I wrote this comment on an article for Fox News (27 July 2018) written by corrupt non-White immigrant and convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza. The article pretends to defend President Trump from the accusation of being a White Supremacist, by presenting Richard Spencer as a real White Supremacist.
My objection is that Dinesh D’Souza is, as usual, misrepresenting things. He misrepresents Richard Spencer and he misrepresents conservatism, rejecting all traditional attributes of conservatism that do not fit his shysterly argument.
I went through the motions of posting the comment, but where it went, I have no idea. Amid the sea of comments, maybe nobody will see it again. It is lost like a needle in a haystack. Then there is the possibility that the editors will decide not to let the public see it if they dislike it. So, I am putting it here:
There are several things about this article that are dishonest.
In the first place, Richard Spencer does not call himself a White Supremacist. If you asked him if he subscribed to that label, he would say emphatically no. So, where does Dinesh D’Souza get that Richard Spencer is “a real White Supremacist”?
The other big thing is that Dinesh D’Souza’s idea of “conservatism” is very skewed.
What we call conservatism today is very different from what was called conservatism when National Review was founded in 1955. When National Review was founded, conservatism included Christian morality, but conservatives also supported racial segregation.
The identification of conservatism with Segregationism changed gradually during the 60s and 70s. By Reagan’s time, conservatism had become heavily mingled with traditional LIBERAL ideas, like the infallibility of the free market. The racial motive was still present among conservative voters, but it could no longer be overtly stated. There is an interview where Reagan’s campaign strategist Lee Atwater admitted this.
Dinesh D’Souza picks out ONLY the LIBERAL parts of what was passing for conservatism in Reagan’s day, and pretends that these are the exclusive criteria of conservatism. Particularly absurd is the pretense that non-White immigration is conservative! For Dinesh D’Souza, to be called a “conservative” you must be an old-style liberal. What used to be the conservative position on race and immigration is now a disqualifier.
BS!
I could also have said something about the fact that there has been, historically, such a thing as conservative socialism, so that the identification of conservatism with less government also is invalid and represents the corruption of conservatism with liberal ideas, but the maximum length for comments would not allow it.