“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice”
— Barry Goldwater
About ten years ago, in a piece written for Breitbart, Thaddeus McCotter recounted the tale of a man trying to sell his ’67 Plymouth Barracuda. Having no luck, he finally left it on the street with the key in the ignition and a big sign announcing “Free!” The next morning the ‘Cuda was still there, with a message scratched into it with the key, “Don’t nobody want this shit.”
McCotter followed with the point that politics divorced from popular culture sells about as well as this hapless vehicle; further, that Republican politics is Exhibit A. Make that “Model A.”
Of course, what neither Andrew Breitbart nor McCotter — with their mantra that politics is downstream from culture — could have fully foreseen is the degree to which popular culture would become tainted by unpopular culture which few people wish to be “downstream” from, any more than from raw sewage.
No doubt with all this in mind, Tucker Carlson recently excoriated a television spot featuring Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz walking around a supermarket lamenting the rising prices of “crudités” — whatever they are, no doubt following the advice of his handlers to focus on the “safe” issue of inflation, while ignoring the cultural cesspool that most of us are either tiptoeing around or wading through ankle-deep. Not coincidentally, Oz is polling considerably behind his Democrat opponent, who is about as effective a campaigner as “Hidin’ Biden” was (who still raked in 81,000,000 votes, we’re told).
Whatever Oz is selling, don’t nobody want to hear that shit. Here’s what they are desperate to hear Republican candidates speak out against —
- The sexualization and “gender affirming” surgical mutilation of children. Don’t nobody want it.
- The non-prosecutions of “Summer of Love” rioters; flash mob smash-and-grab looters; sucker-punching psychotics on subway platforms, “non-violent” small fry drug pushers; iconoclastic vandals; and tent-dwellers on city streets and in public parks. Don’t nobody want none of it.
- “Encounters” with two million illegal migrants this year alone, so far, and who knows how many more have slipped through without being encountered. Don’t nobody want it, not even the mayors of New York and Washington, those proud “sanctuary” cities.
- Anti-white racism, having gotten rid of every other kind. Don’t want it.
- The rejection and alteration of pronouns that have served us well since the beginnings of “English.” To say nothing of calling people “Latinx,” “non-binary,” and all the rest. Don’t want this stupid shit.
- The wholesale genocide of “white” history, science, math, religion, reason itself. More dumb-ass shit.
- The removal of families from airplanes because their two-year-olds won’t keep an unnecessary and useless mask in place, a policy magnified across the nation by removals from schools, places of business, employment, vacation destinations, and military service, thanks to equally feckless and cruel “vaccine” mandates designed to vanquish independent thinking and enlightened self-interest. Pure totalitarian shit.
Guess what, Republicans? If you don’t want to “do” the culture war thing — you’d rather pander to the disordered by tipping your hat to “Pride” month, or to certain female voters by supporting “reproductive health” for those who choose anti-reproductive means of dealing death, or to educators by praising the pursuit of inclusion and equity as good things that will make us all more tolerant and open-minded, or to People of Color by hanging your head and tsk-tsking over the “racist” behavior of Derek Chauvin and his fellow officers, or to under-educated people by supporting the illusion that “climate science” and Covid regulations have any actual basis in science, or to wokesters who think that a kinder, gentler military makes our nation stronger — if you would rather “respect differences” in all such matters, you’re going to lose because a significant portion of your voters don’t want to hear that shit.
If you think that talking up national security is a winning issue, when the entire security state regards your voters — potential “domestic terrorists” all — as the greatest threat there is to national security, you’re going to lose. Your voters don’t feel secure in their own neighborhoods, which are awash in drugs and crime, with dwindling police forces. And thanks to our security state, a former president can’t even feel secure in his own home. Nor can certain Supreme Court justices.
Likewise, if you’re bullish on defending Ukraine against invasion, to the tune of tens of billions of largely unaccounted for dollars, while our own borders remain wide open to what a statistical majority of Americans now call an “invasion,” you’re going to lose. You obviously don’t believe in “national sovereignty.” You believe in “America Last.”
If you’re doing the typical Republican preaching about fiscal responsibility, don’t nobody believe in that shit anymore, since neither party engages in it, and the Federal Reserve surpasses all understanding. But if you wish to talk about such things as abolishing the Department of Education, thereby saving both dollars and the culture, well, now you’re talking talk that some of us might listen to.
Lately, certain voices of The Party — as distinct from voices of the people — have been speaking of the need to have “strong candidates” who can appeal to at least some portion of the progressive and independent electorate. In other words, ditch the MAGA candidates unless they are in solidly MAGA districts. Behold conventional wisdom . . . if it be wisdom at all.
Own it — you’ve been doing this “We’re taking the high road,” “compassionate” thing for a long time, most recently with John McCain and Mitt Romney, with some of you still apologizing for Donald Trump. Keep it up, and you’re gonna lose. And if you lose, we’re lost. America, the last ghost of Western Civilization, will be gone and forgotten.
Please. Defend us in battle. Vow to make your district or your state what Ron DeSantis is attempting to make Florida — “The place where Woke goes to die.” Drive a stake through its heart, and send it back to the nether regions from whence it came. We’ll love you for it.
— Chad (“Bitter”) Klinger
the Aspen beat 
The people who see Donald Trump as mentally ill, are the same people who see Joe Biden and his administration, along with their policy choices, as wise. Therefore, the literally crazy folks (and genuine threats to our ‘democracy’) are those who ridicule or deride the following Republican beliefs:
Constitutional interpretation without bias –
Secure borders –
Fair elections –
Energy independence –
Criminal justice measured equally –
The innocent to be treated humanely and respectfully –
Non-discriminatory policies –
Parental rights respected –
School choice – and
National pride and respect for our founding, our worldwide status today, and our limitless future.
As for Lerch: Oz, or Fetterman?
Fetterman doesn’t have any admirable public service accomplishments to prove he deserves a promotion from mayor of a failed small town to U.S. Senator.
Oz is a known quantity with a long history of public and private accomplishments.
Fetterman has lived off his dad and the taxpayers all his life.
Doctor Oz signs paychecks on the front, while Mayor Fetterman signs paychecks on the back.
You could have a meaningful conversation with Oz.
A conversation with Fetterman would leave you with the feeling that you need a hot, soapy shower immediately if not sooner.
There’ are things to agree with in this psuedo-colmn.; the idiocy of woke language, dumping the Dept. of education, sexual surgery for children. But the rant in which this is contained is idiotic. There’s no other word for it. This call for culture war exists on all sides. We’ve been going at it since the First Congressional Congress, one side wanting to stamp out the other’s culture. How that been working for you Bitter? Shame on you for printing this crap Glenn. The guy didn’t even spell Goldwater’s quote correctly, he was in such a hurry to vomit out his pathetic call for an impossible victory. How do you think Goldwater, an intelligent man well ahead of his time would like Bitter’s disorganized thoughts. Hopefully your book will be more than emotional diarrhea. Your chosen standin’s rant certainly isn’t.
Both the visual of the 1832 June Rebellion and the Goldwater epigraph were furnished by Glenn. Given how things turned out for the youthful French idealists — the song “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables” in Les Miserables comes to mind — and for Goldwater in 1964, you’re probably right about how the culture war will end. That makes you politically intelligent, I suppose, but I don’t want to live in your world. Anyway, you needn’t fear that Glenn’s book will resemble my “vomit.”
I suppose that it might make sense for those of us that really want America First to look to the Republican party, but it appears more and more likely that the Repubs are a lost cause. Even if a really good candidate comes along, the rinos still control the levers of power within the party.
It’s time for a new party, built from the ground up. A party with the nerve to kick people out. A party with the nerve to call out miscreants. A party with core values aligned across all levels of said party. But, such a movement takes time, years and years. And
in the mean time, once the movement is recognized by the opposition, it will garner the concerted efforts by that opposition to squash them. Think TEA Party and, of course, the MAGA movement.
The new America First party is going to have to go to work now, trying to build itself into
a power to be reckoned with. In the meantime it will have to support repubs. Start small and field candidates at the local level for all offices, e.g. school boards. Build on an open declaration of foundational principled ideas. It will have to be satisfied with small victories, baby steps, to build on, until it grows enough to matter on the larger stage.
America Firsters will have to be prepared for a very typical negative attitude. In the movie “The Mission” a priest (Jeremy Irons) tells a soldier of fortune and slave hunter
(Robert De Niro), “We’re building a mission here. We’re going to convert these people.” De Niro replies, “If you have the time.” In the end, the soldiers come and destroy the mission, killing and enslaving much of the adult population. Only a few small children survive. But they go back to the jungle to start again. AFrs may not “have the time”, but that’s the only hope they have. Otherwise it’s back to the jungle and the jungle isn’t pretty.
A fitting role for Robert De Niro. The professional persona predicted what the inner man would become.
Best ever and spot on. Have forwarded to a friend from my home state of Kansas with a national presence and voice.
Keep up the battle,
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I recently attended a Republican candidates’ forum in the second largest (population) county in Oregon. The candidates and the attendees were talking about schools, ridiculous mandates (masks and restrictions), and crime. No one was talking about taxes although this state has among the highest in the nation. Last night I attended a fundraiser for a church project. What was everyone talking about? Crime, homelessness, filthy streets and sidewalks and the abandoned downtown core in Portland. You’re right “we don’t want dis shit.” Republicans are so naive to think that playing nice will work. We need to throw hammers and take names….and our country back
Well said, Klinger!
Bitter … your column couldn’t be any better. It’s very generous of Glenn to let you delve into this subject matter.
I’ve been mentioning this adage of the late Andrew Breitbart – “Politics is downstream of culture” – in some of my past comments, and I am glad to see you expand upon it.
Here’s another aspect I’ve recently posted utilizing culture to go after the totalitarian Left that is currently permeating politics, media, academia, corporations, religion, etc.
After the shocking “Red Doom” speech that Chancellor, er, um, I mean Presidentish Biden spewed on September 1, it suddenly occurred to me that Dementia Joe had gone from Corn Pops to Nietzsche Pops.
I would best guess that “Dr.” Jill has been spoon feeding this breakfast cereal to Joe in preparation for his bloody September “Red Doom Speech”…
Dementia Joe using fascist tropes to call out MAGA Republicans as “semi-fascist” is the height of hypocrisy … talk about the kettle calling the pot black. Wow!
MAGA, i.e. the “deplorables” only seek .. less government control; less regulations and bureaucratic red tape; lower taxes so that we can keep more of what we justly earn for ourselves; our 2nd Amendment right to self-defense, our cherished freedoms of speech, thought and to worship; our property rights and right to due process; the return of America’s national sovereignty; the impartial application of the rule of law and the maintaining of law and order; the de-centralizing of many functions of the federal government to state and local control as per the 10th Amendment.
As fascism is truly big government with the combining/bundling of a highly regimented and centralized government with all facets of life, i.e., with corporations, churches, trade unions, schools and academia, the media, the family, and the individual, as well as any other groups and/or organizations, like the boy scouts, little league, rotary clubs, etc.
Lastly, here is a rather creepy remainder from a decade ago about how the Democrat Party views the American citizen vis-a-vie with the government … when Biden was then Vice-President, his party let the mask slip off a little when the DNC boldly proclaimed “The Government Is The Only Thing We All Belong To.”
There is nothing democratic about Joe Biden and his Democrat Party. Their creepy fetish with ever more centralized government and control is the very essence of statism, i.e., semi-fascism. Statism is anathema to our constitutional republic.
Joe Biden and his ilk are looking for semi-fascist perpetrators, but they are only engaged in psychologically projection. Biden needs only to look in the mirror and at his own political party to find the real fascists.
Anyways, here’s a play off of the “Les Miserables” photo …
Thanks for all the ancillary materials! It was indeed your link to the McCotter tribute to Breitbart a few weeks ago that launched this particular screed.
Following the principle that politics is downstream of culture, and in a corrupt swamp full of self-absorbed, scum sucking sucker fish, choose to be a … barracuda!
As such … here is a song dedication for your column; it is so appropriate:
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Holy shit, you really said this on television? “if you gave them a million dollars they wouldn’t buy a house” What are you trying to accomplish from your sad ivory tower?https://www.mediamatters.org/jesse-watters/fox-news-host-homeless-it-was-more-civilized-when-we-banished-them-asylums-and-put
When these people are offered space in the shelters, they refuse to go there. When they are offered a unit in the projects, they refuse to go there, or they go there for just long enough to trash the joint. The sad but inescapable fact is that these people live on the street because they want to.
That’s not the way you or I would respond, but it’s important to recognize that these people are not at all like you or I. They are some combination of mentally disturbed, substance abusers, and attention seekers.