Candace Owens and the Conservative Split in the United States
The Split Between Paleo-Conservatives and Neo-Conservatives is Irreconcilable Over the Question of Zionism
This week Candace Owens officially parted ways with the Daily Wire. Her departure signifies a monumental shift for Conservative politics in the West.
Owens is one of the most prominent American Conservative political commentators leaving one of the largest Right-Wing media outlets in the United States, mirroring a similar story to Tucker Carlson leaving Fox News last year, likewise for criticizing the Zionist State of Israel.
Her commentary critical of Zionism, US-Israeli dependency, and Palestine has earned much ire from her former employer Ben Shapiro at the Daily Wire. Over the last couple of years they have had numerous clashes which has spilled over to the public around to the role of Zionism in American politics. Shapiro is one of the most ardent Zionist hardliners in the United States, and the issue has come to a head over the genocide in Gaza, leading to her split from the Daily Wire.
This is having a massive impact on the politics of the Right-Wing, having unearthed a deeper, irreconcilably split in American Conservatism. There is a deepening rift between Zionist Neo-Conservatives (with a focus on Globalism) and “America First” Paleo-Conservatives (with a focus on Christian and often Anglo-Saxon heritage) to define what the movement is in the United States.
Many within the American Conservative movement, such as Owens and Carlson, have criticized Shapiro’s Zionism for being more focused on Israel than the United States. Inversely, Zionists in the United States have countered with the argument that this is “Anti-Semitic” or rather Anti-Jewish to assume American Jews have a “Dual Loyalty.” However, with Shapiro this is quite apparent in his own outspoken Zionist politics, going beyond just his stance for himself or fellow American Jews, but to American Christians, as well, to give full and uncritical support to Israel.
In recent years, many bills have been passed by GOP Republicans, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, classifying criticism of Israel as “Hate Speech.” This flies in the face of much of the Right-Wing’s approach to the “Culture War” which claims that only the Left-Liberal Wing of US politics seeks to implement “Cancel Culture,” as Owens points out, this is the most controversial topic which gets Conservative pundits the most blacklisted from in their own spaces:
“If you do not step out and say things that are radically Pro-Israel or if you too quite on certain narratives an they want you to be radically Pro-Israel, you can lose everything, that’s true, that’s a fact. I’m not feeling like I need to hide from that anymore or be afraid to say it rather, because I’ve endured this for years and I’m just at the end of my rope. I’ve given so much rope here and I’m just done with it, every person you are a fan of knows this, every person that you are a fan of that you line up to go hear speak knows this. Again, it’s not even on the basis of what you say, it can be on the basis of what you don’t say. that an entire mob will assemble, they’ll write piece after piece after piece, until you subjugate. If you don’t subjugate, the bounty grows larger, yes there is a large bounty on my head for the crime of refusing to suddenly hate Muslims and to condone Muslims getting bombed following October 7th. Everybody can see that I have said nothing controversial.”
— Candace Owens, on her last episode with the Daily Wire, criticizing Zionist hegemony in Right-Wing media
Through her courage many are now discovering the truth that they have been tricked on the issue of Zionism by misleaders in the American Evangelical movement. Patching it up with false appeals to “Judeo-Christian values” or “Christian Zionism” are no longer sound with this contradiction on full display. Conservative Christians have been forced to confront the reality that the Zionists who have a hegemony in Right-Wing media are not their friends and will persecute them for standing on the principles of their Faith.
Praise to her for having the courage to value her morality above whatever position she may have had in that space and standing up to the modern day Pharisees. Owens has since expressed since leaving her past outlet, “I am finally free.”
No need to be a fan of Owens to support her here. Great article.