Pushing Back

Lew Waters operates a political blog named "Clark County Conservative."  It purports to have been listed by Stateside Associates 2012 as "Best Local Politics Blog." Perhaps at one time it may well have been, but this award seems to have gone to Mr. Waters' head, as he uses his fame to pontificate on anything that suits his fancy, whether he actually knows anything about it or not.

Lew is a long time local political activist, and after his retirement, he bought a few barrels of virtual ink and turned his efforts to churning out harsh criticisms of the liberals in Southwest Washington, and for years seemed to be a voice of reason supporting the conservative point of view in the 3rd legislative district.

Sadly, like Narcissus, he became enraptured in his own rhetoric, and has forgotten the core conservative base from whence he claims to have sprung. He's become enmeshed in the establishment web, and the real conservative train has left the station with him still on the platform.

Lew bears a visceral hatred for Ron Paul conservatism that defies reason.  He literally becomes incoherent at the idea, to the point where it's a waste of time talking to him.  This trait has caused him to see the world in three camps.  You are either a Liberal Democrat; a good, obedient Republican; or a Kooky Ron Paul conservative, dedicated to undermining all that is good and right in American politics and returning us to the dark ages.

This selective myopia causes Lew to brand any Republican who disagrees with him as a Ron Paul nut, whether they supported the good doctor or not.  Once so branded, Lew feels justified as dismissing them as irrelevant.  This is directly out of the Liberals playbook:  Marginalize your most vocal opposition and dismiss them.

The problem with Lew's calculus is that first of all, he's wrong.  Most of the new Republican activists are NOT Ron Paul supporters.  They are good, solid conservatives who are tired of having the state and National Republican party elites dictating to them who will represent them and what the party platform and agenda will be.  Yes, there are a large number of people who also supported Dr. Paul.  But their support of Paul is irrelevant in today's politics, as the good doctor appears to have exceeded his sell-by date and can be considered irrelevant in future Republican politics.  Most rational Ron Paul supporters recognize this, and have realized they must ally with other conservatives to effect a change at a local, rather than national level. 

Second, Lew needs to come to grips with the idea that this is not a vocal minority, considering the county leadership elections a year and a half ago, where the Liberty group virtually swept the board.  This is not a fringe group of nuts, this is the mainstream conservative current, and if you don't get on it and embrace it, you're doomed to be left in  an irrelevant back water of grumpy old guard establishment RINOs.

And this just irks the hell out of Lew.  Because of his apparent hatred for the ideas of limited, constitutional government that the rank and file conservatives of Southwest Washington believe in, Lew spends his virtual ink trying to cut the knees out from under his neighbors and allies in order to maintain the status quo.  It hasn't occurred to him to actually seek out the people he castigates and find out what they're about, what they want to do and why and try to reason with them.  No, they seek to destabilize the status quo, so they are the enemy.

The problem is that the status quo hasn't been working very well.  Jim Moeller remains entrenched in the 49th District like a tic, and a Republican hasn't occupied the Governor's office since the height of the Reagan administration.  Way to go, Lew! Keep up the good work, right?

It's time Mr. Waters stop with the friendly fire and learn who the real enemy is. When he put aside his knee jerk reaction, he joined forced with the activists to  successfully fight the special interest corruption and incompetence of the CRC.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. To be generous to Lew, we'll accept a plea of age-induced dementia. Any rational person can see that the choice between the Democrat party and the establishment Republican Party is a choice between Liberal and Liberal-lite.  Lew Waters needs to take a sabbatical, figure out the definition of "Conservative," and return ready to make friends with people who really support that which he pays lip service to.  Otherwise he's better off retitling his blog "Clark County Establishment."