First, Markos's post and others shoot down the idea that Jim Webb is a conservative. But let's stipulate one thing: many GOP supporters genuinely believe Jim Webb is a conservative. It's not just spin (although there's plenty of that). In fact, he's been called by a Weekly Standard writer "the most conservative national Democrat since Grover Cleveland." OK, considering the political career of Strom Thurmond, that is ... well, stupid, even by its own logic.
But the thing is, the way conservatism has become defined by the GOP, Jim Webb can be considered conservative. And that says something important about the plight the GOP finds itself in ...
First, let's take a look at the
most prominent column running down Webb's "conservatism" that I've seen. It's where I got that quote about Grover Cleveland up above. So, making allowances for this being right-wing framing, here it is:
He is, for instance, an absolutist on Second Amendment rights -- the right to keep and bear arms -- but he made sure the subject seldom arose as he campaigned in the liberal suburbs of northern Virginia.
He has written extensively about affirmative action, calling it ``a permeating state-sponsored racism that is as odious as the Jim Crow laws it sought to countermand.'' He has praised the Confederate battle flag and the sacrifice of the Confederate soldier with an eloquence that Jefferson Davis might envy. [...]
When Clinton was condemned for his promiscuous use of pardons in January 2001, Webb wrote in the Wall Street Journal: ``It is a pleasurable experience to watch Bill Clinton finally being judged, even by his own party, for the ethical fraudulence that has characterized his entire political career.''[...]
Webb, on the other hand, is better described as a Buchanan Democrat -- as in Pat Buchanan. Webb's brand of populism is hostile to free trade, antagonistic to corporate America, suspicious of the market and horrified by the effects of globalization, which has showered rewards on the elites while leaving behind the people who, as a populist, he means to represent.
There it is. Webb is a conservative because, in the past, he has expressed admiration for Confederate bravery, had problems with Bill Clinton's ethical lapses, isn't for gun control, and has written against affirmative action in the past. And, not mentioned here, is that he also has problems with what Jane Fonda did 40 years ago.
Well, color me a conservative sympathizer because, with the exception of the affirmative action part, I really have no problem with any of that. I liked the Clinton Presidency in spite of Clinton's personal problems, not because of them. And that last paragraph is straight Democratic populism, far different than Pat Buchanan's xenophopic rantings.
But, what's important is that in the language of the GOP of recent years, those things make him a conservative to many. If you don't like Bill Clinton personally, if you didn't like Jane Fonda's actions, if you think Confederate soldiers behaved with personal bravery ... yeehaw, you're a conservative.
The GOP has focused so much attention on stupid, shallow banalities for so long that they really don't stand for much of anything. There's been talk on the left and right about whether or not Bush is a "true conservative" because of his spending and government expansionist policies. Is that what conservatism stands for? Well, that misses the point. Conservatism as a political entity doesn't stand for or against Bush's actions. What it does stand for is being: anti-Bill Clinton, anti-Jane Fonda, anti-John Kerry (and anti-Howard Dean and anti-Nancy Pelosi and ...), anti-abortion, and anti-gun control. And that's just about it. Everything else is negotiable. And for some, that abortion thing isn't all that, either.
Well, except for taxes. That's the only real plank in the GOP platform: anti-tax. But they've completely discredited that, so this is what's left: a pitiful shell of personal antagonisms and symbolic morality.
And that's when political coalitions die. When it becomes so easy to peel off supporters by giving lip service to a few extraneous issues, there's really nothing left holding together the political coalition.
The conservative reaction to Jim Webb is important not because they can't claim that he's conservative with any validity. It's important because they can. All while he espouses political views that place him proudly to the left of a good portion of the Senate Democratic caucus.
That's a political hole big enough to drive a huge national majority through ...