When PMSH Isn't Hardline Enough ...

Loons like Gerry Nicholls come out of the woodwork and whine.

According to Mr. Nicholls, Harper has "sold out" to keep his grip on power - and has become a W.I.M.P.:

This new ideology is seemingly based on four points: Winability, Incrementalism, Moderation and Persistence. I prefer to summarize it by the acronym W.I.M.P.

I agree with Nicholls about this far - I'm pretty sure that HarperCrit and his cronies are fairly salivating over having a more solid grip on political power.

One can only imagine what would have happened had Flanagan advised Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher or Mike Harris.

He likely would have advised Reagan to drop his "scary" conservative ideas and to act more like Jimmy Carter. He likely would have recommended Harris change the "Common Sense Revolution" to something a little less radical sounding, something like the "Common Sense Incrementalism." And no doubt he would have suggested to Thatcher that since Britain was a left-wing country, she should scrap her conservative agenda and give the people what they want: socialism.

Around about here, Nicholls demonstrates that he is part of the "base" that I have suspected for a long time would ultimately undermine any long term effort to maintain political power on the part of the current "Conservative" Party.

True conservative leaders like Reagan or Thatcher used their leadership positions to sell conservatism, to extol the free market system, to talk about the need for more freedom and less government. By contrast, Harper consistently uses the rhetoric of Liberals.

About the time I see the words "True Conservative"(™) together, I'm pretty much positive that I'm hearing from some wingnut base. The phrase itself is meaningless, but tends to come from loudmouth ultra-conservative types like this guy who believe that there are "absolute" truths out there.

Gerry_nicholls@hotmail.com - GerryNichollsisaseniorfellow with the Democracy Institute. This article is adapted from remarks delivered at a recent Fraser Institute-sponsored debate with Tom Flanagan.

Hmmm is that all he is? Lifesite tells us more:

Gerry_nicholls@hotmail.com - GerryNicholls, is a past president of the National Citizens' Coalition and a senior fellow with the Democracy Institute. This article is adapted from remarks delivered at a recent Fraser Institute-sponsored debate with Tom Flanagan and was originally published in the National Post, Oct. 24, 2007.

Oh yes that National Citizens Coalition where Harper spent several years developing his "credentials" as a conservative. Got it.