I have to interrupt your weekend, but I think this is important.
Within the Conservative Movement, as in every movement, entangling alliances sometimes make accountability hard. When Group A gives Group B money, Group B does not want to be critical of Group A. When candidates show up on stage at big events and get to fundraise, they don’t want to be rude to the hosts.
Over time, that allows bad things to happen and fester.
Look, if you will, at what has happened to the National Rifle Association over time. It is less effective as an organization and has less political clout at a time we all really need strong Second Amendment organizations. But it lost its focus over time and kept spending on frivolous things. Anyone who raised questions got the boot.
Look at CPAC, which is no longer a conservative conference, but a conference of high-dollar donors given stage access to hang with the Trump Wing of the party. With only a few boundaries, it is amazing how many non-conservatives can access the stage with money. Meanwhile, the American Conservative Union has descended into scandal.
But because of entangled alliances, sponsorships, etc., it is tough for anyone to speak out publicly.
That leads me to Turning Point USA and this week’s antics. You can accuse the Associated Press of a hit job by pointing out the high salaries, lavish lifestyles, and incestuous business relationships a group of twenty-somethings have set up on the backs of their donors. But pay attention to this.
Here is Charlie Kirk strongly implying that Benjamin Netanyahu knowingly allowed Hamas to kill over 1,200 Israelis, behead babies, and take over one hundred hostages back to Gaza in order to expand his power.
Here is Lauren Chen, a Turning Point USA contributor, praising well-known anti-Semite Nick Fuentes for his “balanced and rational” take on the situation between Israel and Hamas. Fuentes has questioned the Holocaust and believes Jews have no place in Western Civilization.
Here is Morgan Ariel, another Turning Point USA employee, attacking Zionism. Here she is attacking Ben Shapiro for being, well, Jewish. Here she is retweeting documented Anti-Semite Jackson Hinkle to, again, attack Ben Shapiro.
Friends, forget all the money Charlie Kirk and other TPUSA executives are making off their mostly retiree donors to fund their lifestyles; we’ve got the leader of Turning Point USA suggesting the leader of Israel knowingly allowed mass murder and two of his employees promoting anti-Semites.
Too much of the Conservative Movement is too entangled together in business and financial relationships to speak up.
But someone has to. This is bad and wrong, and either a course correction needs to happen, or donors need to stop funding anti-Israel anti-Semites on the right.
Right now, staying silent is complicity with evil.