Election Reflections

Irving Kristol once quipped that a neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality. Someone has said that a 20 year old who is conservative doesn't have a heart, and a 40+ year old who is liberal doesn't have a job. To some degree that is due to having not yet gotten mugged by reality when you are 20.

When you look back to John F. Kennedy, many of his 'liberal' supporters back then are responsible for the conservatism of today. Among the names that immediately come to mind of people who left the Democratic party because it deserted its principles as reflected in folks like JFK and Truman are these: Ronald Reagan, Richard John Neuhaus (author of The Naked Public Square and editor of First Things journal), and Zell Miller in the last election. Joe Lieberman appears to be headed in that direction now. These were supporters of JFK when he said in his inaugural, 'Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty'. They still feel that way (Reagan would if he were alive), but cannot find support for that in the Democratic party. Those who actually carry out this mission for liberty, the armed services, vote overwhelmingly conservative.

Compare that to JFK's assasin, a communist who supported Ho Chi Minh, Mao, and Fidel. Among others who supported those same leftists were current Democrat mainstays like Jane Fonda, Barbara Streisand, and most of Hollywood (if old enough to remember JFK) and the mainstream media. They never quite came to grips with reality since the world they inhabit is a make-believe world. These would never meet any challenge, support any friend, or accept any hardship to assure freedom. They would abandon Israel to its foes just as readily as Iraq. They do their best to impose censorship on talk radio, prevent crisis pregnancy centers from providing an opposing view to abortion, and happily carry out eugenics as did Mao. Despite their kinship to JFK's assasin, they nonetheless claim to be his heirs. If you care to read more on this, see the First Things web site and a blog from May 5, 2006 discussing an article in Commentary magazine entitled 'Lee Harvey Oswald and the Liberal Crack-Up'. Just do a search on 'mugged by reality'. The conclusion of that article is that neoconservatives have much more in common with JFK than today's Democratic party does. Zell Miller reached that same conclusion 4 years ago.

The failure of this election was a failure of ideas. Obama had only to run against Bush, so he did not have to defend his ideas. McCain simply failed to make the ideas the issue. The financial system collapse then overshadowed everything else. However, the ideas of Obama's party will be the problem that we all have to live with even though that never got adequate discussion in the campaign. This would indicate that, for the moment, the Republicans abandoned conservative ideas as well.

As some Jews, like Michael Medved, have realized, conservatives (and especially conservative Christians) are Israel's best friend; conservatives are also freedom's best friends. Those in the Democratic party are relativism's best friends. Since Obama has never actually done anything except run for office, let us hope and pray that when confronted with the real world in the oval office he will quickly get mugged by reality.