Every few years someone in Hollywood gets a pretentious streak and decides to put some new spin on Richard III. If anyone out there is contemplating a salient revival for these times, one has to consider including the line “My kingdom to own the libs.”
There was once a conservative movement that entertained bold ideas. The idea of a universal basic income — derided as pure communism these days — was touted by conservative economist Milton Friedman back in the day. Say what you will about the quality of the proposals, but the movement approached policy problems and tried to offer serious solutions. Today, the unending string of clowns populating cable news are not — by any stretch — Milton Friedman. They will not be talking about negative income tax proposals. Instead, they will tell their audience to wear an AR-15 to a playground to “own the libs.”
The self-appointed “serious people in the room” of the 1970s are wearing costume jewelry to legislative hearings. On an almost daily basis, conservatives forfeit their credibility to get in another cheap shot aimed at an imagined straw adversary to reinforce tribal cohesion. Within 30 years the heroes of this movement have moved from Nobel Laureate economists to James O’Keefe and Milo — that’s about all you need to know about where they are these days. The “own” is the coin of the realm.
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Bringing us to the FedSoc chapter at University of Georgia Law, that decided International Women’s Day was the right time to invite a speaker from a recognized hate group to speak on campus about abortion. The timing was, obviously, a troll as it always is. Like when another FedSoc chapter served Chick-fil-A while discussing gay rights. It’s all about the own.
The event, “Abortion: Litigation Landscape 46 Years After Roe,” featured Denise Harle, Legal Counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom. There are, of course, many angles to approach an anti-abortion debate — and FedSoc decided on the most aggressively provocative one. If you’re thinking that you’ve heard of Alliance Defending Freedom in the news recently, it’s because one of their former employees has a lifetime appointment to the federal appellate bench. It’s all part of the “affirmative action” provided to the best and boldest at “owning the libs” who are showered with clerkships and key internships to pump up their résumés in the self-fulfilling conservative legal machine. It’s not sustainable, but it’s a reality for now.
Contrary to what its name might suggest, Alliance Defending Freedom supports recriminalizing homosexuality in the United States and rants and raves about how college campuses promote pedophilia by tolerating homosexuality. They’ve also supported efforts abroad to sterilize trans people and it’s right around the “forced sterilization” mark where Godwin’s Law might be accurately applied.
Surely the FedSoc gang had a good laugh at all the people they “triggered” by bringing this group on campus. But like Richard in his final moments, this all just reeks of desperation. There is nothing left. No kingdom to save, just a horse to ride out on and keep on keeping on while the march of progress closes in on a philosophy that’s bankrupted itself by its own survival strategy.
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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.