Token conservative

The term "token conservative" describes the lip service paid by the mainstream, liberal media to so-called fairness. The typical offering from the mainstream media is a single moderate, so-called "conservative" speaker, reporter, columnist among hundreds of fellow liberal employees. This person's view is almost exclusively "New World" moderate-to-liberal and they usually find more in common with their liberal counterparts than with real American conservatives. On occasion, a single true conservative such as Jeffrey Lord finds employment with the mainstream media, but it never lasts because of their commitment to real conservative viewpoints. The liberal media demands that they hire their brand of "conservative" – one that will attack real conservatives. In some cases, token "conservatives" have voiced opinions even more left-wing than those of commentators who admit being on the Left.

The liberal media often promotes token conservatives, portraying them as actual conservatives but never promoting movement conservatives.

Token Conservative views and personalities

• New York Times—David Brooks

Brooks supports homosexual "marriage" and abortion. He strongly opposes Donald Trump and considered the far-left elitist Hillary Clinton to be more "competent" and "normal" than Trump. On the Senate floor, left-wing Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid gave Brooks accolades for denouncing Republicans as "not normal". In October 2017, Brooks stated that "My own view on [gun control] is that we should probably pass all the gun control measures that are talked about, whether it’s the gun shows, whether it’s limiting the number you can buy"; Brooks stated this despite admitting in the same interview that he doubted that these measures would be effective in actually stopping gun violence.

• New York Times—Ross G. Douthat

According to The New York Times, Douthat’s writing “steers away from partisanship — he frequently criticizes Republicans — or doctrine."

Douthat said "'I’m sort of a squishy pro-lifer,' interested in finding areas of compromise." In May 2017, he called for conservative U.S. President Donald Trump's impeachment, not because of any "high crimes and misdemeanors," which Douthat admitted Trump did not commit, but because Trump was supposedly unfit to serve. He called on establishment RINO Republicans such as Bob Corker to impeach Trump if they were serious about their criticisms about him.

• Newsweek, The Atlantic, CNN, The Daily Beast—David Frum

David Frum, who voiced relatively conservative views prior to around the later part of the Bush II presidency, shifted strongly to the Left after the election of Obama in 2008. Among his left-wing positions, he supports the immoral practice of homosexual "marriage" and believes it is not a threat to family stability. He also believes that human-caused global warming is real and a threat, something which opens the window for massive government regulations. In addition, he voted for Hillary Clinton – a left-wing globalist – over conservative Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and later called for President Trump to resign.

"What is irrational is the failure of conservatives and Republicans to perceive the divergence between Fox’s interests and their own."

Rush Limbaugh Is "A Walking Stereotype Of Self-Indulgence"

Speaking about Palin, “This is a woman who has got into a position of leadership by sending very powerful sexual signals,” Frum told reporter Judy Woodruff. “And we see that in the way that men like her much more than women do.”

• MSNBC—Joe Scarborough

"..how conservative the Republican Party's become, they've got it backwards. We have not been conservative as a party, we've been radical."

Scarborough wrote a book titled The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America's Promise. To promote the release he visited numerous left-leaning media outlets and trashed well known conservatives, including Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich.

In 2017, Scarborough called for U.S. President Donald Trump to resign, in line with anti-Trump liberals. He also defended CNN after a damaging scandal in which it promoted a retracted anti-Trump fake news story in order to increase its ratings.

In July 2017, Scarborough displayed his true political views by finally leaving the GOP. He made this switch official on October 12, 2017. In 2017, Scarborough responded to a false story by The Hill by saying that "despite the stupidity of my former party, there is no inner liberal inside of me. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) My party just went bats*** crazy."

• New York Times (formerly, The Wall Street Journal)—Bret Stephens

Supporter of globalist "free trade" and open borders. He has stated that "the party of Donald Trump" is related to "exclusion, fear, and bigotry", and that conservatives must "admire" the elites, who are "educated" and care about "culture" and the "cultivation of the human soul." He also stated that "real Americans are screwing up America" and should deport themselves. In October 2017, Stephens called for repealing the Second Amendment (a position even more left-wing than that voiced by most liberals), saying that "I have never understood the conservative fetish for the Second Amendment." Unable to accept the fact that a conservative like Steve Bannon (who had spoken at a dinner by the Zionist Organization of America which has very good relations with him) is very pro-Israel and not an "antisemite", Stephens continued his attempt to smear Bannon and deny Bannon's actual views.

• CNN and The Daily Beast—Matt Lewis

Strongly opposes President Trump and said that his voters are "a**es."

• Washington Post—Jennifer Rubin

Rubin writes a blog titled "Right Turn", but the only direction she goes is Left. She sounds like a leftist Democrat in her blog posts. She calls the Republican Party a "party of all white, angry, abusive men" and during the 2016 election she has attacked Donald Trump (who is much more bold for conservative issues than RINOs like Romney or McCain, which she likely supports), likely, in every single blog post she has made, even in the general election and after the election when Trump won. Although President Trump's cabinet was rated as being even more conservative than that of Ronald Reagan, Rubin claims that it "is perhaps the worst in modern history." She opposes conservative Judge Roy Moore due to his conservative and Christian positions, and she calls liberal globalist Evan McMullin a "conservative" while admitting she does no belong in the conservative Republican Party. She mocks conservative evangelical Christians, calling them "evangelical charlatans", and she borrows leftist attack lines against conservative Republicans. She supports the homosexual agenda. She hates Fox News because she believes it is conservative, and she denies that extremely talented and credible journalists such as Tucker Carlson are neither. She states "What’s good for Fox is not good for the GOP or the country. Perhaps a credible center-right TV news operation is needed" (one should note that her vision of "center-right" news closely resembles leftist scams such as MSNBC). She genuinely believes that Fox's commentators are "racist", despite having no real evidence, other than the fact that they oppose Barack Obama and actually defended Donald Trump (of course, will she say the same thing about similar statements from the Left?). She advocates for "center-right" politics (whatever that even means) but attacks solid conservatives.

• The Weekly Standard—Bill Kristol

Since Donald Trump's 2016 presidential candidacy, Kristol has moved to the Left, becoming a prominent Never Trump movement activist. Even after Trump's election as U.S. President, Kristol continued his petty attacks against Trump, a conservative. He advocated for "rebranding" establishment Never-Trump "conservatives" as liberals. Kristol endorsed Democrat Doug Jones (who takes very left-wing positions even by national standards), stating he would be a better Senator than conservative Republican Roy Moore. In November 2017, Kristol tweeted: "The GOP tax bill's bringing out my inner socialist. The sex scandals are bringing out my inner feminist. Donald Trump and Roy Moore are bringing out my inner liberal. WHAT IS HAPPENING?"

• Washington Post—George Will (evolutionist/creation denier and self-proclaimed "heathen" and agnostic). While Will says he believed Roe v. Wade was an unconstitutional ruling, he thinks that the issue is unimportant overall. He opposes the death penalty. He supports amnesty for illegal immigrants. In May 2017, Will stated that Donald Trump supporters were "scowling primitives" who "hijacked" the conservative movement. Will endorsed far-left Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Alabama over conservative Roy Moore.

• Washington Post—Charles Krauthammer

Krauthammer is much more conservative than the others listed here, and although he could not bring himself to vote for Trump in 2016, he was more sympathetic and supportive towards him than the other "token conservatives," especially after Trump's inauguration. However, he remains pro-abortion, an evolutionist/creation denier, and a former Walter Mondale speechwriter)

Common Characteristics

Most liberal media "conservatives" share the following viewpoints;

• GOP should be a RINO "big tent" inclusive party
• Lacking principled stances on issues, unless, of course, they take an explicitly left-wing stance on an issue
• Attack solid, principled conservatives
• Claim Republicans must compromise or concede to liberals on social issues
• Claim to know what is the best for the Republican Party
• Write books which nobody reads – books which have the consistent theme of how to make the "conservative" movement succeed, but which are always promoted by liberals and which always advocate for the viewpoints listed above

See also

• Evan McMullin, another faux "conservative" who is not primarily a media figure

External links

• NY Times Hires Its Version of A Conservative to Write Op-Ed Column
• NBC 'Today' Turns to Leftist and a Moderate for Advice on GOP Comeback