{"id":3823,"date":"2010-02-20T13:53:21","date_gmt":"2010-02-20T21:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/wordpress\/?p=3823"},"modified":"2010-02-20T13:53:21","modified_gmt":"2010-02-20T21:53:21","slug":"pur-et-dur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/pur-et-dur\/","title":{"rendered":"Pur et Dur"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As (effectively) a call for unity among America\u2019s conservatives the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.themountvernonstatement.com\/ \" target=\"_blank\">Mount Vernon Statement<\/a>\u201d is, on the whole, fairly anodyne stuff. Fair enough. If there is to be any chance of defeating Obama in 2012\u00a0the various tribes of the right will have to work together.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But then senior Republican Senator Jim DeMint came up with<a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/81543-demint-leaders-should-endorse-conservative-treatise-or-be-replaced\" target=\"_blank\"> this<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A prominent conservative senator said that Washington political leaders should &#8220;be replaced&#8221; if they do not back a document of conservative principles signed Wednesday. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) deemed it necessary that politicians endorse the Mount Vernon Statement, a document outlining a vision of &#8220;constitutional conservatism&#8221; backed by a number of right-wing activists.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is the same DeMint who once said <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/blogs\/beltway-confidential\/Did-DeMints-endorsement-of-Toomey-set-off-Specter.html\" target=\"_blank\">this<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don\u2019t have a set of beliefs.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To (shamelessly) <a href=\"http:\/\/corner.nationalreview.com\/post\/?q=NGIxNjM5ZmIzZTYzYTNiODAwOTI3NTY2OWM0NGIzMTM=\" target=\"_blank\">quote myself <\/a>from last year:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0If it comes to a choice, I&#8217;d rather have 60 Republicans in the Senate, however squishy some of the views of some in their ranks, than 60 <em>Democrats <\/em>who are all certain of theirs. Anyone who truly<em> <\/em>believes in limited government\u00a0ought to understand that voting <em>against <\/em>can\u00a0be\u00a0as valid as voting <em>for<\/em>. If it takes a\u00a0few Specters [That was then] to see\u00a0off a Democratic majority, so be it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0As for\u00a0the idea that\u00a0reducing the GOP to a rump of true believers (whatever that might actually mean: there are plenty on the right who interpret the terms &#8220;limited government&#8221; and &#8220;free people&#8221; in very different ways)\u00a0is\u00a0the essential first step in a Republican restoration, it is, I am afraid,\u00a0a bad mistake. Wildernesses are, almost always,\u00a0for losers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As (effectively) a call for unity among America\u2019s conservatives the \u201cMount Vernon Statement\u201d is, on the whole, fairly anodyne stuff. Fair enough. If there is to be any chance of defeating Obama in 2012\u00a0the various tribes of the right will &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/pur-et-dur\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[474,473],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3824,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3823\/revisions\/3824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}