The Dawn of The Age of (Conservative) Reasoning?

David Frum, the noted conservative blogger and writer, says this is important. I agree! Although I might faint if I think about it too much.

Eric Erickson, another noted conservative blogger and CNN contributor, has decided that the Conservative Crazies aren't welcome at his RedState blog. He says:

Barack Obama won. He won by turning out the most people in a well run campaign. In other words, he won fair and square. 

We here at RedState are American citizens. We have no plans to secede from the union. If you do, good luck with that, but this is not the place for you. 

[...] 

Too many people have spent the past four years obsessed with birth certificates. Now they are obsessed with voter fraud conspiracies, talk of secession, and supposed election changing news stories if only we had known. 

So let’s add dabblers in this latest nuttiness to birthers as a category of people we do not welcome at RedState. Our aim is to beat the Democrats, not beat a retreat to a Confederacy that Generals Grant and Sherman rent asunder well over a hundred years ago. 

Even here at RedState, while we may not much care for him, President Obama is still our President and we are still quite happily citizens of the United States. 

I did not think I'd ever be able to consider conservatism, American conservatives, to be reasonable ever again. They were, and remain, on the road of frothing indignation, vitriolic shrieking and much garment rending. But if Mr Erickson is arguing that a different road needs to be taken - then yes, it is important.

I have much to disagree with when it comes to the idea Mr Erickson advances, but at least he's realized that to be relevant - he needs to get away from the clothing rippers and move into sustainable argument. And yes, their targets should be John Boehner and Mitch McConnell; President Obama is not going away, he's in a strong position and that's mostly because the far right dictated to the nation and the nation said "later for you idiots!"

I sincerely hope Mr Erickson can become a leader of a new conservative movement; not one that reduces its "enemies", but one that recognizes that America is a big country. And living in news bubbles is just not healthy. (Don't worry - there's little danger of the far left having a similar Jesus-finding moment. Those guys are wrapped in their victory and haven't figured out that there are a lot of [ideological] problems just under the surface of their placid lake.)

Let the Age of Reason (Among American Conservatives) begin?

Carolyn Ann