Insider vs. Outsider. Part 1

For years I refused to participate in political discourse. In the early 80's I loathed "Crossfire" because I did not subscribe to the left vs. right paradigm. Pat Buchanan was not an alternative voice. He was hostile to free trade and a proponent of executive clout. Members of the press all looked alike to me. The power strugggle was not left v. right. Not liberal v. conservative. Not Donkey v. Elephant. It was insider versus outsider. It still is.

I would grow even more cynical when Buchanan, the Beltway hack, would repackage himself as a political outsider. Ultimately he would prove to be as hostile to free trade as Ralph Nader. And yet, he developed a loyal following. Go figure.

At about the time Buchanan was gearing up for a presidential run, GOP apologist Fred Barnes wrote a landmark column in "The American Spectator" telling us to forget about small government conservatism. Big government conservatism is where its's at and we should not shy away from the label. It's all about reaping the spoils of war and procuring plum jobs for our more loyal supporters. It's all about patronage and our hacks are better than your hacks.

Long after Barnes ascends into Conservative Heaven (if that is not an oxymoron) his magnum opus will toll for thee. There is no unringing this bell. It is that rare moment where a deceiver shows his cards. Like a ranking administrator professing their loyalty to Karl Marx or their secret admiration for all things jihad. Yes, we suspect but until they come out and say it, we can only suspect. Barnes unwittingly dug a ditch between the social conservative and the fiscal conservative. That ditch is now a gulf.

It is interesting that the same publication that trumpeted moral bureaucracy would years later print another watershed column by Angelo Codevilla denouncing America's ruling class. Funny how one's perspective can change when one is run out of town on a rail. Has Emmett Tyrrell ssen the light? I doubt it.

How do we define the schism in the Republican Party? We could say that it's a battle between those who want a new ruling class and those who want no ruling class. Krauthammer, Noonan, Will, Rove, et al, meet the Tea Party. The party monarchists will have decide if they prefer the company of their fellow monarchists to the company of the unwashed masses.

For me, if the Obama Campaign trots out Karl Rove as their new political consultant, I will not so much as blink. A billion dollars will buy a ton of souls and the skills of the soulless. It might loook like betrayal but it really isn't. Everything we needed to know about the GOP establishment we learned from Fred Barnes two decades ago.

When You Come To A Fork in The Road...Take it!

Who actually said all of those things attributed to Yogi Berra? I don't know. My understanding of Yogi is that if the quote did not contain a half dozen expletives, it probably originated with someone else. But I like the Yogi character, contrived or genuine.

I come to these forks in the road too often. Too busy to blog? Who the hell is too busy to blog? That's why you blog instead of producing a static website. Anyone can blog. What's your excuse?

It's rare that I ever lose interest in a subject. I am given to enthusiasms and they grab me. It seems that I always want to do a dozen things and it is hard for me to focus on any one thing. What works for me is to narrow my focus and concentrate on one venture at a time.

Of course, this one venture at a time idea involves a certain amount of waiting. Down time. And the voice that says "take the fork in the road" competes with Edison's advice to "hustle while you wait." Hmmm.

Oh and there is work. Mentally draining labor. Long commutes. I shouldn't complain but of course I do. I can grumble with the best of them.

Yes, I so want to get back into action. The events unfolding are monumental. We are seeing, umm how do we say it? A paradigm shift? An awakening? "Something is happening and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?"

I will elaborate in my next post.