What is a flip-flop?

Roger L. Simon has written a brilliant essay entitled Confessions of a Flip-Flopper. Here is an excerpt from the closing sentences of his post:

In fact, there is reason to be suspicious of those that don’t ever change their views. Besides often being rigid personalities, they may have difficulty responding to the constant unpredictability of the world. (John Lennon, wrong on a number of things, surely was onto something when he said: “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.”)

So flip-flopping may be closer to the natural state of things than not.

Which now leads us to the key question in this election season. Since it can be argued that most of us have flipped or flopped one time or another in our lives – except, of course, for those “saintly” or “brilliant” few who realized the truth from birth and have been, ahem, unwavering in its pursuit ever since – how do we determine if a candidate is a flip-flopper or a FLIP-FLOPPER, if you know what I mean?

Many, as we know, have been accused of this crime: Romney, Gingrich, Kerry (and how), Clinton (he and she), Gore, Cain, Obama (of course)… I could go on, but you get the point. And I’m not sure there would be room for all the names on the website anyway. If you examined it closely you could probably find that everyone running for office from POTUS to dog catcher has flip-flopped at one time or other.

So what do we do? A solution to this conundrum might ironically be found in a wise and cynical quote attributed to Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, which inspired the title of a famous John Osborne play. When assured that a certain Austrian was a patriot, the Emperor is said to have replied: “But is he a patriot for me?”

If we replace “patriot” with “flip-flopper” we get: This man is a flip-flopper, but “is he a flip-flopper for me?” Or, more simply, is he basically going my way?

As a graduate student in social work in the 1960s, I was a fan of Saul Alinsky. Now I am a fan of Victor Davis Hanson.

One of the signs of a good post is the number of people commenting. Last I looked he had over 125. Here are some I liked.

Much as you described yourself, well, that is the American electorate. People can switch on a dime. That’s our human nature and it’s a GOOD part of our human nature because it means we don’t want to be SUCKERS. We can CHANGE our minds because we OWN our own minds.

People who are stodgy and set in their ways worry me far more than people who can roll with the punches and adapt.

Or, this one:

A flip-flopper is like a willow that bends with every breeze of the popular whim, and a changing of mind is more like the sturdy oak tree that gets broken by the storm-force of reason.
Usually, when one changes one’s mind, it stays changed. The flip-flopper, however, can flip, then flop, then flip, and when called on it, can equivocate, change the subject, project, or speak fluent jibberish. The one reason the flip-flopper never gives for flip-flopping is that he flips when public opinion flips and flops when public opinion flops. That kind of sooth-saying would cause people to think he was unprincipled and not honest.

Or, this one:

The flip requires a flop to make the flip-flop. This is so elementary, I cannot help but think you are being purposely obtuse, so you can downplay what Romney and Gingrich do.

Mandates are good. No, bad. No good.

AGW is real. No, it’s not. Yes, it is.

I recommend you read the whole thing, including the comments: http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2011/11/21/confessions-of-a-flip-flopper/?singlepage=true