pursue goals that would advance civilization on their own, in ways that could not possibly be predicted–or, sometimes, even imagined.
These things are NOT compatible. You either believe in the one, or the other. There can be no lasting compromise between them; one of them must win out in the end, and at the expense of the other. If it’s Progressivism that wins out, as it has been for decades now, freedom and Constitutional government will not only shrivel and die, it will be actively destroyed. Which is exactly what has been happening, slowly but surely…and painfully.
The sorry pass at which we now find ourselves–staggering debt; incomprehensible spending; a moribund economy; an enervated, cynical populace unsure of themselves and mistrustful of their fellow citizens; a feckless, wholly corrupt political class devoid of integrity and incapable of true statesmanship; an unintelligible morass of burdensome regulation which often contradicts its own directives and hampers instead of protects; a nation groping down a blind alley of failure, stagnation, decadence, and despair, looking for some way, any way, out–was not some random event, brought on by errors in management and requiring only slight adjustments and corrections. It was the inevitable and entirely predictable result of allowing a philosophy based on compulsion, harassment, suppression, skepticism, and distrust to take root and flourish.
It must be defeated and destroyed, root, branch, and bough. It must be. Otherwise, we are lost–and with us, the last, best hope of freedom on earth. As such, this is not a fight to be lamented, or shied away from. Our divisions are real, are not superficial or insignificant. This is a battle worth fighting. This is a hill worth dying on. Many have before us, after all. Many. We do them no honor by failing to recognize what’s at stake for the sake of a false civility or an unworthy accommodation–or a temporary, face-saving, peace-keeping expedient. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Romney does get back on track later in the speech:

America runs on freedom. Free men and women, pursuing their dreams, working hard to build a better future for their families. This is what propels our economy. When an American succeeds, when she wins a promotion, when he creates a business, it is that individual, that American that has earned it, that has built it. Government does not build our businesses, the American people do.
The American people also build the government. We pay for it with our taxes. We choose who will lead us with our votes.
Do you want a president who believes that your rights come from God, not from government?
Do you want a president who honors your right to pursue happiness, not as government commands, but as you choose?
Do you want a president who will work every day to bring us together, not tear us apart?
Do you want a president who will celebrate success, not attack it?
Do you want a president who will never, ever apologize for the greatest nation on earth?
With your support, I will be that President.

We can only hope–and keep right on pushing him hard in that direction. Romney needs to develop these ideas, and espouse them even more forcefully, and live up to them. He needs to drive them home like John f**king Henry with his Big f**king Hammer. He needs to be relentless, unapologetic, and completely, absolutely clear. For the first time, I begin to feel hopeful that he may just be capable of that kind of growth. We’ll see.
Update! I e-mailed Jeff and Bill to call their attention to this post, in hopes of maybe eliciting some follow-up commentary from either or both of them; I knew that whatever they came up with would be good. With bells on, baby:

We are above party. And the foundational ideals upon which this country was built, having proven so incredibly successful in so (relatively) short a period of time, are not negotiable. There is no room to compromise with those whose ideology necessarily and inexorably gravitates toward police state tyranny. In fact, calling for such compromises — and extolling the act of compromise, without worrying about the substance that is lost in the exchange — is an easy act of cheap grace, and bespeaks a false piety and a kind of civic sanctimony that should be repulsive to any thinking free man or woman.
We are in the final stages of an existential battle that “our” side has agreed to lose for quite some time now — provided that in the end, they become part of the permanent ruling elite such losing ensures.
Which is precisely why many on “our” side aren’t on our side, and why we need to reverse the power relationship: they can either come with us and defend liberty and the autonomy of the individual, or they can go their own way, calling for tax cuts and a relaxation on regulations for favorated businesses in a battle over crony positioning with the left they have essentially joined ideologically.
Losing more slowly is no longer an option.  Because the final loss is near upon us.

H/T IMAO.US

[Libertas]

So, it all boils down to the false choice of choosing one set of cronys over another (both of whom are leading us to destruction) or going a different direction, is that right?  But there is more than three factions here, it isn't them them and us, its them them them and us!  There is the RINOs/AINOs/Rovians/Moderates et all in the GOP, there is the mainstream Left/Democrat-Media Complex and there is the anarchist Left, all three of which are hostile to the Founding principles which true Conservatives, Libertarians and Tea Party people believe passionately in.  We are surrounded by enemies.  But the GOP is on notice, one of the legs is about to get amputated if it fails to function properly.

[Weisshaupt]

So, it all boils down to the false choice of choosing one set of cronys over another (both of whom are leading us to destruction) or going a different direction, is that right?  But there is more than three factions here, it isn't them them and us, its them them them and us!  There is the RINOs/AINOs/Rovians/Moderates et all in the GOP, there is the mainstream Left/Democrat-Media Complex and there is the anarchist Left, all three of which are hostile to the Founding principles which true Conservatives, Libertarians and Tea Party people believe passionately in.  We are surrounded by enemies.  But the GOP is on notice, one of the legs is about to get amputated if it fails to function properly.

We are in the final stages of an existential battle that “our” side has agreed to lose for quite some time now — provided that in the end, they become part of the permanent ruling elite such losing ensures. Which is precisely why many on “our” side aren’t on our side, and why we need to reverse the power relationship:

[Glock32]

It's like the old feudal system of Medieval Europe. You can fight a long bloody battle against your enemy, or you can accept his offer of titles of nobility and land grants in exchange for fealty.

For many decades the GOP was simply content to be the 2nd place party. They enjoyed the trappings of being DC's minor nobility, and they hate us for being uppity yeomen coming along and upsetting the arrangement.

[Libertas]

Yeah, how dare we get pissed about being force-marched on the road to serfdom!

Days are numbered, one way or another, there is just zero chance of this continuing much longer.

[Pandora]

Gagdad Bob:

"...  There is no atmospheric meme that could induce me to vote for a leftist, as I am opposed to them politically, spiritually, philosophically, scientifically, cosmologically, economically, morally, educationally, psychologically, linguistically, culturally, ontologically, aesthetically, hygienically, and in just about every other -ally."

[Libertas]

Gagdad Bob:

"...  There is no atmospheric meme that could induce me to vote for a leftist, as I am opposed to them politically, spiritually, philosophically, scientifically, cosmologically, economically, morally, educationally, psychologically, linguistically, culturally, ontologically, aesthetically, hygienically, and in just about every other -ally."