DEAR "RESPECTABLE" REPUBLICANS: YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO GET YOUR PARTY BACK

The Democratic majority on the House Judiciary Committee attempted to hold a hearing on the threat of white nationalism yesterday, but it was hijacked by Candace Owens, a poorly informed right-wing troll who was invited to testify by the Republican minority.

Owens denied that Republicans, starting in the late 1960s, ever pursued a "Southern strategy" to peel off white voters put off by the Democrats' pursuit of racial justice.

Candace Owens calls the GOP’s Southern Strategy “a myth.” It’s not a myth. In 2005, RNC chairman Ken Mehlman even apologized for it to the NAACP national convention and said it was “wrong.” pic.twitter.com/gLVr68ySjK

— Adam Best (@adamcbest) April 9, 2019

She dismissed the notion of a rising white nationalist movement:

"The hearing today is not about white nationalism or hate crimes, it’s about fear-mongering, power and control," Owens said, casting doubt on whether hate crimes in the U.S. have risen in recent years.

"The goal here is to scare blacks, Hispanics, gays and Muslims, helping [Democrats] censor dissenting opinions … helping them regain control," Owens said at the hearing.

And she lashed out at Democratic congressman Ted Lieu for having the temerity to play an accurate recording of her own recent words on Hitler ("... if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK then, fine. The problem is, he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize").

She punked the hearing like a humorless one-woman version of the Chicago 7 -- and she's being talked about on the right the way Barack Obama was after his 2004 Democratic convention speech. Donald Trump Jr. calls her a "breakout black conservative star." The headline at Power Line is "Candace Owens Nukes the Democrats." It's "Candace KO's Dems" at FrontPage Magazine. At Twitchy it's "STRAIGHT FIRE: Candace Owens Absolutely Torches Rep. Ted Lieu at Hearing."

There are many people out there who believe that the Republican Party will revert to a more rational state once President Trump leaves office. I'm not one of them. I don't think the 2024 presidential race is going to be a collegial contest involving Nikki Haley, Larry Hogan, and Ben Sasse, all of them awarded genteel golf claps by David Brooks and Bill Kristol. Republicans are now what they've been on the verge of becoming since the Reagan years, and certainly since the premieres of Rush Limbaugh's radio show and Fox News. Owens-style lib-owning is the sum of the Republican agenda, apart from more tax cuts for the rich, more deregulation of industry, and more restrictions on abortion. Republicans don't have a plan on health care or opioids or climate change or inequality or North Korea or China. They just have trolling.

I'll repeat my firm belief that the favorite for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination is Donald Trump Jr., who's a full-time troll himself now. But if he doesn't run, Candace Owens, who'll turn 35 that year, might have an outside shot. It's questionable whether GOP voters would really vote for a black woman. (There's also the fact that Owens claims to be a Democrat -- but hey, so were Trump and Reagan.) There's no question, however, that Owens meets the most important litmus test for future GOP candidates: She prioritizes lib ownage over all other possible uses of her time. That's what Republican voters want.