theamericanconservative--2020-05-30--Embracing the Idea of Unregulated Fake News Everywhere

Recently a controversy arose over a CBS News shot of a supposed line for coronavirus testing that turned out to include staged medical staff posing posing as patients .
But this kind of misinformation didn ’ t begin with the advent of the Internet .
In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election there have been heightened calls for politicians to “ do something ” about online political misinformation .
But if we decide citizens are not capable of discerning fact from fiction , reading with healthy skepticism , and recognizing bias online , then we must also concede that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Appeals for content regulation have come both from powerful members of Congress and candidates for president .
Their implicit threat is : “ Do it before we make you do it.
” These calls to regulate constitutionally protected speech , even if that speech includes “ fake news , ” misleading memes , and “ deep fake ” videos , threaten the foundation of our society .
Yet such inevitable byproducts of free speech have been paternalistically dubbed “ dangerous misinformation ” and are said to justify government censorship .
But if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ particular worldview becomes verboten , there will be implications for all speech .
Putting aside blatant manipulation like the kind alleged at CBS News , every newspaper and television news program presents from a particular worldview .
The mere decisions over which stories , anecdotes , and sources to include and which to omit are themselves editorial acts .
And some amount of bias is unavoidable and perfectly acceptable .
Consumers of information know that everyone sees the world through their own lens—including journalists , politicians , and campaign staffers .
Just as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by bias , they also know that friends and family can be mistaken , that the guy yelling on the street corner doesn ’ t necessarily have his facts straight .
There ’ s a reason why the phrase “ I read it on the Internet , so it must be true ” is said sarcastically .
The same skepticism should be applied to calls for regulating advertising online .
The Washington Post calculated the total amount of money that Russian meddlers have spent on Facebook ads : approximately $ 85,000 between 2015 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state actor Russia Today spent $ 247,100 on Twitter ads in 2016 .
For reference , Trump ’ s reelection campaign raised $ 143 million in 2019 and Clinton ’ s joint fundraising committee brought in $ 530 million for her 2016 bid .
For all the fretting over Russian ads seeking to influence voters , the actual money spent was a nothing-borscht .
Less than 0.00008 ( eight one hundred thousandths ) percent of the political tweets during the 2016 campaign originated with Russian intelligence .
Besides , asserting that social media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ democracy in a society based on the free exchange of ideas is deeply flawed .
If such power does exist , then the result undermines democracy itself : an electorate that is too stupid and naive to be trusted to vote .
If people can not make good decisions in the presence of conflicting and imperfect information , then we should not have elections , period .
Fortunately , that isn ’ t the case .
The real danger of the various policy proposals to stamp out “ misinformation ” online is that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eliminating political dissent .
The real weaponization here is putting government in charge of what is and is not acceptable to say online , about an election or anything else within legal limits .
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis ’ words still hold true : “ If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies , to avert the evil by the processes of education , the remedy to be applied is more speech , not enforced silence.
” Clyde Wayne Crews , Jr. is vice president for policy at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Melugin is associate director of the Center for Technology and Innovation .

Recently a controversy arose over a CBS News shot of a supposed line for coronavirus testing that turned out to include staged medical staff posing posing as patients. But this kind of misinformation didn’t begin with the advent of the Internet.
In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election there have been heightened calls for politicians to “do something” about online political misinformation. But if we decide citizens are not capable of discerning fact from fiction, reading with healthy skepticism, and recognizing bias online, then we must also concede that they are fundamentally unfit for representative democracy.
Appeals for content regulation have come both from powerful members of Congress and candidates for president. Their implicit threat is: “Do it before we make you do it.” These calls to regulate constitutionally protected speech, even if that speech includes “fake news,” misleading memes, and “deep fake” videos, threaten the foundation of our society. Yet such inevitable byproducts of free speech have been paternalistically dubbed “dangerous misinformation” and are said to justify government censorship.
But if making statements that are shaped by a particular worldview becomes verboten, there will be implications for all speech. Putting aside blatant manipulation like the kind alleged at CBS News, every newspaper and television news program presents from a particular worldview. The mere decisions over which stories, anecdotes, and sources to include and which to omit are themselves editorial acts. And some amount of bias is unavoidable and perfectly acceptable. Consumers of information know that everyone sees the world through their own lens—including journalists, politicians, and campaign staffers.
Just as people understand that media coverage is informed by bias, they also know that friends and family can be mistaken, that the guy yelling on the street corner doesn’t necessarily have his facts straight. There’s a reason why the phrase “I read it on the Internet, so it must be true” is said sarcastically.
The same skepticism should be applied to calls for regulating advertising online. The Washington Post calculated the total amount of money that Russian meddlers have spent on Facebook ads: approximately $85,000 between 2015 and 2017. News outlets report that state actor Russia Today spent $247,100 on Twitter ads in 2016. For reference, Trump’s reelection campaign raised $143 million in 2019 and Clinton’s joint fundraising committee brought in $530 million for her 2016 bid. For all the fretting over Russian ads seeking to influence voters, the actual money spent was a nothing-borscht.
Less than 0.00008 (eight one hundred thousandths) percent of the political tweets during the 2016 campaign originated with Russian intelligence. Besides, asserting that social media content has the power to interfere with democracy in a society based on the free exchange of ideas is deeply flawed. If such power does exist, then the result undermines democracy itself: an electorate that is too stupid and naive to be trusted to vote. If people cannot make good decisions in the presence of conflicting and imperfect information, then we should not have elections, period. Fortunately, that isn’t the case.
The real danger of the various policy proposals to stamp out “misinformation” online is that they’re the first step towards eliminating political dissent. The real weaponization here is putting government in charge of what is and is not acceptable to say online, about an election or anything else within legal limits. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ words still hold true: “If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
Clyde Wayne Crews, Jr. is vice president for policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, where Jessica Melugin is associate director of the Center for Technology and Innovation.


theamericanconservative--2020-06-01--The ‘Nothing Matters’ Rioters

The ‘Nothing Matters’ Rioters

A protester walks past military police in riot gear as they block protesters across from the White House on May 30 , 2020 in Washington DC , during a protest over the death of George Floyd , an unarmed black man , who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes .
( Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images ) It was a funny thing over the weekend .
You could turn on CNN and find officials deploring the violence in Minneapolis .
You could hear rapper Killer Mike exhorting his fellow Atlantans “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own homes.
” You could listen to George Floyd ’ s girlfriend , who said that seeing Minneapolis in flames would have devastated her slain beau .
And then you could log on to Facebook and find people lionizing the riots as the next Boston Tea Party .
It ’ s hard to think of anything more privileged than social media armchairs excusing violence against our poorest and most vulnerable neighborhoods .
But so it goes in the Nothing Matters quarter of America .
This weekend saw the unrest that began in Minnesota @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , vandals smashed windows and attacked restaurants and hotels .
In Washington , D.C. , the White House was briefly locked down amid rowdy protests outside .
In Oakland , two federal officers were shot ; one died .
And in Minneapolis itself , the arson and looting continued , drawing out the largest National Guard mobilization in Minnesota history .
All this was done ostensibly to express fury over the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis policeman , as well as other episodes of brutality against African Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Louisville and the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia .
Yet there was something else at work too .
Officials estimated Saturday morning that only 20 percent of the rioters in Minneapolis were actually from Minnesota , and while that was later walked back , reporting confirms that the city has become a bug light for out-of-state anarchists and agitators .
Pittsburgh ’ s police chief , meanwhile , said protests there had been hijacked by “ white males ” dressed in black .
And in Rochester , where cars were flipped over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anarchists ” and “ paid protesters.
” The story here isn ’ t just that these cities are harming themselves , as is often portrayed .
It ’ s that they ’ re under attack by evil losers who want only to pillage and torch .
Minnesota officials say that among those arrested were militants linked to white supremacist groups .
Other rioters , many of them white , wear the black clothes and bandana masks associated with Antifa , the left-wing extremist front .
BuzzFeed reports that “ black activists and organizers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seemingly coming for the fight and mayhem , and not to support their expression of anger over the police killings of unarmed black people and their demand for it to end.
” The intent of these carpetbaggers isn ’ t justice but anarchy .
That dovetails neatly with a trend that ’ s been growing on social media : young men who view recent events , especially the election of Trump , as harbingers of chaos , which they welcome and seek to exploit to bring about the end of the existing order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , viewing it as too liberal or too racist or too fascist or too decadent .
Many of them see an eschatology at work whereby internal contradictions will collapse America on itself .
That will then create a void , in which their hallucinated Brigadoon of choice , a communist paradise or a white ethnostate , can be brought about .
So it was in the late 1960s , when Charles Manson and his followers tried to touch off helter skelter .
And so it is today , as Minneapolis-bound anarchists seek a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ war between law enforcement and the rest of the country after which a new America can rise from the ashes .
Whether placed by political taxonomy on the left or right , these people are essentially the same .
They don ’ t give a damn about George Floyd ; they certainly don ’ t have time for the kind of reforms that might deter future cop killings .
Even their ideological delusions are ultimately secondary .
What matters most is disorder , the rush of unleashing a brick , the thrill of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not be justice for George so long as his streets are filled with pathetic Joker LARPers acting out what they wish they ’ d done on the playground years ago .
Liberty and justice are dependent on civil society , the very thing these creeps are attacking .
Again , chaos is the point .
It ’ s why liquor stores are such a common target .
I ’ m not going to indulge these people by quoting the Joker ’ s most famous line .
So let ’ s turn instead to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There ’ s a scene where the protagonist Étienne is chatting with Souvarine , an anarchist militant—from Russia , naturally—who ’ s come to France to work in the mines .
Souvarine upbraids as “ cowards ” what he describes as “ these intellectuals of yours with all their talk of gradual change.
” Étienne then asks what exactly Souvarine wants .
His response : “ To destroy everything…No more nations , no more governments , no more property , no more God or religion.
” Eventually some new world order is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immediate goal is the void , sheer nothingness .
America ’ s Souvarines have now spilled into the streets , showing where the icy hand of internet nihilism ultimately beckons .
The risk now is that they ’ ll end up discrediting the grievances held by the peaceful demonstrators .
That ’ s what happened last year in France after the so-called yellow vest demonstrations broke out .
Intended initially as opposition to President Emmanuel Macron and his tax-heavy policies , they were quickly infiltrated by agitators and spiraled into smoke and tear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some concessions , though his overall economic agenda remained intact .
The yellow vests themselves moved on , many of them saying they couldn ’ t countenance violence .
In last year ’ s European Parliament elections , the movement ’ s candidates netted less than 1 percent of the vote .
Turn the streets into a war zone and eventually the chaos itself becomes the issue , eclipsing the original intent and drawing a backlash .
As Scott McConnell has written , “ It is a political rule of thumb that street @ @ @ @ @ @ @ benefit of the party that can put an end to it.
” Consider President Richard Nixon , who declared of criminals and rioters in 1970 , “ Let ’ s recognize them for what they are : not romantic revolutionaries but the same thugs and hoodlums that have always plagued a good people.
” Two years earlier , he ’ d been elected after promising to get tough on crime ; two years later , he was reelected in a landslide .
Now it ’ s Donald Trump taking a similar tack , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the shooting starts ” and chewing the caps lock on words like “ STRENGTH !
” The longer this goes on , the more attractive that kind of thing will sound .
The new mandate will be for law and order , which for George Floyd was a misnomer , police breaking the law and sowing disorder .
That ’ s why it ’ s so imperative that the black masks and the Boogaloos , the assholes and the arsonists , the communists and the racists and the anarchists and the insurrectionists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ throwing them .
Otherwise the urgent problem of police abuse will go unmet yet again , guaranteeing another Minneapolis .
This isn ’ t the Boston Tea Party .
Colonial Bostonians didn ’ t burn their city to the ground , then go to the redcoats and say , “ Ha ha !
QED , chumps !
” This country was founded on violent protest , yes , but in pursuit of rational principles and against enumerated injustices .
The snickering dweebs en route to St. Paul stand for precisely nothing .

It was a funny thing over the weekend. You could turn on CNN and find officials deploring the violence in Minneapolis. You could hear rapper Killer Mike exhorting his fellow Atlantans “to be better than burning down our own homes.” You could listen to George Floyd’s girlfriend, who said that seeing Minneapolis in flames would have devastated her slain beau.
And then you could log on to Facebook and find people lionizing the riots as the next Boston Tea Party.
It’s hard to think of anything more privileged than social media armchairs excusing violence against our poorest and most vulnerable neighborhoods. But so it goes in the Nothing Matters quarter of America. This weekend saw the unrest that began in Minnesota spread across the country. In Louisville, vandals smashed windows and attacked restaurants and hotels. In Washington, D.C., the White House was briefly locked down amid rowdy protests outside. In Oakland, two federal officers were shot; one died. And in Minneapolis itself, the arson and looting continued, drawing out the largest National Guard mobilization in Minnesota history.
All this was done ostensibly to express fury over the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis policeman, as well as other episodes of brutality against African Americans, the killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville and the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. Yet there was something else at work too. Officials estimated Saturday morning that only 20 percent of the rioters in Minneapolis were actually from Minnesota, and while that was later walked back, reporting confirms that the city has become a bug light for out-of-state anarchists and agitators. Pittsburgh’s police chief, meanwhile, said protests there had been hijacked by “white males” dressed in black. And in Rochester, where cars were flipped over and set ablaze, police blamed “anarchists” and “paid protesters.”
The story here isn’t just that these cities are harming themselves, as is often portrayed. It’s that they’re under attack by evil losers who want only to pillage and torch. Minnesota officials say that among those arrested were militants linked to white supremacist groups. Other rioters, many of them white, wear the black clothes and bandana masks associated with Antifa, the left-wing extremist front. BuzzFeed reports that “black activists and organizers” are “saying some people are seemingly coming for the fight and mayhem, and not to support their expression of anger over the police killings of unarmed black people and their demand for it to end.”
The intent of these carpetbaggers isn’t justice but anarchy. That dovetails neatly with a trend that’s been growing on social media: young men who view recent events, especially the election of Trump, as harbingers of chaos, which they welcome and seek to exploit to bring about the end of the existing order. They hate civic society as is, viewing it as too liberal or too racist or too fascist or too decadent. Many of them see an eschatology at work whereby internal contradictions will collapse America on itself. That will then create a void, in which their hallucinated Brigadoon of choice, a communist paradise or a white ethnostate, can be brought about. So it was in the late 1960s, when Charles Manson and his followers tried to touch off helter skelter. And so it is today, as Minneapolis-bound anarchists seek a so-called “boogaloo,” a civil war between law enforcement and the rest of the country after which a new America can rise from the ashes.
Whether placed by political taxonomy on the left or right, these people are essentially the same. They don’t give a damn about George Floyd; they certainly don’t have time for the kind of reforms that might deter future cop killings. Even their ideological delusions are ultimately secondary. What matters most is disorder, the rush of unleashing a brick, the thrill of transgressing against the normies. There cannot be justice for George so long as his streets are filled with pathetic Joker LARPers acting out what they wish they’d done on the playground years ago. Liberty and justice are dependent on civil society, the very thing these creeps are attacking. Again, chaos is the point. It’s why liquor stores are such a common target.
I’m not going to indulge these people by quoting the Joker’s most famous line. So let’s turn instead to Émile Zola and his best novel Germinal. There’s a scene where the protagonist Étienne is chatting with Souvarine, an anarchist militant—from Russia, naturally—who’s come to France to work in the mines. Souvarine upbraids as “cowards” what he describes as “these intellectuals of yours with all their talk of gradual change.” Étienne then asks what exactly Souvarine wants. His response: “To destroy everything…No more nations, no more governments, no more property, no more God or religion.” Eventually some new world order is supposed to arise. But the more immediate goal is the void, sheer nothingness.
America’s Souvarines have now spilled into the streets, showing where the icy hand of internet nihilism ultimately beckons. The risk now is that they’ll end up discrediting the grievances held by the peaceful demonstrators. That’s what happened last year in France after the so-called yellow vest demonstrations broke out. Intended initially as opposition to President Emmanuel Macron and his tax-heavy policies, they were quickly infiltrated by agitators and spiraled into smoke and tear gas. Afterwards, Macron did make some concessions, though his overall economic agenda remained intact. The yellow vests themselves moved on, many of them saying they couldn’t countenance violence. In last year’s European Parliament elections, the movement’s candidates netted less than 1 percent of the vote.
Turn the streets into a war zone and eventually the chaos itself becomes the issue, eclipsing the original intent and drawing a backlash. As Scott McConnell has written, “It is a political rule of thumb that street violence and disorder eventually redounds to the benefit of the party that can put an end to it.” Consider President Richard Nixon, who declared of criminals and rioters in 1970, “Let’s recognize them for what they are: not romantic revolutionaries but the same thugs and hoodlums that have always plagued a good people.” Two years earlier, he’d been elected after promising to get tough on crime; two years later, he was reelected in a landslide. Now it’s Donald Trump taking a similar tack, warning that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” and chewing the caps lock on words like “STRENGTH!”
The longer this goes on, the more attractive that kind of thing will sound. The new mandate will be for law and order, which for George Floyd was a misnomer, police breaking the law and sowing disorder. That’s why it’s so imperative that the black masks and the Boogaloos, the assholes and the arsonists, the communists and the racists and the anarchists and the insurrectionists, all hit the bricks instead of throwing them. Otherwise the urgent problem of police abuse will go unmet yet again, guaranteeing another Minneapolis. This isn’t the Boston Tea Party. Colonial Bostonians didn’t burn their city to the ground, then go to the redcoats and say, “Ha ha! QED, chumps!” This country was founded on violent protest, yes, but in pursuit of rational principles and against enumerated injustices. The snickering dweebs en route to St. Paul stand for precisely nothing.


theamericanconservative--2020-06-02--For Trumpism, Skeptical of Trump

For Trumpism, Skeptical of Trump

Anyone who grew up in the 1990s recognizes the essentially fake quality of our politics between then and the rise of Donald Trump .
Our elections were dreary exercises choosing between a Republican who would promise to spend less then actually spend more , and Democrats who would make noise about spending more then actually spend less , while both agreed with more or less permanently involving ourselves in the affairs of nations on the other side of the world .
Everybody with a 401k got wealthier , and it was easy to assume that America would continue rocking itself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ less indefinitely .
The people who thought President Obama broke from this pattern were , I think it has now been shown , mistaken .
President Trump did well with the people who were bearish about this state of affairs , and people who were optimistic about it hated him .
I am in the former category , and therefore have been optimistic about him since he was on the campaign trail .
I would like to see an end to foreign wars and a strengthening of the middle class , through a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to rise , and a restoration of American production through fiscal and trade policy , and no other politician in my lifetime has run on them as effectively as Donald Trump .
Trump ’ s character does not really bother me .
If Hillary Clinton were president now , friends of Jeffrey Epstein like Bill Gates and Larry Summers would be handling the epidemic , and her husband , the Lolita Express passenger , would be in the White House .
There ’ s every reason to think these people will be back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Most of the people who talk about how character counts never spoke out against the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents in the Middle East caused by American interventions , so one suspects they think words matter more than deeds .
There ’ s also a sense in which the conservative civility-heads , people like David French , Pete Wehner , Michael Gerson , and the rest , are basically kept men .
They value civility because they are the ones trotted out by left-wing institutions to present the illusion of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to bear any of the costs of a bipartisan consensus that destroyed the American middle class .
Their opposition is cheap .
From the beginning of his presidency there were warning signs that what he promised might not be in the cards , starting with the number of Never Trumpers who ended up joining his administration .
There are three excuses made for this , and only one is remotely convincing : it was said that he needed to reconcile with the party to be able to work with a Republican Congress ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the extent your White House remains functional , and these people were responsible for all kinds of leaks and sabotage ) ; to “ keep his enemies closer ” ( ditto ) ; and finally , because there wasn ’ t anyone else to hire that actually agreed with him .
That might actually be true , most people credentialed enough to be diplomats are not noninterventionists .
But there might be enough out there to fill the chairs occupied by John Bolton or Mike Pompeo , who both have extensive records @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There is also a sense in which the pro-Trump “ meme magic ” has become a smokescreen for smuggling GOP boilerplate into what was supposed to be a populist administration .
Exhibit A in this is Turning Point USA , whose founder Charlie Kirk , an old person ’ s idea of a young person , does not seem to understand what the 2016 election was all about .
He was forced to backpedal from his comments about stapling a green card to the diploma of every foreign student in the U.S @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as if he ’ s trying to defend the libertarian view but also make excuses for Trump , which I presume is what his donors want him to do , but if you ’ re looking for a defense of trade policy being set in the national interest , you ’ ll have to look elsewhere .
As he put it in a 2018 op-ed , “ A truly free market with China — and Europe — would be a huge accomplishment .
Is it surprising that “ protectionist ” Trump , always @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might be the one to get us there ?
” In addition , the way in which Trump ’ s most fervent defenders have also taken to trashing Jeff Sessions , his first congressional endorsement , without which the president probably wouldn ’ t be where he is , is as disgraceful as the president ’ s own treatment of him .
The cult of personality around Trump seems to have increased the more he gets away from his populist instincts .
For that reason , I hope Alabama ’ s voters send @ @ @ @ @ @ @ why we had him on the podcast last week .
Disregarding Trump ’ s endorsement of Sessions ’ opponent would send a strong signal that Trumpism is more about the message than the man , and might , to put hope before experience , make the White House reconsider some of its recent actions .
Three and a half years into his presidency , we have had a bare quarter of the wall built , saber-rattling against Iran , a carve-out for guest workers in coronavirus executive orders , and a corporate tax @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bad third Bush term , but it ’ s a long way from what some of his supporters hoped .
Both coronavirus and the recent civil unrest are an excellent populist opportunity , if Trump and his campaign have the foresight to lean into them .
Both crises will lead to the consolidation of wealth at the top and deepen inequality in America .
Small businesses can ’ t endure the quarantine closures while Jeff Bezos gets tens of billions of dollars richer .
Big chains like Target are more afraid of backlash @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stores being looted , while for small businesses the stakes are much higher .
Despite having been in power for three and a half years , Trump again has the opportunity to run against the oligarchs .
We ’ ll see if he seizes it .
The policies Trump ran on were popular .
If he loses in November it ’ s because he strayed from them , not because he discredited them .

Anyone who grew up in the 1990s recognizes the essentially fake quality of our politics between then and the rise of Donald Trump.
Our elections were dreary exercises choosing between a Republican who would promise to spend less then actually spend more, and Democrats who would make noise about spending more then actually spend less, while both agreed with more or less permanently involving ourselves in the affairs of nations on the other side of the world. Everybody with a 401k got wealthier, and it was easy to assume that America would continue rocking itself to sleep in this way more or less indefinitely. The people who thought President Obama broke from this pattern were, I think it has now been shown, mistaken.
President Trump did well with the people who were bearish about this state of affairs, and people who were optimistic about it hated him. I am in the former category, and therefore have been optimistic about him since he was on the campaign trail. I would like to see an end to foreign wars and a strengthening of the middle class, through a combination of immigration reduction to allow wages to rise, and a restoration of American production through fiscal and trade policy, and no other politician in my lifetime has run on them as effectively as Donald Trump.
Trump’s character does not really bother me. If Hillary Clinton were president now, friends of Jeffrey Epstein like Bill Gates and Larry Summers would be handling the epidemic, and her husband, the Lolita Express passenger, would be in the White House. There’s every reason to think these people will be back in the saddle if Biden is elected. Most of the people who talk about how character counts never spoke out against the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents in the Middle East caused by American interventions, so one suspects they think words matter more than deeds. There’s also a sense in which the conservative civility-heads, people like David French, Pete Wehner, Michael Gerson, and the rest, are basically kept men. They value civility because they are the ones trotted out by left-wing institutions to present the illusion of political choice, and do not have to bear any of the costs of a bipartisan consensus that destroyed the American middle class. Their opposition is cheap.
From the beginning of his presidency there were warning signs that what he promised might not be in the cards, starting with the number of Never Trumpers who ended up joining his administration. There are three excuses made for this, and only one is remotely convincing: it was said that he needed to reconcile with the party to be able to work with a Republican Congress (it only makes sense to do this to the extent your White House remains functional, and these people were responsible for all kinds of leaks and sabotage); to “keep his enemies closer” (ditto); and finally, because there wasn’t anyone else to hire that actually agreed with him. That might actually be true, most people credentialed enough to be diplomats are not noninterventionists. But there might be enough out there to fill the chairs occupied by John Bolton or Mike Pompeo, who both have extensive records supporting policies that Trump explicitly ran against.
There is also a sense in which the pro-Trump “meme magic” has become a smokescreen for smuggling GOP boilerplate into what was supposed to be a populist administration. Exhibit A in this is Turning Point USA, whose founder Charlie Kirk, an old person’s idea of a young person, does not seem to understand what the 2016 election was all about. He was forced to backpedal from his comments about stapling a green card to the diploma of every foreign student in the U.S. The way he talks about trade is as if he’s trying to defend the libertarian view but also make excuses for Trump, which I presume is what his donors want him to do, but if you’re looking for a defense of trade policy being set in the national interest, you’ll have to look elsewhere. As he put it in a 2018 op-ed, “A truly free market with China — and Europe — would be a huge accomplishment. Is it surprising that “protectionist” Trump, always trouncing the expectations of his critics, might be the one to get us there?”
I certainly hope not, Charlie.
In addition, the way in which Trump’s most fervent defenders have also taken to trashing Jeff Sessions, his first congressional endorsement, without which the president probably wouldn’t be where he is, is as disgraceful as the president’s own treatment of him. The cult of personality around Trump seems to have increased the more he gets away from his populist instincts.
For that reason, I hope Alabama’s voters send Sessions back to the senate, and it’s why we had him on the podcast last week. Disregarding Trump’s endorsement of Sessions’ opponent would send a strong signal that Trumpism is more about the message than the man, and might, to put hope before experience, make the White House reconsider some of its recent actions. Three and a half years into his presidency, we have had a bare quarter of the wall built, saber-rattling against Iran, a carve-out for guest workers in coronavirus executive orders, and a corporate tax cut. It’s not a bad third Bush term, but it’s a long way from what some of his supporters hoped.
Both coronavirus and the recent civil unrest are an excellent populist opportunity, if Trump and his campaign have the foresight to lean into them. Both crises will lead to the consolidation of wealth at the top and deepen inequality in America. Small businesses can’t endure the quarantine closures while Jeff Bezos gets tens of billions of dollars richer. Big chains like Target are more afraid of backlash to being unwoke than a handful of stores being looted, while for small businesses the stakes are much higher. Despite having been in power for three and a half years, Trump again has the opportunity to run against the oligarchs. We’ll see if he seizes it.
The policies Trump ran on were popular. If he loses in November it’s because he strayed from them, not because he discredited them.


theamericanconservative--2020-06-02--This is Not Trump’s Fault

This is Not Trump’s Fault

A looter carries stuff away from a Target store in the aftermath of extensive rioting , looting and arson in shopping and commercial areas of overnight in shopping and commercial areas of Minneapolis on Thursday , May 28 2020 .
( Scott Takushi / MediaNews Group / St. Paul Pioneer Press via Getty Images ) If you get to the end of this and think all it ’ s doing is defending Trump , you ’ ve missed the point .
For the first time in months there is no front page COVID story .
The replacement is the police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But the repurposing is familiar : blame Trump for the tragedy to defeat him in November .
For months there were charts and tickers of COVID infections , deaths , missing ventilators , anything countable that made things look bad .
When the stock market was hemorrhaging money those numbers were in red up front .
Today , if it ’ s actual COVID info you seek , look for it where it started , before it was rebooted from Wuhan ’ s Virus to Trump ’ s Virus , back in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ precipitating news peg is the death of another black man at the hands of another white cop under another set of dubious circumstances .
If 100,000 COVID deaths can ’ t shake your faith in Trump , maybe one more of these will .
In the eyes of the mainstream media , it is of course all Trump ’ s fault .
The problem with that is former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin , now charged with murder in the death of George Floyd , previously shot one suspect , was involved in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ received at least 17 complaints during his nearly two decades with the department .
Nobody prosecuted him for any of that , including never- gon na -be-VP Amy Klobuchar , as a county prosecutor .
Klobuchar also did not criminally charge other cops in the more than two dozen officer-involved fatalities during her time as prosecutor .
She punted those decisions to a grand jury .
Current Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison , who was a lawyer and state legislator when Klobuchar was prosecutor , defended Klobuchar ’ s record as “ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” That ’ s another way of saying systematic .
One person Klobuchar systematically declined to prosecute was today ’ s villain , Derek Chauvin .
In 2006 he was one of six officers who shot Wayne Reyes after Reyes aimed a shotgun at police after stabbing two people .
Small world .
And that ’ s before anyone looks again at Biden ’ s own record on these things , from Cornpop on forward .
See , this week has happened before .
George Bush had Rodney King .
Under Bill Clinton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , remembered in the Springsteen song American Skin ( 41 Shots ) .
For George W. Bush , it was Sean Bell .
Eric Garner was strangled by police during the Obama term , alongside the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson , Missouri .
Barack Obama said what happened last week in Minnesota “ shouldn ’ t be normal in 2020 America ” when in fact it has been normal for some time now , including under his watch .
After the police killing of Freddie Gray in Baltimore , Maryland , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ criminals.
” Oops .
But the media has him covered now ; Vox jumped in this round with “ being a former president is different .
Now that he is out of office , Obama is more free to try to lead the social change his candidacy once promised.
” Change ?
Leadership ?
Obama ’ s Justice Department did not prosecute Eric Gardner ’ s killer .
Obama ’ s Justice Department did not prosecute Michael Brown ’ s killer .
So today there is still no justice , no peace .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a violent racist , he certainly didn ’ t take the red pill from Trump ’ s hand , not with two decades of personal complaints and two decades of signature national violence and two decades of prosecutorial somnolence behind him .
Remind us again , who was the black Democratic president of the United States during most of that time ?
Who was his black Democratic attorney general ?
And someone is trying to use racism in 2020 to take down Trump ?
Wait , breaking news !
Trump is threatening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York Times characterized as “ an overtly violent ultimatum to protesters , ” Trump tweeted the phrase “ When the looting starts , the shooting starts ” and threatened to deploy the National Guard to Minneapolis .
Now of course the Times knows but didn ’ t let on to the rubes it knows that it is nearly impossible for the president to federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement ( we slogged through the explanations two years ago in another faux-panic Trump was going to order the Guard to enforce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ answers to its state governor , and in the case of Minnesota , Governor Walz already called for full mobilization .
Again just a tweet , carrying the weight of a feather .
So it ’ s fitting the punishment is a tagged violation of Twitter rules and not impeachment this time .
The problem with using COVID as the Trump Killer was not enough people died .
Had the early predictions of millions of deaths sweeping across the nation had any truth in them , that would be hard to ignore .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to fight over the remaining ventilators come to pass , that would have been an October Surprise in May .
COVID also killed the wrong people .
One can imagine Democratic strategists shouting “ Find me some white cheerleaders in Wisconsin who will never realize their dreams , dammit !
” Instead , the dead were a majority poor and black , with about half of all COVID deaths in the U.S. in ravaged and neglected parts of the New York City area no one really cared much about before all this .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ on TV today , filled with protesters fighting cops .
A few efforts at trying to tie COVID into a greater tapestry of economic inequality didn ’ t get very far ; nobody had much concern for Amazon warehouse workers when they themselves were out of work and waiting on packages of Nutter Butters .
COVID was fundamentally a crisis of economic inequality ; the bodies in New York City are the proof .
If it was a failure of leadership , then that failure must be traced back some 50 years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lack of PPE in 2020 than it does with a lack of national healthcare and a living wage contact traced from Nixon to whoever the next guy turns out to be , because both candidates have promised to do nothing new enough to fix those things .
It is sad and cruel and horrible to say no one cared in the end enough for the virus to beat Trump but that is what happened .
Remember it in a few weeks when the news has forgotten George Floyd .
The failure of Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or with police violence , follows a long string of similar stuff , beginning even before his inauguration .
For three years we were told the president was literally a Kremlin agent doing Putin ’ s business out of the Oval Office based on blackmail .
Then there was something about the Ukraine that rose to the level of actual impeachment that is still hard to explain and seemed to implicate Biden as much as Trump .
Trump will kill us all was a meme Democrats threw against the wall multiple times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wars and of course the virus .
And now , forget all that .
It ’ s racism , stupid .
Former cop Derek Chauvin didn ’ t wait for Trump to send out a tweet , or even take office , before becoming violent .
He ’ d been at that for two decades .
The systematic racism in Minnesota has roots deep into ( d/D ) emocratic governance , and wasn ’ t enabled by a few tweets .
This is the same answer for the virus ; the economic inequality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York City has very little to do with Trump or his supposed lack of leadership , same as it had nothing to do with the made-up ventilator shortage .
It is no surprise in 2020 two leading causes of death among the poor and black are police shooting and COVID .
If all we do is play politics with tragedy that ’ s all we ’ ll ever do toward resolving tragedy .
Resolution lies in looking forward to seeking fundamental solutions over looking backward to assign blame .
People in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump .
That is as wrong as it is irrelevant .
If anyone thinks more violence is the answer , or that this will elect Biden , or that his administration will change things , you ’ re missing the most important point : the revolution has been televised .
You ’ ve watched it already , you just don ’ t realize which side won .
Peter Van Buren , a 24-year State Department veteran , is the author of We Meant Well : How I Helped Lose the Battle for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Hooper ’ s War : A Novel of WWII Japan , and Ghosts of Tom Joad : A Story of the # 99 Percent .

If you get to the end of this and think all it’s doing is defending Trump, you’ve missed the point.
For the first time in months there is no front page COVID story. The replacement is the police killing in Minneapolis and chaos everywhere else. But the repurposing is familiar: blame Trump for the tragedy to defeat him in November.
For months there were charts and tickers of COVID infections, deaths, missing ventilators, anything countable that made things look bad. When the stock market was hemorrhaging money those numbers were in red up front. Today, if it’s actual COVID info you seek, look for it where it started, before it was rebooted from Wuhan’s Virus to Trump’s Virus, back in the business section.
Today’s precipitating news peg is the death of another black man at the hands of another white cop under another set of dubious circumstances. If 100,000 COVID deaths can’t shake your faith in Trump, maybe one more of these will. In the eyes of the mainstream media, it is of course all Trump’s fault. The problem with that is former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, now charged with murder in the death of George Floyd, previously shot one suspect, was involved in the fatal shooting of another, and received at least 17 complaints during his nearly two decades with the department.
Nobody prosecuted him for any of that, including never-gonna-be-VP Amy Klobuchar, as a county prosecutor. Klobuchar also did not criminally charge other cops in the more than two dozen officer-involved fatalities during her time as prosecutor. She punted those decisions to a grand jury. Current Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who was a lawyer and state legislator when Klobuchar was prosecutor, defended Klobuchar’s record as “a practice that was common at the time.” That’s another way of saying systematic.
One person Klobuchar systematically declined to prosecute was today’s villain, Derek Chauvin. In 2006 he was one of six officers who shot Wayne Reyes after Reyes aimed a shotgun at police after stabbing two people. Small world. And that’s before anyone looks again at Biden’s own record on these things, from Cornpop on forward.
See, this week has happened before. George Bush had Rodney King. Under Bill Clinton it was Amadou Diallo shot 41 times, remembered in the Springsteen song American Skin (41 Shots). For George W. Bush, it was Sean Bell. Eric Garner was strangled by police during the Obama term, alongside the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.
Barack Obama said what happened last week in Minnesota “shouldn’t be normal in 2020 America” when in fact it has been normal for some time now, including under his watch. After the police killing of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2015, Obama called the protesters “criminals.” Oops. But the media has him covered now; Vox jumped in this round with “being a former president is different. Now that he is out of office, Obama is more free to try to lead the social change his candidacy once promised.” Change? Leadership? Obama’s Justice Department did not prosecute Eric Gardner’s killer. Obama’s Justice Department did not prosecute Michael Brown’s killer. So today there is still no justice, no peace. Blame Trump.
If that Minnesota cop was a violent racist, he certainly didn’t take the red pill from Trump’s hand, not with two decades of personal complaints and two decades of signature national violence and two decades of prosecutorial somnolence behind him. Remind us again, who was the black Democratic president of the United States during most of that time? Who was his black Democratic attorney general? And someone is trying to use racism in 2020 to take down Trump?
Wait, breaking news! Trump is threatening to kill Americans! In what The New York Times characterized as “an overtly violent ultimatum to protesters,” Trump tweeted the phrase “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” and threatened to deploy the National Guard to Minneapolis.
Now of course the Times knows but didn’t let on to the rubes it knows that it is nearly impossible for the president to federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement (we slogged through the explanations two years ago in another faux-panic Trump was going to order the Guard to enforce immigration laws.) The Guard generally answers to its state governor, and in the case of Minnesota, Governor Walz already called for full mobilization. Again just a tweet, carrying the weight of a feather. So it’s fitting the punishment is a tagged violation of Twitter rules and not impeachment this time.
The problem with using COVID as the Trump Killer was not enough people died. Had the early predictions of millions of deaths sweeping across the nation had any truth in them, that would be hard to ignore. Had COVID zombies using their last strength to fight over the remaining ventilators come to pass, that would have been an October Surprise in May.
COVID also killed the wrong people. One can imagine Democratic strategists shouting “Find me some white cheerleaders in Wisconsin who will never realize their dreams, dammit!” Instead, the dead were a majority poor and black, with about half of all COVID deaths in the U.S. in ravaged and neglected parts of the New York City area no one really cared much about before all this. You can see some of those areas on TV today, filled with protesters fighting cops. A few efforts at trying to tie COVID into a greater tapestry of economic inequality didn’t get very far; nobody had much concern for Amazon warehouse workers when they themselves were out of work and waiting on packages of Nutter Butters.
COVID was fundamentally a crisis of economic inequality; the bodies in New York City are the proof. If it was a failure of leadership, then that failure must be traced back some 50 years, and has less to do with a lack of PPE in 2020 than it does with a lack of national healthcare and a living wage contact traced from Nixon to whoever the next guy turns out to be, because both candidates have promised to do nothing new enough to fix those things.
It is sad and cruel and horrible to say no one cared in the end enough for the virus to beat Trump but that is what happened. Remember it in a few weeks when the news has forgotten George Floyd.
The failure of Trump not failing as a leader during COVID, or with police violence, follows a long string of similar stuff, beginning even before his inauguration. For three years we were told the president was literally a Kremlin agent doing Putin’s business out of the Oval Office based on blackmail. Then there was something about the Ukraine that rose to the level of actual impeachment that is still hard to explain and seemed to implicate Biden as much as Trump. Trump will kill us all was a meme Democrats threw against the wall multiple times, with various North Korean and Iranian wars and of course the virus. And now, forget all that. It’s racism, stupid.
Former cop Derek Chauvin didn’t wait for Trump to send out a tweet, or even take office, before becoming violent. He’d been at that for two decades. The systematic racism in Minnesota has roots deep into (d/D)emocratic governance, and wasn’t enabled by a few tweets. This is the same answer for the virus; the economic inequality which drove the virus in places like New York City has very little to do with Trump or his supposed lack of leadership, same as it had nothing to do with the made-up ventilator shortage. It is no surprise in 2020 two leading causes of death among the poor and black are police shooting and COVID.
If all we do is play politics with tragedy that’s all we’ll ever do toward resolving tragedy. Resolution lies in looking forward to seeking fundamental solutions over looking backward to assign blame. People in the comments below will claim this is defending Trump. That is as wrong as it is irrelevant. If anyone thinks more violence is the answer, or that this will elect Biden, or that his administration will change things, you’re missing the most important point: the revolution has been televised. You’ve watched it already, you just don’t realize which side won.
Peter Van Buren, a 24-year State Department veteran, is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People,Hooper’s War: A Novel of WWII Japan, and Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99 Percent.


theamericanconservative--2020-06-02--Assaulted and Vilified, the Cops Save the Cities

Liberals may equate the term 'law and order ' with racism , but without law and order , there is no justice and no peace .
NEW YORK , NEW YORK - MAY 31 : New York Police Department ( NYPD ) officers patrol Time Square as activists hold a rally on May 31 , 2020 in New York City .
Protesters demonstrated for the fourth straight night after video emerged of a Minneapolis police officer , Derek Chauvin , pinning Floyd 's neck to the ground .
Floyd was later pronounced dead while in police custody after being transported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four officers involved have been fired and Chauvin has been arrested and charged with 3rd degree murder .
( Photo by Justin Heiman/Getty Images ) On the fifth night of rioting , looting and arson in Minneapolis , the criminal elements were driven from the streets .
By whom ?
By the same cops who had been the constant objects of media derision and mob hatred .
Without the thin blue line , far larger sectors of dozens of America ’ s cities would be in ruins , burned to the ground by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vehicles with rocks , bricks , bottles , Molotov cocktails and any debris that could be thrown at them .
Because they were the first responders in these riots , the cops were the first targets of criminal assault and the last line of defense of the law-abiding .
Wherever they had to draw back or pull back , anarchy ensued .
Consider the decision of Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo to surrender and abandon the 3rd Precinct .
As police cars pulled out and the cops fled , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the precinct .
And America saw , in astonishment , a triumph of anarchy .
One wonders what the world thought as it , too , watched .
Now , consider the political coloration of Minneapolis .
Frey , who ordered the surrender , is a far-left Democrat .
Gov .
Tim Walz is a liberal Democrat , as are both U.S. senators including Amy Klobuchar .
Minneapolis Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is a soul sister of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez .
Minnesota was the political home of Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ liberal icons all .
The state has not voted Republican for president since 1972 .
Even Ronald Reagan never carried Minnesota .
Yet , of his home state , this citadel of liberalism , Walz said last week , “ Systemic racism must be addressed if we are to secure , justice , peace and order for all Minnesotans.
” Query : How does “ systemic racism ” permeate a blue state dominated for decades by liberal Democrats ?
What explains the failure of Democrats who have long run Minnesota to root out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exorcise racism where they rule ?
Are even good Minnesota liberals infected with the virus ?
What we witnessed this week in Minneapolis is a failure of liberalism .
The leadership of the city and state could not persuade the protesters it claims to represent to remain peaceful .
And when rioting , looting and arson erupted , and attacks on police began , that leadership sat morally and politically paralyzed .
The elites could not condemn both the killing of George Floyd and , with equal moral vehemence , the violent and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ranks of the protesters .
They failed to get sufficient law enforcement or the National Guard into the city on time , or to declare and impose a curfew , or to use requisite force to halt the rioting and looting .
Why have those leaders not turned in their resignations ?
Comparisons have been drawn to the 1960s .
In the summer of 1964 , LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act .
In 1965 , the Voting Right Act was enacted after Selma .
Then came one Great Society program after another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we are moving beyond equality of opportunity to “ equality of result ” in America .
However , in August 1965 , Watts exploded , the worst race riot since Lincoln sent Union troops to put down the New York draft riots of 1863 .
Newark and Detroit had uprisings of similar magnitude in 1967 .
In April 1968 , for days after the assassination of Martin Luther King , U.S. cities were pillaged and burned , Washington , D.C. , among them .
LBJ ’ s Kerner Commission said the cause @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the black community was actually “ white racism.
” Said Richard Nixon speaking for the silent majority : They seem to blame everybody for the riots but the rioters themselves .
Liberals of that era , too , seemed morally disarmed and politically paralyzed when it came to confronting criminal elements that emerged from minority communities and voted Democratic .
Such situations invariably seem to produce in liberals a paralysis where the crimes are attributed to a “ few bad apples ” hiding among all those “ peaceful protesters.
” There is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power.
” What does that mean today ?
At the least , the recognition that while the killing of George Floyd was an atrocity that cries out for justice , so , too , does the rampant criminality that exploded in its aftermath .
But because of the failure to condemn that criminality , and the paralysis of Minnesota ’ s political leadership class , the black community in Minneapolis has lost hundreds of businesses — some forever — that had provided them with the necessities of a decent life .
Liberals may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” with racism , but without law and order , there is no justice and no peace .
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of Nixon ’ s White House Wars : The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever .

On the fifth night of rioting, looting and arson in Minneapolis, the criminal elements were driven from the streets.
By whom? By the same cops who had been the constant objects of media derision and mob hatred.
Without the thin blue line, far larger sectors of dozens of America’s cities would be in ruins, burned to the ground by the mobs that showered police and their vehicles with rocks, bricks, bottles, Molotov cocktails and any debris that could be thrown at them.
Because they were the first responders in these riots, the cops were the first targets of criminal assault and the last line of defense of the law-abiding.
Wherever they had to draw back or pull back, anarchy ensued.
Consider the decision of Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo to surrender and abandon the 3rd Precinct. As police cars pulled out and the cops fled, the exhilarated rabble invaded, pillaged and burned the precinct.
And America saw, in astonishment, a triumph of anarchy.
One wonders what the world thought as it, too, watched.
Now, consider the political coloration of Minneapolis.
Frey, who ordered the surrender, is a far-left Democrat. Gov. Tim Walz is a liberal Democrat, as are both U.S. senators including Amy Klobuchar. Minneapolis Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is a soul sister of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Minnesota was the political home of Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale and Senators Eugene McCarthy and Paul Wellstone, liberal icons all. The state has not voted Republican for president since 1972. Even Ronald Reagan never carried Minnesota.
Yet, of his home state, this citadel of liberalism, Walz said last week, “Systemic racism must be addressed if we are to secure, justice, peace and order for all Minnesotans.”
Query: How does “systemic racism” permeate a blue state dominated for decades by liberal Democrats? What explains the failure of Democrats who have long run Minnesota to root out racism?
Why have liberals failed to exorcise racism where they rule? Are even good Minnesota liberals infected with the virus?
What we witnessed this week in Minneapolis is a failure of liberalism. The leadership of the city and state could not persuade the protesters it claims to represent to remain peaceful. And when rioting, looting and arson erupted, and attacks on police began, that leadership sat morally and politically paralyzed.
The elites could not condemn both the killing of George Floyd and, with equal moral vehemence, the violent and criminal element that came to permeate the ranks of the protesters.
They failed to get sufficient law enforcement or the National Guard into the city on time, or to declare and impose a curfew, or to use requisite force to halt the rioting and looting.
Why have those leaders not turned in their resignations?
Comparisons have been drawn to the 1960s.
In the summer of 1964, LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act. In 1965, the Voting Right Act was enacted after Selma. Then came one Great Society program after another, as LBJ declared at Howard University, we are moving beyond equality of opportunity to “equality of result” in America.
However, in August 1965, Watts exploded, the worst race riot since Lincoln sent Union troops to put down the New York draft riots of 1863.
Newark and Detroit had uprisings of similar magnitude in 1967.
In April 1968, for days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, U.S. cities were pillaged and burned, Washington, D.C., among them.
LBJ’s Kerner Commission said the cause of the riots that had come out of the black community was actually “white racism.”
Said Richard Nixon speaking for the silent majority: They seem to blame everybody for the riots but the rioters themselves.
Liberals of that era, too, seemed morally disarmed and politically paralyzed when it came to confronting criminal elements that emerged from minority communities and voted Democratic.
Such situations invariably seem to produce in liberals a paralysis where the crimes are attributed to a “few bad apples” hiding among all those “peaceful protesters.”
There is much chatter about “speaking truth to power.”
What does that mean today?
At the least, the recognition that while the killing of George Floyd was an atrocity that cries out for justice, so, too, does the rampant criminality that exploded in its aftermath.
But because of the failure to condemn that criminality, and the paralysis of Minnesota’s political leadership class, the black community in Minneapolis has lost hundreds of businesses — some forever — that had provided them with the necessities of a decent life.
Liberals may equate the term “law and order” with racism, but without law and order, there is no justice and no peace.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever.


theamericanconservative--2020-06-02--5 Serious Proposals to Make American Great Again

Pelosi ’ s relief bill should kindle in the hearts of Republicans the fire both to do good , and to get even .
WASHINGTON , DC - FEBRUARY 04 : House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi ( D-CA ) rips up pages of the State of the Union speech after U.S. President Donald Trump finishes his State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives on February 04 , 2020 in Washington , DC .
President Trump delivers his third State of the Union to the nation the night before the U.S. Senate is set @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images ) Not wanting to let a good crisis go to waste , Nancy Pelosi proposed earlier this month a typically outrageous bill .
Children may dream of sugar plum fairies ( or of being the sugar plum fairy in the Christmas production of the Nutcracker ) but aren ’ t adults supposed to grow up ?
Pelosi ’ s dream bill—1,800 pages of legislative candy for distraught Democrats—is the nightmare you ’ ve been worrying about : truckloads of money for illegal immigrants ( now “ unauthorized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( i.e.
, Amazon ) ; mandated voting by mail ( which is essentially the end of democracy as we know it ) , and more .
Much , much more .
The good news is that Pelosi ’ s provisions have no chance whatsoever of being enacted—unless Trump loses in November and the Democrats take both houses of Congress .
But Pelosi ’ s bill should kindle in the hearts of Republicans the fire both to do good … and to get even .
Herewith five serious , non-proprietary proposals to make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may be marginally inconsistent with others ) .
1 ) Forgive Student Loans : The first is a perennial favorite of “ this column ” ( not an original formulation ) : forgiving student loans .
We—Freud said we ’ re all plural—first proposed forgiving student loans more than six years ago , here .
Since then we have proposed it four more times , here , here , here , and here .
The first time we proposed it in May 2014 , the total amount of outstanding student debt seemed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trillion !
There was no possibility Congress would enact a trillion dollar bill .
Times change .
Already this year Congress has enacted , and the president has signed , three separate Wuhan virus-relief packages , the total costs of which exceed $ 2 trillion .
Maybe it ’ s like jumping off the high diving board : the second time is easy .
The late Senator Everett Dirksen ( R-IL ) would have understood .
Outstanding student loans , though 50 percent higher than six years ago , can now be described @ @ @ @ @ @ @ half of Nancy Pelosi ’ s $ 3 trillion dream package .
But forgiving the loans ( or only the loans of those whose income is below a certain threshold ) is only half the proposal : the other half is eliminating aid to the colleges that euchred the students to begin with .
It ’ s the colleges that are the real villains : they are the fever swamps of the left .
They should be defunded .
And most young adults shouldn ’ t waste their time in colleges anyway , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ productive years partying heavily and learning nothing .
They should get jobs , or training .
Or do volunteer work to show their capabilities .
Everyone , everyone , except left-wing teachers , would be better off .
Total annual federal expenditures on higher ed are about $ 120 billion , which means this proposal would break even in less than ten years .
2 ) Cut Government Salaries : Reduce all federal salaries ( except those of federal judges whose salaries are protected by the Constitution ) to $ 70,000 ( the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The average salary for a college graduate in the United States is about $ 50,000 .
The median salary is about $ 85,800 .
Why should federal employees , whose job security ( fewer than 0.5 percent get fired in any year ) exceeds that of Politburo members , receive full salaries during the pandemic that has thrown millions out of work ?
3 ) No More Withholding : End Social Security withholding .
People would have to write a check or arrange to have an amount taken out of their bank accounts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make the amount paid visible and painful , and the taxpayers more vigilant .
Ah ha !
you say : but if we ’ re going to stop withholding Social Security taxes , why not end withholding income taxes too ?
Hmm .
Wish I ’ d thought of that .
4 ) Educational Choice : Give a tax credit , equal to the cost per student of government education , to all children receiving education provided by private , charter , or home schools for K-12 .
A primary and secondary school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may be the second worst thing that happens to a young person in this country—after a college education .
5 ) Tax Renovation : Adopt a flat tax .
That would greatly simplify tax preparation for individuals and , particularly , small businesses—and put whole armies of Washington tax lobbyists out to pasture .
The rate , of course is negotiable , but half the gain is in simplicity .
Eliminating the charitable deduction is a Lucky Strike extra ( anyone remember those ? )
: middle-class people give small dollar amounts to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ give big buildings they can put their names on to hospitals and universities .
They won ’ t stop doing that—but regarding universities , see proposal No .
1. Who wins from these proposals ?
The good guys : debt-ridden students , victims of predatory lending practices who have been badly misled ; young people who in the future won ’ t waste two to six years goofing off at nothing colleges ; people out of work who ’ ll enjoy the federal workforce ’ s sharing their pain ; working people who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ code ; and all those grateful parents who ’ ll benefit by not being required to send their children to the local ( and mostly wretched ) government school .
Who loses ?
College professors who are mostly Marxists , and their fellow administrators ; government employees , who overwhelmingly vote Democrat ; public school teachers and their union reps who vote Democrat if there ’ s no candidate further left ; and an army of tax consultants and lobbyists for whom the current tax code is the dailiness of life .
These @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be worth enacting at any time .
But now , in this time of crisis , which the Democrats will try not to waste , they could save and rejuvenate the country—and might even help win an election or two .
Daniel Oliver is Chairman of the Board of the Education and Research Institute and a Director of Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy in San Francisco .
In addition to serving as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission under President Reagan , he was Executive Editor and subsequently Chairman of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s National Review .

Not wanting to let a good crisis go to waste, Nancy Pelosi proposed earlier this month a typically outrageous bill. Children may dream of sugar plum fairies (or of being the sugar plum fairy in the Christmas production of the Nutcracker) but aren’t adults supposed to grow up?
Pelosi’s dream bill—1,800 pages of legislative candy for distraught Democrats—is the nightmare you’ve been worrying about: truckloads of money for illegal immigrants (now “unauthorized immigrants”), the Post Office (i.e., Amazon); mandated voting by mail (which is essentially the end of democracy as we know it), and more. Much, much more. The good news is that Pelosi’s provisions have no chance whatsoever of being enacted—unless Trump loses in November and the Democrats take both houses of Congress.
But Pelosi’s bill should kindle in the hearts of Republicans the fire both to do good … and to get even. Herewith five serious, non-proprietary proposals to make America great again (some of which may be marginally inconsistent with others).
1) Forgive Student Loans: The first is a perennial favorite of “this column” (not an original formulation): forgiving student loans. We—Freud said we’re all plural—first proposed forgiving student loans more than six years ago, here. Since then we have proposed it four more times, here, here, here, and here.
The first time we proposed it in May 2014, the total amount of outstanding student debt seemed, and was, enormous: $1 trillion! There was no possibility Congress would enact a trillion dollar bill.
Times change. Already this year Congress has enacted, and the president has signed, three separate Wuhan virus-relief packages, the total costs of which exceed $2 trillion.
Maybe it’s like jumping off the high diving board: the second time is easy. The late Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL) would have understood.
Outstanding student loans, though 50 percent higher than six years ago, can now be described as “only” $1.5 trillion—only half of Nancy Pelosi’s $3 trillion dream package.
But forgiving the loans (or only the loans of those whose income is below a certain threshold) is only half the proposal: the other half is eliminating aid to the colleges that euchred the students to begin with. It’s the colleges that are the real villains: they are the fever swamps of the left. They should be defunded. And most young adults shouldn’t waste their time in colleges anyway, where they waste what could be moderately productive years partying heavily and learning nothing. They should get jobs, or training. Or do volunteer work to show their capabilities. Everyone, everyone, except left-wing teachers, would be better off. Total annual federal expenditures on higher ed are about $120 billion, which means this proposal would break even in less than ten years.
2) Cut Government Salaries: Reduce all federal salaries (except those of federal judges whose salaries are protected by the Constitution) to $70,000 (the average is currently $94,000). The average salary for a college graduate in the United States is about $50,000. The median salary is about $85,800. Why should federal employees, whose job security (fewer than 0.5 percent get fired in any year) exceeds that of Politburo members, receive full salaries during the pandemic that has thrown millions out of work?
3) No More Withholding: End Social Security withholding. People would have to write a check or arrange to have an amount taken out of their bank accounts to pay the tax. That would make the amount paid visible and painful, and the taxpayers more vigilant. Ah ha! you say: but if we’re going to stop withholding Social Security taxes, why not end withholding income taxes too? Hmm. Wish I’d thought of that.
4) Educational Choice: Give a tax credit, equal to the cost per student of government education, to all children receiving education provided by private, charter, or home schools for K-12. A primary and secondary school “education” in a government school may be the second worst thing that happens to a young person in this country—after a college education.
5) Tax Renovation: Adopt a flat tax. That would greatly simplify tax preparation for individuals and, particularly, small businesses—and put whole armies of Washington tax lobbyists out to pasture. The rate, of course is negotiable, but half the gain is in simplicity. Eliminating the charitable deduction is a Lucky Strike extra (anyone remember those?): middle-class people give small dollar amounts to real charities they believe in; multimillionaires give big buildings they can put their names on to hospitals and universities. They won’t stop doing that—but regarding universities, see proposal No. 1.
Who wins from these proposals? The good guys: debt-ridden students, victims of predatory lending practices who have been badly misled; young people who in the future won’t waste two to six years goofing off at nothing colleges; people out of work who’ll enjoy the federal workforce’s sharing their pain; working people who’ll profit from a saner tax code; and all those grateful parents who’ll benefit by not being required to send their children to the local (and mostly wretched) government school.
Who loses? College professors who are mostly Marxists, and their fellow administrators; government employees, who overwhelmingly vote Democrat; public school teachers and their union reps who vote Democrat if there’s no candidate further left; and an army of tax consultants and lobbyists for whom the current tax code is the dailiness of life.
These proposals, few of them new, would be worth enacting at any time. But now, in this time of crisis, which the Democrats will try not to waste, they could save and rejuvenate the country—and might even help win an election or two.
Daniel Oliver is Chairman of the Board of the Education and Research Institute and a Director of Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy in San Francisco. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission under President Reagan, he was Executive Editor and subsequently Chairman of the Board of William F. Buckley Jr.’s National Review.
Email Daniel Oliver at Daniel.Oliver@TheCandidAmerican.com.


theamericanconservative--2020-06-03--What Took Trump So Long?

What Took Trump So Long?

His decision to deploy troops to the streets is welcome but late .
Turns out his advisors urged him to stand down .
US President Donald Trump walks back to the White House escorted by the Secret Service after appearing outside of St John 's Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in Washington , DC on June 1 , 2020 .
( Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP ) ( Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images ) The last weekend of May 2020 was the time when racial tensions in America came roaring back .
Millions of people who have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an inherently racist country joined protests that often turned into riots .
As cities burned , those in the silent majority looked to the White House for some semblance of leadership , only to find their president tweeting from a bunker about “ sleepy Joe.
” Americans know our history : the original sin of slavery , Jim Crow , and the Great Society programs that robbed black Americans of their liberties , rights , and dignity .
It ’ s something we are engrained with from the time we are children .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ this has expanded into a belief that the U.S. has only made slight progress from our past .
It has become something everyday Americans are shamed with by wealthy elites and race profiteers .
This vision of America and the perception of systemic anti-black discrimination comes from social conditioning that is pushed in every corner of elite society .
Ph.D. student Zach Goldberg produced a series of indispensable tweets showing how media outlets including The New York Times , The Washington Post , and NPR have increased their use of ‘ woke ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Some outlets by as much as 300 percent in less than a decade .
This effort has helped brand all white Americans as a single monolithic group that holds biases against all ‘ people of color.
’ Since 2007 , white liberals are more likely than black Americans to believe that racism is responsible for the fiscal and social ills of the black community , although both baselines have increased in the last decade .
Encouraged by white liberals , black Americans have a greater perception of victimhood in 2019 , than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2006 , around 29 percent of black Americans believed at one time or another they ’ ve been unfairly stopped by the police because of their skin color , according to a Kaiser study .
By 2019 , the number increased to nearly 44 percent , according to a Pew Research report .
America responded to these growing concerns with a series of reforms to both policing and sentencing .
From 2015 to 2019 , the number of unarmed black men killed by police annually fell from 38 to 9 .
Likewise , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fallen by a third since 2006 , according to Pew Research .
Yet despite all of this progress , the conversation about race is more vitriolic and generations of white Americans who even questioned the premise were told to “ check their privilege.
” It became orthodoxy that only those who experienced victimhood could speak about it .
Personal experiences and viral videos trump data , polling , and policy reforms .
Then , George Floyd was killed and a decade of racial resentment boiled over .
A mixture of terrorists who identify @ @ @ @ @ @ @ groups and young minorities committed acts of violence across the country .
Images went viral of desperate store owners putting up signs asking the mob not to destroy their minority-owned businesses , posts on social media told the mob to target white-majority neighborhoods , and police and civilians were brutally attacked .
It was a clarifying moment for an untold number of young people that see the world through the lens of social media .
Civil society , racial harmony , and civilization itself could disappear within a few days of lawlessness .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ condemned the murder of Floyd and demanded action against the police officers involved .
In the days that followed , however , the White House felt absent in the national conversation .
Protests turned to riots and cities like Minneapolis , Philadelphia , Chicago , and Atlanta turned into war zones , yet the president was nowhere to be found .
Outside of Twitter and the few remarks given by Trump during the SpaceX launch , the silence from the White House was deafening .
Sources inside the administration said that throughout the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ running on a skeleton crew .
Advisors Jared and Ivanka Kushner were celebrating a Jewish holiday , Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was at his daughter ’ s wedding , other key members of the administration were out of state .
While Washington burned , Trump was ushered into a bunker with the few aides that were by his side , including Dan Scavino .
On Thursday , Kushner and his allies , Brooke Rollins and Ja ’ ron Smith told the White House and the campaign that they shouldn ’ t discuss @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it could harm the campaign ’ s efforts at coalition-building with the black community .
They insisted the whole thing would eventually blow over .
With no team and no plan , Trump took to Twitter , demanding that mayors and governors take more action .
Writers and media personalities from nearly every conservative outlet tweeted , “ where is Trump ?
” Presidential sycophants , many of whom campaigned against the president in the 2016 primary , tried to calm the growing chorus of concerns .
Their reasoning ranged from there was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be bad , and this will help him in November .
Yet as the days mounted and the riots spread to every major American city , it became glaringly obvious that the situation was only becoming worse and the president was missing in action .
It seemed that the president was just tweeting as America burned .
The hashtag # WhereIsTrump began trending as those most looking for leadership felt abandoned .
It was the dismal to a weekend of rage .
The political class , even Trump , were unable to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the cornerstone of civilization .
By Sunday , Attorney General Bill Barr started moving to declare Antifa a terrorist organization , while also expanding efforts inside the DOJ , and making a push to activate the national guard .
Sources within the administration said that Barr was determined not to hang for Kushner ’ s inaction .
While Barr moved , the White House was still frozen .
The New York Times reported and it was independently confirmed to me that Kushner and his allies pushed Trump to respond by holding listening sessions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and other organizations .
Around midnight , Trump decided that he was going to give a national address .
Yet by the morning the White House messaging was still in chaos .
Spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany repeated Kushner ’ s talking point that a presidential address to the nation wouldn ’ t calm the rioters .
Later , Brooke Rollins gave a disastrous interview with Politico where she said the president was looking for bipartisan solutions .
Well into the day , it seemed uncertain that the White House would adopt the tough-on-crime strategy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Rose Garden address Monday night may have saved him and the country .
Cracking down on protesters , deploying federal troops , strength—was what most Americans , even those who aren ’ t his base , wanted to hear .
That he would provide leadership and stop the carnage and lawlessness that had enveloped over the weekend .
If he can deliver , it will give him an advantage that law-and-order candidates , like Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon , used as cornerstones of their campaigns .
It is doubtful , however @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emerge from this weekend of chaos .
Will Kushner and Rollins , who advised Trump to let it blow over , be forced to leave their jobs ?
It ’ s extremely unlikely .
America is not the same place it was a week ago .
A countless number are looking at their country with a more Hobbesian worldview .
Society and civilization are extremely fragile , and their institutions and leaders have less willpower than they imagined .

The last weekend of May 2020 was the time when racial tensions in America came roaring back. Millions of people who have been socially conditioned to believe America is an inherently racist country joined protests that often turned into riots. As cities burned, those in the silent majority looked to the White House for some semblance of leadership, only to find their president tweeting from a bunker about “sleepy Joe.”
Americans know our history: the original sin of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Great Society programs that robbed black Americans of their liberties, rights, and dignity. It’s something we are engrained with from the time we are children. In a new woke America however, this has expanded into a belief that the U.S. has only made slight progress from our past. It has become something everyday Americans are shamed with by wealthy elites and race profiteers.
This vision of America and the perception of systemic anti-black discrimination comes from social conditioning that is pushed in every corner of elite society. Ph.D. student Zach Goldberg produced a series of indispensable tweets showing how media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR have increased their use of ‘woke’ terminology in their everyday reporting since 2010. Some outlets by as much as 300 percent in less than a decade. This effort has helped brand all white Americans as a single monolithic group that holds biases against all ‘people of color.’
Since 2007, white liberals are more likely than black Americans to believe that racism is responsible for the fiscal and social ills of the black community, although both baselines have increased in the last decade. Encouraged by white liberals, black Americans have a greater perception of victimhood in 2019, than they did the decade before. In 2006, around 29 percent of black Americans believed at one time or another they’ve been unfairly stopped by the police because of their skin color, according to a Kaiser study. By 2019, the number increased to nearly 44 percent, according to a Pew Research report.
America responded to these growing concerns with a series of reforms to both policing and sentencing. From 2015 to 2019, the number of unarmed black men shot and killed by police annually fell from 38 to 9. Likewise, the number of incarcerated black Americans has fallen by a third since 2006, according to Pew Research.
Yet despite all of this progress, the conversation about race is more vitriolic and generations of white Americans who even questioned the premise were told to “check their privilege.” It became orthodoxy that only those who experienced victimhood could speak about it. Personal experiences and viral videos trump data, polling, and policy reforms.
Then, George Floyd was killed and a decade of racial resentment boiled over. A mixture of terrorists who identify as members of the mostly white Antifa groups and young minorities committed acts of violence across the country. Images went viral of desperate store owners putting up signs asking the mob not to destroy their minority-owned businesses, posts on social media told the mob to target white-majority neighborhoods, and police and civilians were brutally attacked. It was a clarifying moment for an untold number of young people that see the world through the lens of social media. Civil society, racial harmony, and civilization itself could disappear within a few days of lawlessness.
President Trump and many other Republican leaders condemned the murder of Floyd and demanded action against the police officers involved. In the days that followed, however, the White House felt absent in the national conversation. Protests turned to riots and cities like Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Atlanta turned into war zones, yet the president was nowhere to be found. Outside of Twitter and the few remarks given by Trump during the SpaceX launch, the silence from the White House was deafening.
Sources inside the administration said that throughout the tumultuous weekend, the White House was running on a skeleton crew. Advisors Jared and Ivanka Kushner were celebrating a Jewish holiday, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was at his daughter’s wedding, other key members of the administration were out of state. While Washington burned, Trump was ushered into a bunker with the few aides that were by his side, including Dan Scavino.
On Thursday, Kushner and his allies, Brooke Rollins and Ja’ron Smith told the White House and the campaign that they shouldn’t discuss the riots in overtly negative terms because it could harm the campaign’s efforts at coalition-building with the black community. They insisted the whole thing would eventually blow over.
With no team and no plan, Trump took to Twitter, demanding that mayors and governors take more action. Writers and media personalities from nearly every conservative outlet tweeted, “where is Trump?” Presidential sycophants, many of whom campaigned against the president in the 2016 primary, tried to calm the growing chorus of concerns. Their reasoning ranged from there was nothing he could do, the optics would be bad, and this will help him in November. Yet as the days mounted and the riots spread to every major American city, it became glaringly obvious that the situation was only becoming worse and the president was missing in action. It seemed that the president was just tweeting as America burned.
The hashtag #WhereIsTrump began trending as those most looking for leadership felt abandoned. It was the dismal to a weekend of rage. The political class, even Trump, were unable to establish security and order, which are the cornerstone of civilization.
By Sunday, Attorney General Bill Barr started moving to declare Antifa a terrorist organization, while also expanding efforts inside the DOJ, and making a push to activate the national guard. Sources within the administration said that Barr was determined not to hang for Kushner’s inaction.
While Barr moved, the White House was still frozen. The New York Times reported and it was independently confirmed to me that Kushner and his allies pushed Trump to respond by holding listening sessions with black pastors, business groups, and other organizations. Around midnight, Trump decided that he was going to give a national address. Yet by the morning the White House messaging was still in chaos. Spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany repeated Kushner’s talking point that a presidential address to the nation wouldn’t calm the rioters. Later, Brooke Rollins gave a disastrous interview with Politico where she said the president was looking for bipartisan solutions. Well into the day, it seemed uncertain that the White House would adopt the tough-on-crime strategy that his supporters demanded.
Trump’s Rose Garden address Monday night may have saved him and the country. Cracking down on protesters, deploying federal troops, strength—was what most Americans, even those who aren’t his base, wanted to hear. That he would provide leadership and stop the carnage and lawlessness that had enveloped over the weekend. If he can deliver, it will give him an advantage that law-and-order candidates, like Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, used as cornerstones of their campaigns. It is doubtful, however, that any long term changes will emerge from this weekend of chaos. Will Kushner and Rollins, who advised Trump to let it blow over, be forced to leave their jobs? It’s extremely unlikely.
America is not the same place it was a week ago. A countless number are looking at their country with a more Hobbesian worldview. Society and civilization are extremely fragile, and their institutions and leaders have less willpower than they imagined.
Ryan Girdusky is the author of They’re Not Listening: How the Elites Created the National Populist Revolution. He is a contributing editor to TAC and a host of Right Now.