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THE FOUNDATION: HUMAN NATURE

In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will now and then peek out and show itself.” — Benjamin Franklin

OPINION IN BRIEF

“As much attention as the decision of the stars of the Kennedy family to endorse Sen. Obama received [last] week, it has still not been given its due. This was a break with the establishment and from the expected, and it may carry a price. The Clintons are deeply wired into their party, they run many money lines and power lines, and Hillary Clinton is still, in the Super Tuesday states, in the lead. Will the lives of those who rebelled against her be made more pleasant if she wins? The Clintons have never had the wit to be forgiving. But all parties, all movements, need men and women who will come forward every decade or so to name tendencies within that are abusive or destructive, to throw off the low and grubby. Teddy’s speech in this regard was a barnburner. He went straight against the negative and bullying, hard for the need to find inspiration again. He is an old lion of his party, a hero of the base. But people do what they know how to do, and objects at rest tend of stay at rest, and Teddy has long led a comfortable life as a party panjandrum who knew to sit back and watch as the dog barked and the caravan moved on. In a way he seemed to rebel against his own tendencies... As a conservative I would say Ted Kennedy has spent much of his career being not just wrong about the issues but so deeply wrong, so consistently and reliably wrong that it had a kind of grandeur to it. So wrong that I cannot actually think of a single serious policy question on which I agreed with him. But...[h]is principled and uncompromising rebellion seemed to me a patriotic act, and adds to the rising tide of Geffenism. When David Geffen broke with Mrs. Clinton last summer, and couched his disapproval along ethical lines, he was almost alone among important Democrats. It took some guts. Now others are joining his side. Good.” — Peggy Noonan

CULTURE

“The truth is, we are supposed to be taking in individuals from other cultures, not other cultures in their wholeness. That is what American openness is supposed to represent. But we are so far gone that the men who lead us... are not even aware of this. But once again we see the continuum between universal values and multiculturalism. Since human beings can’t live without culture, multiculturalism — that is, to be taken over by other cultures — is the fate of any country unwilling to assert its own culture. Some people are wary of talking of an American culture because they associate it with race. This is erroneous. Culture transcends race. It unites people of different backgrounds. Whether it be Louis Armstrong or Aaron Copland, they are both part of American culture.” — Carol Iannone

LIBERTY

“For [President] Bush, the true measure of good governance wasn’t liberating the American people from an over-weaning welfare state. Rather, activist government became the very definition of good government. And with such ideological markers in place, it was inevitable that government would expand and the ostensible conservatives in Congress would disintegrate into a gaggle of self-serving appropriators. Indeed, since 1999, the federal budget has expanded by more than $1 trillion. And while Republicans, now in the minority, suddenly claim a newfound hatred for pork-barrel spending, nobody thinks twice about the fact that the GOP oversaw the largest expansion of the government since the Great Society. [In the State of the Union], Bush talked a big game about empowering and liberating the American people. But the most appropriate response to such assurances is, ‘Now you tell us?”’ — Jonah Goldberg
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THE GIPPER

“I’m sure everyone feels sorry for the individual who has fallen by the wayside or who can’t keep up in our competitive society, but my own compassion goes beyond that to the millions of unsung men and women who get up every morning, send the kids to school, go to work, try and keep up the payments on their house, pay exorbitant taxes to make possible compassion for the less fortunate, and as a result have to sacrifice many of their own desires and dreams and hopes. Government owes them something better than always finding a new way to make them share the fruit of their toils with others.” — Ronald Reagan

GOVERNMENT

“The fact that the market is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better. There are too many examples of government interventions that made things worse, the Great Depression of the 1930s being the most tragic. Those on the left love to believe that the stock market crash of 1929 showed the failure of the free market and that the New Deal interventions in the 1930s saved the day. But the stock market crash of 1987 was just as big and Ronald Reagan resisted loud calls for him to intervene. The result was not another Great Depression but the beginning of a decades-long period of prosperity. Before Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt came along, there was no expectation that the federal government would intervene when the stock market crashed or when there was a downturn in the economy. Previous stock market crashes and previous downturns in the economy worked themselves out faster and less painfully than the Great Depression of the 1930s, just as the 1987 crisis did. The track record of government intervention is far less impressive than its rhetoric.” — Thomas Sowell

RE: THE LEFT

“There was general amazement when (the now-muzzled) Bill Clinton did his red-faced, attack-dog, race-baiting performance in South Carolina. Friends, Democrats and longtime media sycophants were variously perplexed, repulsed, enraged, mystified and shocked that this beloved ex-president would so jeopardize his legacy by stooping so low. What they don’t understand is that for Clinton, there is no legacy. What he was doing on the low road from Iowa to South Carolina was fighting for a legacy — a legacy that he knows history has denied him and that he has but one chance to redeem. Clinton is a narcissist but also smart and analytic enough to distinguish adulation from achievement. Among Democrats, he is popular for twice giving them the White House, something no Democrat has done since FDR. And the bouquets he receives abroad are simply signs of the respect routinely given ex-presidents, though Clinton earns an extra dollop of fawning, with the accompanying fringe benefits, because he is (a) charming and (b) not George W. Bush. But Clinton knows this is all written on sand... Clinton knows that popularity is cheap, easily lost, easily regained. (See Lewinsky scandal.) But historical legacies are forever. He wants one, desperately. But to get it he must return to the White House. And for that he must elect his wife. At any cost.” — Charles Krauthammer

CAMPAIGN WATCH

“Fred Thompson’s gone. Duncan Hunter’s gone... Huckabee could become Huckabeen — gone by [tomorrow]... All of a sudden you’ve got this Republican primary coming down to McCain, Romney and Ron Paul. With all this uncertainty, just where can a conservative go?... Who, then, could conservatives end up backing?... Newt Gingrich, that’s who... Why Newt? Ask yourself why Ronald Reagan won. He won because he was able to excite a group of people in America that the liberal wing of the Republican party has never excited — the grass roots. Newt Gingrich is the last Republican to have done that — to reach out to the grass roots, to all those conservative Republicans and Reagan Democrats. Remember, it was Newt who engineered the miraculous Republican take-over of Congress in 1994 — something that was deemed impossible two years after Bill Clinton won the White House. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was out there quietly working the phones and hoping for a wide-open convention where the delegates — not the primaries that selected many of them — decide for themselves who they want to carry the GOP banner in the presidential election in November. If Newt throws his hat in the ring he knows that in the blink of an eye he will have the grass roots behind him.” — Michael Reagan
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FOR THE RECORD

“Too many Republicans continue to embrace the notion that more spending on pork barrel projects will keep them in office. They should have been disabused of that notion when they lost control of Congress in the 2006 election, largely because their collusion with President Bush on spending and expansion of government mimicked the Democrats. The Republican rank and file and Independent voters prefer their liberalism straight up rather than diluted by party leaders. The best opportunity Republicans had at their retreat to prove they see the light on spending was to name the tireless anti-pork crusader Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican, to the powerful Appropriations Committee. This would have been the equivalent of placing a preacher at the entrance to a house of ill repute, or a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union on an alcohol beverage and control board. The analogies are apt because too many politicians are drunk on power and behave like harlots with other people’s money.” — Cal Thomas

SELECT READER COMMENTS

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“After reading your Patriot Candidate Profiles, I have determined that calling John McCain conservative, honest and faithful to the Constitution is about like comparing a mangy junkyard dog to a thoroughbred. Conversely, I firmly believe that Mitt Romney is completely the opposite — a true working conservative, extremely honest and will faithfully execute the office of the President while abiding by the Constitution.”  — Edna, Texas

“Mitt Romney will be far more comfortable with the conservatives as president than he was as governor of Massachusetts with the liberals. His Mormon faith is a natural ally of conservatism. I do not worry about Mitt straying back to any previous liberal positions.”  — Colville, Washington

“I enjoyed your analysis of Mitt Romney. I like to put the issue of his fitness to my friends this way. Think of the U.S. government as a business, a corporation if you will. The biggest, richest, and most powerful one on earth. As a citizen, you and I are shareholders. What kind of person would you choose to be CEO? The wife of a convicted felon, a war hero with no management experience or a newbie senator with little life experience and no management experience. It’s your choice, choose wisely.”  — Fresno, California

“I generally agree with The Patriot Post, but I am dismayed that Mark Alexander has joined the ‘McCain bashing’ crowd that so many conservatives are engaging in. Now, I don’t agree with everything that McCain believes, but I feel he is the best man to lead this country for the next four years.”  — Wichita, Kansas

Editor’s Reply: We suppose the best measure of how objective the profiles Mr. Alexander provided on John McCain and Mitt Romney (among others on our Presidential Candidates Rating page) is the fact that the mail accusing us of supporting and opposing each of these candidates is split about even for each profile.

CPAC 2008

Attention Patriot readers! The 2008 Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual conference attended by more than 5,000 conservatives, activists, and elected officials, takes place this week — February 7-9 — in Washington, DC, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. If you are attending, be sure to stop by our booth. And while you’re at it, encourage others in attendance to stop by and subscribe to The Patriot!
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THE LAST WORD

“Here’s another news item out of Britain this week: A new version of The Three Little Pigs was turned down for some ‘excellence in education’ award on the grounds that ‘the use of pigs raises cultural issues’ and, as a result, the judges ‘had concerns for the Asian community’  — i.e., Muslims. Non-Muslim Asians — Hindus and Buddhists — have no ‘concerns’ about anthropomorphized pigs. This is now a recurring theme in British life. A while back, it was a local government council telling workers not to have knick-knacks on their desks representing Winnie-the-Pooh’s porcine sidekick, Piglet. As Martin Niemoller famously said, first they came for Piglet and I did not speak out because I was not a Disney character and, if I was, I’m more of an Eeyore. So then they came for the Three Little Pigs, and Babe, and by the time I realized my country had turned into a 24/7 Looney Tunes it was too late, because there was no Porky Pig to stammer ‘Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!’ and bring the nightmare to an end. Just for the record, it’s true that Muslims, like Jews, are not partial to bacon and sausages. But the Koran has nothing to say about cartoon pigs.”  — Mark Steyn

Veritas vos Liberabit — Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot’s editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and for their families — especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)