The Right Wing Press: How Conservatives Went Crazy

What happened to a formerly conservative press to reduce it to political partisanship and warmongering? Specifically, I have in mind National Review and the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

When I was associated with National Review, the magazine understood that the US Constitution and civil liberty had to be protected from government. It was not considered unpatriotic to take the side of the Constitution and civil liberty against a sitting government, even if the government were Republican. Some things were still more important than party loyalty.

No more. Consider, for example, Byron York writing in the February 13 issue. York doesn't understand why former US Representative Bob Barr lent his Republican conservative credentials to former Vice President Al Gore's speech against President Bush's transgressions against law and civil liberty, or why Barr is associating with liberals opposing the "Patriot" Act.

Barr is the former Republican member of the House of Representatives who led the impeachment against President Bill Clinton. Barr did so not out of political partisanship. As a former prosecutor, Barr regards lying under oath to be a serious offense. A president who commits that offense must be held accountable. Otherwise, presidents will go on to lie about greater things--such as war.

In opposing Bush's transgressions, Barr is simply being consistent. For Barr, party loyalty takes a backseat to defense of the Constitution, the rule of law, and civil liberty. If the US had more leaders of Barr's caliber, Bush and Cheney would already have been impeached.
York cannot understand this, because he thinks party loyalty and defense against terrorists are the controlling virtues. York scolds Barr for letting himself be used by partisan liberal organizations, but York takes his own partisanship for granted. It is only the other side that is partisan.

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