"Where is the GOP? Where are the Republicans" on this vandalism/statue/icon destruction?" you ask.

2) I'll tell you where.

3) For over 30 years, since Reagan's influence waned, we have raised a total generation of pols who have no foundational understanding of . . .

3) contd . . . of true conservative ideas. No, it's not just a balanced budget. That's the least of the important conservative ideas and it's what COMES from a conservative philosophy, not what drives it.

4) These pols---Martha McSally, Mel Tillis, Lamar Alexander, Cory . . .

4) contd . . . Gardner just to name a very few couldn't explain to you the REASON why toppling statues and removing America's past is both stupid and dangerous.

5) They couldn't explain why illegal immigration and/or vast new legal immigration waves violate "life, liberty . . "

5) contd . . . and, to quote Demented Perv Biteme, "you know the rest." They don't understand, or want to understand, why Making America Great Again is not a campaign slogan. It is a reality we must attain.

6) They SURE don't get why saying "all lives matter" is critical.

7) It's not that the last 40 years' of GOP pols haven't been educated on the basics by William F. Buckley, Russell Kirk, Ronald Reagan, Fredrich von Hayek, and others.

They haven't been educated at all.

8) They spent their political education on how to stress their sex, their military service, their love for all races--without EVER having to go back three steps and figure out WHY those things even matter.

9) Yes, as a historian, I'm disgusted. I expect it from the other side.

10) After all, the only things they read are Howarz Zinn and Saul Alinsky. Their entire governing philosophy comes down to two points: If Trump does it, it's bad, and "muh feelings."

11) So you are surprised when NONE of our elected officials demand an end to this outrage?

12) And what? On top of everything else President Trump does---almost singlehandedly---he now is supposed to be America's Civics Teacher? America's Philosophy Teacher? America's History Teacher? (Wait, that's my title, but I never had these burgerslurpers in my classes).

13) Andrew Breitbart was right, but he missed some key elements. You won't learn the foundations of politics through pop culture. It may STIMULATE you to learn.

You might be moved to Christianity by seeing "The Gospel," or "Leap of Faith," or "Passion of the Christ," . . .

13) contd . . . but those cultural elements will never provide you with the basics of what Christianity is and what it means.

14) Passion is great. It only takes you so far.

15) So when you are righteously railing against our so-called elected "leaders," just remember "they know not what they do." Seriously.

16) Other than Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, maybe Tom Cotton, Jim Jordan, & a handful of others, they could no more stand up & say why destroying . .

16) contd . . . statues or historical landmarks is both evil and self-destructive. They can't explain why "all lives matter" supersedes "black lives matter." They can't begin to explain why a damn MASK is so incredibly offensive and anti-American.

17) (Prior to the China Virus, the only nation where people wore masks most of the time was Japan, a country of timid people whose males are at alarming rates living like hermits--the actual phrase in Japan is "hermetically sealed"--and not dating, let alone not marrying.)

18) This also represents the ultimate failure of Wikipedia History, where there are "two sides to every story," thus ALL explanations are trivialized. ("The Holocaust? Well, we should learn the Nazi side.")

19) This incredible failure, though is ALSO a product of culture.

20) No, not Hollywood, TV, music, etc. I'm talking about our culture--conservative culture. Since 1988 we allowed the "pragmatic/managerial/financial" wing of the GOP to take over.

21) These are the limitless immigration/offshore people. "Off shore? Why not? . . .

21) contd . . . "Let Americans do other jobs, like, advanced medical technology or robotics." (As if every American was Steve Jobs or Ben Carson). These were the people whose conservative foundations included Bretton Woods & the World Bank.

22) These are the people who stacked the GOP with Michael Steele tokens & handed them the keys to running the party, rather than supporting the Herman Cains when they ran.

23) This was the timid George W. Bush who proposed a 2% of a 50% Social Security contribution go to . . .

23) contd . . . individually decided investments/stocks/bonds, rather than using the bully pulpit to explain why the very NOTION of Social Security needs to be rethought and as FDR HIMSELF said, eventually replaced by private annuities.

24) This is "think small" conservatism. Consider Nikki Haley. Mainstream GOP loves her because SHE (note) is an "Indian American" and "boy will that draw votes."

NO!!!

25) If Haley wanted to be president she'd come out with a Trump-on-steroids program of why we should slash . .

25) contd . . LEGAL immigration & point precisely to the rioters: "These morons are why we can't bring more people in right now. We are going to need 30 years to re-educate the people we have on what being an American means."

She would never think of it, and will never be prez.

26) If a single GOP governor or mayor was grounded in the essence of true conservative ideas, not "greatest good for the greatest number," not a single one would be mandating masks.

27) So I get @kn_texas 's phrase "burn conservatism to the ground." I don't think he means . . .

27) contd . . . conservatism, but this mutant, spineless, shallow, Ben Shapiro-ized pop conservatism that abandoned the very farmers that Lincoln fought for in the homestead act; the small businesses who McKinley fought for with the gold standard; the notion that America . . .

17) contd . . . not only is good, but that 99% of the times we are, yes, better than Haiti, Saudi Arabia, France, or Rwanda, & that a cautious but powerful USA, as Teddy Roosevelt believed, was good for us and for the world.

18) This new spineless, mechanistic, watered down conservatism wouldn't fly with Warren Harding, who packed his cabinet with businessmen, not pols; or with Silent Calvin Coolidge, who slashed taxes and constrained American military involvement abroad.

It certainly has no . . .

18) contd. . . connection whatsoever to Ronald Reagan's conservatism, in which he said the Chicoms, er, Soviets must be defeated not only because they are dangerous but because they are godless and they locked millions of people up without freedom OR faith.

19) That same Reagan learned early on from two compromises he made as governor of CA, one on raising taxes, and one on abortion, that this never gets what you hope, and that DemoKKKrats always, always, always lie.

20) Precisely because Donald Trump did not grow up . . .

20) contd . . . steeped in the "wisdom" of this new gutless conservatism, run by the "finance"guys instead of the "production men," he did not bring this baggage into office.

21) It's precisely why Trump's INSTINCTS on almost everything, from his tweets to his policies . . .

21) contd . . . are usually right. Without ever cracking "God and Man at Yale" or "The Road to Serfdom," Trump instinctively understands real, true conservatism in a way that only a handful in D.C. (yes, including at Heritage) do.

22) Trump not only makes the establishment look bad because, well, it is. He makes them look bad because he is the Last Conservative Standing and all the faux "conservative" clubstumper Jonah Goldburgers, Frenchfries, Broken Kristols, and Bootlesses realize the degree . . .

22) contd . . . Trump has not only exposed them personally as posers, but has ripped the skirt off the harlot of hoax conservatism.

23) The Gipper would be cheering Trump right now, and no doubt would be developing a great joke involving Trump vs. the Swamp.