March 21, 2020
MY CORNER by Boyd
Cathey
For Never Trump “Conservatives”
Joe Biden is the “Simple Answer”
Friends,
As you are aware various “big name” establishment “conservative”
leaders have never reconciled themselves to the election of Donald Trump. For
these folks, mainly clustered “inside-the-DC-Beltway” or closeted off behind
walled estates in northern Virginia or in posh apartments in New York’s upper
east side, the rest of the conservative base, out in what the late leftist
novelist Phillip Roth called “fly-over country” are “deplorables,” just as
Hillary Clinton despectively described them. In fact a week or two ago, former
John McCain Republican consultant Rick Wilson yucked it up on CNN with his extreme
Left buddies in tones of dripping condescension—and scarcely concealed hate—about
those mostly “rural boobs.”
Good for a disdainful laugh.
Lest you thought that 2016 signaled the decline of these
Republican ersatz-conservative plutocrats, think again. Yes, it is true that
their most important journalistic mouthpiece, The Weekly Standard, went under in a richly deserved death. But the
Standard’s most prominent scribblers
did not go away. Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg almost immediately founded an
online journal of “conservatism,” The
Dispatch, where they could continue to spew forth their continued disdain
for Trump and the hoi polloi, we poor
unfortunate rubes who have been misled by the “racism” and hatred engendered,
let loose, and normalized by the present administration.
And former Standard
editor, Bill Kristol—the son of the Neoconservative journalist Irving Kristol—has
his own online mouthpiece, The Bulwark,
where he continues to spout an unrestrained message of irreconcilable Never
Trumpism.
Of course, since 2016 some of the zealous anti-Trumpers have
attempted to glom onto Trumpism and, as Neoconservatives have done in the past,
turn it and shape it in their own direction—a continued globalism internationally
and a continued retreat into moral degeneracy domestically. Thus the praxis of
such Fox luminaries Goldberg, Hayes, along with Ben Shapiro, Guy Benson, and that
“big boy” wannabe, Charlie Kirk—yes, the self-same, transvestite-hugging
Turning Point USA honcho who shows up increasingly on Fox News as a pundit.
(Charlie comes across as someone desperate for attention and anxious for fame;
he preaches to collegians when he can, but loves to party up-tight with
transgenders and others who make a total mockery of traditional conservative
beliefs: this tragically is what has become of much of the “conservative youth
movement.”)
And, of course, just as with the fanatical Left, these elitist
conservatives are quick to condemn and excommunicate anyone as “racist” (or “sexist”)
who in any way transgresses their shared, constantly advancing benchmarks for
deciding just who has now become a “racist.” Thus, once welcomed conservative columnist
and lecturer Michelle Malkin has become, in this new dispensation, “persona non
grata.” Indeed, Amanda
Carpenter on Kristol’s Web site viciously attacked her as “pro-Nazi” and
probably a “holocaust denier” (n0 shred of proof adduced, of course): “And she now seems to have turned her back
on all of that [establishment conservatism] in order to link arms with the most
vocal elements of the white nationalist movement. Oh, I’m sorry. They insist on
being called America
Firsters. Same difference.”
And everything possible is being
done to destroy Malkin’s career and livelihood. Once prominently viewed on Fox,
she now is effectively banned from the network because, as Carpenter describes
it, she has defended in some ways Nick Fuentes. Who is Fuentes? “Think of him
as a younger, Catholic fundamentalist version of Milo Yiannopoulos.”
Fuentes, you see, marched in Charlottesville, and no matter what his beliefs or
motivation, that for the race-conscious Neocons is an unforgivable sin.
Even more unforgivable, according to Carpenter: “Fuentes and his followers loathe what they
call ‘Conservative Inc.’—a group of ‘fake conservative establishmentarians who
are insufficiently observant of ‘traditional values.’ One of those values is
severely restrictionist immigration policy, which at some point, began to
tickle Malkin’s ears. So, too, has she adopted the anti-‘Conservative Inc.’ language,
even though her entire career had been—if we are being honest—a product of the
actual Conservative Inc. Which is to say, CPAC, Regnery, YAF, Fox, and all the
rest.”
Now the Never Trump Republicans have something
called “The Lincoln Project,” with a
goal of defeating the president at the next election, and nothing is exempt as
a weapon in that campaign. Most recently they have bitterly attacked Donald
Trump over his handling of the COVID-19 epidemic—if it will bring down the hated
“man with the golden hair,” it’s just fine as a tactic. The headline on a Huffington
Post (!) article March 21 reads: “GOP group uses Donald Trump's coronavirus lies against him in new attack
ad,” and the list of organizers reads like a list of John McCain and George
Bush policy advisors and political consultants: Rick Wilson (again!), Steve
Schmidt, John Weaver, Jennifer Horn, et al. The
New York Times—never missing a beat to attack the despicable Donald—featured
their joint opinion piece, “We Are
Republicans, and We Want Trump Defeated,” prominently in its December 17,
2019, issue.
Bill Kristol states it
even more clearly: “if you’re inclined toward American
constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and a free economic order–as well as
a liberal [Italics mine] world order anchored by the
United States–it’s Joe Biden.”
You see, Biden is the “moderate candidate.” He’s who Kristol calls “The Simple Answer.”
Got that?
Can you believe this? This is the man, the brain-dead
candidate who has adopted almost all of Bernie Sanders’ socialist positions. And
yet Kristol and company push him as THEIR candidate. Tells you something, does
it not, about THESE so-called “conservatives.” And it should impel us to go
back and re-examine the history of how these vaunted Neoconservatives—the Irving
Kristols, Norman Podhoretzes, and their offspring—infiltrated and seized control
of the old conservative movement and denatured it almost beyond recognition
back in the 1970s and 1980s.
*****
*****
On this subject there is no better, no more acute
observer and historian than Dr. Paul Gottfried, and so I pass on his latest
essay on the topic today:
Since When Is Joe Biden a 'Moderate'?
In
an exultant commentary on Joe Biden’s victory on Super Tuesday, New York Post-syndicated columnist
Salena Zito tells us: “The Dems’ silent majority, which doesn’t tweet, is
finally crying out for moderation from the party.” Zito also quotes Dave
Saunders, “a legendary Democratic strategist in Virginia,” who “finds it
‘ironic’ that southern voters are often criticized by the national party for
being too moderate, but they’re the ones who saved the party from a left-wing
candidate like Sanders.” Presumably Biden is the personification of “moderation,”
as I’m reminded whenever I hear the Fox News All-stars praise him, while
attacking the evil Bernie as a commie-loving radical. It’s been Joe’s
accomplishment to rescue his party and nation from the “leftist demagogue” who
is running against him. He is helping to return the country to “moderate”
government, which presumably is not something that Trump has been doing because
of his divisive personality.
Unfortunately, there is no
indication that Biden will be practicing any kind of “moderation” if elected.
For one thing, depictions of him as a moderate overlook the inconvenient fact
that he is running well to the left of former president Obama, who was our most
leftist chief executive up until his election in 2008. Candidate Obama publicly
opposed gay marriage, favored strict border controls, and would never have
announced, in contrast to Biden, that he wished to provide medical assistance
and public benefits to those who were here illegally. On just about every social
issue, Biden the “moderate” has positioned himself well to the left of Obama.
On immigration and advancing the LGBT, feminist, and Black Lives Matter
agendas, I don’t find any distance between Joe and Bernie. Certainly not
enough to justify the exaggerated contrasts between the “moderate” Biden and
the “radical” Sanders.
Second, in assessing how Biden
would govern this country, we should consider his continuing gaffes on the
stump. Why are we supposed to think that Biden’s stumbling
for words,
incoherent outbursts, and inability to recognize what day of the week it is or
what state he is in tell us nothing
about how he would govern? Biden may well be in mental
decline,
and if that is the case, there are lots of people out there waiting to take
advantage of his presidency. We might start the list with the Secret Service
officials who have been in trouble because of their felonious misdeeds and rank
partisanship. But perhaps we should look for Biden’s beneficiaries in public
administration more generally. Federal employees are overwhelmingly
Democrats and
would be delighted with a presidency that allowed them to have their way.
However ineptly Trump has called out his bureaucratically entrenched enemies,
he has correctly observed where they are. Biden is also indebted to the media
for methodically covering up his ridiculous statements and his fits of anger
when encountering unwanted questions. He also owes the media big time for their
steady recent attacks on Sanders, which helped cleared the way for Biden’s
nomination. Such unfailing support may come at a high price, if Biden is
elected. And let’s not forget those black leaders like Jim Clyburn of South
Carolina, who have vigorously campaigned for Joe. What exactly will a President
Biden owe such leaders for gaining him the overwhelming support of black
Democrats? One can only imagine. Of course, Biden’s helpers were right to pick
him over the principled socialist Sanders. Joe is not likely to refuse favors
and he does have a proven record of corruption, and very corrupt
relatives whose corruption he’s facilitated.
There are also neocons and
#NeverTrumpers ready to pile on to the gravy train. Bill Kristol has talked
up Biden on his
website The Bulwark as the candidate for “normal
Americans, who don’t care to choose between Donald Trump and Bernie
Sanders." From Bill’s standpoint, Joe is “the simple answer” for those who
wish to avoid extremism. According to this endorsement: “if you’re inclined
toward American constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and a free economic
order -- as well as a liberal world order anchored by the United States -- it’s
Joe Biden. And if you’re not, then it’s Bernie Sanders.” Allow me to
place the emphasis here exactly where Kristol and his anti-Trump friends would
want it to go, namely on “a liberal world order anchored by the United States.”
That signifies continuing confrontation with those countries that Bill and his
friends don’t like; and this happy dream might become reality under President
Biden, who would be aided in his protection of our democracy by neocon
advisers.
We have not yet reached,
however, the ultimate beneficiary of a Biden presidency, the person whom he
chooses to be his running mate. Since “I’m an old
guy,” as
Joe recently admitted, he will need a “vice-president capable of being
president.” In December he
mentioned as possible picks certain left-leaning women, including the “woman who
should have been governor of Georgia, Stacey Abrams.” Assuming Joe wins in
November but his mental acuity continues to decline, a
leftist woman possibly of color may be our next de facto president.
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