REASON: Josh Hawley's Toxic Populism

Reason ^ | March 8 | PETER SUDERMAN

[RandFan]

Is the senator's authoritarian grandstanding the dark future of the GOP?

When rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in January, Sen. Josh Hawley (R–Mo.) was there. Not only was he happy to see the mob assembled outside his workplace; he cheered them on.

Shortly before the group of conspiracists and reactionaries broke into the building—vandalizing offices, taking selfies amid the wreckage, and dramatically halting business on both the House and Senate floors as lawmakers were evacuated to secure locations, sometimes fearing for their lives—Hawley had been photographed giving them a raised fist of encouragement.

Earlier that morning, then–President Donald Trump had addressed a rally at the National Mall. "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women," he directed. "And we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong."

Trump pumped the mob up, but it was Hawley who gave it an official channel and a sense of legitimacy. The week before, Hawley had been the first senator to announce that he would oppose certification of the electoral votes that would give the presidency to Joe Biden. "I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of megacorporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden," he said at the end of December. Congress, he complained, had "failed to act."

The announcement was entirely typical of Hawley: blustery, partisan, pro-Trump, anti–Big Tech, and transparently authoritarian. And it led to disastrous consequences.

More...

[RandFan]

This is quite a controversial piece imo... I've yet to finish it..

I'm not a big fan of Hawley: He was pushing stimulus checks with Bernie!

[BenLurkin]

“reactionaries”

Telling choice of word. Straight out of the Bolshevik lexicon.

[ifinnegan]

Controversial?

Reason falling in line with the new order, with the junta.

[Little Ray]

I would rather have ‘toxic populism’ than panty-waist libertarianism.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Reason = Libertarian = Unreasonable

[oil_dude]

He’s only toxic to the Communist Left.

[marktwain]

The announcement was entirely typical of Hawley: blustery, partisan, pro-Trump, anti–Big Tech, and transparently authoritarian. And it led to disastrous consequences.

Wow. Reason appears to have gone full Corporate Fascist.

As long as it is privately owned companies which are censoring people and conspiring with government forces to violate their rights, it is all A-OK.

I recall when libertarians were pro-freedom of speech.

But the open borders crowd seems to have taken them over.

[Olog-hai]

The author is married to a screedwriter for the Washington Compost and The Atlantic, for ten years thus far.

[RandFan]

The biggest problem I’ve had with him is when he teamed up with Bernie on stimulus and also he has hinted at raising the min wage I think...

He is economically brain dead.

As for the other complaints in the article they don’t bother me much and are kind of trivial.

[Robert DeLong]

Peter Suderman is features editor at Reason. He writes regularly on health care, the federal budget, tech policy, and pop culture.

Before joining Reason, Suderman worked as a writer and editor at National Review, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, Doublethink, and Culture11. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, Vox, Politico, The New York Post, Newsweek, The Washington Examiner, and numerous other publications. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Just another Never-Trumper, who hates anyone who associates with real conservatism.

[Augie]

Hawley is a much better senator than the vile witch mccaskill that he replaced.

It’s looking like the pos roy blunt isn’t going to run for re-election. The left will sh!t their collective britches if we manage to get Eric Greitens into that seat.

[lodi90]

The conservative/GOP chattering classes are owned by the MAGA hating big donors. They know who butters there bread. It ain’t Trump and his voters.

[tlozo]

Reason articles are written mostly by non-libertarians. The members comments to the articles are worth reading and are generally libertarian.

[RandFan]

Nearly finished reading. Mostly they don’t like his Big Tech policies. Most of it is about that.

[lodi90]

Just another Never-Trumper, who hates anyone who associates with real conservatism.

---

They are conservative for pay. No better morals than a street corner harlot.

[marktwain]

Eric Greitens into that seat.

An excellent choice, from what I have seen.

[SuperLuminal]

"Telling choice of word. Straight out of the Bolshevik lexicon."

Reason long ago went to the dark side...

[DiogenesLamp]

Shortly before the group of conspiracists and reactionaries broke into the building—vandalizing offices, taking selfies amid the wreckage, and dramatically halting business on both the House and Senate floors as lawmakers were evacuated to secure locations, sometimes fearing for their lives—Hawley had been photographed giving them a raised fist of encouragement.

What sort of snowflake p*ssy wrote this?

Someone needs to call a WAAAAHmbulance!

[Wallace T.]

Reason Magazine is funded in part by the Koch family, who are strong supporters of open borders and "free" trade {where the U.S. has zero tariffs and trade barriers yet is supine to the predatory trade policies of other nations). Additionally, one of the Koch brothers was on the flight list to the late Jeffrey Epstein's pedo island.

Treachery and compromise abound in libertarian and conservative circles.

[Olog-hai]

What “conservative circles” do you refer to? Those that host Jeff Flake-type “conservatives” . . . ?