Sherm: The expanding conservative tent

If you missed it, you can dig it up on YouTube. What Vance articulates in the speech is the expanding tent of the conservative movement in America.

In a nutshell: If you love America, even though you may come from diverse backgrounds and cultures, you have a place on the conservative team.

We saw this begin to play out at the opening of the Turning Point convention in Phoenix. Conservative influencers took the stage and — wait for it — criticized each other on various topics.

The mainstream media reported this as a “civil war” within the MAGA movement. The Trump coalition was crumbling, they said. But, as always, the mainstreamers don’t get what’s going on.

The late Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk stood for the necessity in the American experiment to embrace and foster free speech. Disagreement and talking things out are what his “prove me wrong” events on college campuses were all about.

Mainstreamers don’t get it much the same way they don’t get Donald Trump. He may indeed be closer to a game-show host than a political ideologue, but he’s a patriot and a smart cookie who sincerely puts America First. That means embracing ideas from the full spectrum of thought — be it from Bernie Sanders or anyone else. If it makes America great again, then welcome.

Democrats, meanwhile, can’t get unstuck from their embrace-or-die gender and DEI ideas. You will remember that 20 years ago, Democrats pushed out everyone who didn’t buy into the “abortion is good” philosophy. Today, they also push out people from the party who disagree with trans-boys in girls’ sports, a wide-open immigration policy, etc.

Even if Democrats see what I’m seeing, I’m not sure they can turn things around in time for the 2028 presidential election.

Prove me wrong.

EPSTEIN FILES

If anyone ever asks you, “What would Jesus do?” tell them that flipping tables and chasing people with a whip is within the realm of possibilities.

That’s certainly how I feel about the Jeffrey Epstein saga.

Anyone — and I mean anyone — involved in the rape of children ought to feel the sting of a whip at the barest minimum.

The problem is that the full Epstein story has been so poorly reported, I wonder if we’re ever going to get to the unvarnished truth.

People in orbit around Epstein included English royalty, billionaires, Harvard presidents, and former presidents. It also included the media elite.

But, after an act of Congress signed into law by President Donald Trump, the Department of Justice has been instructed to release all Epstein documents, taking care to protect the victims.

That started a week ago. The release has not gone smoothly.

The DOJ has downloaded tens of thousands of pictures and documents to a special website that is searchable. There is more coming.

Journalists and citizens have already noticed some files have been downloaded, then pulled back. One of the pictures featured Trump. The DOJ explained it was pulled to answer questions about another person in the picture. When that was resolved, the picture was reloaded on the website. DOJ says they are doing their best to get it right with speed.

For now, we drink through a firehose of information — no explanation and no context. Already bad-faith partisans have begun screwing around with some of the pictures to deliberately mislead and distract. Watch out for that distraction, dear readers.

Stay vigilent, dear readers. And keep that whip close at hand.

(Sherman R. Frederick is a longtime Nevada journalist and a member of the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. You can read more from him at shermanfrederick.substack.com.)