There’s an oft repeated trope in the left wing blogosphere that, to the right, conservatism can never fail, it can only be failed. I’d like to suggest a sort of corollary.
In the past few days a number of right wing loonies have attacked Trump’s cave on his wall. Ann Coulter is, yet again, one of them, but there are others. Unfortunately, I’m too lazy to search for a blog post I read recently that catalogued a number of them, but take my word, there are lots more.
One of the things seldom mentioned about the right, but which is nonetheless obviously true, is that it is far more comfortable in opposition. This is particularly true of the Limbaughs, Coulters, etc. They can stir up all kinds of grievances without any responsibility on their part or on the part of the politicians they foster to actually do anything about the causes they exploit, because, particularly in economic matters, they usually make things worse for the people upon whom they depend for financial support; that is, the idiots who imbibe their information from right wing radio and Fox. Even when they controlled all three branches of government, they still took every opportunity to bemoan their subjugation by the libs. Sure, it helps them in the short term if the right can control things long enough to give them a tax cut, but after that, right wing book sales and radio audiences, like gun sales, go up when Democrats are in control. So, they are not averse to being in the political wilderness. The money is good when the Democrats are in control.
It is also the case that right wing politicians, once they’ve outlived their usefulness, become non-persons or transmogrify. W, for instance, once the darling of the conservative movement, is now practically a non-person, and certainly not a true conservative.
So, it may very well be that in the coming months we will see the movement move beyond Trump. Most of the country understands that he’s a con-man. But the last people to admit that someone is a con-man are those who have been successfully conned. However, being conspiracy addicts, they are more than willing to admit that they’ve been betrayed, and that, I think, is the line Coulter and her ilk are pushing. It amounts to the same thing, when you think about it, but putting it that way puts the blame on Trump, and absolves the herd of any responsibility for their susceptibility to his snake oil. Once again they can claim that conservatism has not failed, but has been failed.
Update: Something along the same lines here.
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