It never ceases to amaze me how my enemies, about ninety-nine percent of whom inhabit conservatism, inc., can’t resist the impulse to humiliate me even in my golden years. A few weeks ago, I provisionally agreed to participate a youtube program with someone from Conservative Review, a news network run by Mark Levin. Joseph Cotto, who manages the San Francisco Review of Books, made the necessary arrangements. Since I am associated with this enterprise, as head of the editorial board, I consented to becoming an occasional second moderator on Joseph’s programs.
Much to my astonishment, the guest from Conservative Review reneged on his agreement after it was learned that my voice might be heard on the same youtube with his. It seems this person’s boss, Mark Levin, forbade his employees to join any panel or to participate in any discussion in which I might be present. This led me into thinking why Levin would do anything so petty. Certainly I’m no danger to him, any more than Darren Beatty is a threat to Ben Shapiro, who seems quite pleased that the Trump administration dumped a talented speech-writer, for sitting in visible proximity to an outspoken immigration critic, Peter Brimelow. Yes I know that the Southern Poverty Law Center has attacked Brimelow and also from time to time the H.L. Mencken Club, of which I’m president. But the SPLC has likewise gone after Levin and National Review, which has worked hard to become the most thoroughly PC magazine and website in all of conservatism, inc.
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Unless I’m mistaken, we’re now watching a curious spectacle in which the bogus Right tries to refocus attention from accusations that the Left might level against its guys to some isolated figure or group designated as the real “extremists.” This looks like a well thought-out strategy by which the “moderate” Right can shift pressure away from itself toward those further on their Right. The obvious purpose of this plan is to place its user outside the Left’s line of fire. And if this strategy works, which it often does, then the fake Right can do some really neat things, e.g., dialoguing with the Left Center, obtaining commissions to write for leftist publications, and with some luck, appearing on a nationwide TV channel, other than Murdoch Central.
But this plan doesn’t always work; and right now I’m beaming with Schadenfreude as The Atlantic, NR’s onetime buddy magazine is beating up old friends. It seems that someone who was working in Homeland Security, Ian M. Smith, had expressed racist thoughts (that is, unacceptable racist thoughts, not the ones that are aimed at white people). The Trump administration is predictably throwing Smith to the wolves with even more dispatch than it got rid of other workers who came under leftist fire. (What good is there in having a conservative movement that can’t shoot its own soldiers as soon as the enemy attacks?) But the brightest part of this otherwise bleak incident is that Smith worked for years as a feature writer at (you guessed it!) National Review; and a reporter for The Atlantic disclosed this connection, as did a feature story in the Washington Post. Needless to say I won’t wait until ranting Mark lashes out against NR for having harbored identified racists.
Whenever I reach this point in my now familiar tirade against a fake Right that I confess to loathing, some young Republican will ask if I’d like to see our conservative movement vanish into thin air. Supposedly this movement does provide some kind of opposition against even less conservative types. Here go my answers: 1.Some political opposition is so minimal and so tiresomely predictable that one is better off getting rid of it, particularly if much of its energy is devoted to serving as a gate keeper for a leftist adversary that is trying to weaken the Right. 2. But in any case we are dealing with an entirely moot question. It may be all but impossible to dump our compromised “conservative” opposition and create a more effective Resistance. As soon as this largely fake opposition ceased to exist, in all likelihood its donors, namely, defense industry contractors, Zionist casino owners, and the Koch Brothers, would lavish funds on a successor “conservative movement.” 3. And even if this didn’t happen, the Left would provide funding for something looking and sounding like the current conservative establishment. After all, big mouths like Levin and Shapiro are no liability to the other side. And they can always be counted on to go after the unauthorized Right if the Left got really mean.
