'The Superiority Of Their Ideas'

Vox Day puts a lot of labels on himself. On his website, Vox Popoli, he's a "scientist and Christian Libertarian commentator." I hope that covers everything. He sees moral lessons in a broken cage at a (French) reptile show. And now he's a bit disheartened by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other "Frankenstein" Republicans.

He blames it on political pragmatism, which is what Schwarzenegger calls post-partisan. Others may call it moving the ball forward. But for conservatives, there is no compromise. There are only touchdowns. Vox:

"The counterintuitive truth for conservatives is that principle is the ultimate pragmatism. No sports team has ever won a game by committing to move the ball in the direction of the goal that it is defending. Conservatives cannot win moderates to their cause by becoming moderate, they can only win them over by demonstrating confidence in the superiority of their ideas, principles and ideals."

On at least one thing, Vox agrees with NYT columnist Paul Krugman. They both write that President Bush's "disastrous reign," as Krugman calls it, has lead to the Republican decline. But Krugman embraces his inner Schwarzenegger by writing that "Democratic priorities ... seem to be more or less in line with what the public wants."

Indeed, this is what Schwarzenegger is admitting when he talks about being a governor of "the people" of California rather than of his own Republican Party. People of California = Democrats. Concludes Krugman: "Many Republicans still imagine that what their party needs is a return to the conservative legacy of Ronald Reagan. It will probably take quite a while in the political wilderness before they take on board the message of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comeback in California — which is that what they really need is a return to the moderate legacy of Dwight Eisenhower."