A Voice in the Wilderness In Defense of "Mere Conservatism"

A Steyn (column) is Forever

One of my favorite things about my favorite writer's website is that Mark Steyn frequently posts past columns and articles (his "Greatest Hits") he has written for publications as diverse as National Review to the Jerusalem Post to the Chicago Sun-Times.

A year ago this week Steyn wrote a poignant (and hilarious) summary of the entire presidential campaign, and reminded conservatives of the long road ahead of us if we are serious about shifting the culture in a direction consistent with our values and ideals.

Steyn opens the piece with a quote from actor Daniel Craig (the new James Bond star) who was asked by Parade magazine which of the two presidential candidates last year would make the better 007.  Craig offered this in way of a response:

"Obama would be the better Bond because—if he’s true to his word—he’d be willing to quite literally look the enemy in the eye and go toe-to-toe with them. McCain, because of his long service and experience, would probably be a better M,’ he adds, mentioning Bond’s boss, played by Dame Judi Dench. ‘There is, come to think of it, a kind of Judi Dench quality to McCain."

Steyn responds:

Oh, great. John McCain has survived plane crashes, just like Roger Moore in Octopussy. He has escaped death in shipboard infernos, just like Sean Connery in Thunderball. He has endured torture day after day, month after month, without end, just like Pierce Brosnan in the title sequence of Die Another Day. He has done everything 007 has done except get lowered into a shark tank and (as far as we know) bed Britt Ekland and Jill St John.

And yet Daniel Craig gives him the desk job.

On the other hand, Barack Obama has spent his entire adult life chit-chatting with “community organizers” and campus lefties – and he’s the last action hero? It’s true he’s offered “to quite literally look the enemy in the eye” without preconditions. But, given that he looked the Reverend Jeremiah Wright in the eye for 20 years and failed to notice he was an ugly neo-segregationist race-baiter peddling insane conspiracy theories, and that he looked William Ayers in the eye for almost as long and failed to notice he was an unrepentant terrorist, and that he looked Tony Rezko in the eye for an extremely beneficial real estate deal and failed to notice he was already being mentioned in the Chicago papers for various unsavory activities, I’m not sure Senator Obama is the go-to guy for in-the-field intelligence work.

As for his plan to fly to Tehran to “go toe-to-toe” with President Ahmadinejad, one can’t but feel that 007’s famous exchange with Goldfinger pretty much sums up the cross-purposes:

'Do you expect me to talk?'

'No, Mr Bond. I expect you to die.'

Barack Obama expects to talk and talk and talk, while our enemies expect the west to die. I’m not sure Chat Another Day is a recipe for a satisfying Bond movie.

Classic Steyn!  He closes the column with a warning to every member of the Center-Right coalition in this country:

The lesson of the last grim year is that it’s not merely about candidates or policy or electoral strategy. We have to get back in the game in all the arenas we’ve ceded to liberalism – from kindergarten to blockbuster movies. Otherwise, as in Daniel Craig’s improvised casting call, we’ll be lucky to wind up with a cameo in the national narrative.

I couldn't agree more.  Here's more from the (formerly) Canadian Sensation on the current state of the GOP: