Hillary: The Conservative Hope (WSJ)

[LiberalArkie]

The best hope for what’s left of a serious conservative movement in America is the election in November of a Democratic president, held in check by a Republican Congress. Conservatives can survive liberal administrations, especially those whose predictable failures lead to healthy restorations—think Carter, then Reagan. What isn’t survivable is a Republican president who is part Know Nothing, part Smoot-Hawley and part John Birch. The stain of a Trump administration would cripple the conservative cause for a generation.

This is the reality that wavering Republicans need to understand before casting their lot with a presumptive nominee they abhor only slightly less than his likely opponent. If the next presidency is going to be a disaster, why should the GOP want to own it?

In the 1990s, when another Clinton was president, conservatives became fond of the phrase “character counts.” This was a way of scoring points against Bill Clinton for his sexual predations and rhetorical misdirections, as well as a statement that Americans expected honor and dignity in the Oval Office. I’ll never forget the family friend, circa 1998, who wondered how she was supposed to explain the meaning of a euphemism for oral sex to her then 10-year-old daughter.

Conservatives still play the character card against Hillary Clinton, citing her disdain for other people’s rules, her Marie Antoinette airs and her potential law breaking. It’s a fair card to play, if only the presumptive Republican nominee weren’t himself a serial fabulist, an incorrigible self-mythologizer, a brash vulgarian, and, when it comes to his tax returns, a determined obfuscator. Endorsing Mr. Trump means permanently laying to rest any claim conservatives might ever again make on the character issue.

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http://www.wsj.com/article_email/hillary-the-conservative-hope-1462833870-lMyQjAxMTI2NjE0MDYxNzA5Wj

[bjo59]

1. Read this earlier this morning and was thinking about posting it here - so glad you did!

[synergie]

2. So she's the conservative hope because she's goint to be more progressive and effective than

the monkey running on the GOP ticket?

Oh, you're just hoping people will read the title and reiterate their talking points about how the only Democratic candidate running on a history of actual progressive accomplishments is a secret republican because when she was 13 she volunteered for a Republican campaign?

Gotcha.

Yeah, Hillary will indeed save the country from CON idiocy, and thus she is their hope to keep them alive, since they won't have a chance to screw up the country even more and destroy the whole concept of CONS.

[Demsrule86]

4. Right the poster implies that the article means something else...but DU will read it.

The author of the article calls her a liberal. He feels the conservative movement can survive a liberal but not Trump with his racist demagoguery. And yet here we have posters who breathlessly inform us that Trump would have won more votes if he was one of two candidates...or that they fear Hillary more than Trump.

[leeroysphitz]

5. rah rah rah. n/t

[Demsrule86]

3. You do understand the point of the article right?

The point being made is that the party can survive ...Hillary the liberal...but not Trump who will destroy conservatism-poison it forever...one liberal...hey conservatives can deal with that if they keep congress...but not Trump. So it does not say what you imply. I read it earlier today.