Kathleen Parker and Conservatives

A recent column by WaPo columnist Kathleen Parker speculated on what Donald Trump has over Republicans that they continue to be loyal to him. She speculated that he must have blackmail tapes on each of them.

Along the way she made the statement that "the purpose of conservatives is to put the brakes on liberals' excesses".

There are two ways you can put the brakes on something. You can stop it completely or you can slow it down. Either way, this says a lot about Parker's view of conservatives.

If she meant that conservatives are to slow liberals then she is conceding that the liberals are correct in everything but they are moving too fast.

If she meant that conservatives are to stop liberals without offering a direction of their own then she is echoing the Democrats' charge that the Republicans are the "party of No" with nothing to offer.

This is what happens to a conservative who starts appearing on Sunday talk shows and writing for the WaPo. They act as a token conservetive, coasting on credentials that are way past renewing while parroting the liberals. After a while they accept the values of the people who surround them and are reduced to calling for the same goals but at a slower pace. That pretty much describes all of the "conservatives" at the WaPo as well as the "conservatives" on Sunday talk shows (I'm looking at you, John Kasich).

And, to answer Parker's question, Trump doesn't "have" anything on the Republicans who support him. They support him because, to him, conservative values are more than just applying the brakes to a liberal agenda. A conservative agenda means putting American workers first, being skeptical about global warming, standing up to China, having trade policies that are as advantageous as possible for Americans, energy independence and policies that unite Americans instead of teaching that all whites are racists.

Sorry I don't have a link to Parker's column. I read it in dead tree format and didn't see a link when I googled.

The Jeep Superbowl Ad

So, Jeep ran an ad during the Super Bowl. It's message is unity and a "ReUnited States". It features Bruce Springfield visiting a chapel in the middle of nowhere (or, according to the ad, in the middle of everywhere) to light a candle before driving off in an open Jeep while wearing a cowboy hat.

This as is so off-key, it's hard to know where to start.

The Boss is as good a starting place as any. He's the working-class hero.

He's also a guy from New Jersey who's known for ball caps instead of cowboy hats and who absolutely hated George W. Bush as well as Donald J. Trump. Does anyone think for a moment that The Boss would have made an ad calling for unity if Trump was still President? I didn't think so.

So what's he doing out in the middle of the country at the chapel? He's lighting a candle. Is this a prayer to unite the country? Or is he giving thanks to God that Trump is no longer president? I suspect it's the latter.

There's views of fields and crosses and country roads. Do you know who lives out in the country and goes to church? Trump voters. Do you think they're going to buy their SUVs from Jeep because a Trump-hater from Jersey put on a cowboy hat and drove to Kansas? Ha!

Jeep is so clueless that they didn't even include the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in their map. Alaska and Hawaii are missing, also.

One final thing - for god's sake, put the top on the Jeep Bruce!

https://www.ign.com/videos/jeep-super-bowl-55-commercial-the-middle-ft-bruce-springsteen

What Unity?

Can Joe Biden bring unity to the nation? I have no idea but it doesn't matter. He's not even going to try.

Look at where we are right now. The outgoing president was impeached. There was no hearings, no debate, no investigation. They say that he incited insurrection but they don't have a single quote calling for that. They haven't bothered to find a single witness who can testify that he was taking orders from Trump rather than acting on his own. They just copied some charges from the newspaper and went with that. By that standard, Joe Biden can be impeached for forcing the Ukranian prosecutor to be fired.

Members of Congress are accusing their fellows of being co-conspirators and of having given reconnaissance tours to insurrectionists.

There are calls for members of COngress to be expelled for making objections to the election. Never mind that the Democrats did the same thing after the 2000, 2004 and 2016 election. What was patriotic then is

treasonous now.

Tens of thousands of troops have been brought in to guard the inauguration. This is the most troops even in DC in peacetime and more than stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day.

But members of Congress are worried that there might be insurrectionists in the troops. They can't be trusted so the FBI is investigating them all.

And where is Joe Biden during all this? He's egging them on.

Remember how upset he was about reports that Trump didn't want to be at a D-Day memorial because he didn't want to get his hair wet and that he called the war dead "losers"? Joe called on the ghost of his sainted son Beau. Where is that indignation now that current troops are being slandered?

Yes, Biden says that he'll be president for all Americans but he's shown before that he despises Trump and has sneered at anyone who supported Trump. How can you call for unity from Trump voters after you've called him a clown during a national debate?

Unity means respecting the other side and making concessions. Biden has no intention of doing that. He has a stack of planned Day One orders reversing as much of the Trump administration as possible and advancing a far-left agenda. He's also declared that America is suffering from a crisis of racism. He's made other statements about Trump voters being racists.

This is not the unity of a President who is looking out for all Americans. This is the unity of one side knocking the other to its back and putting a foot on its neck.

If Biden wants unity then he needs to start seeking moderation instead of partisanship.

He can start by calling on the Senate to vote against conviction of Trump and to urge the various prosecutors who want to jail Trump to end their efforts. He can stop calling half of America racist and claiming that we are having a crisis of racism. He's old enough to remember what real racism was in the 1950s and 60s. He should respect the progress since then and be willing to stand up to his party.

But he won't because he's just a partisan hack.