Candidly Speaking - 4/7/2022
On why Glenn Greenwald & Tulsi Gabbard are popular in the Right.
In case you missed by last blog entry, I am comfortable sitting on the Right side of the political spectrum. I agree with many of the ideas purported by the American conservative movement, even if I find that many of its biggest names should be excluded from it. Just to name an example: Dinesh D’Souza, the Right’s answer to Michael Moore, recently published a shoddy documentary titled 2000 Mules, where he provides cover for the claim that the 2020 election was rigged against former President Donald Trump - the same toxic lie that motivated the Capitol invaders of January 6th. He has since been featured on two of my favorite podcasts, The Megyn Kelly Show and The Rubin Report.
But D’Souza has always been on the Right side of the aisle, having served as a policy adviser for Ronald Reagan and a scholar at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute. What I find interesting is how some figures on the Left who, without changing their stance on any important political matter, find themselves hailed by the Right as champions of their cause. So far, I have found two examples, Tulsi Gabbard and Glenn Greenwald. I thought of including other examples, such as Matt Taibbi and Matthew Yglesias, but despite having conservative fans, they have mostly been seen by the Right as “Left-leaning” and thus are perceived as outside of the Conservative umbrella.
Glenn Greenwald became a household name when he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his publication of the files leaked by NSA contractor Edward Snowden. But even before that, he has established himself as a hero to the Left, with his stance against the War on Terror, the War in Iraq, and perceived Western antipathy towards Islam. The first time I examined his views with some seriousness was when Joe Rogan invited him on his podcast for a three-hour conversation. Having interviewed Edward Snowden in a previous show, Rogan in turn welcomed Greenwald to express his views on state surveillance, Snowden’s alleged dire straits, and Greenwald’s cynicism towards American institutions. That does not surprise me at all. What does, however, is how frequent he (Greenwald) appears on Fox News’s most viewed program, Tucker Carlson Tonight. Even those who do not submit to Tucker’s indignant nightly cable tirades knows that he is extremely Right-wing, as exemplified by his sycophantic adoration of Trump and his full-weight endorsement of the 2020 Voter Fraud claim. Nevertheless, from watching the Youtube clips of him and Greenwald appearing together, it seems that they are in lockstep with each other’s views on the assumed rot in revered American institutions and its “war-mongering” foreign policy apparatus. Has Glenn Greenwald become Right-wing?
Speaking of the false characterization of American foreign policy as “war-mongering”, enter Tulsi Gabbard. She ran for President in 2020 as part of the Democratic Party, having served in the American Armed Forces and as a Congresswoman representing Hawaii. She became well-known to Rogan listeners for her criticisms of fellow Democrats, whom she perceived as “establishment” candidates - Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton. She even tried to sue Google for $50 Million over alleged censorship of her campaign ads, which was later dismissed. Much of her campaign rhetoric, at least from what I heard in the Rogan interview, is recycled clap-trap about how the US should “end the Forever Wars”, cynicism over America’s mission to promote liberty abroad, and allocate the defense budget to fund already-bloated social welfare programs. But most damningly, Gabbard had unplanned meetings with the Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad during her tenure as Congresswoman, going so far as to express doubt that the tyrant used chemical weapons against his own people. Recently, she has promoted the John Mearsheimer claim that the ongoing Ukraine crisis is the West’s fault, even alleging that President Zelenskyy is an authoritarian. So why is she being invited to speak at CPAC, a gathering of American conservative personalities and ideas. And why is she frequently invited to Tucker’s program to serve as his echo chamber?
With all my problems with Gabbard and Greenwald, I am more indignant and confused as to why Conservatives prop them up as defenders of American values. This is until I found out about Patrick Buchanan, once the Right’s biggest challenger to the Republican establishment. Having served in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, Buchanan launched his own bid for the White House, first in 1992 and finally in 2000. Calling himself a “paleoconservative”, Buchanan directed much of his ire that the “neoconservatives” occupying higher positions in the White House, under the Reagan and Bush presidencies. He believes, much like Gabbard and Greenwald, that the foreign policy hawks have successfully manipulated the American foreign policy consensus towards greater engagement abroad, both in the form of global free trade and military intervention. I know I am focusing on his ideas, but as an aside, I should point towards his open bigotry towards Jewish people, black people and immigrants - he writes frequently for VDare, a website advocating fewer non-white immigration into the United States.
Thankfully, Buchanan never made into the White House. But many of his ideas have, in the form of Donald Trump’s candidacy. As Matthew Continetti writes:
By the time Buchanan had withdrawn from the presidential race, he had revealed that populists were just as angry at the leaders of the Republican Party and conservative movement as they were at Democrats and liberals… The 1990s paleoconservatives failed to overturn the Republican and conservative consensus—but they exposed how fragile that consensus was.
Donald Trump has done many things for the conservative movement - fostering a peace agreement with Israel and the Arab states, nominating pro-life Supreme Court justices, and winning the Culture War - but in no way is he a conservative. His behavior in office is antithetical to Christian teachings, he despises American institutions and he believes firmly in American retrenchment abroad. In this way, he shares a great deal in common with Pat Buchanan. And Buchanan, as it turns out, shares a great deal in common with the American Left. Once I understood this, it begins to make sense why the burgeoning remnants of American conservatism embrace Leftist firebrands like Glenn Greenwald and Tulsi Gabbard, despite exhibiting a fervent hatred of anything tainted by the Left. These days, the Right reserves no love for American institutions, no solidarity with fellow Americans whom they disagree with, and no trust in the idea that the greatest American values should be offered to non-Americans. Don’t these sound like hallmarks of American leftism to you?
A Postscript: I have recovered from my illness last week. A warm thank-you to anyone who checks in on my well-being!
I did promise to offer my take on the abortion debate, having witnessed the thermonuclear meltdown in American politics over the recent Court decision, but I am afraid that I must push it back to next week. My thoughts on the issue and other issues surrounding it deserves a better essay, and I do not think I can deliver it this week. Apologies for the disappointment. Nevertheless, you can check out the previous podcast where I pushed back on Alan Dershowitz’s pro-choice views.
Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends, and Happy Fourth of July to my American friends!