John Fund is like one of those guys in a large organization that people know, but they don;’t know what he does. He’s in the halls, in the lunchroom, he turns up at meetings, but he never says or does anything anyone notices. Most can’t remember his last name. He’s just “John” or that guy with the short tie. Fund writes fro the Wall Street Journal and National Review. These are the two big platforms of Conservative Inc. Yet, you never hear anyone mention him or pass along a link to one of his posts.

Anyway, he has this post up at NRO. It is emblematic of what is defective with the conservative mind. They confuse policy, principles and politics. The current fight in Washington has very little to do with policy and nothing to do with principle. It is a partisan fight. Both parties fear they are losing their base. The best way to win over doubters is to pick a fight with the enemy. Rulers have been doing this since the dawn of time. Nothing brings the people together like a good short war with a hated enemy.

John Boehner is not a genius, but he figured out that he had to go along with the conservative members on this and take a stand. Otherwise they risked losing big in next year’s election. In the end, they may have to accept some minor cuts here or there, which will amount to nothing, but they will have rallied the base for the next fights. It’s nothing but theater to invigorate the base. The Democrats are doing the same thing. That’s the nature of tribal politics, so this will be the norm as we move to majority-minority status.

Maybe professional conservatives get this, but they are paid to sell what their donors want, so they prattle on about principles and political theory. Maybe that’s part of the whipping campaign to get the conservative base re-engaged. Maybe they are really as dumb as they seem. They seem to have developed an identity that depend on them appear to be above politics, which is a sure way to lose any political fight. The Left never makes this mistake. They are proud political warriors.

Anyway, the goal in political fight is to make the other guy look awful or silly so he will give you better terms. Forcing that Harry Reed to go on TV and defend this mess is good politics. Any time you can get Pelosi or Wassermann-Schultz on TV is a good day for Republicans. They will inevitably say something so nutty the public. Conservative Inc never seems to get this and instead demands immediate surrender so they can regroup for another day, when they have the policy just right.

The trouble is, the Republicans think these National Review types are the authentic voice of the base, so they are bullied into surrender, even when they have the politics right. It’s why the new politics, whatever comes next in the age of white identity, will first need to dispense with conservatives. They have been the handmaiden of the Left, helping them lead a war on the bourgeois white core of America. despite what they claim, they can never been an ally, as they have always been the enemy.