Rush on Moderation

Some “pearls of wisdom” from the Rush Hacool yesterday that IMHO also apply to our MOderate brothers and sisters:

Moderation is not a substantive belief. This is my problem with moderates. There isn’t a core there! Moderation is a tactic. It’s not a set of principles. It is a tactic that says, “Regardless of the situation, regardless of events, my first impulse is to find a different way around.” I know moderation, per se, is illogical because there are clearly times when it is self-destructive or counterproductive. For instance, moderation after we were attacked at Pearl Harbor would have been irrational. Moderation against slavery would have been immoral. How do you debate the issue of moderation if it has no core? You wind up debating tactics, but tactics without principle are pointless — and this has always been my problem with moderates.

These moderates believe that they are more, what? Sophisticated or erudite or what? They believe they happen to be smarter, wiser, more open-minded. When in fact they have no anchor! They exist to be SEEN as something rather than existing to BE something! What is the point of a tactic if there’s no purpose to it? I’m not a conservative because I embrace “tactics.” I’m a conservative because I believe and embrace certain broad yet fundamental principles and just as I told the guy who called and wanted to do more than just sit around and think, “Young man, if we can convince and persuade more people to our views — our principles, our views — we believe our society will be much better off for it. The more converts we win, the better off this country is.”

That’s the whole point, and you don’t do that with simple “tactics” and denying who you are for fear of offending somebody — and as far as conservatives go, this is our history. People fought the Revolution — they risked their lives, they lost their lives — not over something as pointless and elusive as “moderation” in pursuit of tactics. They did so to found a nation like no other, built on principles that other nations had never embraced before. So what exactly is it that we’re supposed to be moderating? This is the question that I have always had whenever these moderates say, “Mmmmm, you need to moderate your tone.” What is it about conservatism that we’re supposed to moderate?

Moderating is caving, as far as I’m concerned. Oscar Wilde said, “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” Compromise is what got us in this mess! Compromise, the desire to compromise, (McCain impression), “I can work with the other side! I’m the guy! I’m the guy that can cross the aisle.” That’s what got us in this mess: Compromising with people who hold our views to be repugnant to them. So what are we supposed to be moderating, particularly in the face of this regime? Are we to fight left-wing principles that are foreign to this country and destructive to this nation’s core with tactics based on moderating our principles?

Is that how we’re supposed to do this? We’re supposed to moderate our principles in dealing with this? We face an existential threat to our way of life! That is what is represented by today’s Democrat Party and its leader, Barack Obama: An existential threat to our way of life. It’s why so many people are irritable. It’s why so many people are scared, it’s why so many people are angry, it’s why so many people are unsettled. Our very way of life is under attack, and we’re told we’re supposed to moderate? We had a landslide victory in November of 2010. We’re supposed to compromise after that? What are we supposed to compromise? What are we supposed to apologize for? And what are these moderates on our side who want to be critical of people like me, what do they have to offer?

They spend their time telling those of us who stand up for our principles — and you in the Tea Party who invoke the Founders. We openly embrace, I guess, the embarrassing subjects of liberty and freedom. They tell us to back off, to cool it, to find a middle way, a more moderate way. All they’re talking about is tactics. Well, the problem is that tactics and moderation without principle in the face of a destructive opponent are pointless. They’re useless. They might make you, the moderate, feel better at the end of the day, but that’s…worth…nothing. I don’t even see the logic in what’s being proposed here. Moderating, he and others, this Berkowitz guy are arguing for moderation as a tactic, in essence, while we are arguing against the transformation of this country — and we’re offering principles and substantive alternatives to stop this destruction! “Wrong tactic! Wrong tactic! The right tactic is to moderate.” Well, again, when somebody tells me to moderate, I ask, “Moderate what?”