TAC: The Right Kind Of Realignment

Jack “The Cucked Avenger” Hunter is back with a brand new essay at The American Conservative on the realignment of the electorate and the future of the Right.

TAC:

“Such an agenda would be similar to how former Republican congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul, who inspired a libertarian populist movement during the 2008 and 2012 elections, described his populist vision in a 2016 column for CNN. “In a free society, there would be no bailouts to the too-big-to-fail banks, artificially low interest rates, crony regulations or coveted government contracts,” Paul wrote. “Cozying up to power would be a thing of the past since such power centers would cease to exist.”

I asked Carney for his thoughts on libertarian populism’s potential success in 2021. …”

We voted for Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012.

It is worth remembering though what happened to right-libertarianism after the 2012 election. It rejected populism and nationalism, moved to the Left and went in a politically correct direction. As a result, it lost momentum, cratered and never recovered its former audience or influence. Many of the people who used to be right-libertarians gravitated toward the Alt-Right and became nationalists.

“A Republican Party that looks more like the coalition that made the First Step Act happen could build broader coalitions than the racially-charged violence in Charlottesville in 2017 that so stained the Trump era. A shift in tone, attitude and focus—a recalibration—from Republicans’ recent past on issues of race could expand the GOP’s base. …”

This is hilarious.

Does anyone look back on the Trump presidency and cite Jared Kushner’s work on the First Step Act as one of the best things about it?

As for Charlottesville, the reason that rally happened in August 2017 was because the Alt-Right took up the issue of defending historic monuments and opposing Antifa. In light of everything that happened after the death of George Floyd, we were unquestionably on the right side of that issue. In fact, Trump himself went to Mount Rushmore and gave a big speech about the issue last summer because it was a political winner for him. The entire Right has also since been introduced to Antifa and now hates them as much we do. Over half of Republicans even believe that Antifa was behind the Capitol Siege. There were at least a hundred “Charlottesvilles” across America last summer and we had nothing to do with it.

“Though many won’t give him credit, Trump really did open the door on a racial realignment front in a big way. When the First Step Act was signed by President Trump in 2018, one poll promoted by the Senate Judiciary Committee showed that three quarters of Americans supported eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing and prison reform. These issues do not threaten the interests of white working class voters. A libertarian populist could emphasize that big government comes in more forms than just taxes and regulation. …

Black and Hispanic voters care about taking care of their families just as much as white working class voters do. There is arguably no greater priority for most Americans. This likely had something to do with more black and Hispanic voters joining white working-class voters in supporting Trump in 2020 than in 2016. This went against everything the left and mainstream media told us about Trump and race. …”

There is no proof of this.

Just the opposite is true. It was authoritarianism, not libertarianism, that attracted non-White voters to Trump in 2020. Specifically, we know for a fact from the extensive polling that has been done since the election that it was crime and stupid slogans like “Defund the Police” that caused the big swing in the Hispanic conservative vote. It was opposition to BLM that caused it. Non-White voters swung toward Trump because they were afraid of the chaos that had been unleashed by BLM and Antifa.

“Sen. Paul put this paradigm shift into context in August, contrasting today’s GOP to the party’s makeup when his antiwar father, Ron Paul, ran for president 13 years ago, “I think the party that wasn’t ready for my dad in 2008, actually is much more accepting of the positions of less war and military intervention, but, largely because of President Trump expressing similar views.” Parties change, often because leaders effect that change.

What other libertarian stances could become part of the DNA of a populist, working class, multiethnic, classically liberal, and anti-”woke” Republican Party? Let’s find out.”

Aside from our personal dislike of The Cucked Avenger, there are some points that populists and nationalists do have in common with libertarians.

• Foreign Policy (we also largely agree with the Pop Left and even the socialists on opposing foreign wars and American imperialism)
• The Constitution (we like the Bill of Rights especially the First Amendment, Second Amendment and Tenth Amendment)
• Civil Liberties (we strongly agree with Glenn Greenwald on this issue and it is our civil liberties that are largely threatened by Joe’s police state)

Libertarianism has become much less popular on the Right since the 2012 election and Jack Hunter’s rebranding illustrates why.

Politico Magazine:

“In July, the neoconservative website  Washington Free Beacon published an  article with the headline “Rebel Yell: Rand Paul aide has history of neo-Confederate sympathies, inflammatory statements.” The subject was a peculiar one—a staffer for Sen. Paul (R-Ky.) who had worked as a radio shock jock with the nickname “Southern Avenger” while wearing a Confederate-flag wrestling mask.

The Southern Avenger had said some pretty atrocious things. He toasted John Wilkes Booth’s birthday each year and believed that Lincoln “would have had a romantic relationship with Adolf Hitler if the two met.” He worried about “racial double standards for white people” and that “a non-white majority America would simply cease to be America.” …

They had changed. But it didn’t matter. There was no excuse for my comments. In fact, the Jack Hunter of 2013 would have condemned the Southern Avenger of 2003 for making them.

Two weeks after the story broke, I resigned. …

After the Free Beacon story broke, I felt as though nearly everything I cared about had been taken away.

Even worse than losing my job was the fact that the stupid things I’d said gave ammunition to Rand Paul’s enemies.

In September, Frank Rich  wrote about my controversy in  New York magazine, noting that former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson had “ argued that Paul’s harboring of the Southern Avenger illustrates why it is ‘impossible for Rand Paul to join the Republican mainstream.”

Jack Hunter lost the plot.

As Jack Hunter and right-libertarianism became more cucked and politically correct, the audience was moving in the exact opposite direction. The audience was fed up with this shit and voted for Trump in 2016. If Jack Hunter had gone full Southern Avenger instead of giving a shit about Frank Rich columns in New York Magazine, Rand Paul would have better off.