California Conservative

President Bush has apparently lifted a page from the liberal play book in order to defend some of his controversial policies and actions.

He did so with respect to “PortGate” by implying that critics of the sale of US port security to the UAE used ethnicity or nationality, rather than common sense, as the basis for dissent.

The president’s charming wife employed a similar approach last fall when she took on conservatives who opposed the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Ms. Bush alleged that “sexism” was at least partially responsible for conservative opposition.

With all due respect, it seems to me that conservative support or opposition to any specific issue is based on an honest evaluation of the issue in light of law, precedent, and the best interests of the American public.

In the case of “PortGate,” conservatives believe it unacceptable to allow a nation with ANY past ties to terrorism to participate, at any level, in US port security. Common sense, not racism or xenophobia, characterize conservative thinking.

With respect to Ms. Miers, conservatives believed she did not possess the background in constitutional law nor the intellectual credentials needed for the highest court in the land. Again common sense, not sexism, was at the root of conservative thinking.

I note with great satisfaction that conservative opposition to the Miers nomination ultimately resulted in the installation of Judge Roberts as Chief Justice. One can trust that Mr. Roberts will be a dominant force in reversing the recent surge in judicial activism from the left.

Finally, it is important to recognize that people without valid arguments always seem to resort to emotionally-charged red herrings in order to obscure the real issue.

I refer, of course, to liberals no longer able to win elections or arguments based on the merits of the “progressive” agenda, and who use unsubstantiated charges of racism, sexism, homophobia etc. as smoke screens.

Let’s leave smoke screen deception to the liberals. They have no other options.

By contrast, Conservatives will always prevail when truth and reasoned thought are applied.

John W Lillpop is a recovering liberal who has been “clean and sober” since 1992 when he last voted for a Democrat. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, the only place on earth where Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer are considered sane and intelligent.

The opinions expressed in this column represent those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, or philosophy of CaliforniaConservative.org

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2006 at 8:23 am and is filed under Domestic Policies, Homeland Security, Op-Ed, W. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.