The world today seems absolutely crackers,
With nuclear bombs to blow us all sky high.
There’s Trump and Putin sittin’ on the trigger.
It’s depressing. It’s senseless. And that’s why…
I like beer. It makes me a jolly good fellow.
Besides spirits, how does a conservative such as myself keep his sanity? Here are some of the resources I use as guiding lights during these dark times:
The National Review magazine has been a bastion of conservative thought for decades. Although they did publish a full ‘Never Trump’ issue during the primaries, they accept him as our president. They are guided, not by a cult of personality, but by conservative principles. They praise Trump when he’s right, but are not afraid to criticize him when he’s wrong.
My favorite writer for National Review is Jonah Goldberg, though Andrew McCarthy, David French, Jim Geraghty and Alexandra DeSanctis are all first rate. In fact, the whole crew is solid.
The Weekly Standard is another publication that rests on the bedrock of conservatism. Bill Kristol, the originator, has been called the father of the ‘Never Trump’ movement, but the editorial stance of conservatism over personality still reigns supreme. Fred Barnes, Stephen Hayes and John Podhoretz are second among equals.
If you’ve burned out on talk radio as I have, try podcasts. Ben Shapiro is my favorite. He is a self-proclaimed nerd and loves to talk about Batman or classical music as much as politics, but he really knows his stuff. I also recommend, “I’ll Tell You What,” a Fox News podcast featuring Dana Perino and Chris Stirewalt. Unlike many of their Fox cohorts, they base their commentary more on experience and philosophy, rather than The Donald’s latest tweet. Also, the afore-mentioned National Review and Weekly Standard both produce podcasts that are well worth a listen.
For those of you who happily buy into the notion that conservative women are represented only by intellectual lightweights such as Sarah Palin and Tomi Lahren, check out the likes of Kat Timpf, Mary Katharine Ham, Amanda Carpenter, Heather Wilhelm, Karol Marcowicz, Megan McArdle, Brooke Rogers, Emily Zanotti and Brittany Pounders. Special shout-out to Christina Sommers and her YouTube series, The Factual Feminist. These ladies can think circles around Ann Coulter any day.
Finally, honorable mentions to John A. Daly, fellow Coloradan and columnist at BernardGoldberg.com. Also, I like Erick Erickson, even though he veers into the mean-spirited lane in the name of God more often than I’d like. If you guys don’t believe that conservative movie critics exist, check out Christian Toto at his website, Hollywoodintoto.com. And mad props to Guy Benson, an openly gay conservative who catches more flack from the left than the right because of his views. I mentioned that I’m mostly off talk radio, though I still enjoy Michael Medved and Hugh Hewitt. Hugh veers into Trump apology a little more often than I’d like, but he’s still a good guy and an outlier on MSNBC. And speaking of outliers, we can’t forget Bret Stephens, token conservative at the ever-lovin’ New York Times. And we must also pay tribute to the standard bearers like Charles Krauthammer, George Will and Peggy Noonan, who are all still out there swinging for the fences.
There ya have it, folks. Go out there and try to be sane. If these coping mechanisms don’t work for you, there’s always the Whopper with a beer and cigar chaser. Or if you were expecting a different cuisine based on the beginning of this post, try General Tso’s chicken with a beer chaser.
By the way, all two of you who read this blog may notice less than normal political commentary of late. Frankly, the state of things in that realm today makes me sad and tired. Everything that I feared about President Trump is slowly coming to pass. Why write about it? With apologies to Rush Limbaugh, “See, I told ya so,” is just so pedantic.
You may also notice that I closed the comments section on this blog. I did it for the same reason that Good Times closed on the 16th Street Mall. If people ain’t paying, why stay open? The more practical reason is because I got tired of the spammers, just as poor Ahmed got tired of the homeless using the Good Times bathroom as a changing/bathing room. Capcha is not an option for blind folks with screen-reading software, so I just shut it off.
If I ever face popular demand from actual human beings to bring back the comments, I’ll consider it. Until then, I’m going to publish this and go off to do something else, which will not involve Tom T. Hall or British humor.
