We’ve become so accustomed to trying to operate as a cohesive unit that we aren’t putting in the work necessary as individuals.
For transparency, I’ve never been a fan of Rodney King’s immortal words, “Can we all get along?” No, we can’t, and no, we shouldn’t. Whether it’s bipartisanship or unity within an ideological group, such manufactured consensuses rarely yield a positive result. They only move poor policies forward in the case of bipartisan legislation. In the case of unity within an ideological group, they create false compromises that invariably bubble up later as bigger problems. More importantly, unity creates complacency.
Lest we forget, there was a bipartisan “consensus” that we should invade Iraq. Twice. There was manufactured unity among conservatives that John McCain and Mitt Romney were the best Republican warriors to take on Barack Obama. And let’s not dismiss that nearly three out of four Americans are “fully vaccinated” while over 80% have taken at least one jab.
This is why I’m not opposed to the various battles taking place among conservatives over the Israel-Hamas war. Most of them are petty, such as the tiff between Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly over whether or not pro-Hamas students should be “blacklisted” by corporate America. It all started with a Tweet by Vivek Ramaswamy claiming kids are stupid and should not be permanently harmed by their stupidity. Kelly had a problem with that. Owens chimed in to remind her that she was once a pro-abortion leftist as a stupid kid. I’m not going to post the threads because it’s a bunch of silliness coming from both sides.
With that said, I’m glad it’s happening. I’m glad that Ben Domenech, co-founder of The Federalist, is out there accusing Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk of being an anti-Semite even if I completely disagree with the assessment. Kirk questioned whether parts of the Israeli government and/or military were involved in the Hamas attacks.
I’m glad that there are those on the right who are siding with Palestinians even if I’m not among them.
The reason I’m glad there is all this bickering over a war that’s on the other side of the globe is because the larger conservative movement is in desperate need of a revamp. It has become about as feckless as the Republican lawmakers they help elect. Big words, little action. Sadly, the same cannot be said about the leftist movement. Their words are idiotic but their actions are effective. Those actions may be devious, misguided, intimidating, and destructive, but they’re effective at accomplishing their goals.