Lean Left

It hardly needs to be pointed out, but here’s yet more proof that the budget and debt debate is, for conservatives, nothing but political grandstanding to score points. The economic fate of the nation is nothing to them but a tool for the betterment of the Republican party.

Here’s William Kristol – the “serious” conservative – advocating destroying government financing to gain position for Republicans in the 2012 election:

To govern is to choose. To vote is to choose. To vote against John Boehner on the House floor this week in the biggest showdown of the current Congress is to choose to vote with Nancy Pelosi. To vote against Boehner is to choose to support Barack Obama. It is to choose to increase the chances that worse legislation than Boehner’s passes. And it is to choose to increase the chances that Obama emerges from this showdown politically stronger. So when the Heritage Action Fund and the Club for Growth, and Senators Vitter, Paul, et al., choose to urge House Republicans to join the Democrats to defeat Boehner, they’re choosing to side with Barack Obama. . . .

Can the pro-Obama right explain how defeat for Boehner on the House floor would redound to conservatives’ benefit, to their ability to do more and to go further? . . .

Now, Heritage Action and the Club for Growth are siding with and strengthening Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. They’re working to produce a policy and political defeat for John Boehner and Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan and the Republican majority in the House. This isn’t principled conservatism. . . .

The Boehner bill isn’t great. But it does check Obama’s spending for the remainder of his first term. And it lays the groundwork for denying him a second. Success for Boehner now—whatever mistakes he and others have made in recent weeks and months—makes more likely the defeat of Obama in 2012. This in turn will make possible the repeal of Obamacare and fundamental conservative budget and policy reforms with a new president in 2013.

When wavering House Republicans think the current situation through, they won’t choose to join the pro-Obama right. They’ll choose to stand with John Boehner against Barack Obama. Because victory over Obama is no vice. And losing to Obama is no virtue.

I especially like how he gets in a shout-out to Goldwater’s explicit defense of McCarthyite “extremism” at the end. Because red-baiting is always a good idea, no matter how idiotic it makes you.

Nowhere in that entire piece is there any actual discussion of the content of the various debt bills or proposals, or even any reference to what the issue is about. Other than brief, vague endorsements of “conservatism” and opposition to “spending” and “Obamacare” – itself more political hackery – he has no goal at all other than politically harming Obama. He explicitly positions the debt debate as “us vs. them”; “principled conservatism” for him means promoting Republicans and opposing Democrats. “Victory” means defeating Obama; “losing” means voting for a policy Obama also endorses.

The sheer stupid amorality of it is surprising only for its openness. Politics is – by declaration – nothing to conservatives other than the successful quest for power of people like them; political issues are nothing but set pieces to be played out for political influence, no matter what the outcome for people actually affected; “principle” is political advantage – openly described as such. And again, this is a “thought leader” – such as they are – among movement conservatives.

These assholes make me physically sick. I used to think conservatives were just wrong about everything. Now I think they’re active enemies of decency, and even basic common sense. It takes a palpable effort to hate them enough.