24 Feb 2020 4:44 pm
With All the Winning, Why So Angry?
First things first: I grew up as, and remained, a proud moderate Republican up until 2016.
I proudly wore the badge of “RINO” as I thought it a silly insult by a bunch of folks who didn’t win many elections.
The candidates they did elect tended to wear tinfoil hats on the floor of the US House.
The word “conservative” in American politics doesn’t mean what it once did.
The term “Republican” doesn’t either, for that matter.
For a time, they were separate and distinct states of being.
One could be a conservative who tended to vote for Republican candidates because the system provided no other viable options.
Republicans might share some similar views to conservatives, but probably practiced more intellectual flexibility.
Today, they’re one in the same.
Ironically enough, neither one of them means anything anymore.
Or maybe they mean everything, depending on your perspective.
For decades the pillars of American conservatism: Fiscal conservatism, individual liberty and muscular foreign policy allowed the GOP to capture the White House, eventually retake the US House and Senate and broadly keep the United States a center-right country.
Republican leaders and conservative ‘intellectuals’ play only one role in American political life today: The constant and shifting defense and/or promotion of President Donald Trump’s words and actions.
Funny that they often have to carry out those duties on a daily, even hourly, basis and often regarding the same issue.
It’s been both fascinating and disheartening to observe a group of people morph from the legitimate ideological foundation of a major political party, to a bunch of reprobates for whom writing hymns to the Dear Leader is their prime occupation.
Next weekend as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathers near Washington to indoctrinate the next generation of clones and Don Jr. gets another chance to try out the English language, another group, The Summit on Principled Conservatism, will be meeting in the Nation’s Capital to discuss what comes next for the conservative movement in America and what, if any, future the Republican party has after Donald Trump is gone.
I know, like and have worked with many of the people attending this gathering.
I won’t be in attendance, for a variety of reasons: first and foremost, what happens to the GOP is no longer my concern.
But I’m glad there are people for whom it is worth discussion and debate.
That there is such a gathering is no surprise.
Since Trump’s nomination, dozens if not hundreds of apostate conservative thinkers have been pushing back against the president and his minions.
What is surprising, however, is how much anger and vitriol is aimed at these happy few as they go about the business of trying to rebuild an ideological framework that was electorally successful for nearly a century.
Most of this invective is hurled on Twitter, which is no surprise given its rightful place as the hellscape of humans’ worst instincts and attitudes.
Mollie Hemingway of the mysterious Federalist called them “sad” and “Never Trumpaloos.”
A Harvard professor, Adrian Vermuele, mused that the gathering would be the first people destined for “the camps.”
He’s since blocked me and just about everyone else on Twitter for taking him to task.
Why, though, are Mollie, et al, so angry?
Are they “tired of all the winning?”
Do they have legitimate ideological beefs with those attending the confab?
Were they rivals in political efforts prior to Trump?
First, few of the “Trump intellectual” class (and I use that term loosely) ever actually deigned to work on a campaign, big or small, so we can cross off professional rivalry.
Next, with all the winning flying around, one would think there simply wouldn’t be time or desire to swat at the gnats that are conservative opponents of the president.
No, it’s something more deeply rooted.
The folks who now hold Donald Trump up as the paragon of American conservatism once believed, actually believed in the tenets outlined above.
There was a healthy disdain for government at all levels, based more on market-driven beliefs and incompetence than any nefarious concerns.
After all, conservatives have long been institutionalists as well.
As they go to sleep at night, they know what we know, and have known it far longer: When it came time to choose between standing on principle, and therefore taking the rockier road, or abandoning their core beliefs and thereby enjoying the fruits of their empty labor, it was a quick, painless decision.
Without so much as a second thought, the CPACs, the Federalists, the Fox News of the world plugged themselves into the Trump matrix and transformed themselves into political copper tops for the benefit of one person’s delusions of grandeur.
It’s this knowledge that drives the cult of personality to lash out, ridicule and demean those who would oppose Donald Trump and attempt to revive American conservatism.
Why are they so angry?
Because when the cultists look at the principled conservatives trying to find a better path forward for all Americans, they’re forced to confront the shallowness of their character and low price for which Donald Trump was able to purchase it.
https://medium.com/@reedgalen/with-all- ... 7c1794befd
Reed Galen is an independent political consultant and founder of The Lincoln Project. He previously worked for President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
First things first: I grew up as, and remained, a proud moderate Republican up until 2016.
I proudly wore the badge of “RINO” as I thought it a silly insult by a bunch of folks who didn’t win many elections.
The candidates they did elect tended to wear tinfoil hats on the floor of the US House.
The word “conservative” in American politics doesn’t mean what it once did.
The term “Republican” doesn’t either, for that matter.
For a time, they were separate and distinct states of being.
One could be a conservative who tended to vote for Republican candidates because the system provided no other viable options.
Republicans might share some similar views to conservatives, but probably practiced more intellectual flexibility.
Today, they’re one in the same.
Ironically enough, neither one of them means anything anymore.
Or maybe they mean everything, depending on your perspective.
For decades the pillars of American conservatism: Fiscal conservatism, individual liberty and muscular foreign policy allowed the GOP to capture the White House, eventually retake the US House and Senate and broadly keep the United States a center-right country.
Republican leaders and conservative ‘intellectuals’ play only one role in American political life today: The constant and shifting defense and/or promotion of President Donald Trump’s words and actions.
Funny that they often have to carry out those duties on a daily, even hourly, basis and often regarding the same issue.
It’s been both fascinating and disheartening to observe a group of people morph from the legitimate ideological foundation of a major political party, to a bunch of reprobates for whom writing hymns to the Dear Leader is their prime occupation.
Next weekend as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathers near Washington to indoctrinate the next generation of clones and Don Jr. gets another chance to try out the English language, another group, The Summit on Principled Conservatism, will be meeting in the Nation’s Capital to discuss what comes next for the conservative movement in America and what, if any, future the Republican party has after Donald Trump is gone.
I know, like and have worked with many of the people attending this gathering.
I won’t be in attendance, for a variety of reasons: first and foremost, what happens to the GOP is no longer my concern.
But I’m glad there are people for whom it is worth discussion and debate.
That there is such a gathering is no surprise.
Since Trump’s nomination, dozens if not hundreds of apostate conservative thinkers have been pushing back against the president and his minions.
What is surprising, however, is how much anger and vitriol is aimed at these happy few as they go about the business of trying to rebuild an ideological framework that was electorally successful for nearly a century.
Most of this invective is hurled on Twitter, which is no surprise given its rightful place as the hellscape of humans’ worst instincts and attitudes.
Mollie Hemingway of the mysterious Federalist called them “sad” and “Never Trumpaloos.”
A Harvard professor, Adrian Vermuele, mused that the gathering would be the first people destined for “the camps.”
He’s since blocked me and just about everyone else on Twitter for taking him to task.
Why, though, are Mollie, et al, so angry?
Are they “tired of all the winning?”
Do they have legitimate ideological beefs with those attending the confab?
Were they rivals in political efforts prior to Trump?
First, few of the “Trump intellectual” class (and I use that term loosely) ever actually deigned to work on a campaign, big or small, so we can cross off professional rivalry.
Next, with all the winning flying around, one would think there simply wouldn’t be time or desire to swat at the gnats that are conservative opponents of the president.
No, it’s something more deeply rooted.
The folks who now hold Donald Trump up as the paragon of American conservatism once believed, actually believed in the tenets outlined above.
There was a healthy disdain for government at all levels, based more on market-driven beliefs and incompetence than any nefarious concerns.
After all, conservatives have long been institutionalists as well.
As they go to sleep at night, they know what we know, and have known it far longer: When it came time to choose between standing on principle, and therefore taking the rockier road, or abandoning their core beliefs and thereby enjoying the fruits of their empty labor, it was a quick, painless decision.
Without so much as a second thought, the CPACs, the Federalists, the Fox News of the world plugged themselves into the Trump matrix and transformed themselves into political copper tops for the benefit of one person’s delusions of grandeur.
It’s this knowledge that drives the cult of personality to lash out, ridicule and demean those who would oppose Donald Trump and attempt to revive American conservatism.
Why are they so angry?
Because when the cultists look at the principled conservatives trying to find a better path forward for all Americans, they’re forced to confront the shallowness of their character and low price for which Donald Trump was able to purchase it.
https://medium.com/@reedgalen/with-all- ... 7c1794befd
Reed Galen is an independent political consultant and founder of The Lincoln Project. He previously worked for President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.