Leave it to CNN to try to make a meal out of such meager ingredients. Never Trump Conservative Inc. “pundits” Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes have announced they are resigning from Fox News due to the “irresponsible” antics of the network’s most popular voice, Tucker Carlson. The fact that they were not being booked on the channel much surely had nothing to do with this not-so-riveting announcement.
Doesn’t Work But They Keep Doing It
Tucker Carlson
(Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Politicon )
CNN was hardly alone in trying to puff up this soggy saga. The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and other dominant media organs pasted the relevant names into their stale templates. The pre-fab skeleton is familiar by now: Decent-minded “principled conservatives” express deeply felt offense over the latest statement or action from a menacing American First personage.
Profiles in courage are duly trumpeted, and self-righteous posturing ensues. That’s been formulaic since former President Donald Trump first went down the escalator in the summer of 2015, yet here it is still being trotted out more than six years later.
A bit of tone-deafness stands out in this otherwise meaningless episode. Two stale establishment Republican professional “wits” have bravely demurred from ever appearing on television with Bret Baier again. Take that, MAGA!
Even CNN’s Brian Stelter acknowledged that Goldberg and Hayes are two tumbleweeds rustling down a long-abandoned GOP Swamp ghost town:
“Every month or so, while conversing with sources at Fox News, I express surprise that Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes are still employed by the network. After all, the two men are reality-based conservative thinkers who refuse to capitulate to Donald Trump. Unfortunately, Fox viewers rarely get to hear from them. They are booked by the network’s producers so rarely that their contracts could be likened to golden handcuffs.”
The term “golden handcuffs” implies that there are numerous other platforms eager to scoop up the duo. Really?
Rosy Bigger Picture for Trump Backers
Behind Stelter’s stilted praise may be a sense of fear. The old partisan parlor tricks seem to be fading away with barely a whimper. Slowly but surely, the red Uniparty onion is being peeled. The Bill Kristol layer has now been fully shed, whether the ruling establishment accepts that or not.
And a second layer may be going, too. The political demises of Representatives Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) seem imminent. Kinzinger — who fully understands this — is not even bothering to run for re-election in 2022. Cheney may delude herself that her father’s name still means something in a Trump-dominated GOP, but her usefulness as an establishment weapon against the populist surge in the Republican Party is all but at an end.
Other once-vital layers have also been discarded. The Koch Brothers-U.S. Chamber of Commerce financial wing of the “conservative” establishment has abandoned the field, openly embracing progressive social issues in an attempt to rebrand and re-establish a political relevance that has been lost.
And the peeling goes on. To the horror of the Swamp complex – media and professional political wings – the Republican base is steadily getting to the core of that onion. Waiting there are the ultimate RINOs who probably don’t fully understand how diminished their standing is in a populist GOP fired with outrage at the excesses and overreaches of a bullying Biden administration.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), it’s time to feel the heat. The termite-riddled Swamp GOP house of cards is tottering. Fittingly, it may not be Trump who is most responsible for the final collapse of a political faction that is entirely bereft of authentic grassroots support.
Growing popular disgust with ultimate D.C. lifer Joe Biden and his brazen assault on traditional American norms may craft a broom big enough to sweep clear both red and blue aisles of the Uniparty before all is said and done.
~ Read more from Joe Schaeffer.
