Just polished off Hugh Hewitt's latest literary effort. Unless you've been hiding under a rock or living in a cave for the last three weeks (did anybody tell Osama?) I'm sure you've heard about Hugh's book. He hasn't exactly been shy about promoting it so far, and it sounds as if the real blitz is only just getting started. If you're at your local Barnes and Noble and you notice a bespectacled, silver-haired shock jock in Dockers with a goofy smile coming at you with a stack of red books, I recommend that you find the exit immediately.
Of course I did not have to shell out any lucre for my copy, although I hesitate to describe it as "free". Considering the mountains of abuse that Hugh has heaped on me and my good name in the last year, I feel that the book is the minimum that Hugh owes me. Reparations! I demand reparations!
I don't agree with all the points that Hugh makes in his book. He's more willing than I am to trade principle for power; the Toomey-Specter race for example. But overall it's a concise, thoughtful examination of the reasons that people should support the GOP in the 2004 election, along with concrete examples of what that support should entail (it's much more that just voting).
He isn't afraid to take the occasional jab at fellow conservatives either. In fact I believe that this particular line may very well be referring to a fellow talk radio host on Hugh's same network:
While self-proclaimed experts on borders and quotas and culture rant away, voting citizens hear these rants as appeals to racists instincts, even when they are not intended that way.
My only quibble with Mr. Hewitt's effort, other than the matter of his referring to our blog as "annoying", is that he is too quick to dismiss those who support third parties:
Greens are useful only as a bleeding device on Democrats, and Libertarians only as a bleeding device on Republicans. Both Greens and Libertarians are good for chuckles, but it is an absurd choice to ally oneself with one or the other and marks the self-declared Green or Libertarian as a naive and beside-the-point political nonentity.
There's no point being involved in politics unless you are an active Republican or Democrat. If you are an independent or minor party candidate, you have no say in things. Nor will you in your lifetime.
I don't substantially disagree with Hugh's assessment of third party supporters. And I concur with his view that:
...if you walk away from politics because you can't have everything your way, you are helping the people win who are least like you and most opposed to your views.
But we can't afford to just write them off so cavalierly. I'm speaking of libertarians here. When it comes to the Green party; I say the more, the merrier. Go Greens. What I'm worried about is losing votes of disaffected conservatives. And what we can do to convince them to vote for Bush.
This past Saturday night, Atomizer was hosting a party at his new abode. Late in the evening, after the keg of Summit had been hit early and often, we got into a debate with an intelligent, articulate, well-read friend of Atomizer's (no, that's not an oxymoron) with views that would be described by most as conservative. For the most part he supports the actions taken in the war against Islamist militants and agrees that Bush's tax cuts have helped stimulate the economy out of recession. But he's not voting for Bush in November. He's pulling the libertarian lever instead.
We went round and round with him on this decision. How a vote for the libertarian candidate was a vote for Kerry, how you could never find a candidate with perfect views to fit yours, how this was the most important election in years (at least since 1980), how you needed to weigh the most important issues and vote on them, how Bush could actually win the state this year, etc. etc. All to no avail.
The reality on the ground for me and, I suspect many others who read Hugh's book, is that there are not many Democrats out there whom I can persuade to vote for Bush. Those few that I know are pretty hard core lefties and not likely to come over. On the other hand, I know a number of folks whose political views are much more closely aligned with the GOP than with the Dems, but are either wavering on Bush or already committed to voting for a third party (usually either libertarian or constitutional). These are the people we need to influence.
The question is how. What are the killer arguments that can sway them to vote for Bush this November? Is it too late for a supplemental chapter Hugh?
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