I said yesterday that I'd be on Monday's "Tucker Carlson Tonight", "Air Canada permitting". Well, Air Canada didn't permit, and gave me one of the worst travel days of my life. But Tucker was kind enough to invite me on Tuesday's show in lieu, and, fingers crossed, I'll be there live across America tonight at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific.
~As an update to my piece on the fourth anniversary of National Review going ape, here's the Permanent Bipartisan Consensus in action:
On the left of the screen is Wajahat Ali, a New York Times contributor who writes on "our growing need for cultural unity, racial diversity, and inclusion to fight forces of hate and division"; on the right is Rick Wilson, "longtime Republican political strategist", Bush field director, Cheney staffer, Giuliani ad-man, etc, who regards me as a sniveling milquetoast pantywaist who didn't have the cojones to go mano a mano. In the center is Don Lemon of "the most trusted name in news". Click below to watch:
More Proof that CNN is utter trash, and hates half the country.
Rick Wilson: those dumb southern guys liking trump hur durr durr
Don Lemon: laughing out of controlpic.twitter.com/y3U7Zaw8Sh
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) 28 January 2020
I've been to Ukraine - so long ago now it was still "The" Ukraine, back before that hotshot oligarch gave Hunter the definite article as his Christmas bonus and he wired it to that bank in Cyprus in case his child-support case went south. So I can find it on a map. And more generally at SteynOnline we attend to what I believe the official State Department maps mark as "The Rest of the World". Indeed, one of the reasons why CRTV chairman Joe Kakaty, Mark Levin and others wanted me fired was that my show had "too many foreigners".
So I don't think I'm a typical member of what Mr Wilson calls "the credulous boomer rube demo": As Song of the Week patrons know, I'm no great enthusiast for country music; I generally eschew "barbecue"; for a while I did drive a pick-up truck in a forlorn attempt to fit in, but a contractor working on my house found a Judy Garland album in its CD player and all his chaps started laughing at me. I cannot speak to Mr Wilson's mockery of the credulous rubes' accents, because all American accents sound the same to me. Bottom line: As I told Tucker the other night, I'm as effete and hoity-toity a foreigner as you can find. If they ever make a musical of Deliverance, I'll be strapped to the third tree on the left.
But I do wonder if, in a democratic age, it is politic to mock half the country as stump-toothed knuckle-dragging bozos who know no more of the world than where to go for a jigger of moonshine and a bunk-up with your cousin. Especially when they're the half of the country that won the election. The Demo-media line has always been that GOP presidents - Eisenhower, Reagan, both Bushes - are dull-witted and ignorant. To extend that contempt to the electorate would not seem prudent - and rather un-self-aware surely for a chap who advertises himself as committed to "the growing need for inclusion to fight the forces of hate and division". If you want more Trump, this is the way to get it.
~The likes of Rick Wilson are a big part of why voters looked elsewhere. Here's me in July 2015:
The 'normal rules' of American politics have delivered America into the hands of a permanent ruling class content to preside over a hyper-regulated, corrupt, cronyist, indebted borderless ruin mitigated according to taste by a deranged hyper-sexualized identity-politics totalitarianism hunting down homophobic bakers and confederate-flag decals... Your mileage may vary. But the fact is that in a two-party system the Democratic Party is relatively effective at delivering to its voters the world they want to live in. The Republican Party not so much. Responding to my attack on the GOP's consultant class, one of its most eminent members, Rick Wilson, responds:
'@WillvonKaenel @MarkSteynOnline Weird. There are twice as many elected Rs in the county [sic] today than 15 years ago. Yeah, we built that.'
Built what? If the purpose of a political party is to elect officeholders to sit in offices, you're doing great. But that's kind of Trump's point, isn't it?
If you're hot for Obamacare, diversity, open borders, gay marriage, the Democrats, as I note above, deliver. By contrast, to reprise another line from the summer of 2015:
The Republican Party has become the party of 'Nothing Can Be Done.' It's the Council of Despair. Donald Trump is the symptom, but the disease is a do-nothing Republican Party.
Nothing says "credulous rube" like writing a check to the GOP knowing they're passing it straight to Rick Wilson.
That CNN clip is how these guys think of you. Don Lemon is dancing with tears in his eyes 'cause the rube in Trump's arms isn't U. (That's a Nancy Mitford crack - they're always surefire crowd-pleasers with the boob-bait demo.)
~If you prefer yours truly in non-visual formats, I'll be back in audio only tomorrow, Wednesday, with the great John Oakley on Toronto's Global News Radio 640 live at 5pm Eastern.
On the other hand, if you're one of that brave band who enjoy me on camera, don't miss a rare semi-video Tale for Our Time - The White Silence by Jack London, as rendered by me before a live audience on last year's Mark Steyn Cruise.
Tales for Our Time is made with the support of members of The Mark Steyn Club. I am very grateful to all our members around the world, from London, England to London, Ontario to London, Kiribati. We hope to welcome many more of you in the decades ahead. For more information on The Mark Steyn Club, see here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership.
Oh, and do give a thought to our Third Annual Steyn Cruise sailing the Med next year and with Michele Bachmann, Conrad Black and Douglas Murray among our shipmates. We'll be attempting some seaboard versions of The Mark Steyn Show, Tales for Our Time, our Sunday Poem and other favorite features. If you're minded to give it a go, don't leave it too late, as the price is more favorable the earlier you book - and the cabins are going fast.