Impossible to work with...

I'm going to lay some of my cards on the table.

Just reading this blog, one might get the wrong impression that I don't hold with conservatism. That is not entirely true. I voted for the marriage amendment in Virginia. I believe abortion is only justifiable in three cases: Rape, incest, or when the mother faces imminent danger of death or grave bodily harm. I'm opposed to quotas - including those imposed by Title IX and those based on race. I am also very pro-death penalty. I want nothing less than victory in the war on terror.

I'm not orthodox. On spending, I will be very generous in some areas. Defense, for one. Lots of money for planes, tanks, troops, and goodies. Is there any defense spending that is a waste? I think that is pretty hard to find.

I did participate at a couple of conservative forums. At one, discourse dipped into the gutter. It was there I got my distate for hard-liners on immigration. The epithet "Quisling" was quite common. It was as if the racism from places like VDARE and American Renaissance was to be tolerated.

The other forum I migrated to was not much better. Part of it was personality clashes with the editors. Mostly, it was because I got sick of the cheap shots. Julie Myers and Mitt Romney have both been bushwhacked. Its conduct during the Harriet Miers nomination was flat-out abominable. I also objected to the unfair treatment they dished out to Secretary of State Colin Powell over the revelations that Dick Armitage was the source of the Plame "leak". In the Miers case and with regards to Powell, I also got veiled threats of being banned over my objection to that unfair treatment.

What really became the last straw for me was their decision to continue pushing a harder line on conservatism. And yes, the implication that not supporting a hard line on immigration was treason was also made. This second forum has a lot in common with DailyKos - probably a bit more than they would like to admit. It is a shame, since the top person at the site seems like a decent person, but a lot of the front-page contributors have been jerks on more than one occassion.

It needs to be noted that amendments to protect marriage from judicial activists have had a lot of support. It went 27-for-28 in state referendums, and in Arizona, the loss was close. In South Dakota, a referendum almost upheld a law that would have greatly restricted abortion. In Michigan, a ban on racial preferences was passed.

So why, in an election where conservative ideas win, did conservatives and Republicans get their heads handed to them? I think the problem is with conservatives themselves. They sometimes are absofuckinglutely impossible to work with at times. They demand stupid banzai charges or else they threaten to stay home. They take hard-line positions, and sanctimoniously sneer at those who disagree with them, labeling them "unprincipled" or worse.

I do hang out at GOPProgress.com and Wildturkeys.net. At least there I can disagree without the name-calling - or being declared a traitor.