A Short History of Conservative Bickering and Its Current Uses

A movement that lacks arguments is not a movement but, to coin a bad neologism, a stillment.

Unity never feels as real yet proves as illusory as it does on Election Day. Whichever candidate wins, factional unity loses. This realization occurs at an accelerated rate for the losers. The winners eventually experience a crackup, too. Governing forces politicians to take the concrete stances that inevitably peel off parts of a coalition.  Subscribe to The American Spectator to receive our fall 2024 print magazine, which includes this article and others like it. An August Fox News poll indicated that Donald Trump has retained the support of 93 percent of Republicans. An elected-by-the-Kremlin hoax, investigations by more than a dozen House committees, two impeachments, numerous indictments and lawsuits, secretaries of state threatening to censor ballots, and an assassination attempt tend to unite a movement.  Conservatives trauma-bonded to Donald Trump. The former president’s counterpunching, and occasional lead rights, endeared him to frustrated past supporters of human punching bags like Mitt Romney and John McCain. To an even greater extent, the contempt progressives hold for conservatives, as well as their disregard for politics’ Marquess of Queensberry rules, fueled conservatives’ support for Trump. The lone characteristic shared across the Right remains opposition to the Left. Beyond that superficial common denominator lies division.   This article is taken from The American Spectator’s fall 2024 print magazine. Subscribe to receive the entire magazine. That division could bubble to the surface as early as Wednesday, November 6. Should the Republicans lose again, recriminations and reassessments will come quickly. Should they win, and Trump enters office as a lame duck, festering disagreements on the Right over trade, abortion, monetary policy, deficits, America’s role in the world, and much else will grow in volume and visibility.  Conservatives will soon embark upon a great argument. Is this such a bad thing?  In researching my upcoming book, The Man Who...