Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 1:06am

Why Trump

Tucker Carlson gets it:

 

 

It turns out the GOP wasn’t simply out of touch with its voters; the party had no idea who its voters were or what they believed. For decades, party leaders and intellectuals imagined that most Republicans were broadly libertarian on economics and basically neoconservative on foreign policy. That may sound absurd now, after Trump has attacked nearly the entire Republican catechism (he savaged the Iraq War and hedge fund managers in the same debate) and been greatly rewarded for it, but that was the assumption the GOP brain trust operated under. They had no way of knowing otherwise. The only Republicans they talked to read the Wall Street Journal too.

On immigration policy, party elders were caught completely by surprise. Even canny operators like Ted Cruz didn’t appreciate the depth of voter anger on the subject. And why would they? If you live in an affluent ZIP code, it’s hard to see a downside to mass low-wage immigration. Your kids don’t go to public school. You don’t take the bus or use the emergency room for health care. No immigrant is competing for your job. (The day Hondurans start getting hired as green energy lobbyists is the day my neighbors become nativists.) Plus, you get cheap servants, and get to feel welcoming and virtuous while paying them less per hour than your kids make at a summer job on Nantucket. It’s all good.

Apart from his line about Mexican rapists early in the campaign, Trump hasn’t said anything especially shocking about immigration. Control the border, deport lawbreakers, try not to admit violent criminals — these are the ravings of a Nazi? This is the “ghost of George Wallace” that a Politico piece described last August? A lot of Republican leaders think so. No wonder their voters are rebelling.

Truth Is Not Only A Defense, It’s Thrilling

When was the last time you stopped yourself from saying something you believed to be true for fear of being punished or criticized for saying it? If you live in America, it probably hasn’t been long. That’s not just a talking point about political correctness. It’s the central problem with our national conversation, the main reason our debates are so stilted and useless. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t have the words to describe it. You can’t even think about it clearly.

This depressing fact made Trump’s political career. In a country where almost everyone in public life lies reflexively, it’s thrilling to hear someone say what he really thinks, even if you believe he’s wrong. It’s especially exciting when you suspect he’s right.

A temporary ban on Muslim immigration? That sounds a little extreme (meaning nobody else has said it recently in public). But is it? Millions of Muslims have moved to Western Europe over the past 50 years, and a sizable number of them still haven’t assimilated. Instead, they remain hostile and sometimes dangerous to the cultures that welcomed them. By any measure, that experiment has failed. What’s our strategy for not repeating it here, especially after San Bernardino—attacks that seemed to come out of nowhere? Invoke American exceptionalism and hope for the best? Before Trump, that was the plan.

 

 

 

Go here to read the rest.  This year is a prime example of what Carlson is talking about.  With control of Congress, the Republican leadership, if you can call it that, was set to produce a year in which almost nothing got done, and they appeared to be fine with that.  Then Trump began skillfully issuing executive orders on immigration and ObamaCare and the logjam appears to be breaking up in Congress as Trump gave Democrats  reasons to do something other than vote no in unison .  Trump the rank amateur came up with a strategy that eluded GOP veterans in Congress.  We could toss at random a series of rocks in most red states, or red areas in blue states, and likely hit more effective leaders than these clowns.  Bush the younger yesterday attacked Trump for alleged bigotry.  This from a man whose father was attacked as a bigot by Democrats over the Willie Horton ad, and who was attacked as a bigot himself by Democrats over the death of James Byrd, Jr.  Unless when he was too drunk to notice, Bush can’t have missed how Democrats have routinely used race hatred to whip up votes all his adult life.  However, the Bushes said nary a word in response to this, but Donald Trump is to be taken to task?  I personally find Trump to be frequently appalling, but more appalling to me is the fact that Trump has helped underline the fact of just how fake the conservatism is of many conservative leaders, and how impotent leadership may simply mask indifference if not outright opposition.  I recall how appalled former GOP minority leader of the House, the late Bob Michel, was after he left Congress, following the Republican success in taking back the House in 1994, when he first heard the Rush Limbaugh talk show.  Too harsh, too confrontational said the man whose entire political career consisted largely of being a good loser to Democrats in legislative battles in the House, and then enjoying golf and cards with the Democrat leadership after hours.  Michel was in many ways a good man, who served bravely in World War II, but he is a symbol of why Republican rank and file voters have every reason to be appalled with their so-called leaders, and why Trump elicits now from me very reluctant cheers.

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Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 2:21am

Excellent post Donald. You are so right. Most “conservatives” are middle of the road politicians (like the Bushes) don’t feel the pain they have unleashed by their failure to counteract what’s happening on our way to a New World Order so sought after by giant corporations, academics, the media and Pope Francis, who pay off the politicians to comply. Trump’s supporters don’t want a New World Order as it is economically and culturally destructive. Just look at what it has done to the Catholic Church since Vatican II.
Donald Trump and Steve Bannon are the best things that have happened here in years. They bring hope.

Phil
Phil
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 2:46am

You make some good points about the cluelessness of the political and media elites. I would have to agree that Trump understood the country, and especially the media, better than anyone else and that’s why he won.

The problem is that Trump the man is a fatally flawed vehicle for the agendas you wish to pursue. He’s negatively branding conservative causes in much the same way child raping priests have negatively branded Catholic causes.

Check out Senator Jeff Flake from Arizona. He seems a savvy fellow who sees the inevitability of the political pendulum swinging away from raging ego maniac man-childs and back towards sane thoughtful adults. If I was a conservative I’d be keeping my eye on Flake, because if his timing is right he could very well be your next political leader.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 4:38am

I agree with most of this post. I take issue with this statement, however:

“Unless when he was too drunk to notice, Bush can’t have missed how Democrats have routinely used race hatred to whip up votes all his adult life.”

For all of Bush’s many faults, he did try to address his alcoholism (though while admitting his drinking was excessive, he denied being a full blown alcoholic). Please see:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/laura-bush-reveals-george-stopped-drinking/story?id=10552148

I am not excusing Bush’s covert jab at Trump, or his country-club Republicanism, or his wrong-headed decisions on the Middle East, or anything else. But the alcoholism thing is a different matter.

PS, as for alcoholism and addiction, liberal effeminate progressives like Phil enable on a grand scale today’s sex addiction under the guise of the right to choose and it’s ok to be a hedonist because God doesn’t punish anyone for all eternity. If Bush was too drunk to notice, then today’s liberals are too dissolute and dissipated to notice.

Father of Seven
Father of Seven
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 5:15am

President Trump is killing political correctness. I will forever be grateful. As for former President Bush, please go away. I no longer believe you are a decent man, just incompetent and opportunistic. When your successor criminally used the IRS to go after conservatives, we heard not a peep. The Uranium One corruption that threatened national security, again not a word. But now, to go after President Trump by employing a tactic perfected by leftists shows me who you really are. Frankly, I should have known when you coined the term “compassionate conservative” or when you called Islam the religion of peace.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 5:17am

You made me snort coffee over my keyboard, Donald, in suggesting that, “…it might be better if he had given yesterday’s speech drunk.” I cannot dispute that.

?

Nate Winchester
Nate Winchester
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 7:37am

He’s negatively branding conservative causes in much the same way child raping priests have negatively branded Catholic causes.

ahahahahahahaha

Yeah, the problem is conservatives have figured out it doesn’t matter who is chosen, the media will work overtime to make that person a negative brand of conservativism. Exemplified and confirmed with Mitt Romney, probably the most squeaky clean politician in a long time – certainly the polar opposite of Trump. The boys have cried wolf 1 time too many, fewer people are listening.

Phil
Phil
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 7:50am

Mitt Romney would have positively branded conservative causes, due to his upstanding personal character and maturity. So would have Jeb Bush. So would many other Republicans. Ronald Reagan is a great example. And this is a Bernie Sanders voter saying that.

We had Jeb Bush as governor here in Florida for eight years. He’s a very intelligent, hard working, sincere well intentioned guy, and nothing bad happened while he was in office. He’s more conservative than I am, but he’s someone I can respect. That matters, because you need swing voters to anything substantial that can last.

Why members here like Trump so much is beyond me. He’s not even a conservative. He’s a “whatever is good for me at the moment” kinda guy. If the country were to swing way liberal, Trump would be on stage the next day saying he invented it.

Nate Winchester
Nate Winchester
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 8:54am

Mitt Romney would have positively branded conservative causes, due to his upstanding personal character and maturity.

Oh i see. Apparently Phil wasn’t born yet during the 2012 election.
http://humanevents.com/2012/09/08/top-10-democratic-attacks-on-mitt-romney/

Or i guess he’s one of those leftists where the only honorable conservative is a losing one. Would explain his fondness for Jeb.

"More"nowthanever
"More"nowthanever
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 9:00am

What is REALLY going on here? W sat totally silent for eight years of hell under Obama. Anything and everything which was considered good and wholesome and “American” was obliterate. Someone comes along and says stop it. Someone comes along and states (should have been his theme song) “you don’t own me” – not only to the lobbyist but to the GOP establishment, most importantly to the media. NOW Bush speaks up? It almost seems the elites are attempting to create a new tower of Babel through “open borders” so a totalitarian rule of thought, word, and action is put in place. This totalitarian “rule” is being thrust upon humanity not only by the political but the religious/spiritual elites. It is fascinating to watch polar opposites politically define the resistance. It is even more fascinating to watch who are joining forces to create the new tower of Babel, or better described as the new tree of evil of which we are “all to eat” from. AB Fulton Sheen: “Dead bodies float downstream” – it takes live bodies to resist the current.”

Paul Zummo
Admin
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 10:00am

As I noted on Facebook, the only Republicans who ever are branded positively or shown respect are those who are no longer in office or relevant, or dead. See the strange new respect I’ve seen for George W. Bush, who some on the left are claiming they “respected” even if they disagreed with him. Right. The selected not elected, President Chimpy McHaliburton, was someone they respected. And when he was president, suddenly Ronald Reagan became respectable. I’m sure Mike Pence’s presidency will inspire much revisionist history with regards to Donald Trump. “After all, at least he was moderate on social issues.”

And the same was even true of McCain and Romney. Before both were nominated, they were supposedly “rational” figures whom centrists/leftists pretended they could support. Once nominated, they became villainous, right-wing ogres. Then, not long after being defeated, they once again became respectable. Very convenient.

So it’s a bit funny that there actually is someone in the White House who does live up to some of the caricatures, but now it’s a bit of the boy who cried wolf when it comes to the attacks on him. You know, if you didn’t superimpose every Republican’s face with that of Hitler we might actually take your cries a bit more seriously.

And for the record, I don’t even like Trump, and think Tucker Carlson is a bit of a bore at this point, but some of the attacks on Trump verge on the ridiculous.

bob kurland
Admin
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 10:07am

Let me add my shilling to the conversation. I was a “Never-Trump” right up to the moment I entered the voting booth. Then I thought, a vote for Evan McMullin or Gary what’s-his-name or no vote is a vote for Hillary, and I couldn’t do that, so I swallowed my misgivings and voted for Trump, as did most of the other folks, including Democrat party officials, in my township, part of the Alabama between Philly and Pittsburgh. I haven’t regretted my vote, although I think Trump has many serious character flaws which he is not wont to cover up. He’s made some fine appointments, given some great speeches, and despite the tweets, has done good things. My wife was even more of a Never-Trump than I, and a former local Republican party official–she resigned when he got the nomination. She is now thinks he’s just what the country needs. So…politics is strange.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 10:09am

Check out Senator Jeff Flake from Arizona. He seems a savvy fellow

The savvy fellow has built such a rapport with his constituents that recent surveys have suggested he wouldn’t break 40% were the upcoming primary election held today.

Foxfier
Admin
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 10:36am

Bob– heck, I’m still a “never Trump,” I refuse to support the man.

This is a lot less impressive than it sounds when you realize that I do my best to avoid supporting individuals in government, rather than what they do. (The president is my employee; it’s wrong to evaluate an employee based on how much you like them, not what kind of a job they do.)

And he not only is better than the other choice at the voting booth was, he’s done quite a few things that are really good.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 11:49am

Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich made short work of Jeb Bush and his mountain of donor money. Clan Bush need to get over it.

The Bushes on occasion seem to manifest a tendency seen more starkly in Mitch Daniels (or, perhaps, David Gergen): that political conflict originates in not having split enough differences (ergo wrongdoing is allocated to people standing their ground). What’s actually happening is something they cannot process cognitively or emotionally.

c matt
c matt
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 3:47pm

The problem is that Trump the man is a fatally flawed vehicle for the agendas you wish to pursue

He may be, but he at least pursues them somewhat. Romney, squeaky clean as he was, was nothing more than some fancy car kept in the garage that never sees the road. Trump is a bulldozer – it ain’t pretty, but it moves dirt.

c matt
c matt
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 3:51pm

And of course this is by design – Republicons don’t want to govern or accomplish anything. They want to be able to trot out how horrible the other side is every four years on X, Y or Z. If they actually fixed X, Y or Z, then they’d have nothing to run against. Case in point: McCain – when he had the chance to actually do something about Obamacare against which he had been campaigning all this time, he refused. A total phony.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 4:03pm

Case in point: McCain – when he had the chance to actually do something about Obamacare against which he had been campaigning all this time, he refused. A total phony.

In fairness to McCain, the Republican leadership should have had a polished plan good to go. They did not, because they never expected to actually have to enact and implement anything. It was all a cheesy advertising pitch. Replacing Obamacare with some hastily assembled pastiche filled with moving parts about the interaction of which you haven’t a clue is worse than useless. (I doubt that was his reason or that of the other pests who voted with him, bar Susan Collins).

Dr. Newton LeRoy Gingrich was an is a flawed man, but the quality of the Republican leadership since he departed Congress makes him look quite the colossus.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 4:07pm

They want to be able to trot out how horrible the other side is every four years on X, Y or Z. If they actually fixed X, Y or Z, then they’d have nothing to run against.

Fixing x, y, and z would require doing away with perquisites (holds, blue slips, filibusters) which allow them to advance particular hobby horses. It would also likely generate conflict with the Chamber of Commerce, with donor segments, and with the careerist Republicans in the statehouses. Recall Addison Mitchell McConnell going out of his way to resurrect the ExIm Bank and lying to Ted Cruz and others along the way. We have several quite large universal banks with trade finance portfolios and commercial and industrial lending is not exactly rare. So, why do we have the ExIm Bank bar that Donohue of the Chamber of Commerce was hustling for it?

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 4:10pm

Romney, squeaky clean as he was, was nothing more than some fancy car kept in the garage that never sees the road.

That describes the Bush-Daniels-Hastert-Lott regime in domestic affairs. Not sure what Romney would have done in office. What disconcerted about him was the feature our friend Mr. Price dubbed ‘windsock Romney’.

Foxfier
Admin
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 5:36pm

They did not, because they never expected to actually have to enact and implement anything

Rather, it was because the last several times they came up with a plan, it got out and got villainized.

They couldn’t use any of those, because even if they modified it it would be “a modified version of (already evil).”

I’m not HAPPY, but I’m not willing to blame one side for the opposition having taken action.

Paul Zummo
Admin
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 5:48pm

Reading the text of Bush’s speech now, there is absolutely nothing objectionable in it aside from the nativism/nationalism line, which is accurate in some quarters but not completely fair. Of course Rush’s spidy tense tingles these days when anyone even hints at criticizing the precious. I remember the days when Rush was a courageous advocate for conservatism. Today he is little more than Trump’s court jester.

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 5:49pm

Yeah, Trump moves other people’s dirt alright, to make room for his own.

Trump’s despicable parroting the leftist “Bush lied, people died” mantra during the primaries and the silence of virtually all his supporters is disturbing. And Bush would have right to take DaDonald over the coals for that.

But for George W. Bush to implicitly blame Trump the increase of racial tensions while remaining silent for the eight years Obama actively stoked those very racial tensions is equally despicable. Maybe even more so.

I always thought George W. Bush had more class than that. But sadly it appears I thought wrong.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 6:29pm

They couldn’t use any of those, because even if they modified it it would be “a modified version of (already evil).”

Slave to the narrative.

You can attempt to sell something or content yourself with piecemeal repairs (non-repairs, really) to a wretched system.

Something resembling a solution will require large deductibles. Which will create a constituency which is worse off. Who will be put on the nightly news for the next six months. You can either trudge through that or give up repairing anything at all.

Scott Walker knew how to handle and deflect bad publicity.

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 6:48pm

In addition to the “nativism” remarks, Paul don’t you find the only explicit example of racial bigotry Bush condemns is white supremacy, especially since the kind of leftist racially motivated violent bigotry of groups like Black Lives Matter is far more prevalent and has actual political clout?
And this is especially problematic when you consider Obama spent eight years actively stoking racial tensions with nary a peep from Bush.

Now, I do agree with you that Rush, along with Shill Sycophannity (err, Sean Hannity), and Laura Ingraham, has become what I call Trumpservitude Sqawk Radio.

Dante alighieri
Reply to  Greg Mockeridge
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 7:21pm

I hear what you’re saying Greg, and there is a part of me that wishes Bush had ever sounded this forceful during the Obama presidency. But Jonah Goldberg had an interest thought experiment in his G-File today, where he said one should presume Bush was actually lecturing the left, not Trump, on their intolerance. It’s not actually quite far-fetched when you think about it. Anyway, if you did that – assuming you were predisposed against his remarks, thinking them to me anti-Trump – suddenly these sound like words of wisdom. The point being, that shorn of ideological or partisan biases, you would probably nod in agreement with most of it. As for me, I don’t think there’s one word Bush spoke which was wrong. Is he putting too much blame on Trump (assuming this is a veiled attack on Trump)? Maybe. But I have a hard time finding fault with it otherwise.

CAM
CAM
Friday, October 20, AD 2017 8:07pm

I heard the sound bites while riding in the car. Having spent a month in San Francisco at the end of summer I thought “W” was speaking about the Antifa and that ilk, not Trump. In fact labeling the three sound bites as anti-Trump made me think Rush was playing into the liberals’ hands. I went back to my audio book after I heard them.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Sunday, October 22, AD 2017 6:29pm

Trump is not only shredding political correctness, he has exposed the the GOPe (of which the Bushes are the leaders, if that bunch has any leaders) and even his enemies in Hollywood are in meltdown mode. See Harvey Weinstein and his failing, flailing company.

You can know a man by his enemies, and Trump is a better man than his political enemies.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Sunday, October 22, AD 2017 8:01pm

What I find interesting about W is that he’s supposedly a very competitive man, but he’s never been one in any public setting to talk back to the culture. To some extent, with the departure first of Reagan and then Gingrich / Armey, all the spirit seemed to drain out of the Republican subculture in political Washington. The Bushes – father and son – have been as implicated in that as anyone. Bill Frist is the only Senate Republican leader in the last 50-odd years who was not fundamentally a careerist (and one very concerned with maintaining the perks of individual senators). Among the remainder, Robert Dole was the only one capable of a sharp word in a public forum (usually deployed for the wrong reasons, though). Re the other chamber, aside from Dr. Gingrich, you’ve had in the last 4 decades Robert Michel (capon), Dennis Hastert (crooked hack), John Boehner (lush), and Paul Ryan (who has been smoked out by Trump as a dithering nincompoop).

Foxfier
Admin
Monday, October 23, AD 2017 8:39am

Slave to the narrative.
Your recognition that you cannot offer a decent argument against it is noted and accepted.

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