via Glenn Reynolds linking Megan McArdle, expressing sentiments similar to some I saw recently from Tony Blankley suggesting the same thing when it comes to supporting a Republican presidential candidate who might not be all that conservative:
"I have to ask conservatives and libertarians: is this really the hill you think we should die on? ... an informal survey of swing voters, in their current incarnation as my mother, indicates that this is killing you with the moderates
An informal survey of swing voters seems to be a pretty low bar when it comes to caving on principle. I'd also argue many moderates and non-political types aren't all that well-informed on what S-chip does and doesn't do and how that will change with this legislation. Are we supposed to cede the narrative to liberals when it comes to educating the public?
As the metaphor here is war, you don't always get to choose the hills you die on. This isn't a war for land, it's a war for ideology - a conservative / libertarian view for America, or a socialist view. Which do you prefer? And, if it's the former, every time you cede ground because you don't want to die on a particular hill, you've lost ground it will take ten times the effort to re-gain.
As for surviving, which is how Blankley shapes the argument, what's so great about surviving if you've given up what you believe in to do it? That sounds more like simply existing to me.
"An informal survey of swing voters seems to be a pretty low bar when it comes to caving on principle."
She talked to her mom. Learn to read, Dan. She was joking about surveying voters in the plural.
Man, when you can't get one of Jane Galt's prissy jokes, you've got problems.
Posted by: D. Aristophanes | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 10:00 AM
DA - I got it, that was my point. Oh, and you're an idiot - just did an informal survey of my own. More reliable than hers, too, as you continue to prove it through your comments. Duh!
Posted by: Dan Riehl | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 10:16 AM
Hey, that's great news. Another war for you patriots to lose. Good luck with that!
Tancredo/Hunter '08!!!
Posted by: chris | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 10:42 AM
"DA - I got it, that was my point."
Okay, I amend my previous suggestion that you "learn to read" to "learn to write".
Posted by: D. Aristophanes | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 10:52 AM
Outstanding post, Dan. You've made a great argument in a short space. I'm very surprised the Democratics are giving you guff over this. You would think they would welcome an ideological battle, instead of the usual tell-us-what-you-want-to-hear politics. But one supposes that deep down they don't want to reveal to the public what they have in mind for us.
Of course chris/Boob is intent on proving every day what most here discovered long ago, that he is a nasty dope. It is not often that these characteristics are found together in the same mind. Most dopes are at least well-meaning.
Posted by: Fred Beloit | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 11:34 AM
"Most dopes are at least well-meaning."
Kinda like the Decider, huh?
Posted by: chris | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 11:57 AM
"...the worst are full of passionate intensity..." W. B. Yeats
Posted by: Fred Beloit | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 01:18 PM
"...dragged our civil system into the sewer."
Really, as I look back at the comments here, it is patently obvious to me that the most hateful comments I see here on a daily basis come from liberals. Hateful, vile, disgusting, and pornographic are good descriptions of the liberal commenters. I doubt whether anything from the "right wing" is any more responsible for the decline in political discourse than the rhetoric and actions of the Left.
Posted by: jj | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 04:24 PM
"civic" system.
Sorry.
Posted by: jj | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 04:26 PM
Bush is such a pussy...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071010/ap_on_go_co/us_armenia_genocide
Posted by: pattillmansmom | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 05:16 PM
JJ, you got it. Yesterday I ended up on a leftist board filled with phrases like "screaming, sobbing, inchoate, hate." Their words, not mine, yet a beautiful self-description of the site all the same.
It was like looking at the world through sewage colored glasses. I began feeling physically ill. The feeling had never been so palpable before. I had to go to Neptunus Lex to sluice the taint out of my mind.
Dan Riehl, God bless you for letting the moonbats show their true colors here on your blog, where they can be seen for what they are and refuted. It takes character to deal with this corrosive thinking. I salute you.
Posted by: Looking Glass | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 05:24 PM
Megan McCardle asked "Is this really the hill you think we should die on?"
If asking simple questions gets us killed then we're doomed anyway. Might as well die with our boots on.
But I don't think we will die here, or on any other hill. Rush Limbaugh wins people over and drives moonbats crazier by playing clips of Democrats. He's a regular one man Fairness Doctrine.
Just by being reasonable we'll look great by contrast with the Moonbat Brigades.
Posted by: Looking Glass | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 05:30 PM
So sensitive. But it's OK for Michelle Malkin to basically stock the Frost family, for Free Republic to post the family's address as well as pictures of the Frosts, dig through their finanical history, invade their privacy. Some conservative believers there. More like a pack of wild dogs than protectors of individual privacy.
If you're really that sensitive, you may want to skip reading thsee lovely emails from conservatives to veterans that are members of VoteVets.org.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/10/23558/499
Look up incompetent in the dictionary and there's a picture of your Dear Leader Bush. Republican Rule has brought us incompetency on every level. Now that's something to fight for.
Posted by: Worst President Ever | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 06:01 PM
Hahahahahahahahah
http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2007/10/guess-the-autho.html
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Oh man, LOL!
Is it possible to be more of a hypocrite?
Posted by: waka waka | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 06:38 PM
Waka Waka,
The word you're groping for is "honest." Michelle Malkin is honest. She's not shilling for government handouts. Nor is she pretending private health insurance is perfect.
Integrity. Learn about it.
Posted by: Looking Glass | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 06:54 PM
For "Pattillmansmom" (a.k.a. "BobInStamford" a.k.a. "chris" a.k.a. "MaOfManySockPuppets") :
That the Dhimmi-crats are picking exactly NOW as a time to pick a fight with the government of Turkey over the Armenian Genocide is just typical of their shortsightedness to be politically correct and ruin our mission and basically act like the lousy bunch of terrorist-supporting appeasers they really are.
Y'all stop at nothing, even bringing our nation to ruin, so long as it serves the purpose of thumbing your nose at the Dubya, eh?
Posted by: seekeronos | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 09:37 PM
Tony Blankney, of all people, should know better than to write such nonsense about "is this really the hill you think we should die on?" " In this day and age of "yea team" politics, every hill is takeable. Also, every bloodletting on that same hill is recoverable.
You think it's bad now with Bush. Wait until JUST ENOUGH CONSERVATIVES stay out of this race and let Hillary in the White House.
Posted by: Brad S | Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 10:04 AM