The Death of Social Conservatism in the GOP
Republicans cede more and more ground to the Democrats in the culture war.
by George Neumayr
September 30, 2021, 12:08 AM
“No one will question, you know, my conservative credentials,” said Liz Cheney in her recent 60 Minutes interview. She then proceeded in the same interview to endorse gay marriage, thereby giving Republicans plenty of reason to question those credentials. She fell back on the fatuous platitudes of the Left to explain her position.
“This is an issue that we have to recognize you know, as, as human beings that we need to work against discrimination of all kinds in our country, in our state,” she said. “We were at, at an event a few nights ago and, and there was a young woman who said, she doesn’t feel safe sometimes because she’s transgender. And nobody should feel unsafe. Freedom means freedom for everybody.”
The Founding Fathers rejected that mindless definition of freedom, arguing that liberty is distinct from license. If “conservatism” can be reconciled with gay marriage and transgenderism, it is meaningless. Cheney’s boast about her impeccable conservative credentials is no more convincing than Terry McAuliffe’s description of his supporter Bill Kristol as “the leading conservative” in the country.
Many of the “conservatives” from the pre-Trump era are now de facto Democrats. They pop up on MSNBC and CNN to second this or that woke cause. Nicole Wallace, Steve Schmidt, and company ran the GOP for years. Is it any wonder that any meaningful form of social conservatism died in it?
What passes for social conservatism in the GOP these days is pretty paltry. Republicans can’t even be bothered to oppose Biden’s plans for a female military draft. “Defense bill that would make women register for draft largely supported by Republicans,” ran a recent Washington Examiner headline. George W. Bush, who normalized female soldiers in combat, made this GOP concession inevitable.
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https://spectator.org/the-death-of-social-conservatism-in-the-gop/
