Posted by
Richard on Friday, October 24, 2008 4:49:55 AM
Recently I have been criticizing the leaders of conservatism for abandoning their rank and file members who are made up of plain, simple, common folk, with common sense. I have called them nothing more than the tails side of an elitist coin whose opposite member is occupied the intelligentsia of the left.
I have also stated that both the followers, aka you, and me needed the leaders, aka “them”, in order to move conservatism forward. However I do believe after reading Peggy Noonan’s column in a WSJ
article dated October 17, 2008, (and yes I am a bit behind in my reading) that I need to revise my thinking a bit and tweak the concept of mutual cooperation between those that lead and those that are led.
Quite simply the revision goes like this; they or “them” need us “you and me” more than we need them or “they”.
One only needs to witness as of late, the current outcries and daily assaults of the nor’-eastern conservatives on Governor Palin who falls into the category of you and me. These folks should be circling the wagons right about now instead of throwing her to the wolves.
In an
article at American Thinker by J. Robert Smith we find that;
“…some of the slings and arrows aimed by the elites at Palin are simply because she's an outsider. By their standards, Palin isn't pedigreed. A sheepskin from the University of Idaho might as well be a GED to them. Unlike Obama, she's not part of their network, even indirectly. She's a practicing fundamentalist Christian, while many of the elites are secularists. She can use a gun and hunt moose. Many elites revile the 2nd Amendment and their hunting consists of finding the free-range chicken at Whole Foods. For elites, {on both sides} Palin is too plain-spoken and colloquial. Her gal next door demeanor grates. Her winks are cheesy. She's a hockey mom, not a soccer mom. Hockey's just too violent“.
Rush Limbaugh has recently stated that whatever the results of this election the conservative movement will survive and will rebuild. It will take time and we will no doubt have to once again start from the bottom up, but rebuild we shall.
If I might be allowed to use a sports analogy here; when a team is doing poorly, you can’t fire the team, you fire the coach or the manager. Is any of this sinking in to you folks?
So here’s the bottom line to all of you that profess to be our leadership. We, the members of conservatism ask of you the following; lead, follow or get out of the way!
1) Lead - as per the wishes of your members
2) Follow - come back/rejoin the rank and file
3) Get out of the way - as we can raise up new leaders that will represent us and where we stand on issues.