Honey Badger Conservatives!

"Progressives aren't interested in what we have to say, or in having a "reasonable dialog" with us. It's nothing but "shut up or we'll shut you up!". This is what their shouty, dialed-up-to-11 rhetoric is designed to do. And this generally works, or at least, that's how it has worked in the past. But what has happened over time is a process very much like how we produced antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Like a dose of penicillin, the shouty rhetoric takes out "nice" conservatives or conservatives who decide they have better things to do than to get shouted at by shouty progressives. But some conservatives manage to survive, so the dosage is upped: the shouts get even louder and the attacks get more vicious and are extended beyond the political arena into personal lives. This creates a very hostile environment. But even it drives out or silences many conservatives, it also creates a new strain of tough conservatives who don't mind fighting, who like to fight, and can throw 2 punches for every one they take. I'm thinking of Ann Coulter, Andrew Breitbart, and Milo Yiannapoulos. To this we can add the guy who wrote this book, Doug Giles, and Townhall.com columnist Kurt Schlichter.

"There are probably others I've missed. And of course, what is now the most imperviously resistant conservative ever, Donald Trump, who is so impervious that nobody really knew for sure until a couple of months ago that he even was conservative. Oh sure, there were indications, but there were indications the other way, too, so it was kind of a guessing game as to how he would actually govern until he started naming individuals to fill the various open cabinet positions.
Nothing in the progressives' conservative eradication toolkit has worked against Trump. They keep upping the dosage, the shouting gets more shouty, but it all just bounces right off. They've actually got a new drug they've been trying to use, they've left off calling Trump a "racist" because the word has lost its effectiveness due to overuse, like the little boy who cried 'wolf', after awhile, people stop responding. This new drug they've rolled out is "white supremacist", which I guess is supposed to a more potent version of "racist." They first tried it out on Trump aide Steve Bannon. But even though it didn't work, the specialists haven't figured out that it didn't work, and is not working on Trump, either. Another "next-gen" drug they're using is "literally Hitler." They tell us that Donald Trump is "literally Hitler." Now, at this point, the progressives have pretty much shot their wad. What could possibly be worse than being "literally Hitler"? Literally Hitler's mom? Literally double-secret Hitler?

"There have been downstream consequences of the progressive failure. Many conservatives simply don't care anymore. Warden's excellent piece earlier this week makes this clear.

"The new, Trump-era "honey badger conservative" playbook appears to be this:

1. conservative: says something
2. liberal: you're a racist | sexist | bigot | pejorative du jour
3. conservative: fcuk you.

"Somewhere, Andrew Breitbart is smiling."
(From Ace of Spaces)