Mini-public boomlets have emerged for US Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) or JD Vance to emerge as the new majority leader in Wednesday's GOP leadership elections. Not helpful and not happening.
As a long-time conservative activist and student of Senate procedure (my wife was a GOP Senate staffer for 20 years, as you know) I agree that your analysis is spot on. Like you, several of the folks on the Conservative Action Project memo supporting Scott are friends I've had for years, but they are wrong about this. Two nits, about your post. 1) Unfortunately, former Senator Jim DeMint signed that memo (I'd guess that his name was added after you linked to it). 2) I don't consider Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk to be conservatives. They're populist grifters in my opinion.
Thanks for letting me know that DeMint was pressured/signed the memo. He was not on the version that I initially linked to. He disappoints. You raise a good point about Carlson and Kirk. The latter is a grifter, the former is all over the map philosophically. Perhaps I should call him iconoclastic.
Some good stuff in here. I think your description of process and criticism of tactics is fair enough.
But I think your message would be better received if you didn’t continually use “MAGA” as a pejorative. IMO in doing so you contribute to the fracturing you yourself are complaining about.
And on top of using the term as a pejorative, you do it at least partially inaccurately to boot.
Senators Johnson, Rubio, Paul and Cruz are surely not MAGA-fixated senators, and none are populists (Rubio might have a tiny bit of it…). They are each in their own way principled conservatives. That they want even *more* conservative - not populist, but conservative - leadership of the Senate than we had under McConnell or would get under Cornyn or Thune is a credit to them, and should not be a criticism.
I did not use MAGA as a pejorative—I have never done so. I specifically expressed support for them as a group while being critical of their tactics here. I wanted to find an adjective that best describes the group of conservatives involved, Trump-centric conservative groups behind the boomlet I described. It was neither expressed as nor intended to be a pejorative.
Well, I’ll take your word for intent. But the repeated use read that way to me.
And again, Johnson, Cruz, Rubio and Paul are NOT MAGA-types, period. You left out harder-core conservatives from your description when you lump those 4 in particular in with the MAGA populist crowd. Yet they were the majority of the Republican senators not part of “the Establishment” named.
As a long-time conservative activist and student of Senate procedure (my wife was a GOP Senate staffer for 20 years, as you know) I agree that your analysis is spot on. Like you, several of the folks on the Conservative Action Project memo supporting Scott are friends I've had for years, but they are wrong about this. Two nits, about your post. 1) Unfortunately, former Senator Jim DeMint signed that memo (I'd guess that his name was added after you linked to it). 2) I don't consider Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk to be conservatives. They're populist grifters in my opinion.
Thanks for letting me know that DeMint was pressured/signed the memo. He was not on the version that I initially linked to. He disappoints. You raise a good point about Carlson and Kirk. The latter is a grifter, the former is all over the map philosophically. Perhaps I should call him iconoclastic.
You are a refreshing reality checker on one’s own party and an astute observer of relationship and power dynamics.
You are very kind. Thank you.
Some good stuff in here. I think your description of process and criticism of tactics is fair enough.
But I think your message would be better received if you didn’t continually use “MAGA” as a pejorative. IMO in doing so you contribute to the fracturing you yourself are complaining about.
And on top of using the term as a pejorative, you do it at least partially inaccurately to boot.
Senators Johnson, Rubio, Paul and Cruz are surely not MAGA-fixated senators, and none are populists (Rubio might have a tiny bit of it…). They are each in their own way principled conservatives. That they want even *more* conservative - not populist, but conservative - leadership of the Senate than we had under McConnell or would get under Cornyn or Thune is a credit to them, and should not be a criticism.
I did not use MAGA as a pejorative—I have never done so. I specifically expressed support for them as a group while being critical of their tactics here. I wanted to find an adjective that best describes the group of conservatives involved, Trump-centric conservative groups behind the boomlet I described. It was neither expressed as nor intended to be a pejorative.
Well, I’ll take your word for intent. But the repeated use read that way to me.
And again, Johnson, Cruz, Rubio and Paul are NOT MAGA-types, period. You left out harder-core conservatives from your description when you lump those 4 in particular in with the MAGA populist crowd. Yet they were the majority of the Republican senators not part of “the Establishment” named.
Excellent thinking from a voice of experience.
Bravo!