Saturday, December 14, 2019

Sullivan to Dreher to Miller

Rod Dreher has a lot of good things to say about Andrew Sullivan's analysis of the UK election. But he wonders why American cultural conservatives don't get more emphatic in their pushback against left extremism, citing especially transgender advocacy run amok and jihadist terrorism being apologised for.

I think Zell Miller had the answer. He was in favor of some forms of legalised gambling, but he relayed a caution an older politician had offered to him.  "If you want to legalise a lottery or some casino, two-thirds of the voters will be with you, and one-third will be against.  But that one-third will kill your re-election."

I think that general rule applies to many things in politics.  The few who care deeply can sometimes leverage the mildly interested.

1 comment:

Christopher B said...

I might be harshing on Dreher but him complaining that somebody else isn't pushing back hard enough against extremes of transgenderism is a bit rich coming from the guy all in for the 'Benedict option' of Christians withdrawing into protective enclaves. From what I see, Republicans, specifically President Trump's Secretary of Education Ms Devos and his Attorney General Mr Barr, have been doing pretty well rolling back the worst excesses of the Obama administration in these areas, as well as the work state level Republicans have been doing. His comments, especially the one about voting for Democrat in the LA governors race, make me think he's less concerned that the push back isn't effective as that the wrong people might be effectively doing it.