Tonight’s headliners can be loosely classified under the rubric of the Surrender Caucus. In addition to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Speaker of the House, Luis Gutierrez’s gringo friend Paul Ryan, will take center stage. By the way, Mr. Ryan is facing a conservative, anti-mass immigration primary challenge. One which seems to have frightened all the right people and is gaining a head of steam, despite the enormous gap in fundraising between the 2 men.

For those of you who’d like to hear what the former masters of the GOP have to say, you can watch Right Side Broadcasting live-stream the proceedings on their Youtube channel.

As I’ve said before, there are many legitimate reasons to oppose Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, although it takes a special kind of smugness, lust for pointless military interventions, and/or disdain for the intelligence of your fellow countrymen for an ostensible conservative or libertarian to endorse Hillary Clinton. Putting aside the subsidiary partisan reasons, we’re talking about a politician who rejects the very principles upon which our government is supposed to operate. The mental gymnastics required to embrace a woman who has loudly and repeatedly proclaimed her desire to eviscerate the Bill of Rights-including the 1st and 2nd Amendments to the Constitution-would impress Béla Károlyi.

However, even those Dump Trump dead-enders who oppose Hillary’s ascension to power are not completely without blame. Putting aside the willful delusion required to support its chief aim-which is rightly mocked even by gormless, repellent bloggers of the Gawker variety-the movement itself is a bizarre exercise in denial. By enlisting in the anti-Trump movement you’re asserting that the pre-Trump Republican Party, and by extension, the country itself, is doing just fine. Aside from being the antithesis of how the overwhelming majority of voters feel-and presumably, these are people whose support you seek-it’s simply not true.

You don’t have to believe that this nation is physically challenged in order to understand that it is not in a good way. 8 years of an Obama administration have delivered zero income growth. Only last month were American job-seekers in a better position than they were before the advent of the Great Recession. The savings rate-as well as the corresponding indebtedness-of America remains at a parlous level. This is occurring even as the fair-haired boy of the anti-Trump movement is conniving with the White House to burden taxpayers with a massive bailout of the now insolvent Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Even if these fiscal and economic disasters could be ignored, it defies reason to claim that Donald Trump, as a deeply flawed candidate, poses the single greatest threat to the future of our republic. The United States is in the process of being permanently effaced by a group of people who resent the purported values espoused by the anti-Trump movement, and who want to ensure that those values are not even part of our public discourse in the future. Even as we pursue a fruitless debate over who is or is not a true conservative, a true socialist is registering scores of non-citizens in the hope of electing a new people.

This is the crux of the issue. Americans who hold a traditional view of what this country means, both domestically and abroad, are being erased from the equation. To think that anti-Trump conservatives will be in a better bargaining position with prospective voters 4 or 8 years from now-after 10-20 million new citizens with antithetical values are minted-is simply delusional. It’s the same type of self-congratulatory, blinkered thought pattern that leads people to assert-to this day-that Pete Wilson, and not the wholesale demographic transformation of his state, is responsible for the Republican Party’s disappearance from the state of California. It’s a maladaptive coping mechanism used to avoid unpleasant truths.

You won’t grasp these truths by contriving implausible counterfactuals, although that seems to be the preferred strategy among anti-Trump dogmatists.  The reasons why Republican voters repeatedly and emphatically rejected the message of Dump Trump have been delineated over and over again, for those who are willing to open their eyes. As the conservative establishment is poised to exile one of the icons of modern conservatism in a fit of anti-Trump pique, the failure of Conservatism Inc. to engage in any sort of introspection is telling.

The idea that a fat-jowled actor portraying Alexander Hamilton writing the Constitution-as a stentorian narrator reels off a series of generic cliches-will be seen as anything but risible to normal American voters in the 21st century illustrates how detached most of these people are from reality. Whether or not they’ll ever recognize this deep disconnect remains to be seen, but judging by their post-primary reaction I’m not holding out much hope.

Update: Neil Munro explores Speaker Paul Ryan’s bizarre Republican trinity.

I had the pleasure of attending an informal discussion held by writer/political pundit Fred Barnes recently, where the topics ranged from his biography of Jack Kemp-co-written with McLaughlin Group colleague Morton Kondracke-to his thoughts on the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump. Taking place prior to the New York primary, and subsequent devastating losses by Ted Cruz to the now presumptive Republican nominee, it served as a fascinating overview of the internal divisions within the conservative establishment, which are even more pronounced now that the worst nightmare of many has come to fruition.

Even as Fred Barnes-like a handful of other Republican Party stalwarts-has maintained an anybody but Clinton posture-while delineating his many disagreements with Trump both tactically and strategically-the vast majority of thought leaders among formerly influential conservative think tanks, periodicals-as well as statesmen-seem to have taken the opposite tack. Some even going so far as to wholeheartedly embrace a woman who until relatively recently was seen as the bete noire of the establishment right. This is a process which seems to be accelerating with each day that elapses.

A  Trump critic in the audience-who nonetheless came to the conclusion that he was infinitely preferable, given the options, to Hillary Clinton-asked a compelling question. Namely, from where does this deep-seated animus-and unrelenting energy to thwart Donald Trump’s election, to limited effect thus far-stem? Granted, he breaks from  Republican orthodoxy on a number of issues, but if that’s the crux of the problem, then why were there no comparable anti-Romney or anti-McCain movements by the conservative intelligentsia?

If it’s simply a matter of the support Trump has drawn from loathsome figures, then why was there no corresponding outrage when John McCain aligned himself with virulent Mexican chauvinist Juan Hernandez? I’ve never subscribed to the association fallacy, but it’s worth noting that Donald Trump has never enlisted the help of The Daily Stormer in order to cultivate his popularity among white ethnics. Is the galvanizing issue for the anti-Trump movement his use of vulgarity? As absurd as that seems, the chief complaint voiced by the Stop Trump Pac appears to be Donald Trump’s penchant for uttering naughty words.

In reality, I think their objection-and the animating reason for the existence of the Dump Trump movement-is a deeply rooted fear of their own increasing irrelevance. The idea that the bond between conservative intellectuals and successful Republican campaigns is largely illusory is something that those in the anti-Trump faction simply can’t countenance. Especially the ones who manage magazines which have exiled the few writers on their staffs with a modicum of talent and intellectual integrity from their pages.

The Stop Trump crusade-if that word isn’t too offensive-is something to occupy the energies of writers and editors at The Federalist, Red State, National Review, The Weekly Standard, and virtually every other conservative publication of any consequence, through the remainder of this election cycle. It’s a raison d’être for those who would otherwise be preoccupied telling poor white people they need to die and explaining why you’re not a Christian because you happen to support a candidate they dislike, although I’m almost certain we’ll see similar broadsides in the months ahead from those who believe you’re an idiot is a persuasive riposte.

For the record, none of the aforesaid criticism means that Donald Trump is an ideal candidate, or that I believe sincere Trump critics are grievously mistaken for opposing his candidacy. The truth is that there are many objectionable aspects of Trump as a potential POTUS. Although I have several disagreements with him, I think his shockingly ignorant remarks about the attempted massacre of courageous American patriots-including my dear friend Pamela Geller-in Garland, Texas-which, to the best of my knowledge, he’s never retracted-raise the most important questions about his fitness for office.

However, it strains credibility to use this valid concern as an excuse for endorsing a woman who-lest we forget-fought to have a critic of Islam thrown into a dungeon after her own catastrophically bad foreign policy decisions led to the deaths of a United States ambassador, foreign service officer, and 2 CIA contractors.

The decision to enlist in Hillary Clinton’s unceasing quest to sink her talons into the White House is only explicable as a psychological exercise. Namely, as a means of salving the guilty consciences of those who had no meaningful impact in the fight against Obamacare, the successful grassroots campaign to derail legislative amnesty, or any of the myriad cultural wars which have embroiled our nation over the past 2 decades. It’s a way of ignoring the fact that the premiere conservative conference is a venue for selling snake oil rather than exploring the ideas which actual conservatives care about.

And the more true conservatives maintain that the primary concern of millions Americans is immaterial to true conservatism, the more irrelevant these high priests of conservative dogma will become. Just as real alpha females don’t need an inane listicle explaining how to be an alpha female, real conservatives don’t need a hackneyed blogger at Red State or contemptuous John Malkovich lookalike at National Review to explain to them why the unmaking of their country is less important than thwarting the political aspirations of the first Republican presidential candidate to intently listen to their plight and express their reservations about the direction in which this country is headed.

As a political and ideological ethos, Dump Trump is an empty vessel. However, as a case of deflection, it explains a hell of a lot.

Tuesday saw Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address before Congress. Unsurprisingly, there was very little substantive discussion of the one subject Americans are preoccupied with at the moment, i.e. the complete evisceration of this nation’s immigration laws by the current administration. There was, however, a typically pompous denunciation of purportedly divisive voices whose chief crime seems to be opposing the generally unpopular, and legally dubious, immigration policies of the President.

However, in what is probably the first of its kind, the Republican response to this year’s SOTU echoed the same theme emphasized by Obama himself. You don’t have to be enamored of either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump to recognize the stupidity of directly and unambiguously insulting millions of loyal Republican voters. Unfortunately, this has become routine for the establishment GOP. The brilliant Mark Steyn has illustrated just what was wrong with Governor Haley’s ostensible rebuttal-in reality, explicit endorsement-of the President’s message.

You can read Steyn’s astute analysis of the flaccid Republican opposition here. For what it’s worth, being praised by NY Times columnists and RNC chairmen is a dubious distinction, although one I’m sure the leaders of the dwindling minority are reveling in at the moment.

This must displease those at the editorial board of the paper which commissioned this poll, but facts are stubborn things. It turns out that the majority of Americans do not want to be inundated with Muslim refugees from Syria. Perhaps these respondents have noticed the way  these uninvited guests have caused previously thriving European economies/societies to implode. Or perhaps they merely distrust this administration’s ability to manage what has become an unmanageable crisis under President Obama. In either case, the country’s verdict is already in. Not that anyone in Washington is listening.

Listen to it live!

Update: Rush asks a pertinent question.

For those of you who were pinning your hopes on Luis Guttierez’s gringo pal, we have some bad news for you. As the inestimable Senator Sessions explains in the video above, and Mickey Kaus has pointed out in meticulous detail on his Twitter account since this accord was reached, we are screwed. In addition to being atrocious on its face, the omnibus also entrenches the worst aspects of this administration’s horrific immigration policy, including funding for its refugee resettlement plan, support for its illegal administrative amnesty, and an expansion of the notorious H1B visa program.

In short, a complete and utter disaster. Thank you, House Freedom Caucus.

Apparently, it’s not burning so brightly these days. Maybe we shouldn’t have left it in the care of a group of self-styled rebels in the House of Representatives. Mickey Kaus has a fantastic deconstruction of how presumptive Speaker Paul Ryan took the House Freedom Caucus without firing a shot.

For the second time in as many weeks, the House of Representatives has approved fast-track trading authority for the President. Although, as we’ve pointed out repeatedly on this website, TPP has very little to do with actual free trade. The next step in this convoluted, jerry-rigged process involves getting the U.S. Senate to sign off on this atrocious bill. Although we’re not optimists by nature-especially when it comes to that particular legislative body-there is still some room for hope. For those of you who’d like to speak out against this travesty, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has provided some fantastic talking points which you might want to peruse. That said, feel free to add grievances not enumerated on their website, such as the inclusion of terrible immigration provisions embedded within its text.

Speak out now, before it’s too late.