Conservative reaction to Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama has been fierce.<\/p>\n
Columnist Robert Novak opines this morning that Powell is “much more of a liberal in his ideology.”<\/p>\n
The headline for the column: “Powell was never much of a Republican.”<\/p>\n
Others on the right (Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan) have dismissed Powell’s decision as a race-based move — a case of one man of color supporting another.<\/p>\n
But Powell’s not the only Republican pariah.<\/p>\n
Conservatives have excoriated other right-leaning commentators and activists (Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Buckley, Kathleen Parker, David Brooks and David Frum, to name a few) who raised doubts about the McCain-Palin ticket.<\/p>\n
At the core of this feud is a defining rift between Republican moderates — also known as “pragmatists” — and more ideologically driven conservatives.<\/p>\n
For a couple of decades, centrist Republicans have been on the receiving end, facing scorn and attacks from within their own party.<\/p>\n
This year, at a time when the GOP needed all the unity it could get, hard-right conservatives once again mounted successful primary challenges against several incumbent Republican moderates.<\/p>\n
Powell’s criticism of his own party suggest that “his” wing of the GOP is no longer willing to play silent partner to the Gingrich-DeLay-Palin faction.<\/p>\n
Here’s what Powell had to say:<\/p>\n
[T]he [Republican] party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift. I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that\u2019s what we\u2019d be looking at in a McCain administration.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, \u201cWell, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.\u201d Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he\u2019s a Christian. He\u2019s always been a Christian.<\/p>\n
But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer\u2019s no, that\u2019s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?<\/p>\n
Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, \u201cHe\u2019s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.\u201d This is not the way we should be doing it in America…<\/p>\n
Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I\u2019m troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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