Matt Lewis and The Top-Down, Corporate Hierarchy View of Conservatism

He's calling on Rush Limbaugh to "sack up" and tell his listeners that Trump is bad.

I myself am a little exasperated at Limbaugh's running defense of Trump -- no, he's not endorsing Trump (as Lewis points out). But he is always talking about how the Establishment and Media (and Establishment Media) is running Trump down, demanding others denounce him, and how Trump is refusing to be the "perpetrator" in the media You Said a Dirty War speechcrime narrative -- which elevates Trump into a folk hero, frankly.

To be honest, all of these points are fair -- and Trump is a folk hero for telling the media (and the establishment) to blow him. I don't really like Trump, but I can't pretend I don't like that part of Trump. (Or the part where he agitates against illegal immigration -- and I'm starting to have my doubts about of the legal kind, too, to be honest with you. I'm tired of the Democrat Party importing a million new Democrats every year.)

My problem with Lewis' piece is that he continues -- as so many corporate/establishment conservatives do -- to assume that the conservatives they don't like are just stupid Followers of Entertainment Wing demagogues, and if those demagogues could just be persuaded to change their tunes, the stupid Followers would finally Do the Right Thing (which continues to be Following, but this time they'd be Following the correct orders, these orders approved by Corporate/Establishment Central).

Eh, I'm not going to populist demagogue this and claim that there's no Follower thing going on, and that every talk radio listener has a one-hundred percent Sovereign Mind which is totally Independent of Everything except his own Reason and the Sentiments of Morality imbued in him by Holy God.

Still, this whole idea that the Out Group -- the Other -- is just a band of fucking idiots who get off on Hate and Talk Radio and do whatever the disembodied voices on the Talking Box tell him to do is part of the problem.

There is no true, legitimate hierarchy in the conservative movement -- though all the little assclowns who have blundered into positions of authority or persuasion like insisting that there is.

The conception here of followers following politico-corporate leadership is far too close, for my liking, to the Washington Post's notorious description of the conservative movement: "poor, uneducated, and easily led."

I will continue to say this: If the Establishment wants to end the Trump Rebellion, then they should talk a lot less -- stop issuing orders, stop putting out plans as to How to Make the Crazies Understand Reason -- and start listening for once in their fucking lives.

There is a reason people are supporting Trump, and there is a reason pro-GOP people like Levin and Limbaugh and Coulter refuse to take orders from Corporate/Establishment Central and kneecap him.

If the Establishment wants to keep pretending, despite their manifold failures (both of the unplanned and deliberate Failure Theater varieties), that they have all the answers, they can keep whistling past the GOP's coming grave.

A third party is coming unless there is an actual dialogue and actual new consensus reached between the wings.

The Establishment has deployed its various insults -- "crazies," "hobbits," "wacko birds," etc., for years, to no discernible persuasive effect. In fact, it's resulted in a great deal of alienation and anger.

Hey, I thought these Establishment Types were supposed to be the Super-Experts on How to Be Smart at Politics and Win All the Things?

How come they can't go five minutes without stepping on their own dicks?

At what point do they begin to even consider the possibility that 25% of the party (and rising!) might have something useful to contribute to the discussion?

posted by Ace at 02:15 PM

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