The Conservative Split: MAGA Scores Own Goal for Team Putin

February 26, 2024

The resentment that conservatives, populists and libertarians have towards the “Regime” is completely understandable. I myself have gone on many tirades about how the West's leadership has adopted a maladaptive corporate socialist model and has become increasingly authoritarian. I have seen this trend developing since Reagan left office, its acceleration after the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, and the absolute insanity that has prevailed since the lockdowns and the 2020 U.S. election. You are likely becoming poorer unless you work for the government or a government supported corporation that does not have to worry about market discipline.

Those of us on the anti-Cultural Marxist (anti-woke) side of the aisle fight a struggle against authoritarianism, political censorship, the persecution and imprisonment of political opposition and corporate thuggery. We stand for a smaller and less centralized government, free market capitalism, and free speech. We favor a combination of individualism, with voluntary co-operation. We prefer this to being nameless thugs in a mob being compelled to be part of various maladaptive gangs called communities. We know that good is better than evil and both exist; it is better to produce than mooch; making is better than taking. We should admire George Washington, Adam Smith, and Marcus Aurelius. We should loath Stalin, Marx and Caligula.

The embrace of Putin by a seemingly growing segment of populists on the right is perplexing and troubling. Of course, the populist left's unhinged anti-American, anti-Western civilization, anti-Semitic, and anti-reason obsession is an integral part of this mass deluded cult masquerading as a political philosophy and is a far greater threat. However, I hold conservatives and those on the freedom loving side to higher standards. The brutality of the October 7th atrocities shocked but did not surprise me. A 1,400 year trend of conquest, bigotry, religious intolerance, mass murder, torture, mutilation and systematically organized rape used as a weapon of war to demoralize a group you intend to subjugate and destroy, does not reverse very quickly. However, self-described patriots and libertarians defending, if not celebrating October 7th and shilling for psychopath, tyrant and murderer Vladimir Putin, is splitting the right and may very well ensure the Democrats the 2024 election.

The visit of Tucker Carlson to Moscow, his beta male cringe interview of Putin, and his subsequent propaganda blitz on behalf of the Russian kleptocracy/totalitarian regime should have nauseated conservatives and relegated Carlson to the fringes of the Dark Web. Instead, he is more popular than ever and can seriously be labeled a cult leader. Patriots, who a few years ago tweeted rational comments have been so broken by the 2020 election defeat and the 2022 underperformance in the mid-terms that they have begun to sound like they have lost their very sanity. They are succumbing to mass delusion. We are no fan of the Biden Administration and have been a critic of the globalist Regime and cultural Marxism. but this growing worship of Putin on the right is dangerous. They view Putin as a great man standing up for Christian values against decadence and globalism. They ignore that Putin attacked Ukraine and has the blood of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians, on his hands. He has murdered most of his effective opposition. His “Christianity” may be consistent with the religion of the Czars who were murderous, thuggish autocrats, but it is the opposite of the faith practiced by America’s founding fathers.

However, Putin is clever and is playing Westerners against each other by exploiting the justifiable anxiety over the madness of wokeism. In this case, the enemy of my enemy is a more dangerous enemy. And as far as globalism is concerned, Putin is a consummate globalist. He just happens to be an Eastern globalist, not a Western one. Putin is a globalist and believes in a world order but with Moscow, instead of Washington or Brussels as its capital. Instead of the political and economic elite in the West accruing the benefits of looting ordinary people, he wants the plunder directed to Russians oligarchs, C.C.P. officials and the Mullahs of Iran. The Western globalists use brainwashing to ensure the compliance of the population. Eastern globalists use the threat of violence.

Tucker Carlson has supported Putin over the Ukraine. I have heard him admit it on his Fox show. After that, he pretended it never happened and he was just being “objective.” He had the typical Patrician conservative’s distain for Trump who I believe he saw as a crude and buffoonish peasant. Carlson comes from a privileged background. I met many men like him early in my financial career. They may not have virulently hated interlopers like Trump, but they did not want that “type” in their clubs or on their golf courses, much less their Jewish friends. Of course, Carlson has rebranded himself as a MAGA champion, an economic protectionist, and an anti-capitalist populist with a boner for strong men like Putin. To be clear, I do not see Trump or Hungary's Orban as authoritarian, despite some trying to put the three into the same category.

Conservatives and moderates need to rally around core beliefs like free-market capitalism, individual freedom, a combination of moral decency coupled with tolerance, and the rule of law. The spreading progressive mind virus needs to be stopped and reversed. The border crisis must be addressed and institutions taken over by leftists must be starved of cash

Trump, at this point, is the only alternative. However, the “true believer” right’s ongoing “purity” gaunlet will ensure a Democratic victory, whether the President in 2025 is Biden or some late replacement due to the current President’s cognitive decline. It should be noted that some Vegas betting lines have Trump at only a bit over 50%. Biden’s odds are a bit over one in four. This leaves about a 25% chance of some other Democrat moving into the White House next year.

Conservatives need to grow up. To maximize their chances, they need to do two things. One is they have to welcome back moderate Republicans and stop attacking those who fail the MAGA purity tests. DeSantis and Haley supporters need to show up to the polls for Trump to win. Two, Trump and the Republican Party need to distance themselves from the Putin loving, Jew hating, naively isolationist, and economic illiterate fringe on the right. They probably make up only 10% to 15% of voters and most Americans look at them with distain.

Conservatives need to put aside their differences and distance themselves from the far right. Western civilization hangs in the balance.