Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Re: Riders On The Stormfront   [Jonah Goldberg]

Derb - No, I don't think Paul is an anti-Semite. I've certainly seen no conclusive evidence that he is. And I agree with you, the biggest takeaway from the American Thinker piece is that Paul's shop needs to get professional. I do think that Paul — if he is the real deal — has a special obligation to draw bright lines between himself and a lot of the fringe-folks who are flocking to him. He is an extremist after all. Not in the way the left uses the term necessarily, but an extremist nonetheless. All you need to do is look at his positions, compare them to where the two parties and 98% of journalists, intellectuals, academics, bureaucrats, politicians and the like are and it's almost impossible to conclude otherwise. Heck, the whole appeal of his campaign is that he's an extremist by the standards of the Beltway.

But as you and I both know there are all kinds of extremists. Some are quite lovable and well-intentioned. Some are misanthropic but harmless cranks. And quite a few are very, very nasty or downright evil. It's easy for people standing very close to the political center to draw bright lines between themselves and extremists.  But it's much less necessary (or interesting) for them to do so. For someone in Paul's position it's much more difficult for him to do it, but far, far more necessary (and interesting).  

Conservatives have a lot of experience with this, starting with Buckley. The left is perfectly happy to blur the lines between a mainstream conservative and a Klansmen. For this and other reasons, it's that much more important for conservatives to make those distinctions very clear. Of course, sometimes this can seem like hoop-jumping for a bunch of jerks who, in their monumental bad faith, don't care what the truth is and merely want to make all conservatives appear evil to the American public. Hence, it can be very annoying. And there are times when it is right to refuse to jump through their hoops.  But there are other times when it is wrong not to make a clear statement, even if it's prompted by someone yelling "Dance!" 

Ron Paul is getting real money, real attention and, increasingly real poll numbers. It's time he learned how to dance like a pro.  

11/14 01:33 PMShare