{"id":1449805,"date":"2022-04-22T08:06:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T12:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1449805"},"modified":"2022-04-22T08:06:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T12:06:54","slug":"kurt-schlichter-oligarchs-will-not-save-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kurt-schlichter-oligarchs-will-not-save-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Kurt Schlichter: Oligarchs Will Not Save Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fkurt-schlichter-oligarchs-will-not-save-us%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1449805&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<aside id=\"aside1\" class=\"left aside-wrapper aside-wrapper-950\">\n<\/aside>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I like Elon Musk\u2019s style, his refusal to conform to the dictates of the dictators, and his cool sci-fi villain\u2019s name, but here\u2019s the thing \u2013 I am under no illusions that Elon Musk is going to save us. A visionary thinker? Yep. A useful ally? Sure. But the guy who is going to save America? Nope. That\u2019s not his intention and that\u2019s not how this works. We gotta save ourselves.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Elon Musk is useful for discrete tasks that require both money and testicular fortitude, like trying to buy Twitter. Throwing off the censorship of Cupertino\u2019s Dolores Umbridge corps \u2013 there\u2019s a reference for you Harry Potter virgins \u2013 will be invaluable not primarily because it will allow the shunned the chance to tweet again, but because it will cheer our side and demoralize the enemy. Remember, our elite enemy is desperately trying to stick its soft, girlish fingers in the narrative dike to plug up the leaks of unapproved thought that keeps spilling out. The ruling caste knows it maintains its sinecure not by persuasion but by power; if they can\u2019t silence and subdue us, they\u2019ll be trampled in the stampede to those who actually can adequately perform the job of running society. That\u2019s why suddenly free speech has morphed into a threat to democracy. And, of course, democracy is also a threat to democracy.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Now, let\u2019s be clear who we are talking about or, rather, who we aren\u2019t. Donald Trump is not one of these oligarchs. He was a celebrity with a personal brand built over the years. Yeah, he was a rich guy with his own plane, plenty of real estate, and top-shelf arm-candy, but he was also tight with a buck. Trump\u2019s impact came from taking his place at the head of an orphan political movement no one else had the vision to lead. It did not come from him opening up his checkbook.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Money can be extremely helpful even though it is not a substitute for political leadership. The Elon Musks and the Peter Thiels and the rest of the not-left rich guys can be useful at times, but they are not conservative ideologues like us. It is not that they do not have a comprehensive political vision. It is that, except for Trump and maybe Ross Perot, they are not positioned to become the avatar of one out there in the electorate that existing pols have failed to claim and harness.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For that reason, to lean on the Crassus contingent, is to court consistent disappointment. Remember the Koch Brothers? They gave the libs fits, but they were not America First nationalists. They were quirky libertarians who, for every three good policy positions, held one that we reject, like freeing criminals or sending a bong to every high school grad. The last one is probably not a thing, but only because they didn\u2019t think of it before fading away.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Again, they were intermittently useful, and in the main a plus, but they were not us.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Not surprisingly, the businessmen tend to focus on the businessy stuff. And the economic factors are important but are not necessarily determinative of the issues that really matter in our lives. What is really contributing to the falling quality of American life is not just the fact that gas costs so much you have to run a credit report to fill up your Chevy, though that is important. Sure, that a lot of manufacturing jobs departed to lesser countries is also an issue (and one the rich guys tend not to get super worked-up over), but that\u2019s also not necessarily the main issue today.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The main issue today is culture, as in who gets to run it \u2013 us or the woke groomer mutants? And that issue is the one that the rebel oligarchs are least likely to rebel over. They don\u2019t have kids in public schools. Little JOmNerf#$, or whatever bizarre name Musk laid on his last kid, is not going to come home and say \u201cDaddy, my teacher told me I am privileged and also that my penis has nothing to do with my sex.\u201d This is a problem that we less enormously wealthy people face. So, it\u2019s probably not really on his radar screen; in Musk\u2019s case, there is a literal radar screen and it will soon be tracking a rocket to Mars.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Even if he was interested, it is unclear what he could do to help solve this. Big money works in the macro, though Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s targeted payoffs to Democratic municipalities to manufacture Democrat votes pioneered a new way to do it. That probably won\u2019t happen again, as we\u2019ll be watching for a rerun next time, and you know the Democrats will be watching for the same from us. What fighting these battles takes is really a hundred thousand outraged moms showing up at school board meetings and yelling and running themselves if they can\u2019t scare the incumbents into doing their jobs instead of submitting to Big Woke.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This is something only we can do. Elon Musk can help at the margins, but he is not going to make it all better for us. Nor should he. Looking for a white knight with big bags of cash to pour out and make it all better is dodging our duty. We are citizens, and being a citizen takes work. Serfs and subjects have it easy. They toil in their masters\u2019 field then kick back afterwards. But we not only have to do our own toiling in our own fields, but we have to take some of our free time to go participate in our own governance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And that is how it should be. Let\u2019s welcome the rich guys who want to help us out where they can. But let\u2019s not lose sight of the fact that this is our country, and we are the ones responsible for taking it back.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conservatives Must Stand Together and Fight. Join <a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/subscribe?tpcc=kurtcolumn042122\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em><u>Townhall VIP<\/u><\/em><\/a><em>.\u00a0<\/em>And Check Out Last Week&#8217;s Stream of Kurtiousness,\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/columnists\/kurtschlichter\/2022\/04\/08\/the-left-has-lost-the-fight-n2605650?tpcc=kurtcolumn042122\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>The Left Has Lost the Fight<\/strong><\/a><strong>.\u00a0<\/strong><strong>And my podcast,\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/tipsheet\/townhallcomstaff\/2022\/04\/18\/schlichter-wake-up-trump-n2606000?tpcc=kurtcolumn042122\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Unredacted<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>I\u2019m putting the finishing touches of my upcoming non-fiction Regnery book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Well-Be-Back-Fall-America\/dp\/1684513308\">We&#8217;ll Be Back: The Fall and Rise of America<\/a>, and is it ever based. It\u2019s got a national divorce, civil war, and whether we will see Donald Trump run again, and you need to pre-order it, or the liberals will win! And also get my latest Kelly Turnbull conservative action thriller, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/36NMlVy\">The Split<\/a>, and the rest of the series about America splitting into red and blue countries and the large-caliber chaos that follows. Get all these action-packed bestsellers, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B01M0H7WQZ\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;linkCode=sl1&#038;tag=townhallmedia-20&#038;linkId=a9928c41a5d43e225796f7e3263a71b1&#038;language=en_US\">People&#8217;s Republic<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0714PQ7S1\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=books&#038;ie=UTF8&#038;qid=1496075379&#038;sr=1-1&#038;keywords=indian+country+kurt&#038;_encoding=UTF8&#038;linkCode=sl1&#038;tag=townhallmedia-20&#038;linkId=ad4074b271ea6d96c84bd092627bb041&#038;language=en_US\">Indian Country<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Wildfire-Kelly-Turnbull-Book-3\/dp\/098840298X\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&#038;qid=1543557918&#038;sr=1-1&#038;linkCode=sl1&#038;tag=townhallmedia-20&#038;linkId=0c7d4456ed15f8e8669ce1efaa6c6fb5&#038;language=en_US\">Wildfire<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/345CGqh\">Collapse<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3lZgQ0L\">Crisis<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I like Elon Musk\u2019s style, his refusal to conform to the dictates of the dictators, and his cool sci-fi villain\u2019s name, but here\u2019s the thing \u2013 I am<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1449805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1449805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1449805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1449805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1449805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}