Marble Halls & Silver Screens With Sarah Lee Ep. 76: The ‘Cuomo vs Cruz, Barb & Star, and How To Lose’ Edition

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The first rule of Fight Club is don’t talk about Fight Club. There are a bunch of others after that, culminating in the one that mandates new members to Fight Club MUST fight. I like that one. If you’re gonna get in the ring, you’re gonna have to fight. With respect and apologies to Chuck Palaniuk, I’d like to add one more: don’t help the other guy beat you to a pulp.

There’s a lot of discussion among conservatives following Biden’s win about how on Earth we let a guy who almost literally never spoke publicly before the election beat them following — I know it’s a hard pill to swallow, Never Trump — some serious policy wins on the part of the Trump administration. The default position for many is that the problem was with Trump himself. He just wasn’t presidential, they say. His character was lacking. He incited his crazy followers to believe they had to engage in a REAL fight club at the Capitol.

But I think there may be something else afoot, and the story of Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s ill-advised, there-and-back trip to Cancun illustrates it in pretty stark fashion

In short: conservatives defeat themselves.

Whether or not you think Cruz should have jumped a plane out of the freezing tundra of Texas for a vacation with family while millions in the state shivered without power is legitimate. The optics, as it’s been noted interminably, were bad.

And so, recognizing this, Cruz came home. And then he apologized. And he’s foregone the family time to get back to work.

And yet…so many conservatives have been hanging on to the sheer unmitigated unfeelingness of it that they’re quite literally giving their opponents on the left side of the aisle the wood to build the cross to crucify him. Conservatives are doing the work of those who would defeat them. Figuratively standing there and letting themselves be beaten to a pulp.

Cruz is a solid conservative. He’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but he’s smart, dedicated, is a defender of the Constitution and of liberty, and knows how to keep his feet under him during a fight. It’s fine to point out the mistake of his now-infamous Mexico trip. But it would appear that conservatives are doing that thing again where they’re so eager to prove they’re “better” than the other side they’ll destroy one of their own to make the point. Which reeks of narcissism, if I’m honest. But that’s another column altogether.

Anyway, the Cruz pearl-clutching is remarkably shortsighted. And it’s why conservatives lose. Progressives circle the wagons and protect their people to the bitter end to make sure their agenda is untouched. Until they simply can’t anymore. Just look at how far New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had to go to finally earn their tepid derision.

None of this is to suggest conservatives should start looking the other way when one of their own leaves the elderly to contract a deadly virus and then fails to reveal what happened during an official investigation in order to protect themselves politically. Of course not.

But perhaps conservatives could find a little grace, forgive a stupid mistake, and realize that the good Cruz has done — and will do — outweighs a bad decision in a time of chaos.

And stop helping the other guy beat them to a pulp.

I talk about all that on the show today, as well as laugh recalling the ridiculous and fun “Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar” (trailer below), and dissect the weirdness of the Hollywood privileged set having anything to say about Cruz and Cancun.

Give it a shot, won’t you?

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The show lives below on Spotify and you can also find me at iHeart radio, Apple PodcastsFCB Radio’s Spreaker, and Deezer.

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