This Is Probably An Interesting Blog (but in the offhand chance it isn't…)

I appreciate Douthat for being a much-needed voice of reason in Conservative politics without succumbing to partisan attacks or mockery (not that he would anyways — he’s such a decent guy). His summarization of the events is both appropriately defensive and fairly critical — much like he is:

They resemble nothing so much as the anti-war protests during Bush’s first term. The claim that they don’t have an organizing premise strikes me as obviously wrong: They’re anti-bailout, anti-stimulus, anti-deficit, and anti- the tax increases that will eventually be required to pay for the current spending spree, and complaining that they don’t also have a ten-point plan for reforming Medicare and Social Security reflects a misunderstanding of the nature of protest marches, I think. The claim that they’re hypocritical and partisan is a bit stronger – where were they when Bush was running up the deficit, etc. – but in fairness, many of the organizing figures were anti-TARP from the beginning, and there’s something slightly odd about saying that if you didn’t take to the streets to protests a $300 billion deficit you aren’t allowed to protest a $1 trillion deficit. The numbers matter, surely …

But they do have all of the weaknesses of the anti-war marches: Their message is intertwined with a sense of disenfranchisement and all kinds of inchoate cultural resentments, they’ve brought various wacky extremists out of the woodwork (you know, like Glenn Beck), and just as George W. Bush benefited from having opposition to his policies identified with peacenik marchers in Berkeley and Ann Arbor, so Barack Obama probably benefits from having the opposition (such as it is) associated with a bunch of Fox News fans marching through the streets on Tax Day, parroting talk radio tropes and shouting about socialism. Obama is a very popular President, at the moment, his unpopularity among Republicans notwithstanding, and it’s awfully hard to see the Tea Parties doing much to change that reality in the short run; if anything, they’re far more likely to reconfirm the majority in its opinion that American conservatism is increasingly wacky, echo-chamberish, and out-of-touch.

My friend Will always suggested I take up reading Ross’s columns. I appreciate Douthat for the same reasons I appreciate Will — they’re both thoughtful, practical conservatives who won’t compromise their core beliefs but can also recognize the damage that living in the extremes can cause. If the GOP wants a future, it can’t be the party of the extreme-right, the Limbaugh’s and the Glenn Beck’s. It has to start looking less like Fox News and more like Buckley Jr’s National Review or The American Scene. We need more voices like this.