Posted on 03/02/2006 6:52:04 AM PST by SJackson
Michelle Malkin was right on when she wrote that the elite right “has simply lost its marbles.”
Like her, I am infuriated by that small coterie of Washington conservatives who have somehow got it into their heads that they are the sole arbiters of what is the proper position those of us on the right must adopt to be able to call ourselves conservatives. They promulgate the party line and we are all expected to fall in behind them.
This has been bothering me for some time, but lately they have really gotten under my skin with their suggestion that those conservatives who have serious doubts about the wisdom of the Dubai ports deal are motivated by bigotry. As far as they are concerned, we’re all a bunch of anti-Arab xenophobes whose questions about the deal are really our way of expressing our anti-Semitism because Arabs, after all, are Semites.
As Michelle Malkin noted in her column, Grover Norquist, one of the high priests of the Washington conservative elite, had the gall to tell the liberal Los Angeles Times that the “only whiners left by next week will be the registered bigots.”
Not to be outdone, Larry Kudlow observed, "This whole brouhaha surrounding the Bush administration's green-light to a United Arab Emirates company slated to manage six major U.S. ports has nothing to do with protecting homeland security. Allow me to give it its proper name: ‘Islamophobia.’ "
Even President Bush has weighed in on the xenophobic angle, suggesting "those who are questioning" the deal need to "step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a great British company."
All of this begs the only legitimate question that can be posed by this deal: is it in the interests of the security of the American people? If it is, the deal is acceptable. If it’s not, we ought to run away from it as if it were a case of bird flu.
Conservatives outside the beltway have yet to get a clear answer to that question, and we deserve more than the kind of scorn the inside-the-beltway elitists have used to describe us. We are not bigots, we are not ignorant clods, we are simply concerned citizens who seek assurances we have yet to get.
It seems to be an article of faith among the Washington conservative establishment that they possess superior wisdom that somehow elevates them above all others when it comes to deciding what constitutes conservativism. They see themselves set apart from those in red-state America who exist only to be led around by their betters.
They don’t grasp the inescapable fact that they are imitating the liberal blue-state elite who think that nobody outside of New York, Los Angeles or Boston has an opinion worth listening to. Only for them Washington is the seat of all conservative wisdom.
Every single one of this bunch is quick to claim the legacy of Ronald Reagan and to identify themselves with his beliefs, yet nobody had more contempt for the kind of elitist attitudes the inside-the-beltway crowd have adopted.
Ronald Reagan’s great article of faith was in the inherent goodness and wisdom of the American people. My father was a red-state conservative through and through who couldn’t wait to get out of Washington every chance he got and go do hard physical work on his ranch. He felt smothered by the intellectual fog that hangs over the nation’s capital, which is perfume to the elite.
All we are asking for is a full and complete explanation of the pros and cons about the port deal. After all, Homeland Security and the Coast Guard initially rebuffed the deal until they were brought in and made to understand it.
To be surprised that we have the same questions all these top people had ignores the fact that we are entitled to get the same information they got. How else can we make up our minds?
To be called Islamaphobes and xenophobes just because we ask for that information is outrageous. It’s just plain bigotry.
Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
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I agree.
I found Rush's attitude yesterday (Wednesday) disgusting. For the first time, I starting seeing Rush in a different light, and it wasn't flattering.
Me. (Apparently.)
Islamophobia is rational.
Excellent article. Prepare to see a surfeit of ad-hominem attacks.
It's a survival attitude IMO
John Gibson for one.
Yesterday following his islamaphobic rant coupled with patting himself on the back for good ratings, his better in ratings and quality, Brit Hume blew him out of the water. There was an interview with a former marine longshoreman at the Port of Baltimore refuting everything Gibson was saying.
This issue is illustrative of how our political process has devolved.
The term "Jump to a Conclusion" is the key phrase that enters my mind.
People jump to a conclusion, and after that, the facts are filtered to support that conclusion. This is typical for both left and right and this particular issue makes it so very difficult to maintain a conclusion because the facts are not easily dismissed in either direction.
When I first heard about the Ports Deal I was against it because it seemed crazy to put our ports in the control of an Arab state any more than letting CommChina control the port of Long Beach.
Then, I found out that they had no control over security, represents a strategic partnership in the WOT, and that this was a business that would not want to see itself lose Billions if the USA suffered a hit, and changed my conclusion to support it.
Then I found out that Dubai assisted terrorists, boycotts Israel, *might* have an ability to compromise security, and the deal might be broken without a huge foreign policy snub...so I am against it again.
BUT, I now refuse to draw a conclusion. At this point, I am ready, willing, and able to let the facts come in completely before I draw another conclusion. This is too freakin complicated and has too many elements that are easily miscommunicated (on purpose) to draw a conclusion.
Ultimately, we elect people to make these decisions. We should trust them and if they screw up, don't re-elect them.
My gut says we should not deal with nations that do not have freely elected representation. But if we stopped dealing with these guys, others will pick up the slack.
Stopping Dubae from running the ports would mean that we now have a non-free enterprise system, that only *government approved* operations are allowed, and that sounds a lot like the way to increase costs and decrease efficiency.
The whole "ism" and "ist" method of political debate goes back to the left's brainstorm to label anyone who disagreed with their position as mentally disturbed. That these "conservatives" take to this means of deabate shows that they ought to be labeled Freudian Conservatives. Perhaps Kudlow can inform of us the beauty of Islam instead of cheap parlor psychology if that is the way he truly feels.
This has been bugging me, too.
To see Rush Limbaugh pull the race card was disgusting.
I don't understand why people today refuse to identify their enemies. We're gonna lose the war if we don't know who we're fighting.
WAKE UP, FOOLS! I see Trojan Horse all over this thing.
Mike Reagan needs to quit being Ronald Regean's son and start being Mike Reagan.
I agree with your comment on Rush. His "just wait, Bush will come out on top" of the Dubai thing made him sound a bit kool aide-ish.
Couldn't agree more. I totally agree with his article but it's getting a bit old and odd for him to bring up his father on every issue. We get it your Reagan's son now make your arguments based on your beliefs as a grown man.
"It's not that I've become biased against islamic nutjobs.....I hated insane, foreign assholes who want to kill me before 9-11."
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