#66 Nope. Before that. ("...that illegal immigrants replaced roofing union workers?")

Seems like your ability to read and understand complex topics, onepigironsmoothbrainaut, is non-existent.

#24 It might be easier to name the one race you haven't insulted, BJ boi:

The White Race.

Other than that, well, I suggest, you deny.

#20 | #21 Your tiara is slipping.

You're welcome.

snip ...

The Integrity Test
This is what ties Heritage, Greene, and Pence together.

• Heritage shows what happens when legitimacy is abandoned.


• Greene shows what happens when loyalty stops paying off.


• Pence marks the last broadly recognized boundary before obligation itself became betrayal.

Together, they expose the integrity test now reshaping the American right:

Whether conservatism still recognizes limits on power.
Or whether power itself has become the organizing principle.

This isn't about policy direction.

It's about legitimacy.

snip ...

The Fracture Isn't a Revolt"It's a Sorting

What we're witnessing inside American conservatism is not a revolt against MAGA.

It's a sorting process.

Not between left and right.
Not between establishment and outsider.

But between those who still believe democracy imposes limits"and those who believe limits are optional if power is within reach.

The public implosions.
The loyalty tests.
The factional warfare.
The quiet exits and sudden resignations.

These aren't isolated dramas.
They are symptoms of the same structural failure.

And when enforcement mechanisms stop working"when norms are no longer enforced internally"movements don't self-correct?

They fracture.

snip ...

Welcome back for this final article in a three-part series on power, principle, and the fracture that happens when one replaces the other.

In Article II, we traced how MAGA didn't evolve conservatism so much as hollow it out.

What had once been organized around restraint, institutional legitimacy, and the rule of law was steadily replaced with loyalty, grievance, and personal power.

The language of conservatism remained intact.
The structure did not.

Conservatism didn't collapse"it was emptied.
That hollowing could never stay abstract.

Once an ideology loses its internal coherence, the pressure doesn't disappear. It migrates"into institutions, into leadership, into public conflict.

Eventually, it becomes visible.

That's where we are now.

The Politics Chicks

I don't have strong feelings about who the next Democratic presidential candidate should be, but the next attorney general needs to be either Kamala Harris or Jack Smith.

The poetic justice (pun intended) of either one of them prosecuting the shit out of this entire regime? Chef's kiss

#12 I was at a book signing for ETTD, and even bought one and and had it personalized by the author for the poster here who went by JeffJ.

I snail mailed it to him,and hoped that it might help him understand the Trump.

Instead, he traipsed off to PWZ and the insane asylum it was ... for a month or two - until it expired of natural and unnatural causes.

I understand some of them have crawled back to the Retort since then.

#66 Thank you, kindly, Ms. Laura.

And Happy New Year, my friend.

#64 That "wise man" must be a Fox "News" talking head.

That's what your TV told you to say, right BJ boi?

#3 Thank you.

#64 Can't respond.

Expected.

#61 Well then, BJ boi, good thing you have a TV to tell you that the border is closed.

Good thing you have a TV to tell you how to think.

Good thing you have a TV to lead you to betrayal.

Good thing.

#61 Onepigironsmoothbrainaut completely misses the story.

Quelle surprise.

#12 -> Check out my #9.

Hope that helps, Zed.

And Happy New Year to you!

#44 "...and we can pretty well assume the border would not have been shut down."

#55 "No border is perfectly sealed ..."

Amazing what 42 minutes will do, especially when faced with undeniable facts.

#55 Trumps "enforcement" hasn't done sh*t as it relates to the border, BJ boi.