The Power Line philosophers have been sparring with some of their readers over the question of whom real conservatives should support when right-nutters run in Republican primaries against "establishment Republicans"--the scare quotes here indicating that in the right-nutter lexicon the phrase is a euphemism for "Traitors to the One True Cause."
In contrast to Rush Limbaugh and others, the philosophers have promulgated the "Buckley Rule," named for William F. Buckley, Jr., founder and long-serving editor of National Review, who held that in a Republican primary NR subscribers should cast their ballots for the most rightward candidate with a decent chance of winning the general election. The philosophers angered many of their readers by suggesting that the Buckley Rule was a reason not to choose Christine O'Donnell, a right-nutter, over establishment favorite Mike Castle in Delaware's Republican primary election for U.S. Senate.
Although they aren't as crazy as some of their readers, I would not go so far as to say that the philosophers' embrace of the Buckley Rule makes them exemplars of hard-headed good sense. They are saved from voting for O'Donnell only by their conclusion that the people of Delaware are more sensible than they are. The Buckley Rule places a considerable burden upon those who would be governed by it. They must be crazy enough to vote for a manifest crackpot. They must also be lucid enough to realize when the good sense of the rest of the voting population precludes the possibility of their favored crackpot prevailing in the general election.
Comments