Last summer, the first annual National Conservatism Conference (NCC) was held in Washington, DC, a gathering dedicated to destroying traditional conservatism because, in the eyes of organizers, it has outlived it usefulness economically and culturally.
It was at this conference that FOX News host Tucker Carlson — who loves Elizabeth Warren’s “Economic Patriotism” platform because it sounds like “Donald Trump at his best” — declared in a keynote speech, “The main threat to your ability to live your life as you choose does not come from government anymore. It comes from the private sector.”
Another keynote speaker at the conference was Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a rising star in faux-conservative circles. Hawley used his time on stage to attack the “powerful upper class,” and he called for “a new consensus” to address the economic “discontent of our time.”
I took you on this little trip down memory lane to remind you that Nationalists like Hawley aren’t conservative; they’re socialist.
In the case of the junior senator from Missouri, Hawley first showed his dedication to socialism in April 2019 when he co-sponsored a bill imposing price controls on prescription drugs — a bill so socialist in application it was described as legislation that could have come from the desk of Bernie Sanders.
So, it should come as no surprise that Hawley proposed a plan yesterday that could have come from the desk of Elizabeth Warren because it contains many of the ideas she advocates.
Hawley is calling for an “overhaul” of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that will strip the agency of its independence and relocate it to the Department of Justice. Specifically, he wants to create a single director within the DOJ who will go after the so-called “rampant abuses” of Big Tech:
“The FTC isn’t working. It wastes time in turf wars with the DOJ, nobody is accountable for decisions, and it lacks the ‘teeth’ to get after Big Tech’s rampant abuses. Congress needs to do something about it. I’m proposing to overhaul the FTC to make it more accountable and efficient while strengthening its enforcement authority. This is about bringing the FTC into the 21st century.”
Hawley’s overhaul gives the DOJ “all authority” to go after Big Tech. But don’t worry, his proposal stipulates that the director will “be accountable to Congress,” so…
While it can be argued that the FTC might be in need of a revamp, Hawley’s big government approach to this and many other issues is the realization of every socialist’s dream — dismantling the free market and giving government full control of our choices.
This Orwellian outcome to Hawley’s plan is the primary reason it is opposed by NetChoice, a trade association representing Facebook, Google, and Twitter. “Sen. Hawley’s proposals would place the entirety of FTC authority under the control of a single director, giving that person the sole power to dictate the future of American business,” vice president Carl Szabo said in a statement. (emphasis mine)
Nationalism is being called the “new conservatism” but it’s really old socialism. It’s big government and it destroys liberty.
“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
By the way, as a self-proclaimed nationalist, Donald Trump loves big government socialism just as much as Sanders and Warren.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative.
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