First Things: The True Con

94% Approval Rating in the Republican Party, an all time high. Ronald Reagan was 87%. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 13, 2019

Why does it seem like True Conservatism keeps producing more of these people no matter how many times it wins elections? https://t.co/UCs7DBOiE2

— EMPEROR 'KINGFISH' WHITEPILL (@CptBlackPill) July 14, 2019

Matthew Schmitz:

“In June, an announcer on CBS observed, “George Will is essentially unchanged from the way he looked forty years ago.” He still wears Brooks Brothers. He still parts his hair on the left. And in politics, while lesser men have compromised with the ascendancy of ­Donald Trump, Will has stayed true to his convictions: “His politics, like his appearance, are essentially unchanged.”

Not quite. Though Will still claims to be a conservative, he has radically changed what he means by that term. In 1983’s Statecraft as Soulcraft, Will argued that government inevitably does legislate morality, and indeed “should do so more often.” He rejected “the idea that governments should be neutral in major conflicts about social values.” He denied that “the public interest is produced by the spontaneous cooperation of individuals making arrangements in free markets.” He confessed his “deviation from laissez-faire orthodoxy,” and announced, “It is time to come up from individualism.”

In 2019’s The Conservative Sensibility, Will employs the same gentlemanly prose—to opposite ends. He states that government should refrain from “imposing its opinions about what happiness the citizens should choose to pursue.” He maintains that men should be “free to maximize their satisfactions according to their own hierarchy of preference.” He concludes that the public interest can, after all, be achieved “in the spontaneous order of a lightly governed society.” He frets over the fact that the poor pay no income tax, and describes the rich and corporations as “unpopular minorities.” He champions “individualism and the rights of the individual.”

Despite his complete ideological reversal, Will has remained remarkably consistent in his self-styling. In 1983, he lamented that America contained “almost no conservatives, properly understood.” Today, he again calls conservatism “a persuasion without a party.” His positions have changed, but his pose has not. He is still the lone True Conservative. …”

This was a funny article.

True Conservatism is a posture. These people like to pose as stalwart defenders of “principles,” but what they really crave above all else is mainstream respectability and getting that pat on the head on MSNBC. The goal of every True Con is to move on from a gig in the conservative movement and climb the status ladder to work for a mainstream media outlet. David French writes for Time. George Will and Michael Gerson write for The Washington Post. S.E. Cupp is an atheist who works for CNN.

David French is one of their favorite losers:

George Will has played the role of True Conservative for decades:

Blompf is correct to define himself against these people.

In spite of having virtually no accomplishments, the conservative base has stuck with him because he isn’t George Will, David French or a Democrat. 94% of Republicans support him.