By way of introducing this piece, I was writing a response to Crawfish at Brian’s, in order to explain why I hadn’t commented on Barr’s column, and things started spilling out, and it got to be too long for a comment, and became a post.   Ain’t that always the way?

Back on point.  Explaining to my four-year old son that the bedroom is the exact same room with the lights off as it is with them on, just darker, does nothing to affect his fear of the dark, and it does not affect his reaction to the light being turned off in the least.  Any excuse to keep the light on is fervently sought and pursued with single-minded abandon.  When people are ruled by fear, there's just no point in trying to communicate with them using reason, they just lash out emotionally and only respond to whatever might calm their fears.  That's why I haven't joined in the ‘discussion’, such as it is, on either Barr's latest piece, or Deadhead's (Medved, for the uninitiated) latest for that matter.  There doesn’t seem to be any point whatsoever anymore.

Barr wrote a great article with a thoroughly conservative message, and one that was factually correct, pointing out some of the unfortunate truths regarding the united establishment party, specifically the Republican wing of it, and with respect to John McCain in particular.

(http://townhall.com/columnists/BobBarr/2008/10/24/as_the_election_draws_near,_americans_need_to_vote_for_real,_meaningful_change_in_other_words%E2%80%A6not_for_republicans_or_democrats?page=full&comments=true)

And  just look at the drivel posted under it, including someone who started out his comment by saying he didn't even read the article because it wouldn't matter what it said no matter how good it might be, because we can't let Obama win and don’t waste your vote.  Fear, the destroyer of souls, and, it seems, the Republican party.  It's like most of the stuff under the latest Deadhead screed, which has several glaring logical and factual flaws, yet has him praised to the Heavens by people grasping at the slender straws of hope he provides them.  I no longer think of it as scare tactics, but scared tactics, it is folks who are expressing their own fears and trying to make us share them and thus help them in their quest to find the salve for their fearfulness.

I just don't see any point, anymore, in trying to reason with people whose emotional levels are essentially similar to that of a terrified child’s.  It seems that to far too many previously rational beings, McCain is their safety blanket who will protect them from the bogeyman, in this case Obama who personifies their own worst fears, be they socialism, communism, etc.  By pointing out the inconvenient facts about McCain personally that demonstrate he offers little protection from Obama, and in many respects is cut from similar cloth, from their perspective all you’re doing is trying to take away their safety blanket, the one thing that they believe can keep them safe from the bogeyman.  If you’ve had kids, you know they don’t tend to react well to that sort of thing.  And in this context I still find it really funny that the security blanket, McCain, has come right out and said that the bogeyman, Obama, is nothing to fear.

Now this is not a blanket condemnation of every argument I’ve seen that supports voting for McCain or person making those arguments, but honestly I find that it characterizes the Kimbat-like tenor of the vast majority of noseholder comments of late, a trend that’s been growing for a while now.  It used to be that we'd say truth and logic were to liberals like garlic to vampires, and now there are many folks putting the blinders on to fact and reason in order to maintain the illusion of safety that McCain provides them with.

So allow me to close by dedicating a little paean to what I consider to be the rarest breed of voter this silly season, people voting for McCain not solely out of fear but because they have also looked at the evidence, analyzed it, and come up with conclusions different from my own.  I can respect their arguments and conclusions, even if I disagree; although I am right, of course. ;)  Right Brainer comes most immediately to mind as an example of such a person, but he is not the only one, apologies for those I’ve forgotten, I’m getting tired.  These are folks with whom I agree on the ultimate aim, increased conservative political strength because that is what is best for America, but disagree with slightly on some minor issues of strategy and tactics, like whether or not McCain’s winning or losing best furthers that end.  It is our two camps that will come together the quickest after this is all over, and Lord I can't wait for all of this to be over, and that will provide, IMHO, the best ideas and hopefully the best people to advance our common conservative cause for the immediate and foreseeable future.