Talk:Conservative of the Year 2019

Decision

Who decides who becomes Conservative of the Year? - JobsNotMobs —The preceding unsigned comment was added by JobsNotMobs (talk)

We'll discuss on the talk page near the end of the year (within the last week), and we'll come to a consensus. --1990'sguy (talk) 15:48, 8 December 2019 (EST)

Ok, thank you

Boris Johnson

Boris obviously has a good position on Brexit, and he won a strong victory last week, but I don't think he should be Conservative of the Year, or even 2nd or 3rd place. The reason is that despite his position on Brexit, he's very left-wing on several other issues, including abortion, homosexuality, environmentalism, and certain globalist agreements such as the Paris climate agreement. Also, my understanding is that he's a pragmatist rather than an ideologue, meaning that he doesn't have particularly strong views on issues.

I would be supportive of listing "Brexit voters" as a Conservative of the Year entry, similar to what we did in 2015. --1990'sguy (talk) 09:18, 16 December 2019 (EST)

Boris Johnson is right on Brexit, but he is an abortion advocate. He encouraged his mistress to have an abortion. - JobsNotMobs

He apparently paid for her abortion: [1] That said, this was in 2004, so his current abortion/homosexuality/environment/etc. positions are more relevant to us today. --1990'sguy (talk) 18:52, 16 December 2019 (EST)

Regardless, he has always abstained from votes on pro-life bills.[2] I believe he even pressured Northern Ireland to relax its strong, pro-life laws. Personally, because of his pro-abortion views, he should be eliminated.--JobsNotMobs (talk) 09:21, 17 December 2019 (EST)

You make a valid point, and he won't be the Conservative of the Year here. In general, British politicians are typically not conservative by American standards.--Andy Schlafly (talk) 13:11, 17 December 2019 (EST)

Sounds good. I reordered the list to better reflect (in my view) relevance/significance this year. --1990'sguy (talk) 18:43, 17 December 2019 (EST)

I don't think being an ideologue is a good thing. Maybe I'm wrong,[3] but I think pursuing the truth is more important than giving someone unwarranted praise because they have an (R) next to their name, or saying, "conservatives believe this, therefore you must believe it or you are not truly a conservative." I am critical of the Republican Party, the Conservative Party of Canada, and the Conservative Party in Britain. Does that mean I'm not a conservative? How about supporting the legalization of cannabis? Yes, if Boris Johnson is pro-abortion, then he's not very conservative, and I have heard similar criticisms of him,[4] but Boris Johnson put blue-collar workers first for once,[5] and he has been much better than Theresa May.[6] So as much as I hate RINOs (and there's an abundance of them), I don't think we should eliminate anyone simply because the person is libertarian. Libertarians are still conservative. If Boris Johnson is socially liberal, that's another thing, but a surprising amount of conservatives support environmentalism (see the dislikes on PragerU's anti-environmentalist YouTube videos), and even more, including President Trump, are uncritical of homosexuality. Abortion is another thing. But even that's one issue (albeit an extremely significant one). Johnson is a right-wing populist, and a proud Brexiteer, which is the most important thing. In the end, he's not that different from some other figures in the Populist Revolution, like Mateo Salvini, Jair Bolsonaro, or even Maxime Bernier. However, we must examine him carefully, and we must choose a strong, consistent conservative for Conservative of the Decade. BernieandTrumpFan (talk) 03:18, 28 December 2019 (EST)

You're misunderstanding my point, and I agree that a consistent conservative doesn't give any human being "unwarranted praise," especially for their political party affiliation. My point is that Johnson isn't conservative and at least my perception is that some of Johnson's conservative positions (among his liberal positions) are motivated by pragmatic political interests rather than a firm foundational belief in them on their own terms. --1990'sguy (talk) 09:32, 28 December 2019 (EST)

Tulsi Gabbard

Yes, Gabbard is much better than most other Democrats, but I don't think she's anywhere close to being a conservative. I recommend everyone to read this TNA article on her positions on globalism. Additionally, her positions on other issues, such as abortion, are more aligned with the Democrats. --1990'sguy (talk) 19:52, 25 December 2019 (EST)

Valid point, but Gabbard has been more effective in 2019 in espousing certain conservative positions with swing voters than the several of the media types on the list have been.--Andy Schlafly (talk) 21:24, 25 December 2019 (EST)

OK, but I still strongly think she should be placed near the bottom of the list -- we removed Boris Johnson because he's not actually a conservative and replaced his entry with Brexit voters, who are more conservative as a whole. Gabbard is just as liberal, if not more so, as Johnson, based on her positions on immigration, globalism, abortion, and LGBT. And earlier this year, she apologized for once opposing homosexuality: [7] A strong conservative wouldn't have done so, and Gabbard doesn't consider herself a conservative or as being on the Right. --1990'sguy (talk) 20:14, 26 December 2019 (EST)

Jair Bolsonaro

I think Bolsonaro has been a good president overall, but I have been disappointed with him on several issues. For example, he retreated from his campaign promise to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.[8] More importantly, he completely U-turned on his opposition to China's communist government and now welcomes increased investment by the country (1,2,3,4). I don't think he's done much to push back against globalism in Brazil's foreign policy.

Overall, I think he's been good because of his positions on abortion, homosexuality, gun rights, and his support for Christians in Brazil, but I think he's been disappointing on the issues mentioned above and less bold than I think he could have been. Thus, I don't think he should be in the top two this year. --1990'sguy (talk) 20:25, 26 December 2019 (EST)

To clarify, I support third or fourth place for Bolsonaro, but I personally think that some of his policies on globalism/international relations have been disappointing. --1990'sguy (talk) 20:50, 26 December 2019 (EST)

Tucker Carlson

I think Tucker Carlson should be much higher up in the list. Just this year, he has spoken strongly against the Koch brothers (1,2), multiple times against Big Tech (for example), criticized liberal/globalist GOP megadonor Paul Singer (1,2), criticized so-called "conservative" organizations for allying with Big Tech (1,2), strongly promoted putting a strong family over liberal economics (1,2), and strongly criticized abortion (1,[2), among various other statements (1,2). Also, every time he said something controversial, he's refused to back down despite being targeted by the Left (1,2,3,4).

In short, Carlson isn't like the other Fox News hosts, and he should be placed higher up in the list. --1990'sguy (talk) 20:38, 26 December 2019 (EST)

I agree: Tucker should go higher, but I don't think the others should. All of them are essentially talking to an elderly, set-in-their-ways demographic.--Andy Schlafly (talk) 00:34, 28 December 2019 (EST)