Matt Drudge has turned his back on modern conservatism, it seems, if statements made recently by the political commentator were genuinely a last straw and not just momentary anger.
In internet punditry, Matt Drudge is somewhat of a pioneer — and his alarmist (no, really, it has a flashing siren and everything) website remains adorably web 1.0 as it blares, as of now, “ BIOSURVEILLANCE: ‘Homeland’ Plans Real-Time Data Feed to Monitor Disease Outbreaks… ” and “McCain Plays Poker During War Hearing!” Eleventy!
It definitely feels in general like both parties are at breaking points, but the conservative divide after November’s stunning inability to gel right-wing outrage at the polls continues to reverberate through the GOP’s fault lines.
Drudge has been staunchly right-leaning throughout his long internet career, even mentoring the powerful Andrew Breitbart — who eventually rose to fame before he died suddenly in 2012.
That’s not to say Drudge or Breitbart were standard issue righties, and both have caucused more with Libertarians on divisive issues.
But in two tweets yesterday, Matt Drudge tossed down a gauntlet of fairly large proportions, urging followers to break with the mainstream right when he said:
It’s now Authoritarian vs. Libertarian. Since Democrats vs. Republicans has been obliterated, no real difference between parties…
— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) September 3, 2013
He then charged:
Why would anyone vote Republican? Please give reason. Raised taxes; marching us off to war again; approved more NSA snooping. WHO ARE THEY?!
— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) September 3, 2013
Matt Drudge hasn’t tweeted since the two comments, and it’s difficult to know what he meant by the tweets overall — but it seems pretty bad for Republicans that even the fringe right is loudly slipping away from their increasingly alienating platform.
