4.07.00
Elián Fatigue

4.05.00
Most Treasured Right

3.30.00
Anti-Hillary Tome Hits Bestseller List

3.29.00
Elian and his Enemies

3.29.00
Reagan: Wrong Man, Right Time?

3.28.00
Forbes Endorses Bush

3.28.00
Enter Saint Jack

3.27.00
Oscar Wrap

3.24.00
How Many Bathrooms Have You?

3.23.00
The Law: Nuissance Suit

3.22.00
ED: Don't Do It

3.22.00
Gun Rites

think people are getting bored with the Elián Gonzalez story. Public support for sending him back to Cuba has been inching upward — partly, I guess, because people want to get the story off their screens. It's time to move on. As was the case during the impeachment battle, it's not clear what we're supposed to move on to. But people are tired of bickering between people with fixed positions and the same arguments.

This may not sound like a good reason to consign a kid to tyranny. (Elián fatigue is, to use a phrase much overused a few years ago, a case of compassion fatigue.) The point is that the public has some good reasons for its view — who wants Elián to be without his father? — some of its reasons are a good deal less flattering. This mix of motives is, again, reminiscent of public opinion during impeachment.

There are some other parallels. A dispute that might not be seen as overtly ideological has become, among political elites, a struggle between left and right. (In both cases, of course, there are some outliers: Pete King then, Steve Largent now.) For those elites, the meaning of the fight is not its formal content. As impeachment was, on some basic sociological level, about sexual morality even if it was legally about perjury, so the controversy over Elián is not about views of Cuba but really about views of America (see Richard Lowry's explanation of this point on the website). In both cases just causes have been hurt by their proponents' tactical mistakes, basically caused by their inexperience with the media: Ken Starr then, Elián's Miami relatives now.

The public doesn't understand why conservatives are being so unreasonable. But conservatives are soldiering on. Staffers on Capitol Hill, politicians, our friends at The Weekly Standard and Human Events: All of us are doing what we can to keep Elian in the U.S. And while there is politics involved, conservatives are mostly doing the right thing for the right reasons.

Conservatives aren't going to get much out of this fight. A win won't cut our taxes or build us a missile defense. We're fighting for one child. From one perspective, that's crazy. From another, it is a striking example of modern conservatism's emphasis on the moral worth of the individual.

Which brings me to a personal note. Often one is disappointed in politics: in the setbacks and defeats, the missteps and failings of one's allies, the stupidity and venality all around. But when I look at the debate over Elián — as when the House Republicans voted to impeach President Clinton — I have to say that rarely have I been prouder of my fellow conservatives.

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