Posted on 01/27/2016 10:30:42 AM PST by Kaslin
I've been hearing about the impending "conservative crackup" for nearly 25 years. The term was coined by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., the founder of the American Spectator. He meant that conservatism had lost its philosophical coherence. But the phrase almost instantly became a catchall for any prediction of the right's imminent demise or dissolution.
These dire prophesies always reminded me of those "Free Beer Tomorrow" signs. As Annie sings, tomorrow is "always a day away."
Well, thanks to Donald Trump, tomorrow may be here. There's a fierce internecine battle over whether to oppose Trump's run, passively accept his popularity, or zealously support his bid.
The level of distrust among many of the different factions of the conservative coalition has never been higher, at least not in my experience. Arguments don't seem to matter, only motives do.
Here's Rush Limbaugh on Friday: "Forget the name is Trump. If a candidate could [guarantee to] fix everything that's wrong in this country the way the Republican Party thinks it's wrong, if it were a slam dunk, if it were guaranteed, that candidate will still be opposed by the Republican Party establishment. ... If he's not part of the clique, they don't want him in there."
In other words, the GOP establishment has become so corrupted, its members would knowingly reject a savior just to protect their comfortable way of life.
Limbaugh also says that the conservative "intelligentsia" -- in the form of conservative magazines and think tanks -- doesn't want to solve problems, it just wants to score points in an "academic exercise" within a perpetual "debating society." "In other words," Limbaugh says, "some people constantly need something to run against as a reason to exist."
Meanwhile, many in the so-called establishment and intelligentsia have similar complaints about Limbaugh and his imitators on radio and cable TV, although most don't say it publicly for fear of reprisal. I've lost track of the number of congressmen, consultants and so forth who've told me that talk-radio hosts spend their time criticizing fellow conservatives because that's what brings in the highest ratings. (Beating up on liberals just doesn't animate the base like it used to.)
Wherever the truth lies, questioning motives is poisonous, because such claims are not only unfalsifiable, but they also give an instant excuse to ignore sincere, reasoned arguments.
Nearly every position on Trump is immediately subjected to a kind of vulgar Marxist analysis. "You think Trump would make a bad president? Oh, you're just saying that because you're part of the establishment!" "You think Trump would make a good president? Oh, you're just saying that to get attention."
National Review magazine, where I am a senior editor, recently published an issue arguing that Trump is unfit to be a conservative standard-bearer. Trump responded by saying we were a "failing paper." That's not remotely true (we're not even a paper), but even if it were, how does that refute our criticisms?
I'm not saying motives don't matter, but they're best left out of disagreements if you hope to persuade your ideological allies.
The one exception to this rule is when your opponents openly acknowledge their self-interest.
Last week, former Sen. Bob Dole, Sen. Orrin Hatch and a passel of consultants were quoted in the press giving Neville Chamberlain-like assurances that Trump was a man they could deal with while Ted Cruz was the real threat to their food bowls.
"Do they all love Trump? No," Republican lobbyist Richard F. Hohlt told the New York Times. "But there's a feeling that he is not going to layer over the party or install his own person. Whereas Cruz will have his own people there."
It's hard to criticize Limbaugh & Co. for cynically questioning the motives of the establishment when party apparatchiks confess them in the pages of the New York Times.
There's no shortage of reasons for why the right is at war over whether or not to take a flier on Trump. All of the various establishments and the counter-establishments overpromised and underdelivered in recent years. Congressional leaders talked a big game while campaigning but played small ball once re-elected. Cruz and his supporters accused his fellow politicians of being corrupt sellouts, and so many people believed him, they'd now rather take a gamble on Trump than back Cruz, a mere politician.
Tomorrow seems closer than ever before.
What we’re seeing is the rift between patriotic Americans who want to preserve this country, and the globalist cuckservatives who want to continue to import cheap labour for crony capitalists.
“the GOP establishment has become so corrupted, its members would knowingly reject a savior just to protect their comfortable way of life”
Not only that, but the establishment’s comfortable way of life is exactly funding 100% of LIBERALISM.
Says the people who embraced abortion and gay marriage.
It is a breakup, I think, rather than a “crackup”.
"former Sen. Bob Dole, Sen. Orrin Hatch and a passel of consultants were quoted in the press giving Neville Chamberlain-like assurances that Trump was a man they could deal with while Ted Cruz was the real threat to their food bowls."
The GOPe’s not pinin’! It’s passed on! This party is no more! It has ceased to be! It has expired and gone to meet its maker! It’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! Because it kissed Dorkbama the Muslim’s Obamahole, it is pushing up the daisies! Its metabolic processes are now ‘istory! It is off the twig! It has kicked the bucket, It has shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARTY!!
Wasn’t Goldberg one of the “dirty thirty”?
People in Washington, D.C. who called themselves “Conservatives” blew smoke up the peoples’ arses about their economic future for 25 years.
Finally the people gave up on them and decided to
support a Populist.
What we are seeing, but fail to see, is that ordinary people think the Republican partisans are making obnoxious fools of themselves and will take their vote elsewhere ... anywhere but to a bunch of lunatics attempting mass political suicide which they see as continuing into any putative Republican Presidency to the utter detriment of the country they profess to save.
In other words, pundits, talking heads, dyed-in-the-wool conservatives, etc. you are simply making the case for someone more reasonable who appears sane even if the truth is otherwise ... say hello to President Bernie ... because you followed your ideology instead of common sense, you destroyed any and all chances of ever taking the WH again.
Plutarch ~ Greek Historian, circa 100 AD
(Anyone having a problem with this quote take it up with Plutarch)
Under the bus you go, Jonah. Thou shall not cross Mr. Game Show.
Yeah, but he also told Fox News that Jeb Bush is his man. I heard it with my own ears
Rush "gets" the GOPe elites...
I don’t know if I’d call this a conservative crack-up. I think that many normally conservative Americans, including myself, have really realized over the past 7 years how completely ineffective “conservative” politicians and pundits have been in advancing a conservative agenda. And that was after 8 years of Compassionate Conservative George Bush, who had a liberal economic agenda but who still got knocked around like a punching bag and labeled “conservative” without fighting back. Its sad to say that the most conservative president in my adult life probably is Bill Clinton — he was forced into it by the Gingrich Congress, but it ended up better for conservatives than anything since (and the Bush Sr. presidency before it). I want someone who is actually going to win some battles. I don’t know who I am supporting in the presidential election yet but I fully understand that just because someone says conservative things doesn’t mean that person is going to be willing or able to advance a conservative agenda.
Jonah Goldberg needs to say it as it is... the GOP lied openly to their base to get re-elected to jobs that were little more than sinecures.
Come on Johah - speak the truth....
Has Jonah ever bought some new pants?
huh?
Heh. I see what you did there.
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