Desperately seeking respectability.

There are a number of things we have to believe to be respectable. One of them is that the “great moderate” class seeks moderation. That reasoning only seems to apply when it comes to Republicans, otherwise how do we explain Barney Frank, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi or any of the other Liberal bomb throwers and spear carriers who are the most visible face of the Democrat party.   A few Republicans sneak by without being "quite the thing," which explains Rand Paul, one of the most refreshing new Senators we have.

But that is what the desperate people like Rick Moran and Peggy Noonan - who fervently want the Right to be “respectable” - want to believe. As the White Queen said: “sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” What they are seeking is approval; approval from the people who define respectability. The people with public megaphones: the Great Oz … uh media.

What does it take for an idea or a question to be unrespectable? How is a question deemed out of bounds?

It takes two sides: one side that rolls its eyes and sighs heavily when a question deemed unrespectable is raised, and another side that lacks the moral certainty that it has the right to ask the question.

Go back a year or two to the issue of “global warming.” Remember when Al Gore and the combined might of the MSM deemed that the scientific question was settled? That questioning anthropomorphic global warming was on par with being a holocaust denier? The ones seeking “respectability” told us to drop it and move on. Some didn’t. Some had the moral certainty to continue to raise questions. The high priests of the global warming church were exposed as hoaxers and liars. The rest is history.

It’s the same with the issue of Obama’s birth certificate. Where is it and what’s on it? Why doesn’t Obama produce it? Is it really a brilliant Ninja move on his part to expose the Right as a bunch of conspiracy kooks? Could be; but I don’t think Obama’s that smart.

He certainly has not shown the kind of brilliance he’s supposed to have in either his domestic or foreign policy initiatives. “Smart diplomacy” has gotten us involved in a war with Libya.  This is a country that's mostly desert, with 6.5 million people, and the grand coalition of NATO states that's come in on the side of rebels is actually losing!  On the domestic front we have spent trillions of dollars and unemployment is near historic highs. Remember the promise of “shovel ready” jobs by the Lightbearer? Where did those go?

But back to Rick Moran and his desperate search for respectability. Reading his essay I am struck by the fact that he fails to understand the issues because he frames them in the terms that the media uses. He fails to come to grips with the simple issue of why the original birth certificate is not produced. Most of his essay is simply a yell: “SHUT UP.” The only substantial comment that I read in this screed is

Trump, for all his bluster, can’t seriously believe that the certification of live birth issued by the Obama campaign in 2008 and confirmed as authentic by the state of Hawaii is a forgery, or was planted by Communists, or was altered in some way. There is not one scintilla of evidence for any of those possibilities — at least, evidence that would be accepted by someone with more than two brain cells working.

The issue as I understand it is that a Certification of Live birth does not contain some of the information which is found in the original birth certificate, known as a Certificate of Live Birth.  I have very little doubt that Obama was born in Hawaii and is eligible – by the standards of the Constitution, if not by experience or temperament – to be president. But I am intrigued by the lengths to which Obama has gone to avoid producing the original certificate. No politician should be trusted to tell the truth when a lie will do.  That goes double for Barack Obama who attended Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years, and who he describes as his spiritual mentor, and claims he failed to notice that Wright's a racist, anti-Semitic crackpot who hates America.

But back to the issue of respectability. I consider that to be a demand that Republicans nominate a candidate that’s acceptable to the MSM. That’s how we ended up with John McCain. The Republican media candidate this year is Mitt Romney, followed by a number of colorless governors. Mitt Romney is, I’m sure, a very nice man. But he’s the creator of RomneyCare in Massachusetts. And you can be absolutely sure that if you are a Republican and the governor of Massachusetts you are part of the liberal Republican establishment. You are a manager for the welfare state; the perfect exemplar of the kind of Republican who wants what the Democrats want, only less of it and cheaper. In fact, that’s Romney’s reply to the critics of his health care program that’s busting the fisc in the Bay State: “the Democrats wanted even more.”

Even Romney’s polished good looks are a turn-off. Like Obama, Romney should be a model for men’s clothing in glossy magazines like GQ, not the leader of a country that’s heading off the economic cliff. Obama will zoom us over that cliff by putting the pedal to the metal; Romney will drive us over at a sedate 50 mph proclaiming his prudence while doing so.

I reject the notion that “moderates” are attracted to moderation in candidates. A moderate – the true moderate who is not ideological and who doesn’t pay attention to campaigns – is driven by emotion.

The last election was a perfect illustration of that. Obama was the most Liberal member of congress when he ran for president. His platform was "HopeN'Change," and the fact that he was not George Bush during an election when George Bush was not running. People went to the polls knowing very little about the man who had only held national office for two years and whose promises were literally empty. I mean “hope and change” are empty cups into which you can pour literally anything you want.

There were emotional reasons for voting for Obama: electing the first black president to show how enlightened you are, good looking guy, not George Bush, rock star staging, glib talker, economic fears, black racial solidarity, didn’t like Sarah Palin are some of the reasons that come to mind. Meanwhile the MSM were airbrushing away any of Obama’s flaws. This caused the “moderate” vote to swing for Obama. A moderate could feel good about voting for Obama; being on the right side of history.

The emotion that moderates will feel most going into the 2012 election is fear. Fear of being in your 50s and never being able to get a good job again. Fear of graduating from college deep in debt without a job offer. Fear of an economic collapse that will wipe out your savings. Fear of a crushing government debt load that will rob your children of their future.  Fear of the tax increases that Obama is promising. Fear that every time you go to the grocery store food prices will be higher. Fear that gas prices will go even higher because of government policy, taking an ever bigger bite of your family budget. Fear that the government will get between you and the medical treatment you need. Fear that all this is what Obama wants when all you want is to be left alone to live your life.

The “moderate” answer is the controlled crash … the muddle through approach. The real answer is that the structure that the 20th century state has created is fatally flawed. It is jury-rigged and ramshackle; a structure that is too heavy for its foundations to bear. It must be dismantled, it’s useful parts recycled and its rotten parts discarded. It must be built anew. This is the time, when fear of what is is greater than the fear of real change. People thought that they were voting for change they wanted last time. They did not realize what they were getting. They are ready for a U-turn, change they can really believe in. We know that the MSM will be back in Obama’s corner again, that the real change will lack “respectability” no matter who the leaders of that change is. So let’s get a leader who really means it, who wants to avoid that controlled crash that’s coming. Whoever that person is, you can be sure he or she’s not “respectable.”