Ron DeSantis and the Fight Club Conservatives By Philip Klein
https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/04/ron-desantis-and-the-fight-club-conservatives/
Using the state as a vehicle to reward friends and punish enemies is something that conservatives once excoriated, for good reason, as Gangster Government.
The most significant line dividing the modern conservative movement is more tactical than ideological.
On one side, there are those on the right who see conservatism as a set of clear and timeless principles that should be consistently adhered to, regardless of whether they lead to preferred short-term outcomes in every circumstance.
Those on the other side of that line may be sympathetic to many of the same principles, but they believe that any principle that gets in the way of achieving their preferred outcomes should be discarded without remorse.
This isn’t to say that important ideological disagreements on economic, social, and national-security policy (or the relative importance of each) do not still divide conservatives into various factions. And no doubt, the overarching tactical disagreements end up leading to substantive policy differences — for instance, when it comes to the debate about regulating Big Tech.
That said, if we look at the battles on the right that in recent years have ended friendships, severed institutional relationships, and pitted long-time conservative allies passionately against each other, they all, at their core, come down to the same disagreements over the proper approach to politics.
Conservatives who embraced Donald Trump — or at least made their peace with him — ultimately viewed him as a disruptive force who was willing to mercilessly take on liberals and their media allies, and fight battles that other Republicans fled.
While many people have tried to define this faction of conservatives as MAGA or Trumpist, the reality is that the movement has broadened beyond Trump. It has been described as populist, or as the New Right. But given the emphasis on pugilism, I like to describe them as Fight Club Conservatives. This strikes me as especially apt given all the talk about the crisis of masculinity that is common in these circles.
Ever since Donald Trump left office, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been carving out a place for himself in a fractured Republican Party as somebody who can be acceptable to a broad cross-section of conservatives. He has largely united Trump’s willingness to take on the Left with more intelligence, discipline, focus, and follow-through.
But if there was any uncertainty before about where DeSantis truly stood, this week’s targeting of Disney in Florida should leave no doubt that he wants to side with the Fight Club Conservatives.
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