Western Standard - Conservatives are afraid to come out in the open for fear of career cancellation

00:00:00.000 Usually celebrity endorsements in elections, you know, they're not much of consequence and

00:00:04.020 they're disregarded with by most people. The case though with Taylor Swift's endorsement with Kamala

00:00:09.140 Harris is something different. I mean, Taylor Swift has hit a level of stardom that's unprecedented

00:00:14.740 in the amount of revenue she has. And of course, even more importantly, in her fan loyalty. I mean,

00:00:21.760 the self-styled Swifties who follow her, they're legion and they follow her with a cult-like

00:00:26.680 loyalty. Swift's endorsement of Harris won't change many votes among those who've already

00:00:30.900 made up their minds where they're going to make their mark in the ballot, but it could bring out

00:00:34.640 hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people to vote who would have stayed at home otherwise.

00:00:38.920 Those kinds of numbers can swing an election. I mean, we wish people were more moved by policies

00:00:45.180 than herd mentality, but that's not always the case. With left-leaning people dominating the

00:00:50.160 narrative from public figures, the public can start to feel inclined to drift towards what they feel

00:00:55.680 as a majority view, even if it really isn't the majority view, just the ones with the big pulpits.

00:01:00.940 That's why lawn signs are such a priority for political campaigns. It's not that candidates

00:01:04.480 need people to recognize their names so much as they want to create the impression that they're

00:01:07.960 enjoying popular support. If a cul-de-sac is dominated with signs from one particular candidate,

00:01:13.560 folks can be inclined to go with the flow and join their neighbors and vote that way.

00:01:17.620 There are many prominent people who are conservatives. You just don't hear from them very often.

00:01:22.140 The best way to tell if an actor in Hollywood, because there are a lot of conservatives in

00:01:25.460 Hollywood, but the way to tell if they're conservative is if you don't know what their

00:01:28.660 political leanings are. They keep it to themselves because it'll greatly reduce their casting

00:01:32.600 opportunities if they break ranks. The leftist actors never shut the hell up about it. Think

00:01:37.520 of it like vegans. I mean, vegans, they're a tiny minority, but they sure aren't a quiet one.

00:01:42.440 People with normal dietary habits don't feel compelled to announce it to the world at every

00:01:47.400 opportunity. Vegans, though, you can't get through more than five minutes with one before they find a

00:01:52.120 way to slip their veganism into a conversation. And if you looked at it only that way, you'd think

00:01:56.720 vegans must be the majority in the world if you measure it by who brings it up and who doesn't.

00:02:01.600 Conservatives win when they just come out and be conservative. And let's look at another example,

00:02:06.520 the recent release of the movie Reagan. Actors Dennis Quaid and John Voight are among the few

00:02:11.280 outspoken conservatives in Hollywood, and they happily took parts in the movie, celebrating one of the

00:02:15.780 greatest presidents of all time. Now, despite little to no hype from conventional media, the movie had a

00:02:21.600 fantastic opening weekend. Citizens were eager to watch it. So then the critics came out, and they

00:02:26.320 panned the film. And this is where things become more telling. There's a popular website for those

00:02:30.660 who might not be familiar. They're called Rotten Tomatoes. It aggregates film ratings, and it has two

00:02:34.220 types of ratings, the ratings from the critics and the ratings from the audiences. Reagan got positive

00:02:39.400 reviews from 21% of the critics. Terrible. The movie got an incredible 98% positive review, though,

00:02:46.760 from audiences. Yes, the people actually watching it loved it. The critics are trying their worst or

00:02:51.540 their best to make it look terrible. They couldn't convince people, though, that a fantastic movie is

00:02:56.300 a bad one. The critics are part of the establishment, and the establishment in our culture roars,

00:03:00.900 swings left. They're in the fringe, though, and we should make a note of that. Look a little closer to

00:03:05.820 home here. The trajectory of Ralph Klein. He was one of the most popular premiers of all time in

00:03:10.300 Canada during his time in office. The establishment relentlessly attacked Klein. Pundits assured us he

00:03:15.620 was committing suicide politically when he told the unions to go to hell and shrunk government.

00:03:20.720 Klein then won a bigger majority. Some critics howled when he continued to cut the budgets,

00:03:25.120 and Klein won an even larger majority. The only time when Klein started to lose support was when he

00:03:30.080 started getting tired and throwing money at problems rather than standing up for taxpayers. That's when

00:03:34.420 he was encouraged to go to pasture by his own party. You know, I've heard so many times when I have

00:03:39.320 candid conversations with business leaders, politicians, and others saying, I wish I could

00:03:44.260 have said that when they're talking about something I said on X or something I wrote in a column.

00:03:48.360 Well, guess what? They can say that. In fact, they must say that. What's that? Pretty much anything

00:03:54.580 unapologetically conservative. They don't have to be as abrasive as I am about it. In staying silent,

00:04:00.280 or quietly speaking of conservative principles as if they're something to be ashamed of,

00:04:03.880 prominent conservatives are allowing a minority of leftists to own public discourse. When conservatives

00:04:09.720 dodge questions on conservative stances, it makes them look sneaky and implies there's something wrong

00:04:14.880 with their stance. Call for small government, guys. Call out the unions. Don't shy away from the need to

00:04:20.780 cut spending and lay off useless bureaucrats. Don't be afraid to say we can't handle the current volume of

00:04:27.160 immigrants. Point out the utter failure of the Indian Act and the reserve system. Try this one. 1.00

00:04:31.820 Call a man a man and a woman a woman. Yeah, crazy, isn't it? It's common sense principles. And when 0.96

00:04:37.720 conservatives own them, the voters reward it. Come out of the closet and be who you are. A

00:04:42.760 conservative. You'll feel so much better being yourself in the open without shame or apologies.

00:04:49.020 And that's how, guys, we can swing the needle from the false discourse that makes it sound like that

00:04:54.500 we're all left-leaning. We aren't. It's just the minority of loud leftists.

Western Standard - September 19, 2024

Conservatives are afraid to come out in the open for fear of career cancellation

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