Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Guardian of True Conservatism: People Who Accurately Quote Me Are Just Like Hitler!

Don't be shocked but a Cameroonatic has been caught trying to subvert one of Call Me Dave's bright, shiny new open primaries. Naturally enough, Iain Dale - for it is he - has responded by declaring that his critics are NAAAAAZIS.

Hmmmm... let's review the tape: Dale told Journal XXX this:
'I hope any Journal XXX readers who live in Bracknell will come to the open primary on October 17 to select their new candidate.
In so far as Journal XXX is actually the 'Pink News', I'm thinking the gay angle is not something the Mail had to shoehorn in. More to the point, here's the rest of the quote:
'I hope any Pink News readers who live in Bracknell will come to the open primary on October 17 to select their new candidate.

You don't even have to be a Conservative to attend.'
A-huh! So, since he's pretending to be a conservative and the 'gay' issue is totally something the Mail dragged up out of nowhere, what other reason would explain why non-conservatives would want to vote for him? His fabulous Sinatra impression and experience in kangaroo farming?

Hey, is this the perfect microcosm of Cameroonacy or what? The Dear Leader makes a big thing about setting up open primaries so, gosh darn it, ordinary folk can get involved in selecting candidates, but only as long as you define 'ordinary folk' as block-voting, single-issue fanatics - and if you don't, you, sir, are worse than Hitler!

Of course, it's not a real Dale post without drumming up trade for local sickbag manufacturers:
If by standing up to the Daily Mail, and drawing attention to this issue, it hijacks me in Bracknell, then that will be a bitter blow to have to take, but if I sat back and just accepted this sort of thing, what sort of person would that make me?
Yes, because being a whiny, professional victim is such a brave stand to take in Call Me Dave's new pity party. And how, you may ask, is he standing up? By whining to the Press Complaints Commission, a body originally set up to defend ordinary members of the public against factually-inaccurate reporting and urging his moron supporters to harass the journalist concerned. Classy!

And that's not the best of it. Guess the title of the next post after this call for harassment of reporters with the wrong views? 'Will This Be A Sad Day for Democracy'. Truly, you can't make it up.

It gets better. He claims the Mail's article is hateful because they referred to him as 'overtly' gay rather than 'openly' gay. Must be one of these 'code words'. Hey, I'm with the Great Steyn on this:
“Code word” is a code word for “I’m inventing what you really meant to say because the actual quote doesn’t quite do the job for me.”
Still, that's not the best of it. Captain Hatefinder follows it up with this:
Just imagine if I was Jewish and the same words had been used.
Overtly jewish Tory blogger Iain Dale... Isn't it charming how Jews rally like-minded chaps to their cause?
Yes, he really said that. Hey, if using the word 'overtly' instead of 'openly' is proof of bigotry, then that must mean that trying to draw moral equivalence between receiving (entirely valid) criticism of your attempts to pack meetings and the centuries of persecution suffered by the Jews surely counts as Holocaust denial, right?

Except... unlike the previously unknown overtly/openly distinction, the trivialisation of the Holocaust really is a common theme amongst ant-Semites.

Hey, at least he's being criticised for something he actually said. That's not a courtesy he extends to his opponents.

This kind of ranting about repressive social conservatives plotting to pollute the purity of his essence has bamboozled some of the more libertarian conservatives into supporting him, but if Dale has issues with social conservatives, it's fair to say its not the authoritarianism that's the problem: the guy who maintains a 24/7 watch for socio-cons plotting to hash his mellow has nothing to say about this. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or even this.

Dale has a truly Brownesque ability to disappear when the heat is on. Consider that the police harassment of the Roberts family was too outrageous even for the courts, but the 'overtly conservative' Iain Dale had no issues with it. Ditto, if the whole 'should social services turn a blind eye to child molestation' thing strikes you as a tricky moral dilemma, you may not be a conservative.

Which is, of course, the issue. Conservatism is pretty 'big tent' but really: spies in the classroom, unlawful police harassment of critics with the wrong views, public servants forced to take part in rallies. Just what form of 'conservatism' are we talking about here?

It's not just the lousy individual policies, it's the underpinning world view. The dividing line in British politics right now is between those who think Britain has problems, and those who think Britain is the problem. For all the cutesy, politics-as-showbiz drivel Dale comes out with, the underlying theme of his writing is that Britain is a dark dystopia full to the brim with murderous savages. The idea that by any meaningful global or historical standards Britain is a fine nation, with a way of life worth fighting for... Nada.

It's a miserable, misanthropic world view that sees nothing redeeming in the whole country, except for the small chance that we might all come to our senses and elect Dale and pals to raze our country to the ground and remake it as a PC wonderland. This is a man comfortable with overweening state power and Frankensteinian social engineering. Take away some quibbling about tax rates and just what flavour of utopia they should build and there's nothing Dale believes that Polly Toynbee wouldn't agree with. It a worldview that is the antithesis of conservatism.

No wonder he's fallen back on recruiting block-voting drones from the Blue Oyster Bar. No conservatives should vote for him - otherwise the terrorists will have won!

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