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Often the result of intellectual neglect that repels pragmatism and rationality, 21st century political conservatism is dogmatic in its current form.This current form of political conservatism fails to consider the various ways Americas future is shaped by multiculturalism and globalization. Furthermore, it forsakes key principles, such as diversity in thought and individualism, and is thus stuck in a time that has long past.

The populist rhetoric of the day has become synonymous with Americanism, such as the context in which President Trump stated, From this moment on, its going to be America first. While we agree with America prioritizing its own interests first, the political perspective that runs the undercurrent to Trumps America first refrain is problematic. It defers to an isolationist foreign policy strategy that makes America less competitive on the global stage.

Furthermore, and unfortunately, conservatism has become the convenient excuse to embrace idiocracy and massive government control as a matter of standard operating procedure. Moreover,concerns about the Leviathan governments intrusion on individual rights are legitimate. However, such belief should not come at the expense of ideas that are inclusive andreasoned, which is what we see with the rise of groups such as the alt-right.

Many people associate conservatism with popular terms like right wing or more recently alt-right, and while they shouldnt be faulted for doing so, such splitting terms are regrettably an accurate portrayal of the current Republican Party. This leaves us wondering with some proponents of conservatism and even some of its detractors, asking ourselves frequently: is conservatism what it could be and should be?

To put it simply, we dont think it is. So, then it should be asked, where did conservatism go wrong and how did we reach a place where rationality died? Regrettably, the answers to such questions vary, but they certainly should not be reactionary and irrational, especially in an ever-increasing, global society.

Rational conservatism involves being informed both by empirical facts and logic. We should base our principles on those grounds, to eventually make or influence policy that leads to the benefit of everyone. Instead, conservatives have relied on antediluvian wisdom and antics that have been passed down through culture and tradition as the governing force of our ideology. Here, modernity is rejected despite our living in a society that is more diverse and globally connected than it has been at any other time in our history.

Many conservatives have rightly advocated for a party that embraces minorities, yet this is a nearly impossible task when our party includes people such as Jared Taylor, a leading alt-right thinker and editor of the white nationalist website American Renaissance. As well-meaning is this inclusive thinking, it is paradoxical because we cannot seek to embrace minority groups while also embracing extreme nationalistic themes as President Trump did as a candidate and expect growth as an ideology or as a party.

When the American Renaissances Taylor stated in an interview withVoxthat the alt-right believes that white Americans should be racially conscious and that white Americans, as whites, have collective interests that are legitimate, his sentiments arent rooted in conservatism. Instead, they are deeply rooted in hate andignorance,and lackthe sophistication and intelligence necessary to drive a productive political ideology that will shape policies that will move the United States forward. For the rebirth of a new conservatism movement, we must reject the alt-rights hatred and language in our narrative. No principles, outreach or personalities will revive rational conservatism until conservatives demonstrate a united front against such odious rhetoric.

The very existence of the alt-right makes it nearly impossible for the Republican Party to embrace different cultures and ethnicities while extreme factions attempt to take over the party. That is not what Jack Kemp meant by big tent party. The former thinking is antithetical to the free exchange of ideas the Republican party should champion. Yet, we remain hopeful that the party can still embrace modernity while still being relevant and true to the principles that attracted us to the party in the first place such as inalienable rights, limited government, and fiscal responsibility to name a few.The idea is a big tent party is imperative for the party if it is to exist as a unified body into the next century.

Despite how appealing such extreme points of views might be to a tiny few in thiscountry,when presented with a diversity of facts, opinions and thoughts, conservatism in its most productive form is better for it. And so is America.

Conservative cynicism is adversative to the very idea of America, which at its core is built on hope and promise. Those are values not based on the realities of the present, but on the anticipation of a better tomorrow. The dogmatic conservatives penchant for ignoring the realities of the present to cling solely to the past is not a part of the American fabric.

The current establishment must be honest with people and communities that are apprehensive about a changing America. The party will not be able to compete if it is limited to a narrow worldview. A full-fledged economic nationalist agenda will not work. If rational conservatism is to prevail, then we need an emerging leadership that will embody and understand the modern tapestry of America.

Shermichael Singleton is a CNN Political Commentator and a Republican Political Strategist who has worked on the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and Ben Carson. Follow him on Twitter@Shermichael_.

QuardricosBernard Driskell is a lobbyist and an adjunct professor of religion and politics at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. Follow him on Twitter@q_driskell4.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Black Republicans can't exist in a party that accepts white nationalists - The Hill (blog)

UPDATED: Sat., June 17, 2017, 8:29 p.m.

Republican Karen Handel campaigns at a restaurant in Johns Creek, Ga., Friday, June 16, 2017, ahead of a runoff election to replace former Rep. Tom Price. Democrat Jon Ossoff is trying for an upset over Handel in the GOP-leaning 6th Congressional District that stretches across greater Atlantas northern suburbs. (Alex Sanz / Associated Press)

CHAMBLEE, Ga. Trying to stave off a major upset ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, two of President Donald Trumps Cabinet officers returned to Atlantas traditionally conservative suburbs and urged Republican voters to maintain the GOPs monopoly control in Washington.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, a former two-term Georgia governor, took sharp aim at Republican Karen Handels opponent in Tuesdays runoff election, 30-year-old Democrat Jon Ossoff, who has raised more than $23 million from people around the country hoping for a victory that could turn the tide on Trump.

This is a race for the heart and soul for America, Perdue told Handel supporters, casting Ossoff as a puppet of national Democrats and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

The leftists have gone and typecast and theyve picked this young man charismatic, articulate and theyve taught him a few Republican buzzwords, Perdue said. They think he can fool you. Its not gonna happen.

But it very well may, with polls showing a tossup in Georgias 6th Congressional District, where Republicans usually coast.

Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide, has aimed at the center, usually avoiding even mentioning Trumps name. But he was campaigning Saturday with civil rights icon John Lewis, the Atlanta congressman from the neighboring 5th District whose criticism of Trump recently drew a slew of presidential tweets.

The candidates choices on the final weekend of campaigning reflect their expectations of a razor-thin margin that will turn as much on core partisans as on persuading moderates and independents.

The results will be seen as a measure of how voters feel about Republican leadership months into the Trump presidency. Trump barely won this well-educated, affluent district in November, despite previous Republican nominees here eclipsing 60 percent.

Perdue defended Trump as a true populist, but acknowledged that even some Republicans are turned off by him.

Health Secretary Tom Price, whose resignation to join Trumps Cabinet prompted this special election, urged voters to have a crazy turnout on Handels behalf. He reminded his former constituents of the districts GOP pedigree, electing eventual Speaker Newt Gingrich and future U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson before sending Price to Washington for 12 years.

Handel made a similar appeal to honor the districts legacy. She said voters know me from stints as secretary of state and commission chairman of Georgias most populous county.

Ossoff and Handel insist their matchup recognized as the most expensive House race in U.S. history because of money from outside the district is not about the dynamics on Capitol Hill. But Perdue flatly disputed them, calling the election a harbinger of national politics as Handel looked on.

Democrats and liberal activists nationally hope to show they can flip the 24 GOP-held seats they would need to reclaim a House majority next November. They argue Ossoffs near-win in the first round already bodes well for Democrats running in other suburban districts where Republicans dont start with such a fundamental advantage.

There are 23 GOP-held House districts around the country where Trump actually lost to Hillary Clinton.

Handel raised slightly more than $5 million, less than a quarter of Ossoffs total, but national political action and campaign committees aligned with both parties have spent big as well: $7 million from a PAC backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan; about $4.5 million from Republicans House campaign arm, and another $6 million from the Democrats House campaign committee.

Ossoffs television ads target swing voters and disaffected Republicans, promising an independent voice and lambasting wasteful spending by both parties in Washington. But his day-to-day campaign operation has focused more on the Democrats main coalition: young voters, nonwhites and women.

Ossoff also has sought to make health care a defining issue, even before Prices return to the district.

Ossoff says the House Republican health care bill punishes working-class households that gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and would gut consumer protections for individuals with previous maladies in their medical history.

Handel says the Senate can make improvements, but shed have voted for the House-passed version. She rejects the Congressional Budget Office estimate that 23 million Americans could lose coverage under Republicans plan, and she insists the bill protects those with pre-existing conditions.

The bill declares that insurers cannot deny coverage based on patient history a point central to Handels claims. But the proposal also would allow states to obtain waivers that would jettison existing prohibitions on charging more for patients based on their individual history and risk.

Ossoff says removing that cost protection makes any coverage guarantee useless, because policies would become unaffordable, particularly given the Republicans proposal to roll back premium subsidies that are a primary feature of the 2010 law.

Handel has reacted angrily to Ossoffs assertions, emotionally telling the story of her sister, whom she describes as being born with a severe birth defect requiring costly care. I would never do anything that would hurt my sister, she says.

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Trump Cabinet officers urge on Republicans in Georgia race - The Spokesman-Review

President Donald Trump is not a target of the ongoing investigation into Russian tampering in the U.S. election, Trumps lawyer said Sunday after the president tweeted he was under investigation two days earlier.

I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt, Trump tweeted on June 16.

But thats not exactly the truth, Trumps personal lawyer Jay Sekulow, said during an appearance on CNNs Face the Nation Sunday. The fact of the matter is the president has not been and is not under investigation, Sekulow said.

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There has been no notification from the special counsel's office that the president is under investigation, he said.

Republican allies defended the presidents pugnacious attitude in wanting to hit back against allegations that he obstructed justice, while other GOP senators suggested that the president should allow the Russia investigation to proceed without interruption.

Last week the The Post reported that the president is being investigated by Robert Mueller, the Russia investigations special counsel, for obstruction of justice. The investigation concerns the circumstances around the May 9 firing of FBI Director James Comey. Trump previously said that he fired Comey because of the investigation into alleged Russian tampering in the election, which the president dismissed as a hoax.

Donald Trump at a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 12, 2017. NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty

Americas intelligence agencies concluded in a January report that Russia took action to influence the election in favor of Trump. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of Defense James Mattis all concurred with the reports findings.

Read more: Pence will soon be president if Trump fires Mueller, says Bush lawyer

During testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, Comey testified that he felt pressured by Trump to drop an investigation into the presidents top national security adviser Michael Flynns links with Russia.

Comey testified in Congress in March that the FBI was looking at whether Trumps election campaign colluded with Russian agents. Comey testified in early June that he is sure investigators are looking at whether Trump obstructed justice.

"Trump has a compulsion to counter attack, said Trump strategist and former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich on ABC News This Week Sunday. I don't think it serves him well. I don't think that tweet helped him. But it's who he's been his whole life.

Republican Marco Rubio, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee which is carrying out one of two core congressional investigations into Russias alleged election interference said that the president would be wise to let the investigation to proceed unhindered.

"It is in the best interest of the president and the country to have a full investigation, Rubio said, adding that it was not a witch hunt as Trump suggested in several tweets.

"If I were the president I would be welcoming this investigation. I would ask that it be thorough and completed expeditiously and be very cooperative with it," Rubio said. I think that it's in the best interest of our country that we have a full scale investigation that looks at everything.

Read the rest here:
Republicans Divided Over Trump's Tweet That he Is Under Investigation - Newsweek

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders address Brooklyn Colleges graduates during their commencement ceremony on May 30, 2017, in New York. Sanders urged graduates to stand together and not let demagogues divide the country. CREDIT: AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Sunday blasted his Republican colleagues for secretly negotiating their Obamacare replacement bill behind closed doors and without public scrutiny, calling on Democrats to take a stand against the legislation.

This is completely unacceptable, Sanders told CBS Face the Nation host John Dickerson. Nobody can defend a process, which will impact tens of millions of Americans, and nobody even knows whats in the [legislation]...The reason they dont want to bring it public is because its a disastrous bill, I suspect similar to what passed in the House.

The outcome of the secret negotiations would impact about one sixth of the American economy, pointed out Sanders, who similarly slammed the House bill, which passed in May.

It was the worst piece of legislation, frankly, against working class people that I can remember in my political life in the Congress. Throwing 23 million people off of health insurance is beyond belief, said Sanders.

As ThinkProgress reporter Amanda Michelle Gomez reported earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is rushing to bring the Republican health care bill before the Senate for a vote by July 4, before Congress leaves for August recess.

To that end, McConnell fast-tracked the health bill by implementing Senate Rule 14, which allows the Senate to bypass the committee processand thus a full committee debateby placing it on the senate calendar for a vote.

Even many Republicans are being kept in the dark said Sanders, noting that this tactic underscores issues with the bill that Republicans would have difficulty defending, such as cutting Medicaid in favor of giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.

So they want to keep it secret, they dont want the media involved, they dont want members of Congress involved, Sanders told Dickerson. And at the last minute they present it, they push it through and that is one sixth of the American economy and millions of people thrown off of health insurance. That is unacceptable.

The closed-door process has Republicans concerned as well.

Ive said from Day 1, and Ill say it again, Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, told the New York Times. The process is better if you do it in public, and that people get buy-in along the way and understand whats going on. Obviously, thats not the route that is being taken.

McConnell defended his approach, telling the New York Times there have been gazillions of hearings on this subject over the years.

For Sanders, the only solution is full transparency, and on Sunday he called on Democrats to do everything they can to oppose the Senate bill.

Read this article:
Bernie Sanders calls out Senate Republicans for secrecy surrounding health care negotiations - ThinkProgress

Sometimes the irony is so thick, you cant cut it with a laser.

House Republicans had long planned to hold a hearing on June 14 on a National Rifle Association bill that would make it far easier for gun owners to buy silencers. The so-called Hearing Protection Act (I kid you not) was all set for subcommittee scrutiny until news broke about the Field of Screams.

Having tallied the wounded this was the 195th mass shooting of the year Republicans speedily canceled the gun silencer hearing, deeming it inappropriate. Given the circumstances, and all that.

But then it occurred to me: If our latest angry white guy, newly dead James Hodginkson, had been free to fit a silencer on his easily obtained killing machine, wouldnt that have slowed the reaction time of the Republican ballplayers and the cops whod accompanied them? If hed sprayed his bullets with a silencer attached, wouldnt there have been an enhanced risk of far more casualties?

And if the next angry white guy, and the ones after that, are free to do the same, wont that ratchet up the death toll?

Its futile to even ask such questions, of course, because America is terminally locked and loaded.

Rest assured that after Republicans dry their tears about House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and the other wounded souls, theyll get back to the NRAs business. The gun silencer hearing will be held.

Another NRA bill, which would allow people who live in states with lax gun laws to pack their concealed-carry heat in states with strict gun laws, is waiting in the wings.

And Republicans, with President Donald Trumps help, have already made it easier for some fugitives and mentally impaired people to buy guns.

Republicans did indeed shed tears Wednesday understandably so for their wounded allies and colleagues.

But in their grief, perhaps it would also have been appropriate to ask themselves: How come a guy with a history of violence had a gun license and an assault weapon?

Hodgkinson, by all accounts, was an unhinged lefty extremist who hated Republicans just a variation of the unhinged right-wing extremists who hate lefties and Democrats. What all these people have in common is a profound sense of alienation and a propensity for violence.

Their anger not ideology is their prime motivator. Hodginkson fit the profile perfectly.

In Hodgkinsons home state of Illinois (prior to his recent move to Alexandria, Va., where he spent weeks stalking the ballfield), he racked up a string of offenses damaging a motor vehicle, resisting police, criminally damaging property, driving under the influence, discharging a firearm (he was shooting at trees across a neighbors property while the neighbor was outside with his grandchildren), assaulting a neighboring girl (punching her with a closed fist), threatening a neighbor with a shotgun, and assaulting his foster daughter (which led to his arrest on a domestic violence charge).

In court, he screamed at the judge. But the judge dismissed the case after a witness mixed up the court date and failed to appear.

In virtually any other Western nation, Hodgkinson, with all his red flags, wouldve been denied a gun permit. But in America, he was good for it.

He also obtained an automatic weapon, the kind that civilians typically cant get in most western nations. But in America, he was good for it.

Because its considered important to protect the gun rights of people like him.

In America, the marketing of mass-destruction weaponry is simply good business.

Hodgkinsons weapon of choice was reportedly an M4, or similar to it. The manufacturers selling spiel for the M4 goes like this: The M4 can be comfortably carried, yet be instantly available to provide ... firepower, dependability and accuracy. Proven in military combat operations all over the world, it is in a class by itself as a first-rate combat weapon system.

But theres no way Republicans will connect these dots. Roughly 30 Americans die each day in gun homicides, but thats deemed acceptable collateral damage.

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., one of the congressmen who escaped the ballfield assault without injury, conceded that the Second Amendment has some adverse aspects, but said that gun rights are fundamental to our being the greatest nation in world history.

And as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., declared in a tweet last year, Why do we have a Second Amendment? Its not to shoot deer. Its to shoot at the government when it becomes tyrannical!

Well, thats precisely what Hodgkinson thought he was doing. Its just a shame that NRA politicians make it so easy for people like him.

And when Scalise recovers from his wounds, rest assured that hell continue to toe the line. After all, his NRA rating is A-Plus.

Dick Polman is the national political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia, a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and is syndicated by Cagle Cartoons. Email him at [emailprotected] and follow him on Twitter: @DickPolman1. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.

Excerpt from:
Dick Polman: Are Republicans Brave Enough to Play Ball on Gun Control? - Noozhawk