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Friday, March 29, 2024 - 01:13 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

How does a once-great country become the complete mess America is today? The honest answer is we are all at fault. It's as easy for the left to blame conservatives as it is for the right to blame liberals. It's easy for the elites in cities to say Americans aren't working as hard as they used to and are getting fat off too much fast food. It's easy for regular Americans to look at the hypereducated urban elites and feel like they've sold out and left America behind to pursue profits in foreign markets. The problem is all of this is true.

America is no longer a true community based on shared ideals and principles. It's now a group of segregated societies. There is still racial segregation (something the left bizarrely and sadly even encourages these days), but class separation is what most divides Americans. Elite Americans live in private, high-end communities, dine at private clubs and fly in private planes. The economic divide has always existed, but the scale and extent of it has reached new highs. America is no longer a cohesive society. It's so sad that nobody likes to talk about any of it, but it's where America is in 2021.

All of this background explains how a relatively minor matter (defined by the number of deaths nationally) like the delta variant can so emotionally tear apart a country. Mask fights are back. Lockdown debates aren't civil. The right looks at the left's reaction to delta and sees authoritarian hysteria. The left looks at the right's reaction and sees reckless ignorance. How do you bridge this gap? The only thing each of us can do is make an actual, good-faith effort to talk more to people we disagree with.

The Daily Caller, the news site I run, is doing just this every day. Well, technically Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings on our premier show, "Vince and Jason Save the Nation." "Save the Nation" is co-hosted by a Black liberal and a white conservative. Vince Coglianese, the conservative host, is a Daily Caller editor and a Washington, D.C., radio host. Jason Nichols, the liberal host, is a contributor to numerous liberal news outlets and a Black studies professor at the University of Maryland. They are both smart and informed on virtually every current events issue.

They disagree ... a lot. The difference is they are friends. They are committed to talking through things and, when possible, even finding some consensus. The result is more entertaining and informative than it is angry. Not everyone wants this sort of content. Unless more people start wanting it -- and start doing this in their own lives -- our country is doomed.

For conservatives, there is no "own the libs" outcome that ends the current national breakdown, yet that's the obsession on the right. For liberals, it may be enticing to hold all the levers of media, corporate and (for the moment, anyway) political power. Canceling conservatives and driving them from the public sphere may feel good, but it's just making things worse. YouTube's suspension of Sen. Rand Paul for questioning nonmedical cloth face coverings takes the left's authoritarian anti-speech impulses to an entirely new level. Paul said things many scientists of all political persuasions believe. There is certainly no hard consensus that he's wrong. More importantly, the sort of debate Paul is engaging in is the way to reach national consensus. YouTube did not ban Paul because he's wrong; YouTube banned the senator to stifle debate. They banned him because he dared stray from the official government position. This is plainly un-American. More importantly, has anyone on the left considered in even the most shallow sense where this ends?

Even holding all the levers of power will not allow the left to defeat the right without honest debate, yet the liberals willing to engage with conservatives could literally share a taxi together. There are only a handful. Listing them is easy: Rep. Ro Khanna, former Rep. and Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, Daily Caller's Jason Nichols, journalist Glenn Greenwald and maybe a couple of others. That's about it.

On the right, there are certainly many more willing to debate, but the overall attitude is also more interested in a fight. In this case, the result is even more dire. News flash to conservatives: It's not working. You are not winning these debates. The majority of Americans are for both vaccine and mask mandates. It's time to try a new strategy. For starters, less hysteria would help.

These mandates are not matters of fundamental personal liberty. I'm not sure where that idea came from, but every society has the right to protect itself. The U.S. government has the right to forcibly draft our strongest and youngest and send them off to die in a war if that's what our leadership decides is needed. Our only redress is to vote the politicians out of office.

It's the same with vaccines. State governments have been mandating vaccines for hundreds of years now. The courts have examined the issue thoroughly. There hasn't been a ton of debate. If the government determines that a vaccine is needed to protect society, the courts have generally allowed it, subject to very few and very specific exemptions. So, stop screaming about your liberty.

Instead, maybe talk about the real part that bothers you. COVID-19 is not risky enough to the young and healthy for the government to take this choice away from individuals. The vaccine is available (and highly protective) for those who are at risk. Given that fact, we should be able to decide for ourselves on this one. That's not crazy. Conservatives may even convince some people, if we even bothered debating anymore.

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Neil Patel co-founded The Daily Caller, one of America's fastest-growing online news outlets, which regularly breaks news and distributes it to over 15 million monthly readers. Patel also co-founded The Daily Caller News Foundation, a nonprofit news company that trains journalists, produces fact-checks and conducts longer-term investigative reporting. The Daily Caller News Foundation licenses its content free of charge to over 300 news outlets, reaching potentially hundreds of millions of people per month. To find out more about Neil Patel and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com

COPYRIGHT 2021 CREATORS.COM

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Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel

Tucker Carlson currently hosts Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (weekdays 8 p.m. ET). He joined the network in 2009 as a contributor.

“Tucker Carlson Tonight” features powerful analysis and spirited debates, with guests from across the political and cultural spectrum. Carlson brings his signature style to tackle issues largely uncovered by the media in every corner of the United States, challenging political correctness with a "Campus Craziness" segment and tackling media bias and outrage during "Twitter Storm."

Carlson co-hosted “Fox & Friends Weekend” starting in 2012, until taking on his current role at “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

While at Fox News, Carlson has provided analysis for “America's Election Headquarters” on primary and caucus nights, including in the 2016 and 2012 presidential elections, as well as the 2014 midterm election. He also produced a Fox News special, "Fighting for Our Children's Minds," in 2010.

Prior to working at Fox News, Carlson hosted “Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered” on PBS from 2004 to 2005 and “Tucker” on MSNBC from 2005 to 2008. He joined CNN in 2000 as its youngest anchor ever, co-hosting “The Spin Room” and later CNN's “Crossfire,” until its 2005 cancellation. In 2003, he wrote an autobiography about his cable news experience titled "Politicians, Partisans and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News."

Carlson graduated with a B.A. in history from Trinity College in Connecticut.

Neil Patel

In addition to his role as publisher of The Daily Caller, Neil Patel is co-founder and managing director of Bluebird Asset Management, a hedge fund investing in mortgage-backed securities.

Before starting his two companies, Neil served in the White House from 2005 to 2009 as the chief policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. From 2001 to 2004, Neil was staff secretary to Vice President Cheney. Prior to joining the Bush administration, Neil was assistant general counsel at UUNET Technologies. Earlier in his career, Neil practiced law with Dechert Price & Rhoads. He also served as Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China. 

Neil received his B.A. from Trinity College in Connecticut and his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as associate editor of the Journal of Law and Policy in International Business.

Neil lives in Washington, D.C., and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with his wife, Amy, their two daughters, Caroline and Bela, and their son, Charlie.

COPYRIGHT 2019 CREATORS.COM