God made the people of Israel wander in the desert 40 years so as to remake the Israelis Israelites into a people fit for the tasks ahead. The GOP seriously needs a time out so that it can rethink its role in American democracy.
Count me unpersuaded. This is not some sort of time out for naughty children. Bainbridge is proposing that in the interests of cleaning up the GOP, we should hand over the country to the Democrats. That is similar to arguing that the solution to police corruption in LA is to hand law enforcement over to the Crips while the police sort out their problems. I am not suggesting that the Democrats are akin to the Crips, although I have heard or read many a Bush hysteric talk murder. I am suggesting that Bainbridge is ignoring the serious costs of letting in the alternative. He is doing the European intellectual thing, where they say things like "Israel is flawed, so I will worship Arafat" or "capitalism is flawed, so I will join the Nazis."
If Bainbridge wants to persuade me to stay home in 2008 (or, in my case, dropping by the postbox), he has to do more than tell me why Romney is flawed. He has to persuade me that it is low cost leaving the country in the hands of the Clinton gangsters, or the utterly dishonest Obama, who wants to unite Americans by giving the hard core left everything they want while everyone says "Amen, brother" to his sermons, while pretending that he can improve the lot of the poor by embracing impoverishing protectionism.
Bainbridge writes as if this about building up a football team. Take the losses this year while building up the team. Heck, even the good professor could probably stand the Cowboys winning the Super Bowl if it meant his cherished Redskins came back strong. But sitting out 2008 has real consequences. Social Security is massive Ponzi scheme, and undoing the damage may be impossible. Bainbridge talks about the Israelites traveling forty years in the desert. How long will the world suffer since the mad ayatollahs of Iran became emboldened by Carter's grossly incompetent waffling in 1979? How long will the world suffer from Clinton's ignoring the rising threat of Islamic terrorism, emboldening them? Back just before the 2006 election, Bainbridge wrote, complaining about Bush, "Are the unborn any more protected? . . . To be blunt, no." Bush appointed Roberts and Alito. Does he expect a Democrat to make a similar appoint to replace the elderly John Paul Stevens or the ailing Ruth Bader Ginsburg?
