Copyright Newsweek
Tap here to get this newsletter delivered to your inbox. Not for the first and certainly not for the last time, conservatives of late have been debating the nature of the contemporary American right-of-center political coalition—and whether it is true, as some have suggested, that we must see no evil when it comes to fellow (alleged) travelers of that broader coalitional orbit. Is true, in short, that conservatives should operate according to the principle—or non-principle, as the case may ironically be—that there are "no enemies to the right"? In a word: no. One of the hallmarks of being on the Right, at least since the emergence of a republican left/right political divide in the late 18th century, is that to be a "conservative" is to believe in principles of transcendence and timeless meaning. It is, among other things, to reject vogue trends and passing fads, and to instead anchor oneself and one's political movement in teachings and principles nothing less than those of God Himself and the Bible itself. To be a conservative is, among other things, is thus to reject moral relativism. This is why, for years, I have opposed the Right adopting a historically liberal free of free speech absolutism and crying foul when aggrieved (whether for legitimate or illegitimate reasons) in the name of "cancel culture". Such rote, nakedly procedural appeals inherently reek of moral relativism to the extent they are not grounded at all in any substantive conception of good and bad, or right and wrong. The simple reality is that some views and some individuals do deserve to be "canceled," "deplatformed," or otherwise shunned or rejected. To take the alternative position—that there is truly no such thing as an "enemy to the right"—is simply another form of moral relativism. The relevant question, from the perspective of political coalition building and coalition maintenance, is thus not one of absolutism or non-absolutism in inclusion or platforming matters, but merely a prudential one—where to draw the line and how to do so. But make no mistake: Those lines must be drawn. I was quoted in a relevant Free Press essay earlier this week about neo-Nazi podcaster Nick Fuentes: "Lines have to be drawn. It’s not cancellation to say Nick Fuentes is not part of a movement that I want to be associated with. It is instead upholding basic principles such as decency, dignity, and honor." And it's about more than that too: Not cannibalizing a political coalition by letting in horrible human beings and, as a result, losing more reasonable voters—those with a conscience. The American Right needs to be in a viable and healthy place in order to challenge and defeat the Left. That means, at times, policing its own—and not letting the crazies run the asylum. After all, that's what the Left itself has been doing for years now. And how exactly has that been working out for them? Spotlight Democrats Still Haven't Learned Any Lessons On Thursday, Senate Democrats voted for the 10th time to prolong the federal government shutdown. They also voted against funding the military, thereby necessitating that the Pentagon initiate some innovative accounting in order to ensure service members are paid on time. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended his caucus's latest vote, opining, "It's always been unacceptable to Democrats to do the defense bill without other bills that have so many things that are important to the American people in terms of health care, in terms of housing, in terms of safety." But to most Americans, such tendentious bloviating falls on deaf ears. Most commonsense Americans understand that there is no reason paying America's warriors should be held hostage to arcane debates over housing policy. Read the full column. More Views From The Right GOP Congressman: Trump’s Gaza Deal Deserved a Nobel Prize\ We Have an Israel-Hamas Deal. Now Comes the Hard Part TrumpRX Is a Prescription for Lower Drug Prices
