‘Tis the Season for Mugwumpery!

Yes, ‘Mugwump‘ is a rather pejorative term, and so I hate to use it–many of the people I would apply the term to are otherwise compatriots and even friends. Some are on my blogroll. And, yes, some of their concerns are legitimate. However, there is a danger to being a Mugwump and to Mugwumpery–a danger that should not be ignored. This danger is political wilderness.

There are two things conservatives need to keep in mind:

• Despite the unpopularity of his policies, according to the most recent political polls, nearly 50% of the American population still holds Barack Obama in high personal regard. He is therefore politically wounded, but still very much a political threat. And while the Democrats will likely take a drubbing in the 2010 elections, this may actually play to Barack’s advantage by forcing him to move into the political center, therefore allowing him to recapture some of the glow and aura he once had. It is by no means certain that he will lose in 2012 simply because he has suffered political setbacks in 2010. Thus, while conservatives can and should have an open debate on where they are going and on the direction of America, in the end there will be a need to coalesce around a single conservative candidate and support him/her for the presidency in 2012. We cannot allow a reprise of 2000 or 2008, when many conservatives sat the election out or even supported the other guy simply because they were uncomfortable with the conservative candidate. Nor can we afford to have a modern-day Ross Perot.
• The perfect is the enemy of the best. Too many conservatives hold out for the perfect conservative candidate, and then disappear on election day because that candidate does not arise. Worse yet, too many conservatives hold out for the perfect candidate, and in the end settle on someone who ticks all of the correct boxes and tells them exactly what they want to hear, but who in reality is no more sincere–or conservative–than Barack Obama himself. Meanwhile, there are other conservative candidates in the wings who do not get support because they are too honest and have too much integrity to lie to their constituents. If many conservatives have been played for fools all these years, it is because they have insisted on ideological purity, when they should have been looking for a proven track record of conviction, honestly and desire to serve. Think of it as a job interview: Do you hire the person who tells you what he thinks you want to hear, or do you hire someone who honestly speaks their mind, has a track record of accomplishment to back up the talk, and has been through the fire and has shown some perseverance and guts? Conservatives keep hiring the person who tells them what they want to hear, but who does not have the goods to back it up. This has to stop.

Now, regarding the issues, there is nothing that Sarah Palin has ever done that compares to the grotesque abomination that is currently going on in Washington D.C. Is she perfect? I expect not. Will she take positions that I disagree on? I sure hope so! I hope she knows her own mind and is willing to speak it. Can she get the job done? If she runs for President in 2012, I expect that she will easily get the Republican nod at the rate things are going. However, unless the my-way-or-the-highway approach of many conservatives ceases, then there is a danger of a third party bid in 2012 followed by political wilderness, or of a repeat of Bush II. With how Bush was reviled in the press and abandoned by many conservatives who should have known better, I would not wish a repeat of Bush’s second term on anyone. In a sense, this is a political wilderness in and of itself, but not for conservatives alone–for a whole nation.

So, yes, let’s kick the machine politicians out of Washington, regardless of which party they belong to. Let’s start demanding more of our elected leaders. Let’s roll back, as much as possible, all of the great harm that Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress has inflicted on the US. At the same time, let’s stop eating our own. Always keep in mind who the enemy is … because if we forget that the real enemy is the Democratic party and worthless career politicians, and if we start feeding on our own, then we have made ourselves our worst enemy.