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 as The Cucked Avenger illustrates why that happened.

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 doubled down on the Southern Avenger persona instead of giving a shit about Frank Rich columns in New York Magazine, Rand Paul’s presidential campaign would have been better off. We all said far edgier things in the 2016 election and it helped Trump in the digital space.

Jack Hunter went on to write a series of cringe articles for The Daily Beast like “The Southern Avenger Repents” for liking the Confederate flag.

The Daily Beast:

“As a Charleston, South Carolina-based conservative radio personality known as the “Southern Avenger,” I spent a decade defending the Confederate flag that is yet again the center of so much controversy.

I said the flag was about states’ rights. I said it stood for self-determination. I said it honored heritage.

I argued the Confederate flag wasn’t about race. I believed it. Millions of well-meaning Southerners believe it too.

I was wrong. That flag is always about race. Whatever political or historical points the flag’s defenders make, there will never be a time—and never has been a time—in which millions of Americans have looked at that symbol and not seen hatred. …

But I am here to say there is something at stake far more important than this symbol.

Heritage might not be hate. But battling hate is far more important than anyone’s heritage, politics, or just about anything else. We should have different priorities.

I now have different priorities. …”

He did a podcast on the article.

He went on to boast about how soft, weak and emasculated that he had become.

As the cultural tide turned toward populism and nationalism and away from libertarianism, The Cucked Avenger continued writing groveling, apologetic articles for The Daily Beast like this one.

The Daily Beast:

“Milo Yiannopoulos is a beast.

The 31-year-old, boastfully gay Breitbart writer—or “dangerous faggot”—has quickly become a hero to young conservatives and libertarians for smacking down the ridiculous out-of-control “social justice warriors” who troll college campuses. …

I know well where this kind of collectivist thinking can lead. (You can read at The Beast about my own “Southern Avenger” controversy).

I’ve spent the last eight years as part of the Ron and Rand Paul-inspired liberty movement, speaking to groups like Young Americans for Liberty (a few YAL local chapters have sponsored some Milo Yiannopoulos events). Today, YAL is the largest center-right youth group in America.

As an organization dedicated to individual liberty.

The alt-right is the polar opposite of libertarianism. …

Either way, race or racism is always at the center of the alt-right debate.

There’s a reason for this.

Despite Yiannopoulos’s promotion of cultural libertarianism—a much-needed call for freer speech, which I agree with—the heart of alt-right tribalism leads to something that is definitively anti-libertarian and functionally authoritarian. The alt-right is characterized by an extreme collectivism that is unavoidably racist. ..”

Strength and confidence is what attracts an audience.

MILO had more appeal as a flamboyant homosexual than Jack Hunter in 2016.

No one cares what The Cucked Avenger has to say these days because he is politically correct. Presumably, he has continued preening about “racism” or “white supremacy” and apologizing to the Left about the Confederate flag. They still have his balls mounted on the wall as a trophy at The Daily Beast.

I’ve said all kinds of things that I regret over the years, but it is just words. If you have said something you regret, just move on. Don’t prostrate yourself before these outrage mobs!

Note: Being proud of my Southern heritage is something that I will never apologize for in this world. I don’t care how much it costs me. I will go to my grave as a proud Southerner. That’s where my loyalties are and always will be. You can also hold me to that!