I promised myself I’d never be the “principled conservative” again.

After many on the left cheered and applauded the assassination of Charlie Kirk, in addition to their countless other indiscretions, I was done with imploring the right to not “stoop to their level.”

But then the FCC allegedly leaned on ABC to cancel Jimmy Kimmel’s show for blatantly lying about Kirk’s killer, and I thought that was a bridge too far.

After all, I’m a big proponent of the First Amendment, and the federal government telling employers what their workers can and cannot say is the exact kind of totalitarianism the left always falsely accuses us of.

And then Jimmy got his groove back, and all the shrill-voiced hypocrites on the left who cried about the death of free speech didn’t even have to wait a week for the egg to be planted squarely on their faces.

Well color me shocked! Apparently the evil fascist regime let Jimmy Kimmel have his show back after seven whole days in TV timeout.

If all my liberal (and even some conservative) friends were to be believed, the FCC had Kimmel locked up and then threw away the key.

I never want to hear anyone on the left complaining about conservatives participating in cancel culture again.

Kimmel spends a week in purgatory, doesn’t even issue an apology, and he’s back like nothing happened.

Meanwhile, when does Roseanne Barr get her ABC show back?

You know, the one that was named after her?

How about Alex Jones? He should be back on platforms like YouTube any day now, right?

When the right “cancels” someone, I’d argue they don’t even do it properly.

Kimmel gets a stern talking to and a week’s vacation.

The left, conversely, is out for blood; they want to ruin your life, and they’ll do it for far less.

I’m conflicted, because on the one hand, I think conservatives need to start — and have been — fighting back at the left and their underhanded tactics.

On the other hand, I don’t want to become the very thing I opposed when I chose my political path in the first place.

Regardless, this just proves the point that the left is continuing to project their own tactics onto the right.

The party that invented cancel culture and weaponized it against anyone opposing them is now accusing the other side of doing it.

Not only are conservatives failing at cancel culture, they aren’t even trying.

And, ironically, that doesn’t give the left a leg to stand on.