Conservative Columnist Stephen Kruiser Uses Humor to Stomp Libs

By Michael Lovito, November 21, 2022

Conservative radio and television have traditionally been dominated by bombastic personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck. Conservative print journalism, on the other hand, like that found in National Review and The American Conservative, has a reputation for being stuffier and more mannered, rooted in an Ivy League-influenced intellectual tradition instead of pure partisan grievance.

Stephen Kruiser doesn’t fit either stereotype. A veteran stand-up comedian, Kruiser is a member of a small club of conservative writers like Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter and the late conservative author and National Lampoon editor P.J. O’Rourke, who use comedy as a tool to drive home their political points of view.

Comedy and Conservatism

Better known these days as a caustic (and admittedly clever) columnist for PJ Media, a conservative website that’s been around since 2004, Kruiser’s political roots run deep. He claims to have been a conservative activist since the late 1980s. While his columns prioritize anger and indignation over considered policy critique, they display a keen understanding of the way politics work and are much clearer and concise than those of his fringier and more verbose peers. Kruiser makes jokes, but his talent as a polemicist is nothing to laugh at.

A native of Tucson, Arizona, Kruiser began his career in comedy in the late 1980s, first as part of a two-person stage show, and later as a touring standup. According to an interview with Glen Lasbury in 2010, Kruiser, who was raised in a devout Catholic household, always considered himself a conservative and became involved with politics at a young age.

“My political involvement has run concurrently with my tenure as a comedian; I just kept them separate for a long time,” he told Lasbury. “I was in the College Republicans while in school and began volunteering for campaigns shortly thereafter. I come from a family of small businesspeople who have always been rather conservative, and Barry Goldwater was a revered figure in Arizona when I grew up.” (Kruiser did not respond to The Righting’s interview request.)

From Blogs to Podcasts

After he became a dad, Kruiser reduced his touring schedule and began working as a freelance writer during the dotcom boom. He’s been a mainstay of conservative blogging ever since. Some of his earlier work is hard to find, but a site called America Needs Me, which features his commentary on the 2008 primaries as well as some clips of his stand up, is still up and running, as is a WordPress site called California Blues, a site dedicated to “fighting the Golden State’s slide towards permanent ‘Blue’ status.”

In addition to his independent ventures, Kruiser racked up bylines across the conservative media ecosystem during the Obama years, contributing articles for Breitbart and The Daily Caller and regularly appearing on “Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld,” Fox News’ satirical late night talk show. (Gutfeld currently is mining the conservative comedy vein on his Fox late night talk show “Gutfeld!”)

These days, Kruiser is a regular contributor to PJ Media, where he not only publishes a daily column but also hosts a podcast title The Kruiser Kabana. He previously hosted a video series titled Kruiser Control, a political/media satire show reminiscent of “The Daily Show” and “The Soup.”

Kruiser didn’t respond to a request for an interview for this article. His editor declined to comment on his work for PJ Media.

“The Pathetic Feelings of the Woke Crowd”

While affiliated with the oft-acerbic Tea Party movement, Kruiser’s commentary from the late 2000s and mid-2010s comes off as relatively measured. That stands in stark contrast to the Kruiser of today, who aims straight for the jugular in his Morning Briefing columns. After kicking off each piece with a quick non-sequitur introduction (ie, “Serge never forgave himself for believing that Tae-Bo and spandex could co-exist peacefully”), Kruiser digs into his liberal nemeses, who he refers to by colorful monikers such as “the Democrats’ Flying Monkeys in the mainstream media” or “President LOLEightyonemillion,” a reference to President Biden’s 2020 vote total, which Kruiser doesn’t think is legit.

Perhaps the most succinct summary of Kruiser’s ethos can be found in a 2021 column titled “The Stephen Kruiser Top Five List of Things I Won’t Be Apologizing For.” In between his defenses of traditional gender roles and a patriotic reading of American history, he offers something of a mission statement for his writing and, one could argue, many of the provocative stances the right has taken since 2016.

“Honestly, now that the world is full of grievance seekers who spend their days looking for ways to be offended, I feel the need to be more offensive,” he writes. “I want to run roughshod over the pathetic feelings of the woke crowd. Then I want to stomp on them.”

Midterm Blues

Like many conservatives, Kruiser was disheartened by Republicans’ underwhelming performance in this year’s midterms (recent column titles include “We’re Done – American Voters Are Idiots” and “The Post-Red-Trickle McConnell Will Be a Problem for Conservatives”), but it hasn’t mellowed out his rhetoric. If anything, he’s been inspired to recommit.

“I mentioned on Twitter on Election Night that I was unretiring from political activism,” he wrote in a column titled “The Republican Party Needs an Overhaul Before 2024.” “I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do but I remain convinced that the Republicans in Washington are more functional when there’s a robust grassroots movement holding them accountable.”

Michael Lovito is a Brooklyn-based reporter and critic whose work has appeared in Salon, Brooklyn Magazine, Pavement Pieces, and The District. He also serves as editor-in-chief of the politics and pop culture website The Postrider.  @MLovito

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