This is probably the most intelligent group of right-wing thinkers I've encountered on the internet so far.
It wasn't until maybe two years ago when I came across the kia2 reddit and discovered people who understood the truths of this world - whose arguments convinced me to start caring more about politics & to stop being a fence sitter. For that, I thank all of you.
I'm simply curious as to how any of you would describe your ideology. Libertarian? Nationalist? Generally anti-globalist? I see a lot of tradcon bashing and I know most of you aren't fans of mainstream Republicans.
Also, are there any real-world politicans you would like to see dominate the national stage? (Much like how the "socialists" want to see Bernie as president).
My preferred label is America First Nationalist.
Other labels would be anti-communist, anti-wokeist, anti-feminist and anti-globalist.
I think both Jerry Falwellian traditional conservatism and neo-conservatism(only useless wars and corporate tax cuts) are failed ideologies.
I think the new right needs to focus on changing the national culture by not ceding ground to the left and the whole notion of bipartisanship needs to completely end.
Wokeism, leftism, feminism and socialism need to be opposed in every form. No more compromises. No more getting caught up by wedge issues.
The right needs to focus on changing the current culture by actually using power effectively.
The politician that I want to see dominate the national stage is Ronald DeSantis. He is relatively young, well-spoken, has strong convictions and best of all he is not afraid to use his power.
Desantis is easily the best governor in the nation. I want a clone of him running Texas. For now I wholly support Abbott in order to prevent the nightmare of Robert Francis O'Rourke.
DeSantis is the best option we have right now for 2024.
Agree about Abbott. I knew he wouldn’t be primaried. I knew some people who really wanted Prather or West but I knew they had no chance.
Prather and West didn't have a chance against Abbott because Abbott's ground game is insane.
Abbott campaign people knocked on every door in my neighborhood before the primary and they even came back multiple times after the primary for the upcoming general.
The man is way too establishment tradcon for my taste but Abbott remains the safest choice to prevent a "Beto" win.
I like Allen West a lot but he couldn't win the primary since he was sadly seen as too right for many of the squishy suburban tradcon Republicans in DFW and Houston.
I hope we can get Texas's own DeSantis in 2026.
Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton will likely both try to run for governor in 2026. I would prefer someone new who is less tradcon.
Completely agree with your assessment
Wait, wait... Allen West, previously of Florida?
100%.
The Libertarian Party is the most useful in achieving the above, now that the Mises Caucus has taken over. The caucus won dominance handily because they went against and ousted the "traditional" Libertarians who compromised themselves out of relevance to curry favor with voters.
I hesitate to label myself a Libertarian, but their platform is the one that most closely represents my ideals, which square almost exactly with onetruephilosoraptor's well-articulated position here, including his opinion of DeSantis.
While the Mises Caucus gaining power in the Libertarian Party is definitely a good thing, the Libertarian Party's support for unrestricted free trade and migration (ie a porous southern border), is a hard no for me. Those two issues are at the heart of the "America First" movement.
I have my criticisms of Trump, but he was fundamentally right about trade. Unrestricted trade has crippled American industry and has made us increasingly dependent on countries abroad. The fact that we depend on Taiwan for almost all of our semiconductor chips for our cars and electronics is horrifying. Couple that with the supply chain disruptions from China's COVID policy and the fact the industrial centers of America have become rapidly impoverished over the last several decades. I'm not saying that trade is a fundamentally bad thing, quite the opposite in fact, but we need to look out for our national interests, not the interests of multinational corporations.
Regarding immigration: widespread immigration depresses wages and can radically change the culture of the host country. I understand that the United States was built by immigrants, and as I go back my family line, everyone immigrated here at some point or other. But the United States is no longer half undeveloped wilderness. It made sense to greatly encourage mass immigration in the 19th and even early half of the 20th century. But now, we need to be far more selective. And assimilation is an absolute must. You can keep your food, music, and other superficial parts of your culture, but you need to learn English and embrace American cultural values. The millions of illegal immigrants that we have coming across our border is appalling and must be stopped. There is no hope for assimilation with those numbers. By crossing our border illegally, they are already rejecting our system of laws, as well. The amount of drugs and sexual trafficking that is occurring across the U.S,. border is staggering. We cannot continue to ignore this issue.
I have to agree with your point about immigration.
As of now, the Mises caucus advocates a conservative approach to immigration policy until such time as what they call "the privatization of border control" can happen (whatever that means). I'm beginning to look at various think tanks' research on "privatized border control" and so far it appears to be pretty vague, or at least really complicated.
I think in the short term, Libertarians elected to office will at least make moves toward decentralization of state power. I can see local and state offices being held by Libertarians of the Mises variety as a step in the right direction.
I've heard a lot of people say that DeSantis is a lot better off staying in Florida where he has some measure of power rather than diluting himself in DC, although I'm not au fait with the matter myself so I can't say for sure either way.