(Nov. 25) President-elect Donald Trump is not ushering in an administration of conservative populism. He’s pushing a fringe kookery that is marinated as deeply in left-wing shibboleths as it is in right-wing grievances.
This should be no surprise: With very few exceptions, the only identifiably conservative successes in Trump’s first terms came either through merely transactional alliances or through the efforts of former Vice President Mike Pence and the people he placed into office.
Previous columns have discussed in significant detail how Trump failed at illegal immigration control until Pence’s “Remain in Mexico” negotiations bailed him out, how Trump failed to secure funding for the border wall, how Trump torpedoed efforts to repeal Obamacare, how Trump drove up the trade deficit, and how Trump was already taking government debt to unprecedented levels even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
For now, let’s just concentrate on his nominees and appointees for his incoming administration. Axios was right to call it “Trump’s liberal cabinet.” It isn’t just a hidebound Republican “establishment” that should feel betrayed, but also anybody remotely devoted to what modern conservatism has meant for three-quarters of a century.
Even three years ago, anyone would have been considered a loon for suggesting that Trump would build an administration around left-wing nut Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Bernie Sanders-endorsed Tulsi Gabbard, a leading investment partner of radical-left financier George Soros, a horribly pro-union defeated congresswoman, a doctor who encouraged Facebook to censor alternative views, a billionaire who got rich on government subsidies while donating more than $100,000 to former President Barack Obama, a dog-killing governor with no border experience to helm Homeland Security, and a TV doctor who applauded child sex changes.
Yet here we are. Trump has played conservatives like fools.
How in tarnation can conservatives countenance Kennedy to head Health and Human Services when he has pushed for a single-payer (socialized) health system, supported no-restrictions abortion throughout pregnancy, advocated severe limits on proven childhood vaccinations that have saved tens of millions of lives, pushed for an eight-year hiatus on life-saving pharmaceutical research and development, and promoted widespread access to psychedelic drugs?
How can Gabbard be confirmed for director of national intelligence when she is arguably a security risk herself?…. [The full column is at this link.]
