Long Weekend

Two rough days for traditional conservatives.

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Donald Trump applauds after speaking at the Turning Point Action USA conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, on July 15, 2023. (Photo by Giorgio Viera/AFP/Getty Images)

Conspiratorial thinking travels many paths but always arrives at the same destination. Last week Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long journey into madness reached its inevitable conclusion.

There’s something poignant about watching a man finally achieve his full potential. 

The news of RFK’s pensées about whether Ashkenazi Jews might have been “deliberately” spared the worst effects of COVID broke shortly before 8 a.m. ET on Saturday morning. In hindsight it was an omen that Dispatch writers and readers should unplug the ol’ laptop for the weekend and “embrace mindfulness” instead.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    I’m starting to think that deep down you’re a closet optimist: you really think there’s a good chance DeSantis falters, Trump collapses, and a traditional Republican is the next president of the United States. Then you’ll celebrate being proven wrong. You may not even want to admit to yourself but you’re really hoping that’s what will happen.

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  2. Dougrhon

    I wonder how the widow of my 52 year old Askenazic Jewish friend Irwin feels about Kennedy's theory that Jews are immmune from Covid.

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  3. Wsampson

    It’s fun to watch people who tied their identity to being a conservative realize just what that is. You are all better than that

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    1. GenZConservative

      Except Trump is not a conservative in any way other than being an antonym to "Democrat." He's a populist.

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  4. Hikingguy

    I just caught Ramaswamy on Mediaite, telling the country that Jan 6 was a "friendly reminder".
    He's a goddam fascist.
    Just like Trump.
    The Republican Party is worth less than a bucket of warm piss these days. Somebody kick the stinking thing over.

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  5. Goatprairie

    Catoggio is basically right about everything he says in this column.
    Basically, the GOP is in a very bad way.
    It wouldn't be quite so bad if the majority of elected Rep. officials officially said no to Trump and Trumpism, but they're mostly spineless weasels who only think about their phony-baloney careers.
    Case in point, Vance who at one time said the proper things about the scalawag Trump, but now fully embraces the orange faced skunk attempting to ignore the awful smell emanating from The Donald.
    There are virtually no so-called conservative talk show hosts who are willing to tell the truth about Trump. They, like the Rep. elected officials, only think about their careers too.
    Both Glenn Beck and Mark Levin told the truth about Trump when he first announced his candidacy back in 2015. They took it all back when they saw their ratings take a dive.
    Maybe it's time for a new conservative party.

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    1. J. Everett Schubert

      Ben Shapiro, too. Granted, he's not particularly pro-Trump, but he is anti-anti-Trump. He goes to great pains to avoid criticizing his moral fitness for office. Again, can't offend the listeners.

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      1. Goatprairie

        That's just it. None of them want to come right out and say that Trump is completely unfit for public office. Or to associate in public period with decent people.

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    2. Avatar photo
      Vlad.Nicolaescu

      I think you'd have a better shot of making a new conservative wing to the Democratic Party than starting a whole new party. Time to become a Liberal Conservative (Lib-Con).

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      1. Goatprairie

        I used to be a liberal Democrat when I was young. Then I was a conservative Democrat in my thirties. Then I became a Republican during the Bill Clinton admin.
        The unfortunate thing is that the Dem Party is probably too far gone around the left bend. Both parties are in a very bad way.

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      2. Ready for the Meteor

        It seems to me that there is no more room in the Democratic Party for even a modicum of conservatism these days, as Manchin and Sinema found, than there is for principles in the GOP.

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          Ms. SSM

          Manchin is moderate. Sinema is a mystery of self interest. I wouldn’t lump them together.

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          1. Ready for the Meteor

            Perhaps the reality is more nuanced, but from afar it looked like the two of them balked at some progressive excesses and were torched by their own party in response.

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          Angie

          Well, maybe not in all the politicians, but, everyone I know that is a liberal is a moderate, not a progressive, they really are not that big a group in other than urban cities

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          1. Ready for the Meteor

            Hi Angie - I'm sure you're right, but like the GOP, the party is ruled by its crazies, not by its center of mass. But the only time even a moderate democrat would be my choice is if the alternative is a populist moron, so Vlad's idea that conservatives should just join the Dems seems a bit odd to me.

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        3. Avatar photo
          Vlad.Nicolaescu

          Sinema's problem is she doesn't play nice with others not that she's too conservative. Manchin's problem is he is the senator from a Trump +40 state, there aren't enough Democrats that love or hate him to mean much in West Virginia. But the Democrats did renominate him in the last election they probably will do so again assuming he doesn't retire or try switching parties...

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          1. Ready for the Meteor

            Still, there are lots of jerks on both sides of the aisle that don't end up being harassed in the bathroom. Neither party tolerates dissent in congress anymore.

            In any event, the Democrats have moved quite a bit to the illiberal left in recent years; the idea that classical-liberal conservatives could find any common ground there just seems like wish-casting to me. Much more likely, I think, is that a populist figure rises of the left and draws some of Trump's supporters back to the Dems, making room again for conservatism in the GOP. But that's not likely as long as Trump is around and dominating the news.

            I certainly don't expect to vote for either party's nominee in a presidential election in my lifetime.

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  6. Avatar photo
    BillAZ

    "... even a pessimist can take only so much. But if our task here is to see politics as it is, what option is there but despair?"

    Cottagio has a point. I'd recommend The Dark Mountain Manifesto if only for mood-lighting.

    Just some errant thoughts;

    It seems a major hurdle to convince some on the forum that there is no coherent "Republican Party" anymore. They are still desperately digging through the ashes for something to retrieve. They cling to a kind of quaint, establishmentarian idea that a vote for Republicans might be an improvement to Democratic incumbency; as if Trump or Trump voters don't have a say. As someone noted, "some ways of failing are better than others" and I'd argue Democrats are probably preferable in the failure department; certainly preferable given the choices we are seeing on the Right.

    What puzzles me is what a return to "normie" Republican politics involves? If it's the standard Conservative/Libertarian hand-wave to "classical' or "neo-classical liberalism" and high principals then that seems to have been a failure because it misconstrues what the electorate wants as opposed to what they think they want or what they wanted and what they got. Damon Linker wrote a neat little piece that seems to address this;

    "I think principles are overrated. They’re aspirations. General statements of ideals. Those are good things. But politics isn’t usually about issuing pious declarations, however noble. It’s about looking at the world and its problems and responding to them with intelligence, which often means with pragmatic flexibility. It’s about exercising judgment—about which problems are most pressing, about which can be solved or at least alleviated, and about how best to go about doing so.

    The collapse in support for the center-right and consequent surge of support for right-wing populists like Donald Trump since 2016 is far more a reaction to poor judgment... than it is about a failure to uphold principles that now need to be reaffirmed. In fact, believing that principles are what matter most of all may have contributed in a significant way to the bad judgment calls that brought us to this point."

    https://damonlinker.substack.com/p/the-retreat-to-principles

    I take it to mean that what falls under the calls for "limited government", "federalism", "economic freedom", etc and their consequences can encompass a host of really poorly thought out or impractical policies that harm the very people they are trying to appeal to and these became the people who are now voting for the Trumps and DeSantis'. The multi-decade project of turning the Republican Party into a host for Conservatism, Inc succeeded like a runaway train, then de-railed. Sincere question, why would a return to that kind of "normie" Republican politics fare any differently?

    This tenacious hope that Republican voters will deliver anything approaching "normie" politics at this point is kind of weird daydream given that we're all on this forum because so many Republicans now regard themselves as homeless or to use the PC term "unhoused", this "remnant". That latter sounds like people who just lost their pants after a wild party which, if you think about it, seems an apt term for our suffering Republican colleagues. It has been one wild Party.

    When it comes to seasons Hope, like April, is the cruelest month.

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      BaltoJohn

      "digging through the ashes"? Or something else, in the belief "there must be a pony in here somewhere".

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  7. David Schmidt

    Just yesterday in the WaPo, I read George Will's argument that the GOP is unlikely to nominate EITHER Trump or DeSantis. I don't know what to believe anymore.....the conventional or unconventional wisdom. One thing I do know......this GOP is unrecognizable to a Reagan conservative like myself. Time for more golf.

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    Mmaughan0

    What can you call it besides a cult? When behavior that would hurt anyone else does not hurt Trump at all among the same electorate, there is no other explanation.

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    Lorraine Hudock

    This line needs the context to be appreciated, but it was hysterical: "There’s something poignant about watching a man finally achieve his full potential."

    Unfortunately, the essay makes all too serious & absolutely true points. I managed to stay optimistic through the reign of Trump I, deluding myself that it was some kind of weird political detour. I left the Republican party assuming I'd return when sanity returned. Can't delude myself any longer; I've joined Nick's pessimists.

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  10. BizChuck

    Meanwhile, within the last hour, Trump has posted on Truth Social that he has received a "target letter" from the January 6 Grand Jury.

    Trump claims he will be indicted and arrested in the coming days.

    Should be good for another 5% in the primary polls. Lord, please help us.

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      Vlad.Nicolaescu

      Well it should be especially sad to see Mike Pence be outraged they are prosecuting the guy who sought to have him lynched.

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