Progressivism has become a faux-moral movement hurling charges of racism, homophobia, and a slew of other meaningless buzzwords at anyone they disagree with. The battle of ideas has been replaced by a battle of feelings, and outrage has replaced honesty. Diversity reigns supreme unless it’s that pesky diversity of thought. It’s a recipe for authoritarianism.
Dave Rubin (former left-wing podcaster)
In case you haven’t noticed, Europe is shifting right, and it’s not just Hungary and Poland. The Tories rode Brexit to power in the UK. Nationalists just won power in Sweden and Italy. Don’t be surprised if the French elect Marine Le Pen in a few years, because cancel culture, rising prices, and war in Ukraine have ignited nationalism and populism throughout Europe. And don’t be surprised if this wave hits America in November.
Between 2010 and 2019, blue states New York, California, New Jersey, Michigan and Illinois lost 4 million residents (source: Forbes). In 2021, red states Texas, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Arizona and Indiana attracted the most intra-America movers (source: U-Haul). And, in the 12 months leading up to June 2022, more than a million Democrats had re-registered as Republicans (source: NPR). The mid-terms are the GOP’s to lose (if they’re smart).
I was a country-club Republican until Jeb Bush got rocked by MAGA in the primaries. The GOP was forever changed by Trump’s anti-globalism and un-bridled patriotism, but that’s just the half of it. A conservative winner today must be a fighter, calling out “the swamp” and standing up to the “fake news.”
President Trump, of course, took it too far, but the western world is hungry for tough-minded problem solvers and sick of problems made worse (like crime) by double-talking liberals. To explain why so many Americans have recently left the party, the New York Post recently interviewed former Democrats.
It is one part failure to address and solve problems. Justin Roth joined the GOP in 2020, after his old party went “off the rails” with its priorities. “My top priorities right now are inflation, the price of housing, food and gas – things that affect my life personally and the lives of my family members.” New GOP voter Michael Lee added, “Defunding the police will cause more problems. The Democratic establishment isn’t really there to serve the people.”
It is one part divisive cancel culture, which cost Democrats now-independent Holden Culotta: “I find myself in the disaffected center. The cultural things the left is talking about today are really alienating. If we’re only talking about pronouns, we’re not really solving issues or moving the country forward.” His view was voiced by Tesla’s Elon Musk: “In the past I voted Democrat, because they were the kindness party, but they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.”
Back to those re-locations and re-registrations, which resulted in 1.5 million more GOP primary votes this year. Many of them and their votes were in 71 battleground districts (per Real Clear Politics), where recent polls found registered voters favor GOP House candidates by 21 points (source: Washington Post). Here’s what’s going on at the granular level.
58,000 people left Nancy Pelosi’s “safe” district (CA-12) of San Francisco. Many moved to Arizona and Nevada; battleground states where Yahoo News reported large spikes in GOP primary votes this year (AZ up 66% and NV up 42%). Arizona has one of those battleground districts (AZ-1), where the GOP just got a record 119,501 primary votes – compared to 74,411 for its rival (source: New York Times).
The Post reports the big battleground issues are education (77%), inflation (76%) and crime (69%); and voters know which party defunded the police and kept schools closed, just like they know President Biden is responsible for inflation. Throughout the western world, there is much fear and loathing in the ranks of everyday people, so pay attention to Italy’s new super-conservative prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
“I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am a Christian, and you can’t take that away from me. Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology, yes to the culture of life, no to the abyss of death. No to the violence of Islam, yes to safer borders, no to mass immigration, yes to work for our people, no to major international finance.”
Her words are too point-blank, even to my conservative ears; so her election in a G-7 nation is a seminal moment, akin to Margaret Thatcher’s election in 1979. Seriously, who comes right out and attacks liberal dogma, and keeps her job – let alone wins the job of prime minister? Meloni is just one more sign (and a shocking one at that) voters, tired of hapless progressives and mean liberals, are moving to the right.