Cracker-Americans for Steyn

Whatever idiot sent that stupid e-mail to Mark Steyn, he doesn't speak for the entirety of "cracker Appalachia," and he certainly doesn't speak for me.

When a man suffers what Steyn suffered for political incorrectness, he is my ally. And when you consider that what Steyn is saying about demographics, immigration and culture is, to a great degree, the same thing that Pat Buchanan has been saying about demographics, immigration and culture -- well, you see the basis for a new fusionism, an opportunity to heal the bitter breach between paleoconservatives and neoconservatives that goes back to Mel Bradford.

Why do I feel like I'm the only one who sees these things? Peter Brimelow includes Michelle Malkin on his VDare blogroll. Phyllis Chesler favorably cites The Camp of the Saints. In Godless, Ann Coulter paid tribute to Joe Sobran (!) as a mentor. Could the basis of a tactical ceasefire be any more apparent? If we view the embarrassing defeat of Crazy Cousin John as the final debacle of the GOP's open-borders wing, is it not possible that, at a very minimum, conservatives in the circular firing squad could agree to form a semi-circle for the next four years?

As I said this morning in reference to Ron Paul, with Obama in the White House and Democrats in control of Congress, "Republican foreign policy" is now a moot debate. Can we call an intermission in the Sharks-vs.-Jets quarrel over imperialism? Conservatism is at coffin corner, and one good thing about having your back against the wall is, it makes it much harder for your "friends" to backstab you.

If we cannot unite on a few basic issues, Team Obama will run the table so completely, there will be nothing left worth fighting over. I attended a roundtable last week during which one conservative suggested that, with 41 Republican senators, a filibuster is possible. I couldn't restrain myself: "Susan Collins? Are you kidding me?"

Conservatives who imagine that the current crisis allows leisure for internal feuding over ancient grievances and philosophical disputes are woefully underestimating the severity of the crisis. Folks, if Obama gets nationalized health care, that's it: Game over. Hello, Permanent Welfare State, a la Scandinavia.

As my remark about Susan Collins was meant to suggest, our only hope of stopping such a measure is to bring unbearable heat on enough red-state Democratic senators to force them to join in a filibuster with the 30-something Republicans who can be counted on for the cloture vote. If a national health-care plan passes cloture, even some of those 30-odd GOP stalwarts will peel off, the plan will pass with 70-plus votes and -- if history is any guide -- it can never be repealed.

Seems to me some of my fellow Cracker-Americans are living in a dreamland, spoiled by a quarter-century of Republican ascendance, imagining they can be finicky in their choice of allies in the battles to come. The Hell No Coalition -- "Hell, no" to the stimulus, "Hell, no" to open borders, "Hell, no" to national health-care -- can ill afford such self-destructive infighting. In this hour of great peril, start fighting the common foe, or forfeit any right to call yourself a friend of conservatism.

UPDATE: Banner linked at Steyn Online.