“Your new piece in Time makes some good points, but it appears to be a mean spirited hit piece resulting from a hissy fit over Bush’s stance on gay marriage.” This is the briefest version of a message I’ve been receiving in high volume. It’s insulting and it’s wrong. If you don’t agree with the piece, fine. Show me where you disagree or where I’m wrong. To argue that I’m a one-issue voter belies everything I’ve written about for years. To take the obvious example: The president has been opposed to same-sex marriage since before he was elected. I supported him while fully acknowledging he was worse on gay matters than Al Gore in 2000. He has held this stance for three years, during which I have supported his war on terror and still do. But I have always criticized this president when I felt he went overboard with the social right. I have always opposed faith-based initiatives. I have always, always been a traditional fiscal conservative (and like the estate tax). I once hoped for better from Bush but now know the truth. If it’s only my being gay that has awakened me to Bush’s spending binge, there were an awful lot of homos at CPAC recently. I’ve always defended the legalization of soft drugs. I have a strong libertarian streak. There is nothing in my latest Time piece that isn’t competely – even boringly – predictable coming from me.
ANOTHER CONSERVATIVE: Gets some cold feet. Here’s blogger Tacitus:
If you told me in fall ’00 that the next Republican administration would embrace mushy multiculturalism; wipe out our reputation for fiscal rectitude; preside over a massive entitlements expansion; embrace secrecy as a good in itself; and unnecessarily strain the US armed forces to the breaking point, I would never have believed it. But it has all come to pass, and we must be very clear on why it has come to pass: it is not because these things are expressions of the core principles of most Republicans — it is because most Republicans have allowed them despite their core principles.
I wouldn’t be that harsh, but it’s telling that someone else is.
The Dish 