Daren Jonescu

Trump’s Paper Tiger Rebellion Against Conservatives

In the spring of 2011, Donald Trump threatened to start a revolution within the Republican Party, appealing to the naive among Tea Partiers by promising to take on President Obama as no one else could. All too many members of the conservative media, including even some highly reputable ones, took his nonsense seriously.

One Dead Canary Coming Up!

A few minutes past midnight on Monday, January 21st, 2013, someone will give birth to the day's first American baby. With any luck, that baby will have become the first American to see his first light of day in a post-Obama world. That's the good news. Unfortunately, the celebration of that good fortune will have to wait a while. For there is also some bad news—some really bad, you'd-better-sit-down-for-this, maybe-you'd-like-to-reconsider-this-whole-being-born-thing kind of news: That baby owes $185,000. Before interest. And that figure, even if the baby is born under a most propitious star, will grow by $5,000 per year, at least until he, along with the other babies born that day, is old enough to rise up and take action to stop the avalanche.

America’s Constitutionalist Resistance Battles On

With the Republican primaries having devolved to the Establishment's preferred scenario, and all the Tea Party-favored candidates having been either eliminated or marginalized, some are beginning to ask an unavoidable question: Was the constitutionalist revival just a passing fancy with no staying power, or a conservative social club with no heart for a real fight? Is there even anyone left in the room to hear the question, or is the only reply one can hope for the echo of one's own despondent voice filling the hollow chamber?

Rick Santorum’s Lonely Path to Victory

Near the end of his January 23^rd radio program, Rush Limbaugh was asked by a caller what Rick Santorum could do to turn things in his favor. Limbaugh, granting that he likes Santorum, advised only that he should stop talking about himself, and start "acting like a conservative." His point seemed to be that Santorum ought to spend less of his precious microphone time explaining himself and his record, and instead focus on articulating conservative ideas aimed at changing America's direction. Though reasonable enough in itself, Limbaugh's advice seems to overlook the special problem facing Santorum's campaign, the problem which has created his feeling of needing to speak up on his own behalf: No one wants him around anymore.

Capitalism is the Problem—Who Knew?

The perfectly named World Economic Forum--that is, an organization dedicated to the creation of a world economic system--is meeting in Davos again to discuss the problems of the day, and to propose solutions. Although the official problem-solving has not yet begun, a hint as to the direction of said solutions can be found in the definition of the main problem to be solved, offered by the group's leader: the "out-dated and crumbling" economic system, capitalism. Surprise!

Newt the Sophist Has an Answer for Everything

When Newt Gingrich advised the Occupy Wall Street people to "get a job, right after you take a bath," he brought the house down. Likewise each time he has pushed back against a debate moderator, culminating in his cluster bomb defense against John King's inept effort to begin the January 19^th debate with a zinger about Gingrich's ex-wife--a moment which, probably more than any other, propelled Gingrich to victory in South Carolina. (See Judi McLeod's two-part series on this one, here and here.) In both cases, as well as in other instances, he said the right thing, and said it effectively. The question with Gingrich, in these instances and always, is why he said what he said, and whether he meant it.

Sarah Palin: Rogue Goes Relative

Missing Michele Bachmann yet? I have previously chronicled the exerted and predictable effort of the Republican Party Establishment to smother the campaign of the most consistent and articulate constitutionalist in the party's nominating process. The kiss of death, as I explained at the time, was Sarah Palin's comment, the evening before the Iowa Caucus, that this was not Bachmann's "time." Palin's obvious personal interest in undermining Bachmann is a taboo subject among conservatives--as are all of her recent questionable choices and statements. Sadly, I believe it is high time for the Tea Party to face the fact that their beloved Mama Grizzly has gradually metamorphosed into the elephant in the room. And yes, that's the GOP elephant--a Trojan elephant, concealing the Republican Establishment inside.

Global Warming: The Evidence is Endless

If I believed the Earth was slowly turning into cheddar cheese, I could invoke this theory to explain a lot of things. Why is the rat population in our major cities growing so quickly? Earth cheesification is providing more rat food. Why have there been so many earthquakes lately? The cheesification of the tectonic plates has made them less resistant to sudden shifts. Why are glaciers melting? The freezing point of cheddar cheese is lower than that of water; as the Earth at the poles undergoes cheesification, the unfrozen cheese is causing a slight warming of the ice sheets from below, resulting in unusual levels of melting.

Death to Capitalism! (Seriously!)

Recent events in the Republican primary campaign, ugly though they have been, have nonetheless performed a tremendous and necessary service for the American people, or at least for those still capable of caring about their country. They have shined a blazing white light on a fundamental theoretical divide between the Republican Party Establishment and the conservative voters it pretends to represent. The divide pertains to whether free enterprise is a positive government project, as it clearly is for the Establishment, or a pre-governmental default position, as it is for constitutionalists.

“We Few, We Happy Few”

Since 1992, Gallup has released an annual analysis of American political preferences, culled from numerous polls taken over the course of the year. The 2011 results show, for the third consecutive year, that self-described conservatives are the largest ideological group in the nation (40%), followed closely by moderates (35%), while those identifying themselves as liberals finish a distant last (21%). Conservative commentators of various stripes have warmed to these reports over the years, citing them early and often as evidence of America's broad rejection of liberalism, and of a significant conservative plurality.

Biting the Invisible Hand That Feeds

Newt Gingrich's attacks on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital reveal further evidence of at least two things that should be obvious by now, but which remain unclear to many Republicans. The first is that Gingrich's instincts are completely anti-conservative at their core. The second, which is more ominous, is that so many who wish to see themselves as conservatives – or even libertarians – have in fact accepted a basic moral premise of leftism, leaving them unable to present a consistent moral position against the Left, and thus leaving the Western world in an inexorable leftward drift, regardless of which party wins any given election.

Et tu, Sarah?

Michele Bachmann has dropped out of the Republican presidential race after a poor result in Iowa. Votes were cast. They were counted. Bachmann did not get enough of them. Pure and simple, right? Well, yes and no. The method of casting votes in the Iowa Caucuses is indeed simple; and I have no reason to doubt the purity of the vote-counters. It was the process leading up to January 3^rd that left some room for quibbling in the purity and simplicity departments. Indeed, the impurity in the process was precisely its lack of simplicity. In other words, the process was rigged with enough details to hide even a pretty chubby devil. Before moving on with the remainder of the nominating race, it behooves us to take a moment to poke around in those details until we expose at least the point of this devil's tail.

A Conservative Voter’s Scorecard

The Republican Party has finally arrived at the moment when all the Establishment's efforts to rig the nominating process in favor of business as usual—in favor of itself—must take a back seat to actual human beings, the voters, who at last get to have their say. And, much to the chagrin of the powers that be, the period during which the voices of voting citizens can make their own case for or against the status quo lasts much longer than the manipulators would have one believe.

They Think You Are Stupid

In a recent Canada Free Press article, I tried to outline the precise dynamic the Republican Party Establishment has created during the primary campaign, the methods it has used to manipulate voters, and the resemblance of this year’s effort to shepherd Americans in their preferred direction to similar efforts in all modern Republican primaries. The template is being played out to predictable perfection, right down to the final moments of pre-Iowa campaigning, even as we speak. The one new twist, perhaps, is the extent to which the so-called “new media,” which many conservatives hoped for years would be a counter-Establishment force, has at last begun to be co-opted into the machinery.

It’s All Over But the Voting

The Republican and media Establishments have joined hands in an attempt to lead America buoyantly, triumphantly off the cliff into the bottomless pit of civilizational dissolution. They have fought their version of the good fight, prematurely creating the optics, and, if all goes well, the dynamics, of a two-man race, where in fact there are six men and a woman.

Welcome to Establishment Fear-Mongering 101

Apart from die-hard Ron Paul supporters, does anyone seriously believe that Paul can win the Republican nomination? Strategist Dick Morris agrees with you; of course he can't win. But that did not prevent Morris from making the "terrifying" danger of Paul's candidacy the theme of his interview with guest-host Mark Steyn on Hannity the other day. And his reasoning was a perfect window into the Washington Establishment's machinations during this primary season. His method was to produce an irrational fear in voters' hearts. His purpose was to cause frightened voters to run home to Mommy—who (surprise!) happens to look a lot like Newt Gingrich.

Is the Tea Party About to Get Knocked Out?

The Tea Party was born of a wit's-end frustration at the intransigence of the Washington Republican Establishment, and grew up fast on the mean streets of President Obama's city of broken dreams. For all the movement's early and extraordinary successes—most remarkably the complete rehabilitation of the Republican Party itself from a shiftless loser on the brink of generational decline to the ascendant force in Washington and in the public imagination—the sheer urgency of action within that movement militated against any serious foundational exegesis.

The Convenient Myth of Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment

On December 7^th, Sean Hannity, on his Fox News program, began an interview with Rudy Giuliani this way:

"While some candidates are adhering to former President Ronald Reagan's Eleventh Commandment, Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican, well, others are ignoring the Gipper's advice and they're going on the attack."

Michele Bachmann Fights Like A Girl

It has been more than thirty years since Margaret Thatcher altered the Western political landscape, helping to save the world from Soviet expansionism while coming as near as anyone could to saving England itself from the cultural and economic quagmire that, since her departure, has continued to deepen. Nevertheless, over the past few months the most serious female presidential candidate in U.S. history—and the one most similar in principles to the early Thatcher—has been treated as an also-ran by both the mainstream and Republican-leaning media, as well as subjected to unfounded accusations of incompetence or instability—from conservatives.

The Case for Michele Bachmann

The Republican Establishment long ago settled on Mitt Romney as its preferred representative. Endless commentary and polling was expended trying to create the broad impression that he was the inevitable choice anyway, so conservatives should just get on board. The effort was wasted. The early stages of the primary process established only one thing with absolute certainty: Tea Party conservatives, the most serious and motivated faction in the process, will not support Romney.