‘Sometimes-Trump’ cowards are responsible for the death of conservatism
In an ironic bit of timing, Ron DeSantis’ decision to suspend his campaign and endorse Trump for 2024 has given this reposted piece new relevance. As you know, I’ve been highlighting the most popular articles of 2023 and reposting the top article from each month (based on traffic). However, the most-read article in June was a piece dealing with the Fellowship of the Pharisees, and since they were the topic in May, I decided to go with June’s second most popular article: “Sometimes Trump” cowards are responsible for the death of conservatism*.
At the risk of being accused of being a chronic sufferer of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), it’s an undeniable fact that Donald Trump has destroyed the Republican Party and conservatism, but it’s also true that most of his success comes courtesy of the “Sometimes-Trump” cowards we find in Washington and the faux-conservative media.
Even though Donald Trump’s 2024 prospects grow dimmer as he trudges his way toward through the legal system fighting an endless cycle of lawsuits and criminal charges, I continue to be amazed at the depths of sycophancy displayed by his faction of followers. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t receive a nasty comment or email from a Trump loyalist because I have been and always will be a conservative who remains Never-Trump and Never-GOP.
Perhaps the craziest and laziest accusation leveled against me by Trump’s dwindling number of devotees is that I’m a liberal, a conclusion they come to because they buy into the lie that Trumpism and nationalism are conservative. And since Trump supporters live in the binary world owned and operated by Republicans or Democrats, they conclude that being Never-Trump and opposing the Republican Party makes me a supporter of the Democrat Party and thus, a liberal.
Binary attitudes like those held by Trumpists are largely responsible for the damage done to conservatism since 2016, but they have received a lot of help over the years.
For example, in the summer of 2016 the Republican National Committee hijacked the Republican Convention to ensure Trump’s nomination. Steamrolling conservatives who were opposed to Trump’s nomination at the time solidified the Republican Party’s standing as an enemy to conservative values, and selecting Trump as the Republican standard bearer meant the destruction of the conservative movement was assured.
This came as no surprise because the post-Ronald Reagan GOP had been working on getting rid of conservatives ever since The Gipper turned over the reins to George H.W. Bush and rode off into the California sunset.
For example, Republicans changed the rules in 2012 to ensure conservatives were weeded out of presidential primaries, and conservatives were further disenfranchised in the 2014 midterm election when Mitch McConnell openly pledged to “crush” them during his re-election that year.
Since the 2016 election, Trump, the Republican Party, and so-called conservatives have proven that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between them and the Democrats. Fundraising groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund sold out to Trump, and the so-called conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus sold out first to Trump, and then to the powerbrokers of the Republican establishment.
There are others responsible for death of conservatism: such as the Fellowship of the Pharisees and the army of cheap grace evangelical followers who have peddled and continue to peddle the lie that Donald Trump is “God’s man.” The faux-conservative media has played a part in creating and promoting faux conservatives — such as the self-proclaimed expert on politics, Steve Deace — and we’ve watched as the pro-Trump echo chamber at BlazeTV willingly abandoned their principles for a seat at Trump’s table.
In hindsight, we know conservatism has suffered a great deal of damage at the hands of Donald Trump, the Republican Party, the Fellowship of the Pharisees, and the faux-conservative media. However, the greatest damage, at least since 2016, has come from the capitulating cowards hiding under the “Sometimes-Trump” banner.
Sometimes-Trump “conservatives” are practitioners of what I’ve come to call conservative relativism, where Trump’s behavior is measured using a Good Trump/Bad Trump barometer. While it remains quite popular for them to stand on their soapboxes condemning “Never-Trump” conservatives as “orange man bad” liberals and “Always-Trump” faux-conservatives as cultists, it’s the political bipolarism of the Sometimes-Trump crowd who are responsible for the complete and total destruction of the last vestiges of conservatism.
Sometimes-Trump conservatives have adopted the binary lie that it’s okay to do a little evil in exchange for a greater good; to vote the lesser of two evils. Or to paraphrase their position, “Vote Trump and the GOP because Democrats are worse.”
Every day conservatives invest their energy in the Republican Party is a wasted day.
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) June 29, 2020
As we approach the 2024 election, Sometimes-Trump cowards continue searching for ways to rationalize their vote for Donald Trump in 2016, despite every fear expressed about the New York liberal being fully realized. Using the same double-speak and lies used by Trump himself, these cult-like followers continue to heap unconditional praise on him as the answer to America’s ills while condemning those who remain Never-Trump.
Supporting Trump and the Republican Party, even sometimes, is a waste of time and energy.
So, as lukewarm Sometimes-Trump cowards continue to point their hypocritical fingers at the Never-Trump and Always-Trump crowds as the reason for today’s political divide and the destruction of conservatism, remember that it’s the unenthusiastic, noncommittal, indifferent, half-hearted, apathetic, uninterested, unconcerned, lackadaisical, passionless, laid back, couldn’t-care-less conservative imposters hiding in the political middle who are really responsible.
*The link to the original article can be found here.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
Follow the Strident Conservative on Twitter and Facebook.
Subscribe to receive podcasts of his daily radio feature: iTunes | Stitcher | Tune In | iHeart | RSS
For media inquiries or to have David speak to your group, use the Contact Us form.
