October 8, 2012
THE DEAL WAS THAT WE PRETEND THEY WERE A PEER...:
Mending, Not Ending Is Conservative And Post-Partisan (Pete Spiliakos, October 7, 2012, First Things)
The real Romney managed a mostly articulate defense of premium support Medicare, which would be the most "conservative" policy reform since... well I don't know when. I think a lot of what we think off as ideological politics is actually drawing lines between politically engaged teams. Mocking Obama, threatening to torture Obamacare to death on your first day in office and constantly complaining about socialism are all forms of showing what team you are on. They are also partisan in the sense that the "teams" tend to think of themselves as ideological first and party members second. So when Romney (or Ryan) explains how a policy will benefit the general public, it doesn't seem especially ideological or partisan - even if the policy proposal is a much bigger change than merely undoing the works of the Obama administration.
And the essence of partisanship is that the Right would prefer an ideologue and a second Obama term. Purity is more important than politics for the true believer.
Posted by Orrin Judd at October 8, 2012 4:16 PM
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