David Brooks om John McCain

Spaltist i New York Times David Brooks (tidligere medarbeider i Wallstreet Journal), pleier å ha særdeles interessante observasjoner i sine ukentlige kommentarer i New York Times. Brooks, som selv er en "moderat/fiscal Conservative", har befriende nok ikke tatt noen posisjon i "The culture war" og roser like godt høyresiden som venstresiden, og vice versa hva gjelder kritikk.

Tirsdagskommentaren "The Voters Revolt" var intet unntak. Særlig hans beskrivelse av hvordan republikanske velgere er på siden av det republikanske establisementet hva gjelder holdninger og John McCain:

“I’m here to tell you, if either of these two guys get the nomination, it’s going to destroy the Republican Party,” Rush Limbaugh said recently on his radio show. “It’s going to change it forever, be the end of it.”

Nå har vel aldri Rush Limbaugh vært kilden til god kunnskap, men likefullt en betydelsesfull meningsdanner. Men som Brooks helt riktig påpeker dissonansen mellom leder og velger har inntruffet:

Yet a funny thing has happened this primary season. Conservative voters have not followed their conservative leaders. Conservative voters are much more diverse than the image you’d get from conservative officialdom.

In South Carolina, 34 percent of the Republican voters called themselves “very conservative,” but another 34 percent called themselves only “somewhat conservative” and another 24 percent called themselves “moderate.” Only 28 percent of the primary voters there said that abortion should be “always illegal.” This, I repeat, was in South Carolina, one of the most right-wing places in the country.

The lesson is not that the conservative establishment is headed for the ash heap. The lesson is that the Republican Party, even in its shrunken state, is diverse. Regular Republican voters don’t seem to mind independent thinking. There’s room for moderates as well as orthodox conservatives. Limbaugh, Grover Norquist and James Dobson have influence, but they are not arbiters of conservative doctrine.

I Norge er jo republikanerne synonymt med skrekkens menn, og således er det vanskelig å forstå for norske journalister, ihvertfall vanskelig å formidle at den konservative bevegelse i USA er så mangfoldig.

McCains egen form for Konservative agitasjon evner å kombinere tradisjon med inkludering, og ikke bare gjennom retorikk, men i praktisk handling. Her fra hans tale i South Carolina:

“We want government to do its job, not your job; to do it better and to do it with less of your money; to defend our nation’s security wisely and effectively, because the cost of our defense is so dear to us; to respect our values because they are the true source of our strength; to enforce the rule of law that is the first defense of freedom; to keep the promises it makes to us and not make promises it will not keep.”

McCain er faktisk personen som kan transformere og samle "The conservative moment" slik at Republikanerne faktisk har en god sjanse til å vinne i november. Det er ihvertfall lov å håpe!