The End of Conservative, Inc.
In 2016, Trump shoved a potato in the tailpipe of the Hillary/Russia/DOJ Express. His election ended Conservative, Inc. for all intents and purposes. The Democrats have ended themselves.
I lived in hope that the turn of a new millennium would spur mankind to great things, that our achievements and aspirations would surpass the idealism of the post WWII expansion and the space race.
I had hoped for enlightenment.
But the election of 2000 happened, bringing with it a deep rift. Nine months after the never ending, pregnant chad election was resolved (the ballot chad – not a pregnant dude named Chad - Netflix had not “evolved” to that point), the tragic events of 9/11 happened. For a time, a big band aid bridged the gaping wound. By the time the 2004 presidential election came around, the band aid was beginning to peel off. The Democrats, as they are wont to do, began to lose interest in the “good war” in Afghanistan as Bush and his Merry Neocons mired the nation even deeper in Iraq.
Unfortunately, for America, neither political party knew how to resolve anything, so they did what warring factions do – they began searching for advantage in the least common denominator.
And somewhere in the waning hours of Dub’s second term, man’s quest for enlightenment became the search for stupid.
Conservatives bear a lot of the burden for the road America has travelled over the last two decades.
Since the closing days of the Reagan presidency, conservativism has been a movement in search of a leader. The Bush dynasty only pretended to be conservative, largely because on their own, they were – how shall we say – less than inspiring. They needed to stay on Reagan’s coattails and ride the Rush Limbaugh wave, which they managed to do until Dub finally rode that wave all the way to the beach.
Surrender was already on the menu as early as 2001 when Jumping Jim Jeffords left the GOP and the brilliant Republican leadership carved out a “power sharing” arrangement in the 50/50 Senate that gave Democrats veto power over anything the Republicans wanted to do.
Conservative, Inc. was in full force in those heady days, populated with people we now recognize with Kristol clarity as grifters. Other neocon fakirs were manning their posts at National Review and other conservative publications as a bulwark against anyone not interested in conserving conservativism their way, which mostly consisted of bitching about Democrats one day, agreeing with them the next, all the while collecting fat paychecks for their trouble. All indications are that Conservative, Inc. was quite profitable for many – Kristol, Goldberg, Hayes and other institutional conservatives did quite well, at least until the election of Donald Trump in 2016 pulled back the curtain on their shenanigans.
But Conservative, Inc. did give us an enemy, a clever foil to whom we directed our attention while the neocons frolicked – a young, articulate, bright and clean multiracial receptacle for upper class white guilt, a product of Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers, Frank Marshall Davis and the Chicago Democrat machine with the Middle Eastern sounding name - Barack Hussein Obama.
While the conservatives were busy conserving conservatism by giving in to Democrats on Obamacare and trying desperately to figure out how to oppose a multi-racial president (who identified as black) without being called racists (spoiler alert, nothing worked), a strong and focused Democrat leadership was searching for victims, although ostensibly not people of whom the Democrats could take advantage (although that was the ultimate outcome), they were looking for damsels in distress who would choose the Democrat Party as a champion.
And how did Conservative, Inc. respond to the eight year Obamabot assault on America?
It consecutively ran Maverick McCain and Willard “Mittens” Romney.
McCain, for all his military service and stay at the Hanoi Hilton, lacked a killer instinct, unless he was targeting his own party. Maverick suspended his campaign to “work on the financial crisis” brought about by the mortgage bubble bursting – a crisis brought about by the same financial institutions and Wall Street banks that McCain supported bailing out.
Obama didn’t see the need to stop campaigning.
The Romney/Ryan ticket was the breaking point for Conservative, Inc. Both Romney and Ryan were milquetoast Republican Lite, that is to say they are borderline Democrats. Romney had a chance to put Obama away but couldn’t bring himself to close out a debate, basically snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Similarly, Ryan had trouble scoring points on Joe Biden. Really. Joe Biden. The corruptocrat Czar of Ukraine. That Joe Biden.
The only bright spot was when, in 2016, Trump shoved a potato in the tailpipe of the Hillary/Russia/DOJ Express. Trump’s election ended Conservative, Inc. for all intents and purposes.
Throughout the Obama years, the search for a victim to champion became a reductive process, with smaller and more outrageous groups and individuals fitting the Democrat description of a “victim”. The victim funnel got smaller and more ridiculous with each evolution, until the neck of the funnel was about the size of a sewing needle. If it was a sphincter, it would be squeezing out diamonds.
Of course, as the Democrats kept putting up roadblocks for Trump, in anticipation of a return to the White House, they kept searching for that lowest common denominator, trying out Russian collusion, Pussy Hats, Adam Schiff groupies, and a train of wannabe victims as long as the zipper on Jerry Nadler’s pants.
They went through women, children, young black men hunted by police, black women, black children, black women and children hunted by police, gay people in general, gay black men, black lesbians, children of black lesbians and gay black men, gay Native Americans, transgenders, transgendered blacks and Native Americans living together, and finally, where we are today, transgendered kindergarten kids who don’t know they are secretly transgendered until LGGTQ activist teachers, without parental knowledge or consent, tell the kids that they are.
The good news is the Democrat schtick is as threadbare as a two-dollar suit from Goodwill.
Biden is a failure, has done incalculable damage to America and her future, and the Democrats know it.
The gig is up, the news is out.
The good news is the Democrats expect a shellacking in the 2022 midterms and Trump lurks with DeSantis in the wings. There is a crop of young, motivated, conservatives running for House and the Senate races, while this should not be a good year for the GOP, arguably looks like a Republican majority in the offing.
Maybe enlightenment is still possible.
I'm still not going to be putting any faith in the GOP. Fool me once... Shame on... Me. Fool me twice... Shame on... Won't be fooled again.
While Trump, a lifelong democrat, truly broke the republican party, there are still too many faux, neo, self described, but nowhere near, small 'c' conservatives, that have been dealing from the bottom of a stacked deck. when the democrat party finally implodes and we get a Gerald ford redux, those that used to be called RINO, but now make up 98% of the GOP, will say all the right things, but do all the wrong things, just as they've done since Clinton.
Best case scenario? Trump elected in '24 with DeSantis as VP. Trump won't be able to repair all the current administration has wrought, but he'll be able to point us in the right direction. If DeSantis can be the same Conservative he's displayed in Florida, then the Right could conceivably have 12 years to address all that ails us. a perfect time for the next "greatest generation" to come into Congress and fix the things that kept them at war for two decades fighting battles with both hands tied behind their backs.
Eject the new, Progressive, Justice Democrats and replace the republican, squishy, old guard whose one and only play is to roll over and piss themselves every time a democrat walks in the room. Do that, Conservatism and constitutionalism stands a chance. Do it not and Lincoln will be proven a prophet, because a house divided against itself cannot stand.
DeSantis not Trump, hopefully. Trump does not inspire the voters that grew to hate him. DeSantis will.