Last night, I observed that we Conservatives tend to squabble amongst each other a lot. Of course, I got the usual Liberals telling me otherwise, refuting their declarations is not the aim today. Let them believe what they want. About half of the people I follow on Twitter are politically active, and only a few of them are token Liberals. I will attest: we argue a lot, and a lot of it is over moral questions and not really about policy.

Is it healthy to have these arguments in a public forum, in plain sight of our Conservative peers and political enemies on the left? The answer depends on your world view of politics and what we’re actually doing as we pundit away and offer commentary and analysis.

We see the exercise of politics and punditry differently. Some see it as total war, other see it as a game, others approach it as a careful balance between Washington and the States, others treat it as a livelihood. When we write about what we write, so few of us offer why we write.

I’ve been writing about politics for eight years now. I’ve been writing my thoughts for far longer than that. I’ve always believed in serving the truth first, my fellow human beings next, my party and ideology third, and I want to believe that I put my personal interests behind all those. Blogging hasn’t netted me a writing job, nor a think tank position, and besides, my strong politicking may have even turned away some design opportunities and even employment opportunities.

We argue, because we see our enemy and some of us would rather not be like them. We fight each other because we believe that truth is a cure to lies, that good is the cure to evil. Not the kind of good that martyrs, but the good that picks up its sword and shield and rides into battle.

We argue, because there are those among us for whom being good—nay, being at our best—is not just a good idea, but it’s the first requirement to play.

We argue, because there are those among us for whom the game of politics is a long-term activity that takes patience, skill and planning, and that we believe that the best way to change politics in Washington and in state governments is to promote an environment of the best beating out the worst. We commentators could never dream of running for office. Our public statements are aready laid bare for our opponents to hang on our necks. Our inconsistencies at times will sink us. But we work to find the best candidates from a fresh pool of willing public servants and the best way to attract them is to change the game so that not only the most hardened criminals against humanity would find it attractive to run.

We argue, because in the halcyon years of the Bush era, we spent too much time attacking the far left as if it were a cancer to be excised. We allowed moderates to bring in Leftist ideas and repackage them in ways attractive to us. We argue today because we don’t know how to reconcile the concepts of ideology, partisanship, and strategy, but we’re trying.

We argue, not for the approval of the Left, as some have accused us of doing, but because we want to win with clean consciences. Because we believe that it is only with a good heart will we be able to hold on to our turn at the helm as long as possible and help provide the best governance to our countrymen.

We argue, because victory at any cost is what we have today, and the combination of poor governance, a grossly mistaken president, a calculating, self-perpetuating Congress of vipers, is a result of that philosophy and it is crumbling long before their soothsayers predicted it would.

We argue, because we don’t want to be hypocrites. When Mitt Romney’s aides attacked Sarah Palin, my reaction was that this is exactly the hypocrisy that the Left accuses us of having. How can we attack the left for being disrespectful to women when we ourselves disrespect a woman?

We argue because we temper the steel of our ideas through conflict. It’s how we sleep at night. As long as we are aware of why we argue, and how to argue constructively, and how to try to strengthen our position, I wouldn’t worry so much about us arguing. We come out the better for it.