Writing in The Bulwark this Wednesday, conservative commentator Charlie Sykes took aim at Texas GOP congressman Dan Crenshaw and a recent op-ed he published at the Daily Wire calling for "real cultural and political progress." While the article is winning Crenshaw accolades for an attempt to rise above the polarized political culture, Sykes says that in reality, Crenshaw is "one of the Trumpiest grifters extant."
Sykes goes on to list numerous examples which he says shows Crenshaw promotes the exact opposite of the virtuous political culture he's calling for. For example, just months ago Crenshaw released a "Georgia Reloaded" ad in which he portrays himself as an action figure who fights antifa.
That other inflammatory rhetoric emanating from Crenshaw makes him "something of a celebrity on the grifter right," Sykes writes.
Further damaging his credibility on the subject of "political progress" is Crenshaw's endorsement of conspiracy theories about mass voter fraud in the 2020 election.
"Crenshaw was also one of the 126 GOP representatives who signed onto the bogus Texas lawsuit seeking to have the election overturned," Sykes writes."He tried to explain his role in the Sedition Caucus by insisting that he was just "drawing additional attention" to the fact that state legislatures had 'made sweeping changes' to elections laws.
"So what are we to make of Crenshaw's latest plea for a politics of persuasion rather than of grift, memes, and bloviation?" Sykes continues. "It is tempting to see his Daily Wire article merely as a cynical grasp at respectability, but it's actually more revealing than that, because it shows that even as he tosses out dumb tropes to the deplorati, Crenshaw knows exactly what he is doing."
Read the full op-ed over at The Bulwark.
