Blinded by the Right
Each and every day that passes it becomes painfully clear how far the conservative movement in this country has fallen. Still reeling from their massive losses on November 4th, right-wingers seem to have thrown all caution to the wind and embraced anything and everything extremist. Of course, not all of them feel so passionately about the dark road Glenn Beck, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh and others are steering them down. But as conservative author and blogger, Rick Moran is discovering, if you dare to speak reason in the midst of a pack of rabid dogs, you’re bound to get eaten.
Moran made an honest and tough to swallow plea to conservatives with a post on April 8th titled “Glenn Beck and the Radical Right” in which he breaks with the rank and file and calls Beck and his ilk what they are – kooks. He also rightfully posits that one can disagree with our President on many things without having to resort to cries of “fascism” or “tyranny” like so many have done these last few weeks.
“Beck worries me. Conservatives worry me. I worry about myself. I feel trapped in a huge ball of cotton, trying gamely to make my way out but don’t know which direction to start pushing. I am losing contact with those conservatives who find Beck anything more than a clown – and an irrational one at that. Same goes for those who worship at the altar of Rush, Hannity, Coulter, and the whole cotton candy conservative crowd. I can’t take those people seriously. The fact that they are popular mystifies me.”
It’s obvious reading his recent posts, Moran is struggling to bring order to political chaos. He sounds like the one sane man shouting for calm amidst a firestorm of political nihilism. But the worst part comes in a post just 2 days later, after he’s evidently taken a savage beating at the hands of his conservative readers.
“Only The Glad Game for me. I will take note that Rush is a funny, smart, real conservative who is almost always right and who conservatives would do well to take whatever advice he offers. I will wax poetic about Ann Coulter and her charm, her wit, her balanced critiques. Same goes for Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and all the other popular conservatives.
I see the error of my ways. And this goes for anything I say about the GOP too. No more dire pronouncements of electoral disaster. From here on out, it’s tea parties and triumph at the polls for me. I promise to ignore polls that don’t have Republicans sweeping to victory in 2010. And I will enthusiastically cover the tea parties that are going to change America.
Although he obviously writes with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, I can’t help but think that moderate conservatives like Moran are a dying breed. Republicans have been lead up the garden path by the likes of Rove, Bush, Limbaugh and others for so long that they can’t bring themselves to find their own way. What’s worse, their frustration over losing in the last election cycle and seething resentment of Obama keeps them from recognizing are they are self-destructing. It would be better for all Americans if they would grow a pair, wake up and cast off the dead weight. Doing so however, takes real courage and that’s something that, at least for now, the right is sadly lacking.
UPDATE: There might be hope for conservatives yet.
I’m perfectly happy to sit back and watch the far right devour each other for being insufficiently patriotic and/or batshit insane enough. I may even make popcorn!
Moran has been bashing conservative talk show hosts for almost six months now. Why? Because he lost. And his kind lost.
Now, had you bothered to read the posts on his website you would have noticed some major differences than the lunatics over at DailyKos or HuffingtonPost; no one was profane, no one was radical.
The only thing that Moran’s entry proves is that he is really great at dishing it out, but not worth a flip at taking it. So he posts his “pity me” entry and wholla! you join in the feeding frenzy by calling those of us who object to Moran’s practice of killing the messenger as “a pack of rabid dogs.”
Moran has his message, and if he wants to get it out, then he should “cowboy up” and be man enough to take it when he gets called down on it. The fact that you even consider him a “moderate” Republican is laughable. Perhaps you can explain to me who “moderate” Democrats are; Pelosi? Reid? Barney Frank?
So what did Moran do after posting his “pity me” entry? He closed his comment to all but you and one other sympathetic blogger. Wow! What a brave person who is willing to stand by his convictions and take the flack that come from them; NOT.
Moran decided to get in the mud by attacking others, but then didn’t like it when he got dirty.
By closing his comments, linking only to his sympathizers, he lost any credibility he might have maintained.
Thanks for helping him with his loss by showing his support comes from the liberal side who screams about Glenn Beck but loves Chris Matthews with his tingling leg.
Retire,
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not intimately familiar with Moran’s writing, but I did find his post about Beck to be sincere. If you could point me at some pieces he’s written that show that to be untrue, please link to them here if you would. I didn’t have time to go back and read a year’s worth of posts on his blog before writing my thoughts up.
As for him closing comments to all but “sympathetic” links, I have no control over what he does on his own blog. My post isn’t necessarily to show support for him, it was meant to highlight the weak knees the right has had since the election. Bash Rush one day, submit a public apology the next. If he’s pulling the wool over progressive bloggers like myself, then I’ll happily admit I’ve been had.
You might want to take all this up with Andrew Sullivan as well since he’s mentioned Moran’s voice several times.
Retire:
Don’t be an idiot. Rick closed it to ALL comments. What you’re seeing are links, not comments.
Ged, you have it right. It’s why I read Moran. The last rational Republican standing.
Ged –
Have only been reading Rick’s blog for a few months now and while his posts themselves can be thoughtful and thought-provoking, he has an annoying habit of primarily promoting negativity. In recents posts he’s dumped on CPAC, he keeps dumping on the very idea of the tea parties, and in this post he dropped a great big dump-load of negativity on Glenn Beck and the other talking heads. I think the overwhelming response (more replies than I usually see in a week or two of his posts) was in this case driven primarily by that same negativity. I’ve seen Rick get called on this before and his usual response is that it’s not his job or position to be positive or to suggest solutions.
Fine, Rick doesn’t like Glenn Beck and thinks he’s a kook, that’s certainly his perogative. Don’t agree with him, but fully support his right to say so. He only helped whip up this frenzy by posting an update calling several responders ‘idiots with less reading comprehesion of a three-toed sloth’. However fitting that may have been, this is typical Rick Moran fare. Disagree with him and, at best, you get a bitingly sarcastic response; at worst, out comes the potty mouth and threats to block your IP. (Guess Rick thinks he has the power to shut down the entire Internet).
As they say, ‘If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen’. Knowing his style, I thought I understood his ‘Glad Game, Join ‘Em’ post, but shutting down his blog for two days now really makes me wonder.
“seething resentment of obama”???? haha!!! right! man o man ged, you are full blown borg. principle before party ged, principle before party.
[Post edited by moderator – Please don’t post entire articles in comments Bean. Link to them. Thx – Ged]
Better make a few last-minute signs for the Tea Party. Obama’s DHS is watching:
Honk if you’re a radicalized rightwing extremist!
Guilty of rightwing extremist chatter
Anti-government, pro-freedom: Sue me
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Previous: Missouri retracts report linking militias, 3rd party candidates.
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Oh, I’m sure DHS will be issuing its report on self-proclaimed bank terrorists like Bruce Marks of NACA and criminal rackeeters harassing private citizens in their homes to “exploit the economic downturn” any day now.
moderate conservatives and ultra liberal progressives, the true extremists that have divided and destroyed this nation.
New Ad Campaign Says You Owe the Government $483,000
By Paul Bedard
Posted April 09, 2009 11:19 AM ET
By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Paying taxes isn’t fun, but what more can you do but laugh when considering your household’s piece of the national debt: $483,000? To help that chuckle along, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation today is unveiling some Web spots featuring the comic team Stone and Stone in roles as accountants Owen & Payne. Their punch line after detailing the $483,000 bill: “You’ll be owing, and you’ll be paying.” Whispers was given the exclusive early look at the videos here.
Dave Walker, Peterson president, says, “Owen & Payne was created to help alert Americans in a light-hearted way to a critical problem: the $56.4 trillion federal financial burden that young people and future generations are inheriting.” The bottom line, he says, is that “every American household bears a $483,000 burden, or $184,000 per person, on top of his or her actual taxes.”
The Peterson Foundation, a group dedicated to highlighting the woes of the national debt, has come up with other innovative ways, like teaming with MTV’s college network mtvU in the InDebtEd awareness campaign.
As for Stone and Stone, they are brothers Todd Stone and Adam Stone, who’ve performed at many comic clubs and appeared on NBC’s Last Comic Standing.
Thanks for proving my point quite eloquently Bean, I appreciate it.