I always thought being conservative meant "conservative about spending other people's money", while "liberal" meant liberally (lavishly) spending other people's money.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campai...ervatives-change-their-tune-on-big-government The Memo: Conservatives change their tune on big government Old political orthodoxies are being scrambled by a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, the influence of former President Trump and the deep current of polarization tearing through the nation. One prime example, which came into focus last week, centers on Republicans, private business and the role of government. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued an executive order Monday banning vaccine mandates in his state, including by private entities. Abbott’s action cut across the wishes of numerous corporations in his state who had issued, or were planning, such mandates. Some major corporations with Texas headquarters, including American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, are pressing ahead with their mandate plans, putting themselves on collision course with the governor. But the bigger point is Abbott’s break with the traditional conservative belief that government should have a very limited role in regulating business. Some corporations want a mandate; he is using the power of government to tell them they can’t have one. High-profile Republicans had already become more willing to be critical of big business, especially as corporations have taken overtly political positions on social issues. Back in May, amid a furor over new voting laws in Georgia, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told this column that Democrats had sought to “weaponize” the corporate world and that some CEOs had been willing to “enlist their companies in the political agenda of today’s Democratic Party.” Meanwhile, intra-conservative debates about the reach of government have also gone beyond the corporate world into other areas, such as education. Conservatives in the recent past generally supported devolving as much power as possible to local school boards, which they saw as a counterweight to the heavy hand of centralized government. But as some school boards have moved to impose mask and vaccine requirements in response to the pandemic, they have found themselves in the crosshairs of the right. Most notably, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has been engaged in a protracted battle to stop schools in his state from imposing mandates. Abbott, Cruz and DeSantis are all considered possible presidential contenders in 2024, where they could be vying for the presidential nomination of a Republican Party where former President Trump still holds enormous sway. Trump favored a bombastic populism that often put him at odds with GOP orthodoxy on topics such as free trade. Abbott portrayed his mandate ban as a direct challenge to President Biden’s decision, announced last month, to pursue vaccine mandates or testing requirements for businesses with 100 employees or more. The text of Abbott’s executive order referred to Biden “bullying many private entities into imposing COVID-19 mandates.” His decision drew a counterpunch from White House press secretary Jen Psaki who accused him of making a choice “against all public health information” but “perhaps in the interest of your own politics.” Some Republicans acknowledge there has been a big shift. “It’s not a conservatism rooted in a government philosophy,” said Kevin Madden, a GOP strategist who served as a senior adviser to 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. “It is more cultural in the sense of outrage politics, left-versus-right, us-versus-them. It is not about whether government is going to be involved. It is more along the lines of: ‘Government is going to be involved. Who is going to get the spoils of government?’” On the left, there is long-standing skepticism about whether the GOP really has any consistent principle at all about the appropriate role of government. At the same time as the Texas governor is purporting to be standing up for individuals who want to resist vaccine mandates, for example, his GOP-dominated state has also passed a hugely controversial law that amounts to a near-total ban on abortion — something which most Democrats see as an affront to personal choice. Meanwhile, independent experts note that conservatives have often taken rather flexible views on the appropriate role of government. “Conservatives have been open to government action even though their rhetoric presents themselves as being anti-government,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. “It is more about priorities. When it comes to national security or spending on defense or tax subsidies for business, they have been more than happy for government to take a role.” Among conservatives supportive of the kinds of stances taken by Abbott and DeSantis, however, there is a much different view. They believe conservatives are simply trying to act as a corrective to an excessively aggressive Biden administration and a corporate world overly eager to prove its “wokeness.” “It’s about righting wrongs, it is about creating an equilibrium,” said Brad Blakeman, who served in former President George W. Bush’s White House. “Businesses should be engaged in business not in social engineering. If you are in the business of selling airplane tickets, sell airplane tickets. If you are in the business of selling cars, sell cars.” Blakeman also pointed out, on the education question, that there has been an apparent upsurge in more conservative-leaning parents getting involved in their local school districts — something that he saw as a welcome “empowerment” of parents, even as it has led to some angry clashes. Above it all, though, is the reality of a Republican Party where Trump looms large — not just as a past president and a possible 2024 contender, but as the practitioner of a scorched-earth brand of politics, in which there are only really two sides: for us or against us. “You just can’t put Trump aside,” said Madden. “He has upped the outrage quotient of populist politics and he is going to define the party’s profile — and its approach to these big policy fights and cultural fissures — for the next 20 years.”
Similiar on ET, many on the right think because they are playing along with their wrestling team characters, the rest don't hold sincere and well founded beliefs.
Trump supporter who lost in a landslide now claims she actually won: ‘The election was stolen’ The disconnect between Trump supporters and reality on elections was on full display for viewers of Joe Pags' podcast. Pags interviewed far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer about her unsuccessful 2020 bid for Congress in Florida's 21st district. "You got very close to winning, you were a real challenger," Pags falsely claimed. In reality, Loomer lost by 80,313 votes in a 20-point landslide. The race was such a landslide that the Associated Press called the race for incumbent Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL) on election night. But in the era of Donald Trump's "Big Lie" of election fraud, Loomer refused to acknowledge she was rejected by the voters. "I won," Loomer falsely claimed. "I won, the election was stolen, just like it was stolen from Donald Trump. I won my election."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...8add1a-311f-11ec-9241-aad8e48f01ff_story.html Federal grand jury indicts Rep. Jeff Fortenberry on charges of lying to investigators about campaign contribution A federal grand jury has indicted Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) on charges of lying to federal investigators about his campaign contributions. The congressman, who was elected in 2004, said in a video released Monday evening that he anticipated the indictment. His wife, Celeste, in a letter to supporters before the indictment was announced, labeled it a “false accusation.” The federal grand jury charged him with one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators looking into illegal contributions to his 2016 campaign, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Under House Republican rules, Fortenberry will have to step down as the top Republican on the appropriations subcommittee on agriculture while the charges are pending. Aides to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Fortenberry’s committee assignments. Fortenberry, 60, served on the Lincoln City Council for four years before winning an open House seat in 2004 on a conservative record of opposition to abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He has easily won reelection in the Republican-leaning district. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The charges center on a $30,200 donation made by Gilbert Chagoury, a wealthy Nigerian business executive of Lebanese descent, in January 2016 “using other individuals as conduits,” according to the indictment. “As a foreign national, Chagoury was prohibited from making donations and contributions directly or indirectly in support of any candidate for federal elected office in the United States,” the indictment states. An individual who helped funnel the donation to Fortenberry’s campaign account through others began cooperating with law enforcement in September 2016. The individual told Fortenberry during a June 2018 phone call that the donation “probably did come from Gilbert Chagoury because he was so grateful for your support [for] the cause,” the indictment states. Fortenberry did not file an amended FEC report. He went on to ask the individual to host another fundraiser for him, and later, in 2019, the congressman “knowingly and willfully made materially false statements and representations to the FBI and IRS” regarding the donation, according to the indictment. In the video released Monday night, Fortenberry said he “didn’t know anything about” the illegal foreign donation. He described his conversations with FBI agents when they knocked on his door “about two and a half years ago.” “I told them what I knew and what I understood,” Fortenberry said in the video. “They’ve accused me of lying to them and are charging me with this. We’re shocked. We’re stunned. I feel so personally betrayed. We thought we were trying to help. And so now, we will have to fight.” Celeste Fortenberry said her husband is known for his honesty and integrity. “His enemies try to accuse him of many things, but never lying. His opponents may not agree with him, but they know they can trust him,” she wrote. “Let me say it again: this accusation is entirely false. Jeff did not lie to the FBI. This has all the marks of being a political attack, a bogus charge manufactured to take him out.” Most recently, former representatives Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) and Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) were indicted while in office and forced to resign. The two, who were early and avid supporters of former president Donald Trump, both won pardons from Trump in the closing weeks of his administration, in December 2020. Hunter, who prosecutors alleged used hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds to pay for family vacations and theater tickets and even to facilitate extramarital affairs, had been facing an 11-month federal prison sentence. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to misusing campaign funds. Hunter notably won reelection while under indictment, only to later admit wrongdoing and resign. Collins had been serving a 26-month sentence for an insider-trading scheme and lying to the FBI. He had pleaded guilty in the case