During remarks at this year’s edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) belligerently ranted about his “America First” political worldview — and following his whiny meltdown that masqueraded as some kind of sensible agenda, The Kansas City Star memorably picked apart Hawley’s remarks in an editorial. The Star is a homestate newspaper for Hawley, and as they noted, it’s simply “not true, as Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley suggested… that those who don’t agree with him don’t think we should have national borders. Or that we never stop proclaiming ‘how terrible our country is … founded in lies and evil.'” In truth, the paper noted, Hawley’s opponents are simply reacting to fundamental reality.
During his remarks, Hawley insisted to CPAC attendees that conservatives need to openly insist that they’re “proud to live in a country that liberated slaves,” and as the Star memorably put it in response:
‘Seriously? This is the very first thing for which we need to stand up and take a bow? Because it seems to some of us that no one should ever have tried to own other human beings to begin with. We didn’t so much start with nothing as we stole what was here before we got here from Native Americans… This doesn’t mean we hate America; it means we recognize reality, and see the need to learn from it.’
As the nation moves forward, hopefully with less and less input from people like Hawley, the Star offered a vision of the future. As they put it:
‘To really love America is to want to make her promise come true, rather than to pretend that ending a travesty at long last, and then recreating its injustices, somehow makes us morally superior.’
Hawley, of course, doesn’t seem interested in recognizing this reality. Instead, he prefers to stick to his complaint-fests from within the bubble of the Trump cult. Ex-President Donald Trump himself is slated to speak at CPAC this weekend, and based on his recent repeated reiterations of his belief that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 election, it certainly doesn’t seem set up to be good. Read the full Star editorial on Hawley at this link.
