After Years of False Alarms, the 'Conservative Crackup' Has Arrived

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.

And you guys are STILL falling for that old tried and true TRICK?

Sigh

Well Jonah can keep tweeting pics of his dog, seems to be about all he has the capacity to understand.

Thank God for this crack up/break up - end of the RINO era! Good riddens

Rush "gets" the GOPe elites...

Well, stir in this detail into your salad of understanding .... the elites (as in, American Enterprise Institute) get their rice bowls filled by the Chamber and the Fortune 500.

In fact, one of their high-status Ph.D. drones was in the room, holding the proxy of the Masters of the Universe/Owners of the GOP-e and doing business in their behalf, when the deal was struck in 2008 by which the MoU/OotGOP-e did their deal with the 'Rat Party, proxied by a Harvard Ph.D.-ess from the Left's policy-wonk Hive Mind gaggle, that would allow the Chamber/BusinessRoundtable/Fortune 500 to throw their employees' health plans under the bus and flow all those policy premiums to their bottom lines.

The employees would go under the bus by Vast Corrupt Political Deal, and be undertaken by the CPUSA, aka the Democratic Party Hive Mind. They would become hostages of SovietCare, which would own them forever, while the GOP-e MoU would flow monies endlessly to their bottom lines and have their own medical needs taken care of by elite private medicine .... in Singapore if need be.

The deal is detailed (names, dates, places) by former New York Times editor in chief Howell Raines, writing in the October, 2008, issue of Conde Nast's Portfolio magazine. Raines lost his Timesman epaulets in a reporting scandal but evidently took his Rolodex of highly-placed sources with him and used it to break the story before the 2008 election which elevated Obama for coronation and immaculation.

This corrupt political deal is the reason why the GOP-e has done nothing about repealing or defunding Obamacare. Obamacare is as much the bastard child of the bastard MoU types as it is of the Communist 'Rats. They did it for the money.

The Letter of Lentulus is an epistle supposedly written by Publius Lentulus to the Roman Senate, giving a physical and personal description of Jesus. Publius Lentulus was, according to the Deeds of the Divine Augustus, a Roman Consul during the reign of Augustus (27 BC-14 AD), and is said to have been Governor of Judea before Pontius Pilate.wikipedia...

Any connection to your screen name?

I remember Tyrrell's article very well, and it was a long time ago. The names of some of the power brokers have changed since then but the institutions have not. Most of them are conservative only in the sense that they would prefer business as usual to something else. The ideals, the abstractions that to most of us seem "conservative" are nearly irrelevant in this context.

For them there is, as the Democrat activists and the media discovered to their delight, a comfort in being in a position of opposition: one can say anything, however radical, and never be called to account for the results. It is that comfort zone that the persistent "Blame Bush" theme attempts to maintain. It is the comfort zone that establishment Republicans such as Boehner and Ryan find themselves in as well: despite being in the majority, they can't do anything and would rather be blamed for failure than blamed for the results of success. Everybody on the inside wins and the rest of us lose.

As things appear to be developing, there emerges only one truly establishment candidate, even if both sides loathe her, only one who will be satisfied to take her graft and leave the comfort zone in place. That's Hillary's hope, and it's her only hope.

The deal is detailed (names, dates, places) by former New York Times editor in chief Howell Raines, writing in the October, 2008, issue of Conde Nast's Portfolio magazine. Raines lost his Timesman epaulets in a reporting scandal but evidently took his Rolodex of highly-placed sources with him and used it to break the story before the 2008 election which elevated Obama for coronation and immaculation. This corrupt political deal is the reason why the GOP-e has done nothing about repealing or defunding Obamacare. Obamacare is as much the bastard child of the bastard MoU types as it is of the Communist 'Rats. They did it for the money.

For tomorrow...

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.

Interesting. . .

Jesus Christ: You can't impeach Him and He ain't gonna resign.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.