Peggy Noonan, a “conservative” who voted for Obama in 2008 because reasons, can barely bring herself… to say…that terrible, terrible word.
Remember, the more they protest the term, the more they shriek “Nazi” and “fascist” and “racist” in an attempt to escape the burning flames, the more rhetorically effective you know it is. Calling a self-styled conservative a “cuckservative” is akin to brandishing a cross-shaped stake that was soaked in garlic and holy water in a vampire’s face.
Then driving that bad boy home.
That being said, if for tactical purposes you wish to have a calm and etymologically untainted dialectical term of use that they cannot reasonably protest in your arsenal, I suggest you utilize “demi-conservative”, as the cuckservative is an individual who only subscribes to three of Russell Kirk’s six conservative canons.
The three canons to which the demi-conservative observably fails to adhere are:
- A conviction that society requires orders and classes that emphasize “natural” distinctions
- A faith in custom, convention, and prescription
- A recognition that innovation must be tied to existing traditions and customs, which entails a respect for the political value of prudence.
Their failure to do so may not be entirely clear by these summaries of Kirk’s canons, but I will write a more detailed post later which will make it eminently clear that this is unquestionably the case. As you can see, many of today’s “conservatives” are actually demi-conservatives who have rejected literally half of what the father of American conservatism declared to be the conservative mind.
In a word, they are cuckservatives.
Speaking of which, Greg Johnson interviewed me about the book. I’ll post the link to the transcript when it’s available.