The great lefty parlor game in DC is to come up with some theory about how conservatives are killing the GOP and then find a few “conservatives” to reinforce the argument. People like David Frum, Russ Douthat, and David Brooks have dined out on that for years. They are always ready with a pithy quote to explain how opposition to their particular issues spells doom for conservatives. Any conservative spending one minute reading their scribblings is a minute you’ll never get back. On Monday, Politico, in their zeal to turn last week’s election loss into a general indictment of conservatism, published a classic piece in which “conservatives” worried about the direction of the movement. It is total BS.
Media outlets like Politico like to begin writing from a conclusion and then lace in quotes to reinforce that conclusion. If you live outside of DC, understand that they aren’t actually reporting what is going on. Rather, they are positing a particular argument and then finding certain “conservatives” to echo their case. I am long past tired of conservatives playing along with this game.
I was very disappointed to see a friend of mine, Ben Domenech, playing this game:
Or, as Domenech put it: “Conservatives may be content to stay in a bubble and yell about Benghazi, but it doesn’t help the cause in the long term.”
Now, Ben is a good guy. But he is clearly too quick to play the DC parlor game. He may laugh about the relevance of Benghazi, but let’s recap the situation.
- There were escalating attacks against our consulate throughout the summer
- The UK Ambassador was withdrawn from the country because of threats against him
- Our Ambassador, Chris Stevens, begged for more security
- Our nation rejected pleas for more security
- The security forces of our nation watched the embassy assault in real time
- Our nation declined to mobilize extra military support to protect our diplomatic assets.
This isn’t actually a big deal? Domenech may find this whole issue boring, but outside of getting a quote in Politico, his position doesn’t really make sense. The Benghazi crisis is one of the worst scandals to ever hit the Presidency. An American Ambassador was targeted for assassination, our country had some advance knowledge of this, and we did nothing. Ben may like that a liberal publication pays attention to him, but can he really not see how serious this scandal is?
But outlets like Politico can always find “conservatives” like Domenech to push their own agenda. Hopefully, conservatives will eventually realize that the media are not neutral observers. I pray for the day that conservatives like Domenech no longer play this game.
People like Ben are playing a losing game.
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