Despite the bend-over-backwards effort by certain members of the faux-conservative media to dismiss Tuesday’s election results as having nothing to do with Trump (*cough* Laura Ingraham *cough*), it’s an indisputable fact that the anti-Trump/GOP momentum that began in the 2017 midterm and special elections continues to move in the Democrats’ direction.
You’d think the 2018 Blue Tsunami that gave Democrats the biggest House gains since the “Watergate Year” of 1974 would have been a wakeup call for the reposing Republicans, but it didn’t. Instead, the cowards and opportunists that make up today’s GOP made a Faustian Bargain with Trump, a self-proclaimed nationalist, and sold its conservative soul in exchange for his counterfeit version of conservatism.
Under the banner of nationalism, conservatism has become a place where socialist-leaning, liberty-killing, big government ideology has been given what I’ve come to call a “conservative socialism” makeover. This bastardized version of conservatism has resulted in a slew of “conservative” versions of such Far-Left programs as paid family leave, the Green New Deal, and government-run healthcare.
“National conservatism” is just collectivism rebranded for the right. It’s a form of socialism built upon fear of the new and different. https://t.co/cJR6S5L0yt
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) July 19, 2019
One of the biggest deceptions found in Trump’s nationalist makeover of conservatism is that big government is no longer a threat to liberty. Instead, our biggest threat comes from the private sector as FOX News host Tucker Carlson — a big fan of Elizabeth Warren’s “Economic Patriotism” platform because it reminds him of “Donald Trump at his best” — stated at the National Conservative Conference (NCC) this past summer.
In a keynote speech at the NCC that sounded like something you might hear at an Elizabeth Warren fundraiser, darling of this new brand of conservatism Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) also attacked the private sector and called for “a new consensus” to address the “discontent of our time.”
One well-known member of this new breed of conservative socialists is Sen. Marco Rubio. In a Tuesday speech at Busch School of Business at Catholic University, the Florida Senator shared his lament over the decay of America’s social fabric and care for one another. Rubio argued that the free market alone will not solve America’s problems, saying “Economic growth and record profits alone will not lead to dignified work,” and he called on government to address areas where “market principles and . . . national interests are not aligned.”
Rubio also pushed for new child tax credits and paid family leave — programs he and Ivanka Trump have been working on since 2018 — because the market should only exist “to serve the interests of the country.”
The faux-conservative, pro-Trump media will continue blaming everyone but Trump for America’s rapid move to the left since 2016, but Trump’s rebranded conservatism and the GOP’s embrace of it are exactly the reason why it’s been happening. And nothing short of revival along with a return to the Constitution and conservative values will stop it.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative.
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