The Campaign Spot on National Review Online has got to be the most transparently partisan and mind numbingly vapid digital political publication on the entire internet. As I read through the posts there and scroll down the page, I find it sort of odd that only about one in ten posts are about McCain, the Republican nominee.
The entire page is literally covered in posts and petty musings about Obama. Pressing 'Control F' on the Safari web browser and typing 'Obama' in the search field returns 'More than 100 matches'. Searching for 'McCain'? A piddly 21. You would think that a so-called conservative publication would have some information about, you know, the Republican nominee; but no. Reading through the posts, you get the sense that the writers there wake up in cold sweats at night from nightmares about Obama. Every single post is about Obama. If I was a McCain supporter, which I'm not, I think I'd be sorely disappointed in the lack of coverage of the Republican candidate on what used to be a conservative publication.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
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That said, do you still question the notion that what passes for *conservatism* is nothing so much as identity politics - utterly dependent upon and defining itself via its opposition to an "evil" *other*?
Well, I think I'd want to make a distinction between what is referred to as "conservatism" in the MSM and "conservatism" as it exists in reality.
The definition of conservatism as identity politics doesn't apply to the whole of so-called conservatism; but it applies to a part of it. If conservatism is nothing more than identity politics then how do you explain the competing interpretations of what people say conservatism should be about?
I'll grant this much: a lot of what is allowed to parade around as being "conservative" is identity politics. I'm not sure what the percentage is, but I'd guesstimate that around 70-80% of it is based upon identity politics.
Of course, the remaining percentage stands in opposition to that main trunk of b.s. Watching Olberman last night, he reported that Bob Barr is pulling something on the order of 9% in New Mexico and is doing well in Colorado. All indications point toward the presence of Barr in these states having the effect of putting them in Obama's win column. So if the whole of conservatism was pure identity politics and nothing more, these folks would fall in line behind McCain, which they aren't.
Barr's supporters consider themselves to be the Real conservatives, not McCain. And I'd reason that that segment of conservatives are defining themselves in opposition to the "evil other" that is McCain, who the media refers to as the "conservative candidate".
It isn't as cut and dry as you make it seem.
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