Conservatives, the cheated-on spouses of American politics

 Kurt Schlichter dissects Kristi Noem and in the process coins a phrase that hits home.

You know who is laughing right now? Nikki! Haley is, because Kristi Noem may have derailed her own electoral freight train as it rolled down the conservative governortrix tracks toward the GOP nom in 2024. Now, Nikki! is a total non-starter, ...though the GOP establishment has this fantasy that she can cruise into the White House by pretending to be hardcore when she’s just Jeb! in a skirt. But Noem has – perhaps had – a future as a conservative conservative, and her utterly insane unforced error last week has hugely damaged her prospects. ...

What did she do? She vetoed a bill defending women athletes from the insanity of letting men dominate them and then offered the most weaksauce weasel word explanation imaginable. ...her appearance on Tucker was condescending gibberish. Watching it, woke cons started out disappointed with her and ended up infuriated at her....

It was really quite remarkable how amateurish and totally unnecessary it all was, but we’ve been seeing a lot of this lately....

It’s unclear who told Noem this was a great idea, but that person ought to be exiled ...Noem decided that instead of holding strong on an issue that conservatives care about, she would not merely rollover to the tech/Chamber of Commerce lib axis but also attempt to talk us into thinking this was just a routine administrative decision and that she is totally behind us 100 percent....

We’re not stupid. Is she? Because if she thinks that conservatives, the cheated-on spouses of American politics, are not hyper-vigilant to any sign of betrayal then she’s too dumb to be our prezzy. We’ve been shafted too many times, and she is hallucinating if she thinks anyone will get a pass – including her.

 Candidates, understand this. We are woke. We expect you to be woke. Period. If you don’t know what time it is, it’s time for you to go away.

There’s no way to split the difference, no needle-threading or insulting “explaining” that will mollify us. We didn’t like Trump because he was on TV (we didn’t watch that crap), or because he was an ideological conservative (he was not), or because he sent mean tweets (okay, a little). We supported Trump because he fought for us and did not compromise with the people who hate us and want us disenfranchised, subservient, or dead.

Read the whole thing.

Catch-Up Conservatism

 Like Mark Steyn, my email is filled daily with please for money to keep the Senate in Republican hands.  But as Mark says: 

 Well, okay. But I just wish these Republican establishment types would occasionally cough up something in return.

Mark Steyn explains, as only he can, the biggest problem with the so-called "conservative" Republicans once they get in office.

Conservatives are those with positions supported by the left ten years ago, as they say.

Indeed. In 2000, when the Vermont Supreme Court mandated same-sex "civil unions", American conservatives were outraged. By 2010, when the left had moved on to gay marriage, conservatives were supportive of civil unions but insisted marriage was an ancient institution between a man and a woman. Now, the left having won that one and moved on to transgenderism, conservatives profess to be a bit queasy about transitioning grade-schoolers.

So you can take it to the bank that by 2030 rock-ribbed Republicans will be on board with penises in the girls' changing rooms, but determined to hold the line against whatever the left's next cause du jour is: human cloning, mandatory transitioning for delinquent boys, voting rights for animals.

Wait.   Isn't that already a thing at the fringes of the Left, and rapidly moving to the center? 

There really isn't much point to conservatism that's just leftism ten years late, is there? ...

It is surely telling that the only issues on which the right has made any progress at all in moving the ball in its direction - Brexit in the UK; illegal immigration and a belated honesty about the rise of China in the US - had to be injected into public discourse by two outsiders, Nigel Farage and Donald Trump. And indeed in the teeth of opposition by the establishment's catch-up conservatives.

Catch-up conservatism gives the game away: The right has lost the knack of persuasion, and increasingly doesn't even bother to try.

If you want to see how feckless and gutless Republicans are, take a look at the Republicans in the Michigan legislature when they are in the majority!  They are not only steamrollered by the Wicked Witch of the West Whitmer - they can't even defend themselves from being cheated out of the last election.

The Backlash Is Coming

Geraghty’s piece is well written, but it is a perfect example of why Conservatism, Inc. has been losing for decades.  It is pastiche.  Partly a slam at middle America when he quotes Roger Boesche.  Partly an attack on the police and a defense of black grievances when he quotes Theodore Johnson.  But the real problem is that he sees normal American “rioting” by abandoning the Blue States and cities. 

As with so much of Conservative, Inc., there is the belief that by continuing to retreat, normal Americans will win.  It is reflected in the belief that people will be so revolted by Liberal governance that they will turn to the losers as their savior.  

How many years of one-party government in deep blue states and cities does I take to kill that foolish idea?  

To simply take one example: Detroit has been run into the ground by Democrats for generations, to the point where serious plans were proposed to bulldoze parts of the city and turn it into farms. 

Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013.  The mayor and every member of the city council are Democrats.  Where is the Detroit backlash?  Despite a wealth of evidence and experience, “thinkers” like Geraghty predict a “backlash” that will somehow be good for normal Americans. 

Defund Conservatism, Inc. to Make America Great Again

It was fascinating to watch Tucker Carlson call out Heritage Foundation President Kay James for her recent op-ed at Fox News. James added her voice to the politically correct chorus, informing us that racism is “a cancer in America” and “our Achilles’ Heel that has afflicted us for 400 years.” Some people, myself included, would like to know, who are these racists James speaks of? Are they the people on the Heritage board who appointed her? Are they people who work for Heritage or are in the conservative movement, even people who identify with the America First agenda? She should name names.

To be fair, James condemned the rioting, but she sounded more like an adherent to the questionable New York Times “1619 Project” than a leading conservative who is supposed to believe in the fundamental principles of liberty and opportunity for all to which our nation has cleaved for centuries.

Those principles at one time were core to the mission of the Heritage Foundation. Now its leadership can’t seem to utter them, let alone espouse them.

Today some people, myself included, are rightly asking: if Heritage can’t support the most basic tenets of America’s founding and affirm its rise to exceptionalism, what is the point of Heritage at all? They claim to be conservatives, but what have they conserved? Where are their victories?

I get literally dozens of requests EACH DAY to give money to this or that "Conservative" organization and it all goes directly into the trash because I know of almost no "official" conservative organization that has ever advanced the cause of Conservatism. I give directly to candidates, and even those have betrayed me a lot; I'm looking at you Mitt Romney.