Gina Carano, Rush Limbaugh and the state of the conservative movement today
I would have written about the wild misadventure all of us in Texas have been through the last week, but I really do not have much to offer right now. Obviously, things went horribly wrong. I really do not know who to blame and so am not going to point any fingers, at least not yet. I am not sure what should be done or whether it was insufficient regulation that was at fault. Beyond the claims of wind power being responsible for the blackouts being so obviously wrong and disingenuous, I really do not know much else.
Two separate, but notable events happened in the last week that crystallize the state of the conservative movement and by extension the Republican Party* today. Last week, Gina Carano was fired from The Mandalorian (a great show, FYI, highly recommended) and dropped by her talent agency. This week, Rush Limbaugh, probably the best-known political talk radio show host, died from lung cancer. The former has been heralded as a conservative hero and victim of cancel culture. The latter was mourned as a leading figure of modern conservatism.
That an obscure celebrity like Carano has become a hero for many on the right and has been referred to as conservative really says it all about what qualifies as conservative these days. Her conservative credentials had nothing to do with her thoughts on healthcare policy, the tax code, immigration, trade policy or whether she liked Milton Friedman or William Buckley. What made her conservative was her never having seen a conspiracy theory she did not like. Whether it was about COVID, the election being stolen or QAnon, she liked them all. The fact that someone like that is welcomed and celebrated in the conservative movement is just the latest sign of how comatose it is.
For the record, I do not think she should have been fired. Her final offense was comparing herself to Jews being persecuted by the Nazis. That is incredibly dumb and pathetic, but should not have resulted in her being fired. At the same time, I am not shedding any tears for her and have no sympathy. I have no sympathy for conspiracy theorists of any stripe. I especially have no tolerance for those who would promote behaviors that put people’s lives in danger and threaten safety, whether that is claiming COVID is a hoax or vaccines are bad.
There has always been a conservative movement in the US. It has taken many different forms and has a vital role to play. We have two major political parties and always have. They both need to be sane. It is a really bad sign when one of the two parties begins to mainstream conspiracy theorists and gives up on governing. Once upon a time, conspiracy theorists like the John Birchers were not welcome in the conservative movement or the Republican Party. Now, they run the show. Today, for every serious conservative person who cares about governing and policymaking, there are at 1000 others who care about entertaining, grifting and trolling. For every Mitt Romney**, there are 1000 Ted Cruzes.
It is to the country’s detriment that in today’s conservative movement and Republican Party conspiracy mongering is widely accepted and governing ignored or even disdained. Donald Trump, of course, epitomized that more than anyone else. But he is just the tip of the iceberg. The reality is the Republicans have no answer to any of the major issues of today. Whether it is immediate like COVID relief or longer term like healthcare or climate change, they have nothing to offer. That goes even for people who are not lunatics or sociopaths.
While some Republican officials lament their situation, it should be no surprise. When a movement has no substantive ideas and is defined solely by grievances and dislike of others, it is inevitable that it will attract bad people. When the sole metric of a movement is that the enemy of their enemy is their friend, it will wind up associating itself with grifters of all kinds. As long as they have the same enemies, today’s conservative movement will welcome conspiracy theorists and con artists of all stripes.
The good news for Republicans is they can win some elections by default based on grievances and sheer opposition. The US political system, unfortunately, can work that way, especially in midterm elections. The bad news is that they will never be able to govern and whatever majorities they win will likely be short-lived. That was basically the case in 2017-18, when all the Republicans could do with their majority was cut taxes. Their efforts at healthcare tanked and had no base of support and they did not even bother with anything else. In 2018, they lost the most House seats since 1974.
What I have no doubt of is that there are many people in the conservative movement today who not only do not care about governing, but also do not even care about winning elections. For someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, I doubt she could care any less whether she is in the majority or the minority. The same goes for virtually all of the entertainers, grifters and trolls. If anything, they might even prefer being in the minority so they could just rant and rave all day. To the extent they would ever want to be in the majority it would be to thwart Democrats, not to pass anything substantive.
This brings us to Rush Limbaugh. Undeniably, he helped bring about the state of the conservative movement today. His entire thing had nothing to do with policymaking or governing. I can count on no hands the number of things he knew about either of those. He was all about entertainment. His job was not to educate on policy, but to rile up, inflame, infuriate and whip people into a frenzy. His rise took that segment of the conservative movement from a small part to the dominant part that it is today.
Tributes poured in from all over the conservative and Republican world. I am sorry for his family and friends’ loss. I do not wish anyone any bad and nobody ever should. Nobody should have to suffer from cancer or any awful disease. Shame on anyone who gloated about or celebrated his death.
At the same time, I think it is fair to say his legacy was awful and he made the world a worse place. He elevated cruelty, insults, mockery, confrontation and demagoguery over all else. He helped make the country angrier, more tribal, more partisan and more aggrieved. He did all this while being free from any responsibility for it. He never had to worry about appealing to voters or the ins and outs of policymaking or doing anything of substance to improve people’s lives. All that mattered to him was ratings.
What is most ironic though about Rush Limbaugh’s legacy is that his biggest victims were not liberals. It was conservatives who value governing and policymaking. It was their wing of the movement that got supplanted by his wing. Nobody did more than him to elevate conservatism as entertainment and discredit it as a governing philosophy. This is why I am glad that there is no equivalent of him with Democrats or the left. If anyone reading this is liberal or a Democrat of any stripe and is wondering what they could do to keep it that way, here is something: turn off MSNBC! It is nowhere near as influential as Fox is with Republicans, but it is not a force for good. While you’re at it, stay away from cable news in general and social media.
Someday, the conservative movement will become a serious movement again. At some point, Democrats will become the party lacking ideas and obsessing over trivialities. Everything goes through cycles. I hope that when people look back on where the conservative movement is today, they do so with sorrow and regret at the missed opportunities and try not to repeat it. That is a lesson not just for those who are conservative, but also for those who are liberal or of any other persuasion. No movement is immune from grifters, conspiracy theorists or people who just say what others want to hear. Every movement should be vigilant and always remember what is supposed to be about: governing and policymaking to improve people’s lives. That is the end goal of politics, not to entertain, not to hate others or feel aggrieved, but to govern effectively to make the country and the world a better place.
On a final note, if anyone reading this is thinking to themselves, “But haven’t the Democrats moved leftwards lately?”, the answer is partly yes and I believe a significant part of the reason why is the absence of any ideas on the Republican side. Right now, on issues such as COVID relief, infrastructure, healthcare, climate change and immigration, among others, it is Democrats versus Democrats. Since there is no pushback from the right, the only place to go is left. The debate is not center-left versus center-right or left versus right, it is center versus center-left versus left/far-left. To be sure, there are other reasons for the shift, but the absence of any conservative counter ideas makes it much easier.
*The Republican Party and conservative movement are not necessarily the same, but are intertwined. The Republican Party is the vehicle by which the conservative movement has governed and will continue to be should it become interest governing again. I use the Republican Party and conservative movement interchangeably because of that.
**Romney is not entirely blameless. He had an easy opportunity to disavow Trump in 2012, but chose to suck up to him and bragged about getting his endorsement. That said, he has been a pretty good Senator and has proposed some good things such as his child tax credit plan. He could be a good partner on a whole host of other issues in the future. To his credit, he voted to convict Trump last year and did so again this year and has been vocal against conspiracy theorists since getting elected Senator. I wish him the best and so should anyone who wants to see a sane, policy-oriented Republican Party.