We all laughed as the Democrats looked like they were going to split their party in half over the Israeli-Palestinian war. It was almost farcical watching liberal leaders take a stance that at times looked to favor the Hamas terrorists. Nothing on that level is happening with Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro, yet it’s threatening to tear a fissure in our conservative movement heading into the 2024 election. We can’t afford the infighting.
As much as Shapiro brands himself as a man of “facts and logic,” he opened with a line of personal attack rather than countering her points, calling Owens “absolutely disgraceful” and stating that her points on the issues were “faux-sophistication,” attacking her rather than her arguments. Likewise, Owens has now entered the same arena, calling Shapiro “emotionally unhinged.”
Related: Why is Anyone Surprised at Candace Owens' Remarks on Israel?
None of this helps the conservative movement. Both Shapiro and Owens have been instrumental in reaching a younger crowd with their messaging and converting different demographics to the cause. Their fracturing only serves to hurt us at a time when we must be more united than ever.
Democrats have shown that they’re willing to do absurd things to maintain their authoritarian control. Don’t forget how Gov. Gavin Newsom even put in a rule to shut down churches in California during the COVID-19 pandemic or how the political prisoners of the peaceful protest of January 6 were treated worse than the real terrorists who were held in Guantanamo Bay when we were rooting out the leaders of the actual terrorist attack that took place on 9/11.
Candace Owens has been saying something different and much more nuanced, which Shapiro should appreciate in the spirit of freedom of speech. Unlike the nuts on the left, she’s not supporting Hamas. Still, she’s taking an anti-war stance because Americans have seen far too many cases over the last couple of decades where billions of dollars have evaporated into foreign quagmires, not to mention so many of our troops dying in Iraq and Afghanistan without anything to show for it.
Her voice should be respected and debated if Shapiro thinks there’s a strong case to send our depleted military assets into Israel. Still, he should never have resorted to an emotional personal attack that would go viral on a video.
Likewise, Owens needs to be measured as well. Neither of them do well by making enemies out of each other. We have a much more dangerous, real enemy who has shown that it's willing to cheat in elections to prop up a senile old man as a world leader in order to tear down this country.
Conservatives have never been good at being united. We’re independent spirits with an array of opinions on different policies. Far too often, we’re willing to shoot ourselves in the foot to make those points and prove that we’re individuals and not part of a collective. That rugged individualism and search for excellence is what makes our philosophy and our movement great, but at the same time, we need to work together.
Driving wedges between factions and creating separate identity groups is the Saul Alinsky playbook that the Democrats have put into place since Obama, and you can bet that leftist operatives are going to be pushing for Shapiro and Owens to split, driving the divide wider.
We’re already at a point where President Trump is being indicted and harassed by our judicial system in multiple states for his free speech, with show trials and a lack of any evidence of actual crimes. The Democrats want the opposition jailed and will unite to do so, and if we don’t get our acts together as conservatives and stop infighting, we’re going to lose more than just some face on the internet. We’re going to lose our entire country.
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