Why conservatism needs a Pope

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
Font Size:

Jonah Goldberg’s acknowledgment that the conservative movement “has an unhealthy share of hucksters” seems to have sparked a bit of debate.

Over at the Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf calls Goldberg out for not personally calling the hucksters out:

 [T]here’s one thing missing from Goldberg’s column: examples. It’s difficult to offer them at column length, so their absence here can be forgiven, but going back through Goldberg’s archive of columns, and recalling all the coverage at National Review generally, I cannot find Goldberg or anyone else warning their readers about any particular “huckster.” Why not? If there are an “unhealthy share” of hucksters in your midst shouldn’t they be challenged?

In my estimation, Goldberg was probably wise not to name names.

I’m not sure even he has the juice to pull off such a maneuver. To paraphrase Don Corleone, It’s true, he has a lot of friends in conservative politics, but they wouldn’t be friendly very long if he started calling people out…

We no longer respect leaders or institutions. This phenomenon manifests itself in almost every sphere of modern life, including conservative politics. In fact, were conservative icon Bill Buckley attempting to stand athwart the Birchers and Randians of the world today, he would probably end up yelling, “STOP!” as they lambasted him.  (One can imagine these folks would have thrived on Twitter. The fight wouldn’t have ended with Buckley telling them to cancel their own goddam subscriptions, at least.)

Or maybe Goldberg was thinking about another Corleone line when he declined to name names: “Never tell anyone outside the Family what you are thinking again.” For better or worse, there is still a taboo against speaking ill of another Republican — of breaking Reagan’s 11th Commandment (which was an ironic, if convenient, maxim for a man who ran against a sitting Republican president in the 1976 primary.)

Ultimately, Goldberg, of course, is right about the problem — and Friedersdorf is right that someone needs to say something.

But — though he is generally respected on the right — is Goldberg the right man for this thankless job?

Not to conflate religion with ideology, but I’m reminded of another column Goldberg penned a few years ago, in which he lamented that Islam needs a central authority to bestow moral clarity.

“Too many of these retail Islamic Martin Luthers,” Goldberg wrote, “compete with each other to be more devout, more angry, more willing to deflect the anxieties and shame…”

Sound familiar?

Goldberg concluded by saying: “[T]he Islamic world doesn’t need any more Martin Luthers. It needs a pope.”

You could probably say the same thing about conservatism.

Matt K. Lewis

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel