The Running With Scissors Party

A good conservatism is a boring conservatism. That’s not what we have right now.

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Dear Reader (Including those of you who got in early on the dogecoin craze),

Why aren’t Jews a lot richer?

That’s what I would wonder if I were one of these people convinced that the Joooooooz run everything.

A couple years ago we had this headline in the Washington Post:

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  1. Avatar photo
    Jason Gibson

    Jonah I agree completely with your comment about pets and also about the cat that you don’t like. I just had to have a cat that I didn’t like put down. And I didn’t like the cat because she wouldn’t let you pick her up she would follow me around and lay next to me whenever I was working. And I woke up one morning to the same thing her back legs weren’t working and I knew that was going to be it. Saying goodbye was very sad and there was a grieving process. And I think that’s what grief is supposed to be it’s the recognition of the hole where someone is supposed to be and isn’t there anymore. Whether it’s a human or an animal. I think every being in our life brings something to the table even if they annoy us.....They are still part of the family and deserve to be missed and remembered

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  2. Avatar photo
    RR

    Just listened to NR’s Great Books podcast of Richard II and was struck by the uncanny resemblance to the recently departed Dear Leader.

    In the first half of the play it’s his cluelessness on governing, coupled with his incongruous certainty in his own divine right to rule.

    In the second half it’s mostly his self pity and feelings of being wronged rather than the occasional glimpses of introspection.

    “Oh that we were as great as is our grief, or lesser than our name.”

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  3. Joe1776

    "Against this backdrop, the GOP could be the party of, “I don’t get it.” Or even, “Are you frick’n kidding me!?” But it’s hard to position yourself in that way when you’re high on Newsmax TV’s green room farts."


    Fox decided they would join cave to the left censorship. They even censored the president's spokes person Kayleigh McEnany who was saying something we all know is obviously true. Namely that democrats fight every measure that might reduce fraud in elections. You don't have to agree with the measures, but to claim this view is so horrible you are going to censor it and immediately claim it is false that is too much. Fox has been doing other things that suggest they are happy with excessive censorship of conservative views. (Wallace obviously taking sides against the president in the first debate was another example) And newsmax took advantage.

    https://www.pacificpundit.com/2020/11/12/newsmax-ratings-up-20x-since-fox-news-came-out-of-the-closet/

    Fox dropping the ball is more of the story than newsmax itself. It is good if Fox is no longer the one and only conservative/republican media. Republican media is always lumped together by the left. Maybe you and others at the dispatch might offer some guidance on what republican media you think is reliable. By republican media I mean media where the people there likely voted for the republican president. I think that would be interesting.

    Republican media like the federalist, Daily Wire, and NR would have much stronger followings if they weren't constantly attacked as if Ben Shapiro is the same as Alex Jones. But that is what you get.

    The dynamics are changing. Bari Weiss talked about some opportunities that might be available on Megyn Kelly's podcast.
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bari-weiss-on-state-media-cancel-culture-anti-semitism/id1532976305?i=1000506170962

    But first some people who are resistant to new ideas need to understand that legacy media is not unbiased like they claim. Far too many people still believe entities like CNN and the NYT is not biased.


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    1. Joe1776

      I would add that although I think conservatives can take different approaches from "I don't get it" to “Are you frick’n kidding me!?” but I wouldn't expect them to literally be marching for an openly Marxist organization like BLM.

      Their compulsion to literally take to the streets for an openly Marxist organization which has repeatedly expressed obvious nonsense makes me think, maybe this person is not in office in order to advance conservative principles or views.

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  4. DiDi M.

    I am very sorry to hear about your cat. We had to say goodbye to a beloved dog before Thanksgiving last year. We rescued her and had her for almost 16 years. They sure do leave their paw prints on your heart.

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  5. Avatar photo
    Hanna Reinhart

    Don’t you insult Bubo!! Clash of the Titans was great! (The new one, not so much.)

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    Wayner

    "Similarly, the boring way to improve society—through government at least—is to study the facts carefully, hear a bunch of different experts debate the options, costs, and proposed benefits, and then launch a limited, reasonable reform, perhaps in a specific location, and then see how it works out before continuing."

    If this perspective is conservative, then I'm registered with the wrong party. The thing is, I'm not.

    Jonah's musings hardly reflect the Republican approach over the last 15 years. The party became so unyieldingly neo-libertarian on economic policy (thanks to Grover Norquist).

    I'm a Democrat because I've been open to ideas like universal healthcare, even if I don't think we've identified and vetted the winning approach. Different advanced countries successfully employ different models. But the point is that I'm *open* to pursuing the idea, even in small steps that seek to build on success as the chief criteria for broader implementation. My sense is that today's Republican party reflexively rejects any initiative that arises from concerns among the Democratic portion of the electorate.

    Like climate change, most priorities that gain traction on the Democratic side are derided as a "hoax!", or else their collectivist motives are impugned as if we are all living in an Ayn Rand novel, but with God calling the shots.

    A pro-active Republican party, sensitive to the concerns of society, and committed to responding with sensible governance, would clean up at the polls. But it's a pure fantasy at this point. And the Dems are far more malleable to this end.

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  7. Avatar photo
    Megan Taylor

    My husband didn't want a cat. He has three cat-loving daughters, so we got a cat. The cat spent two years laying on the back of my husband's office chair, fluffing her tail in his face and grooming his hair, and ever since she died suddenly last Christmas, my husband can't speak of her without choking up. He still keeps several pictures of his kitty buddy on his desk. Those little creatures bring us so much joy. So sorry to hear about Ralph.

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  8. Brett

    Jonah this is a really good example of an article that demonstrates why it's good that you exist right now. You fit this Trump and post-Trump time and moment in a way that, say, Rich Lowry, while I like him, just was never going to do. You may like boring conservatism but you're not a boring conservative.

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    C C Writer

    Substack needs to fix a glitch: The tendency for certain portions of a thread to duplicate on the page. It makes it more difficult to read the whole thing. You just keep encountering the same comments over and over.

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  10. Brad

    Ralph was a handsome and good dude, so sorry for his passing . Cherished times with fellow soul is creatures.

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