...The inconvenient truth that few conservatives have wanted to address is that for decades, the movement has been rank with charlatans. True, there’s always been a firmly conservative activist and intellectual core and genuinely principled politicians to keep the ship righted. But a shockingly high percentage of conservative pundits are simply frauds at their core... What conservatism needed was a litmus test. A candidate so obviously unelectable, so obviously factually challenged, and so obviously devoid of a conservative bone in his body that anyone with a genuine interest in advancing the movement would recoil. But at the same time, that candidate would superficially recite buzzwords and– most importantly– attract a large following of potential consumers. The movement needed a flashpoint that would force our self-appointed shepherds to make an obvious choice: principles, or a payday?
Love or hate Shapiro’s rhetoric, he chose unemployment rather than betraying his principles. Coulter really was only looking to pay for her Manhattan high-rise apartment, and hey, sometimes that requires some unabashed white supremacy.
It was at times surprising who ended up on what side of the battle lines. No one intimately familiar with the conservative movement was shocked where Sarah Palin and Megyn Kelly landed. But who would have thought that Glenn Beck would end up on the side of sanity, and that Chris Christie would not? Who saw that Eric Erickson would be a man of principles, and Ben Carson would be open about the fact that he sold his to the highest bidder?
The frauds are out in the open. I’m not talking about the Republican politicians and operatives whose livelihoods depend on party loyalty and will inevitably be dragged kicking and screaming into the fold. I’m talking about the “““thought””” leaders who actively endorsed and pushed for Trump when there was still a chance at blunting his momentum. There’s no need to name them all, because everyone knows who they are: they’re the ones writing IN ALL CAPS ABOUT MEXICO on Twitter....
Trump is the greatest thing to happen to conservatism because he is the cleansing forest fire, the Great Flood, the calamity we need. Conservatism will survive Trump, as it survived Goldwater’s loss and Nixon’s shame. The bad news is that’ll take years of rebuilding and getting back into voters’ good graces. But the good news is that every conservative bottom-feeder has shoved themselves in Trump’s clown car and that car’s headed straight for a cliff...