A wrap up…

We conservatives have two major problems. I’ve said it dozens of times before but one of those problems is that we don’t do “join” well. The left, on the other hand, does “join” exceedingly well. They gather together, share resources, and help each other very, very well. The other problem we have is cash.

Again, the left funds as well as it joins. The left supports its side very handsomely with generous and constant donations. The left also has a bevy of deep pocketed supporters that target the new media with their money. Media Matters, George Soros, DailyKos, MoveOn.org, these people and entities flood the left-O-sphere with much need cash to further their message. Their tendrils reach far and wide and they control the message well with their cash.

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Joining a growing choir of conservative luminaries, thought-leaders and activists in criticizing newly-elected RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Samuel “Joe The Plumber” Wurzelbacher leveled some harsh, Johnny-come-lately criticisms earlier this week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

At a gathering of 800 conservative activists at Americans for Prosperity’s “Defending the American Dream Summit,” Wurzelbacher warned of the “long road ahead” as Republicans wander the desert for the next four years without leadership, awaiting the 2010 and 2012 elections.

“Unfortunately we have a chairman up there who wants to redefine conservatism; he wants to make it hip hop, put it in a new package and sell it,” Wurzelbacher griped as he referenced a three week old Steele interview with the Washington Post’s Ralph Z. Hallow. After his historic election, the newly-minted Chairman told Hallow he intended to revitalize the Party’s stale image – one all too often associated with aging, technophobic white men – via an unprecedented presence in print, television, radio, and online outlets.

Wurzelbacher’s reductive critique of Chairman Steele’s agenda serves no one’s purpose beyond his own, as he recently hung up the plunger and boots to publish a book. And to boost sales of this not-so-originally titled book, Fighting for the American Dream, it isn’t surprising that Wurzelbacher would resort to drumming up controversy where none exists, or revive a one which has long since faded into the annals of bad talking points.

After a brief run-in with then Senator Barack Obama, Wurzelbacher was catapulted to the national stage by the McCain campaign as a shining example of the quintessential blue collar, small business owner who was threatened by Obama’s tax system. But his lasting influence – the fact we’re now 4 months out from November 4th but still forced to read the cringe-inducing title “Joe the Plumber” – is explained as such: His current media presence is an unfortunate byproduct of the 2008 campaign, a byproduct I regrettably helped create as an agent of that campaign. We unknowingly created a monster, and I suspect he won’t leave town until he’s chased by angry villagers with pitchforks.

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A movement self-confident in its place in American society would not have made Joe the Plumber a bigger story than he actually was. Since its very beginnings as a movement, conservatism has bought into liberalism’s dominant place in the American political process. They controlled all the major institutions: the media, academia, Hollywood, the Democratic Party, large segments of the Republican Party, and consequently, the government. Liberalism’s image of conservatives in the ’50s and ’60s as paranoid Birchers gave birth to a conservative movement self-conscious of its minority status. As in any tribe that is small in number and can’t fully trust its most natural allies (i.e. the business community or the Republican Party), the meta-debate of who is inside and outside the tribe is magnified exponentially.

The legacy of that early movement — alive and well at CPAC and in the conservative institutions that still exist today — is one driven inordinately by this question of identity. We have paeans to Reagan (as if we needed to be reminded again of just how much things suck in comparison today), memorabilia honoring 18th century philosophers that we wouldn’t actually wear in the outside world, and code-word laden speeches that focus on a few hot button issues that leave us ill-equipped to actually govern conservatively on 80% of issues when we actually do get elected.

This culture of identity politics means we get especially defensive about the Liberal Majority’s main lines of attack, because we think of our position as inherently fragile. The one that spawned the Cult of Joe the Plumber was the meme that Republicans want tax cuts only for the rich and that we don’t stand for working Americans. When find a highly visible figure who contradicts this notion, we swing into action. And we go on to press the argument to the point to absurdity, replete with plungers and custom “Joe” yard signs to prove our working class chops. These are the not the marks of a movement that assumes it operates (or should operate) from a position of political and cultural supremacy.

–Patrick Ruffini. Or to put matters more succinctly: Joe must go.

Tax troubles were all the rage for certain folks recently. ABC News screamed in a headline about one fellow that was, “America’s Overnight Sensation… Owes $1,200 in Taxes.” Huffintgon Post was all up in arms over the same story. The San Francisco Chronicle was tsking the fellow for being “concerned about increased taxes - but hasn’t paid his own income taxes.” The Chicago Tribune chided this figure for being “delinquent on his taxes.” It was a crime, they all said. An outrage. This is not to even mention the unhinged, screaming mimis of the left blogosphere that dug in like pitbulls to excoriate this notorious tax cheat.

So, who are they talking about? Who had these people out for blood? Is it Tim Geithner, Obama’s tax cheating chief of the Treasury? Maybe the hubby of Hilda Solis, Obama’s choice for Sec. of Labor? Perhaps it’s Tom Daschle, Obama’s unfortunate choice for the HHS? Maybe it was Nancy Killefer, Obama’s pick for the post of chief White House performance officer who just bowed out over troublesome tax issues? Was it any of these tax cheats?

Just who was the guy that the news and left bloggers were so incensed over?

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