Beware the Punk Republican
The kids aren't alright.
If I were to ask a group of 100 Republicans why they identify as Republicans, what do you think the responses would be? Perhaps it's because they want a strong American military to protect against foreign enemies, or want to restore American free market capitalism that has resulted in the richest nation in human history. These would probably be the type of answers I would hear if I asked a group of conservatives who were over the age of 40. However, if I were to ask Millennial and Generation Z Republicans, I would probably receive answers along the lines of, “Because it's the rebellious party to support” or “Because they are the anti-war party.” How can one receive such different answers amongst people who all identify with the same party? Many of the self-identified Republicans who are younger and give these sort of answers are part of what I call the “punk Republican,” and they might destroy the three-legged stool of conservatism If we don't address it as many of these “Republicans” hold none of the three legs of the basis of modern conservatism They often have valid critiques of things but have leftist reasons for those criticisms which is what will be discussed throughout the rest of this essay.
One of the biggest things that punk republicans are known for is a hatred of the Presidency of George W. Bush. However they are not from the point of view of the large deficit spending that occurred during his presidency which can be critiqued from a conservative point of view. It instead mostly focuses on the wars that Bush presided over, particularly Iraq. Now, this isn't an article defending all of the actions of said wars, nor the amount of time we spent in those places. However, the punk Republican response to these issues is a quite radical form of isolationism, in which America avoids all foreign involvement. This goes completely counter to the idea of a strong American military, as completely avoiding foreign involvement weakens America. What happens in Israel or Ukraine matters to America, as our weakness will tell Russia and Hamas it's okay to attack peaceful nations and America will do nothing because “it does not directly involve us.”
Another key part of punk Republicans ideology is their hatred of large corporations, especially in the technology and financial sectors. Similar to the George W.Bush critiques, punk Republican criticisms of these companies do not come from the crony capitalism of these firms like the billions the financial sector received in the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program while they gambled the economy with their reckless lending of mortgages which was encouraged by the federal government. Nor is the criticism of technology firms primarily rooted in the government collusion they have engaged in. Those are criticisms rooted in genuine American conservatism. While some punk Republicans may say that these are the reasons for their hatred of these companies, it's just a scapegoat. The real reason punk Republicans hate them is jealousy of their power and influence. They hate these companies merely for their large size in and of itself, regardless of how much government collusion they are involved in. This runs counter to the traditional conservative viewpoint of knowing the virtues of American capitalism and the economic theory of economies of scale, which is what allows generally for lower prices for consumers despite consolidation as fixed costs are spread across more items, lowering the average cost.
The third key part of punk Republican’s ideology is their grave distrust of the American intelligence agencies, like the FBI and CIA. Punk Republicans distrust of these agencies does not stem just from these agencies recent poor activities like the FBI telling Facebook to bury the Hunter Biden laptop story right before the 2020 election. Punk Republicans state that these agencies have always been extremely bad, claiming things like “The CIA only exists to serve the American Empire”. This has increasingly manifested itself in the embrace of conspiracy theories, such as that the CIA assassinated John F. Kennedy or that the FBI is in some grand conspiracy to undermine President Trump. This also runs counter to the traditional conservative view that intelligence agencies, when done properly, help not harm Americans.
The punk Republicans even run counter to the traditional social conservatism of the Republican Party. Instead they choose to embrace a sort of crude “Barstool” conservatism, with little care for abortion policy, the importance of marriage, or fighting against the destructive modern hook up culture. This leads to the end and why I choose to name this group of self declared Republicans punk Republicans. The answer is simple; they are just leftwing punks who despise all authority, and have switched sides now that the left controls these major institutions.
Lincoln Gaffney is a senior at Juan Diego High School in Draper, UT. He is a founding member of the Wild Caucus of the Libertarian Party and currently serves as its Vice-Chair and Southwest Overseer. @lincolngaffney
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I am becoming a bit obsessed about Pat Buchanan. Mostly because he has produced a form of revisionist history that reflects the tendencies of leftists like Nikole Hannah Jones. Partly because as Lincoln notes above, he is anti corporation, pro isolationism, and subtly, an anti Semite. But also because as noted above, he was a punk. Now most of us, myself CERTAINLY included, were punkish in our younger years. But Buchanan was in his 50s when he wrote of America, "“Every true nation is the creation of a unique people, separate from all others. Indeed, if America is an ideological nation grounded no deeper than in the sandy soil of abstract ideas, she will not survive the storms of this century any more than the Soviet Union survived the storms of the last.” Uh wrong. America is unique because of our ideals or someone like Thomas Sowell could not be one of the greatest conservatives of our time. Buchanan is a punk.