Are Conservatives Losing Their Minds?

Otherwise dependable conservatives appear to be losing their minds in their zeal to vanquish the media-created first family from the White House.  Ann Coulter, a one-time paragon of hard-core conservatism, has confirmed a growing suspicion that she possesses a latent liberal streak.  By endorsing and singing the praises of Mitt-the-Flip, her open affection for left-wing nasties like Joy Behar and Bill Maher no longer appear to be anomalies.

Not one to leave bad enough alone, Coulter did a spin piece last week on Romney’s Obamacare model titled “Three Cheers for Romneycare,” which ended with, “Romney is the most electable candidate not only because it will be nearly impossible for the media to demonize this self-made Mormon square, devoted to his wife and church, but precisely because he is the most conservative candidate.”

It was something one might have expected to be written by that other blond — the one with the bird’s nest on her head — Debbie WassHerName.  The article was so far out on the left limb of the political tree that it must have brought tears of joy to Michael Moore.

Coulter’s statement that “No one is claiming that the Constitution gives each person an unalienable right not to buy insurance” caused me to have an optical migraine.  The Constitution doesn’t give people the right not to buy insurance?  Huh?

It’s painful to break this to you, Ann, but the Constitution doesn’t grant any rights to anyone.  The primary purpose of the Constitution is to protect the natural rights of all citizens — specifically referred to in the Declaration of Independence as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  If you don’t possess the right to not buy something, the corollary is that the government can force you to buy anything.

I guess if someone wanted to defend Ann Coulter for making such a radical, left-wing statement, he could argue that she sincerely believes Romney is “the most electable” candidate.  Alas, he is not.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that of the four remaining candidates (and, yes, there are four), he might run neck and neck with Newt Gingrich as the least electable candidate.  (Forget about the polls.  They are only snapshots of what people are thinking today — not next November.)

Now Donald Trump, displaying his true statist nature, has vigorously jumped on the Romney bandwagon.  He not only endorsed MittMan, he waived aside Rick Santorum for having the audacity to try to win the Republican nomination.

Trump wants to know why anyone who got voted out of office so overwhelmingly as Santorum did when he was an incumbent senator would be so presumptuous as to believe he should run for president.  Apparently, The Donald hasn’t studied the biggest political loser of all time, Abraham Lincoln, who lost eight elections before he won the presidency.

Of course, Trump is still vaguely hinting that if Romney, or at least Gingrich, doesn’t get the nomination, he might run as a third-party candidate.  Listening to Trump continuing to milk this hollow PR threat makes one suspect that he’s studied Hitler’s infamous propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who once said:  “Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”

In fact, Trump could have taught Goebbels a thing or two about using the media to promote his big, bad “You’re fired!” image.  He’s been playing the media like a keyboard since day one of the Republican presidential race, without ever having the slightest intention of running for president.

But getting back to conservatives losing their minds, it would be unfair not to mention the Master of Madness, Nutty Newt.  Gingrich has more than fulfilled the expectations of those who have known him best throughout his career.  No one questions his brilliance or verbal skills, but neither of these has proven to be a match for his childish vindictiveness, arrogance, and total lack of self-discipline.

Newt gave off Rocky-like vibes in his climb from the Republican swamplands to the status of front runner after winning South Carolina.  And Republican voters were so desperate to find an alternative to Romney that all Newt needed to do to win the nomination was waive aside Massachusetts Mitt’s avalanche of attack ads with some of his best spin lines, assure Republican primary voters that he admired Mitt Romney and was not about to violate Ronald Reagan’s eleventh commandment, and continue to come up with brilliant-sounding, off-the-cuff lines about “big ideas.”

Had Newt done all this, I believe he could have coasted through the primaries and easily won the nomination with the backing of desperate anti-Romney, anti-Obama Republicans.  Sadly, however, he self-destructed because he simply could not control his urge to lash out at Romney and, in addition, say bizarre and outrageous things.

Which brings us, finally, to Rick Santorum, perhaps the last obstacle between Romney and his anointment as the Republican presidential nominee.  Sure, Santorum has a few sins under his belt — most notably being a staunch defender of earmarks — but the field (other than Ron Paul) is so bad that he’s starting to look pretty good to a lot of conservatives.

Nevertheless, the increasing number of conservatives who are losing their minds may simply be too much for him to overcome.  After all, they’ve already succeeded in doing what seemed almost impossible just a short time ago — raise Barack Obama’s favorable ratings back up to 48 percent, even as he continues to shred the Constitution, trample on religious rights, and destroy what is left of the U.S. economy.

Crazed Republicans need a true conservative with an impeccable background to stand up and say, “I am someone who can keep my head when all about me are losing theirs and blaming it on everyone else.”

And, believe it or not, there’s still time for such a person to make his/her appearance.  Everyone who attended CPAC last week was reminded of that when the ghost of Sarah Palin succeeded in doing what Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich could not do: work the conservative crowd into a red-meat frenzy.

Stay tuned.  I hear that the fat lady has decided to stop warming up.