Joe Scarborough loves to describe himself as a conservative. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough boasted at length of his conservatism, describing Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind (first published in 1953) as his philosophical North Star, keeping a copy of it on his desktop throughout his adult life.
The show opened with a clip of Liz Cheney endorsing Kamala Harris. Scarborough praised Cheney for it, calling her a "real conservative" in the Kirkian tradition.
Scarborough, of course, is an ardent supporter of Harris, and before her, of Joe Biden. Scarborough's an absolute Democrat hardliner, arguably more devoted to the party's cause than even his MSNBC colleagues. But Scarborough's support has always been couched in the context of his contempt for Trump, the man that Scarborough has ceaselessly branded as a fascist, a threat to Madisonian democracy, etc.
So let's do a little thought experiment. What if, by some miracle, Liz Cheney had won the Republican nomination? And if that is too far-fetched, what if Nikki Haley, or, say, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, John Thune, or even Mitt Romney, were the Republican nominee?
Would Joe Scarborough, great Kirkian conservative that he is, be supporting that Republican candidate today?
We'll never know. But we can make a reasonably-educated guess. Scarborough knows which side his bread is buttered on. A Pew study found that 95% of those who named MSNBC as their main political news source identify as Democrats and that MSNBC, along with Fox News on the right, have the most partisan audiences.
With Trump no longer around to serve as his piñata—and his justification for supporting the Democrat—would Scarborough risk infuriating his audience and the network suits by supporting the Republican presidential candidate? Hard to imagine.
If Morning Joe survives into 2028, we could have the answer. If Trump wins this year, he is precluded from being the nominee in 2028. If he doesn't win, as a two-time, 82-year-old loser, he is unlikely to be the nominee again.
If JD Vance were to win the 2028 nomination, keeping the MAGA flame alive, Scarborough would again have a reason/pretext to oppose the GOP nominee. But if it's someone else, a candidate in the more traditional Republican/conservative mold, Scarborough could be facing a dilemma.
My two cents say that no matter the Republican nominee, even were he to come on stage at the convention waving a copy of The Conservative Mind over his head and pledging his adherence to it, Scarborough would find an excuse to support the Democrat—Kirk and conservatism be damned!
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
10/22/24
6:00 am EDTLIZ CHENEY: I come to this decision as a mother. I have five children. And there was a moment right after January 6th when my husband and I were having dinner with our two youngest, our two sons.
And I looked across the table at my young sons, and I thought to myself, you know, in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, are they going to grow up in a country where we don't have to worry about the peaceful transfer of power? Are they going to grow up in a country where that is guaranteed?
And I believe that every one of us in this election has a duty and an obligation to do what we know is right for the country. And that's to support Vice President Harris. And so, I'm very honored to be here and to do that.
KAMALA HARRIS: Thank you.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: That scene that we just saw, it's remarkable, it's history coming to life.
And for me, as a conservative, it's the conservative text that has been on my desktop as a young lawyer. It was on my desktop as a Member of Congress. My desktop, still Mika will tell you, in offices, The Conservative Mind. Where Russell Kirk sums it up neatly. That we're not to be a party of ideology. We are to be a party that upholds the Constitution. And upholds convention. And we are the protectors of institutions.
And the line that -- it's really kind of, for me, somebody who's read this his entire life but really never seen it have to come into play, Russell Kirk concludes The Conservative Mind's intro, the last introduction that he wrote in 1986, seventh edition, where he said, "Sometimes we conservatives have to decide whether we are going to attach ourselves to the party of permanence, or the party of progress. And our decision is based upon the facts that are before us."
And that is what real conservatives do. They look at the world as it is, not through some hyper-ideological lens. And they decide: what protects the country? What protects the Constitution? What protects customs and conventions the best?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Freedom.
SCARBOROUGH: And it's not a perfect choice all the time. But that's a decision real conservatives make. And that's what Liz Cheney's doing. Real conservatives, real conservatives, love their country and want it to continue, and want the Constitution to endure.
