Conservatives selling out to Trumpism is becoming so commonplace I am sometimes hesitant to bring it up. After a while, I fear my readers and listeners will simply tune me out for sounding like I have nothing new to contribute to the fight against the apathy and indifference in Washington concerning the terminal condition of liberty.
This fear has become more acute in the Age of Trump, where faux conservatives in Congress (House Freedom Caucus) and the media (BlazeTV) have embraced Trumpservatism as the new standard for the conservative movement.
Outside groups once considered reliable allies in the war against the establishment have also fallen in the Age of Trump. We need look no further than the TEA Party Patriots’ political adultery with Trump and the hostile takeover Trump engineered of the Heritage Foundation resulting in the termination of Jim DeMint, who before becoming CEO of Heritage founded the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF).
Speaking of the Senate Conservatives Fund, they are the latest ally to completely abandon conservatism for Trumpism.
Back in March, I wrote an article about how SCF President Ken Cuccinelli had abandoned the organization’s stated goal of “limited government” in support of Trump’s record deficit spending. According to Cuccinelli, Trump’s budget proposals would “balance the budget in 15 years” and stop “the Democrats and their socialist agenda.”
The motivation behind Cuccinelli’s Trump praise fest became crystal clear this past weekend when he announced he would be leaving SCF to accept a position in the Trump administration to “help advance our nation’s immigration policies.”
David:
As a valued supporter of the Senate Conservatives Fund, I wanted you to be one of the first to know that President Donald Trump has asked me to serve in his Administration to help advance our nation’s immigration policies.
This opportunity is a tremendous honor, and I’m eager to do everything that I can to help secure our nation from the many threats we face. President Trump has shown incredible leadership in this area, and I’m proud to join him in the ongoing effort to secure our nation’s borders.
I will be stepping down from my position as SCF President to take on this new role, but I’m leaving it in the hands of our outstanding team led by Mary Vought, our Executive Director.
Mary has been with SCF for many years, she’s a principled conservative, and she’s passionate about strengthening the United States Senate. I’m confident that Mary and the entire SCF team will continue and expand upon the progress we’ve made together.
Finally, I want to thank you for your generous support. You’ve done so much to promote conservative leadership in Washington, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to partner with you in this effort.
For Freedom,
Ken Cuccinelli II
President
Senate Conservatives Fund
@KenCuccinelli / @SCF
For the record, I stopped being a “supporter” of SCF in 2016 for obvious reasons.
Normally, an announcement like this would provide some hope that the organization might get back on track, but alas, it won’t. As the email above stated, Cuccinelli’s replacement will be Mary Vought, a woman who once worked for V.P. Mike Pence.
One final thought on Jim DeMint and his connection to Senate Conservatives Fund and Heritage Foundation. There was a time when it was easy to believe DeMint was a victim to forces beyond his control, but not any longer.
After leaving Heritage, DeMint became Chairman of Conservative Partnership Institute, a group allegedly dedicated to “supporting, training, and educating conservatives to better articulate and advance their principles in the nation’s capital.” How do he and CPI measure up to meeting that goal?
In March, DeMint penned an op-ed for the Washington Examiner endorsing Trump’s big-government spending addiction at the same time Cuccinelli had expressed his support. And just days before Cuccinelli announced he would be taking a job with Trump, Rachel Bovard, CPI’s senior director of policy and the former director of policy services for Heritage Foundation, wrote an article for American Greatness praising Trump’s immigration policies — the same policies Cuccinelli will now be working on.
While some people accuse me of repeatedly spewing the same ol’ rants, there’s simply too many bad players out there with the name “conservative” attached to their work for me to let up. The days are too short and the cost of doing nothing is too great for me to stay silent about these frauds and hypocrites.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable and promotes conservative principles over political parties.
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