Tag: NeverTrumpers

David Brooks Begs Democrats to Stop Being Democrats or Else Trump Will Win in 2024

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David Brooks the premier Never Trumper who left the Republicans to rejoin his real friends on the Left, is now warning the Democrats that in order to avoid disaster in 2024 they will have to pretend to be Republicans.  At least until after Election Day.

“We all make mistakes; the question is, do we learn from them? Over the past couple of years people on the left side of the political and cultural spectrum have made their share. These have contributed to the Democrats’ extremely bleak political prospects going into the midterms. Far worse, it is now quite plausible that Donald Trump could win re-election in 2024.”

Notice how the real danger is that Donald Trump could get back in the White House.

Now he gives his pals the benefit of his vast knowledge of conservative lore that he still has from his years as a fake conservative.  He gives them a laundry list of progressive talking points that have made them radioactive with the American voters.

“If we’re going to prevent that kind of catastrophe, it might be a good idea to learn a few relevant lessons:

  • It is possible to overstimulate the economy.
  • Law and order is not just a racist dog whistle.
  • Don’t politicize everything.
  • Border security is not just a Republican talking point.
  • “People of color” is not a thing.
  • Deficits do matter.
  • The New Deal happened once.

Year after year Democrats imagine that if they can hand people checks and benefits, they will be rewarded with votes, allowing them to build a dominant majority coalition. It’s not that simple. I enthusiastically supported many of these policies, but we live in an age in which culture, values and identity issues drive politics at least as much as policy.”

But if you look at that list, it’s the whole Democrat campaign platform.  If you take away all of those things all they have left is graft and corruption without even a fig leaf.

“The Democrats’ largest problem is this: We are living in an age of fear, insecurity and disorder on an array of fronts. The Republicans have traditionally been known as the party of toughness and order. Democrats are going to have to find a posture that is tough on disorder, and tough on the causes of disorder.”

This is hilarious.  Here is Brooks trying to tell his Democrat friends that everything about them is causing the electorate to run screaming to the Republicans.  And not just Independents.  Whole chunks of the Democrat coalition are peeling off.  Hispanics, black men, Asians, Jews, even suburban women are splintering off from the Democrat vote in significant numbers.  And so, since Brooks isn’t a Republican any more, he’s looking to shore up the only side left open to him.

But of course, they can’t pay heed to his warning.  He’s asking them to give up their religion.  And so, November will be a powerful experience.  Well maybe David Brooks can get a job at Reason Magazine.

Speculations About a Leader

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In a recent opinion piece Angelo Codevilla discussed how state enforced nullification of anti-constitutional federal laws and programs could act as the basis for a new federalism that allows conservatives to regain their freedoms without requiring a civil war.

In the article he stresses that it will take very strong leadership from someone to make something like this a reality.  Codevilla gives Charles De Gaulle as an example of a leader attempting to restore a nation.  And he stresses that the leader has to put the cause above his own personal concerns for glory or gain.  He must submerge his personality into the cause.  Codevilla wisely refuses to speculate about whether Donald Trump will be that leader.  But I’m not that wise and I want to at least discuss what the options will look like and how we’ll know when a leader has arrived.

First off, I want to remind everyone of one thing.  Prior to Donald Trump’s appearance on the scene none, and I mean none, of the so-called Republican leaders at the state or federal level did a damn thing about challenging the Left’s narrative about anything.  When it came to immigration, they kowtowed to the supposition that illegal immigrants should be made citizens and that unlimited illegal and legal immigration was a necessity and “the right thing to do.”  Good old JEB! Bush went so far to say that the crime of illegal immigration was “an act of love.”  And so, anyone who objected to it was a heartless monster who hated children and love.  It took Donald Trump to know that this con wasn’t actually believed by the American people.  And the establishment Republicans continued to denounce his “callous indifference” to criminal aliens all the way to his inauguration and beyond.  Eventually some of these NeverTrumpers woke up and realized they had better come up with a new con that included parroting the things that Trump had shown them.  But I ask you to think about this bit of history because many of those same people are once again presenting themselves to us as the future saviors of the conservative half of the United States.

Of course, we won’t be seeing JEB! or John Kasich or Carly Fiorina or Chris Christie anymore.  They are all done.  But expect Nikki Haley and Marco Rubio to be right there explaining how they’re ready to make America Great Again by only making twenty or thirty million illegal immigrants, citizens, at least in their first term anyway.  After that I’m sure a billion will seem like the right number.  My point here is that the GOP Establishment will never disappear.  They will always bounce back with whatever spin they think will allow them to perform their gatekeeping act and prevent anything from interfering with their “opponents” running the country off a cliff.

So, anyone who tells me that what we need is Trumpism without Trump is talking about something that has never been seen before in real life.  If anyone wants to assume the mantle either in opposition to Donald Trump’s run in 2024 or in his absence if he decides not to run, I say show me what you’ve got.  Prove to me you know what we want and then prove to me that you can and will do it.  And that’s a tall order.  Even Donald Trump was stymied in his desire to “drain the swamp.”  The swamp refused to be drained and he couldn’t change that.  If someone has a plan, we’ll need to know what it is and how he proposes to do it.  In fact, I’m not sure that a lot of us even think a President of the United States can do it alone.  It might take a `       coalition of red state governors with or without a Republican president to make any progress against the combined power of the Deep State and the Globalist Corporate Cabal that currently has us by the throat.

So, anyone who wants to be the new Trump has a lot of explaining to do.  I need to know what and how.  I want to see some evidence that he actually believes in the things he claims to stand for and I want to know who he plans to fire in the Justice Department and I want to know who will be his Attorney General.

And not to be too critical of how he handled an impossible job, if Donald Trump will be running again in 2024, I want to know what he will do this time to prevent the train wreck that the Justice Department caused for his administration.  I’ll want to know what policies he will champion and who in the legislature and who in the governorships he has allied himself with to make these things realities instead of lost causes.

It’s a very long time until 2024.  I would say that anyone who waits until then to start causing changes in the direction of this country is not a leader.  I like that Ron DeSantis is enacting legislature to protect Floridians from first amendment violations by Silicon Valley and unconstitutional federal laws.  I’d love to see him form a coalition with Texas and some of the other red states.  What I’d really like is for these measures to be challenged by the feds and then see a state governor and legislation refuse a federal court’s ruling against them.  I’d like to see them win a staring contest with Creepy Uncle Joe and win!  That’s when I’ll know that here is some leadership on the horizon.  Until then it’s just speculation.

The NeverTrumpers Threaten to Leave the Republican Party!

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Oh no!  We might lose Charlie Dent, Michael Steele, Mary Peters, Denver Riggleman and Christine Todd Whitman from the Republican party.  And even worse we could lose Anthony Scaramucci!  Apparently kicking Liz Cheney from her leadership position in the House Republican conference has outraged the NeverTrumpers … again.  And they threaten to flounce out of the party and this time they’re going to start their own party!

Well, that does sound scary.  But in line with my policy of creative spite I feel like we shouldn’t waste this opportunity to mock, humiliate and infuriate these losers.  After all, what exactly does it mean for them to leave the Republican party again?  Didn’t they vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016?  Didn’t they vote for Joe Biden in 2020?  How exactly can they increase their opposition to the Right.  Will they double their already constant presence on CNN and MSNBC?  Is that possible?  Will they be able to forego sleep to create this omnipresent ranting?

The story is they are threatening to take their 100 “leaders” and decamp for a new “party” that will thereby hobble the Republicans in the 2022 elections.  Well, good riddance.  After we separate the pundits and geriatric has-beens from this gang of one hundred, exactly how many actual politicians will we have?  Liz Cheney?  Adam Kinzinger?  I’ll bet Mitt Romney won’t be there.  Not even Susan Collins.  They know where their bread is buttered.  They’ve got their cushy spots in the Republican herd.  Only the losers who know they’re headed for primary defeat will join this loser club.  And even these won’t stay very long after it’s apparent that all it guarantees is that they will have to sit at the geek table in the cafeteria.  I did see William Weld, Evan McMullin and Tom Ridge on the list.  Weld was the governor of Massachusetts back in the early 1990’s.  Evan McMullin ran pitifully against Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential race.  Tom Ridge served in the George W. Bush administration as, I think, head of Homeland Security.  After that the list is a blank to me.

I really think we should encourage this thing as much as possible.  I’m only disappointed that the well-known NeverTrumpers in the press didn’t add their impressive weight to this list.  Knowing that Bill Krystal, Jonah Goldberg and company were going to stop claiming to be Republicans would be a great blessing.

Wait, I’ve just found two great names, Mona Charen and Max Boot.  I didn’t know Charen claimed to be a Republican.  That’s news to me.  And how exactly do we still have Max Boot?  He’s been foaming at the mouth since 2016 and I thought he had declared a fatwah against the Republicans in 2018.

Looking at this list I think we might actually gain votes.  Knowing that your vote was against Max Boot might be enough to get a really lazy man up off his couch and cast his vote just out of spite.  I only hope that they field a really inspirational presidential candidate in 2024 like John McCain.  Sure he’s dead but he’s got real name recognition and he’s guaranteed to get a few votes in Arizona, maybe.  But then again 2024 is a really long time from now.  I’m not sure this grand coalition will last that long.  Let’s just hope they can get Liz Cheney to run on the REPAIR platform in 2022.  That’s the acronym for “Stand Up Republic & The Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform.”  That ‘s the name of this thing.  I think they should rename it Stand Up in Defense (of something or other) and they could us the acronym STUPID.

Here’s the full list of the signatories to this august new venture.

David Almacy

Daniel Barkhuff

Steve Bartlett

Christopher Bayley

Michael Belitzky

Nate Bell

John Bellinger

David Billings

Mike Bober

Tatyana Bolton

Max Boot

Valerie Boyd

Tim Boyle

Joel Brenner

Shellie Bressler

Randy Brockway

Michael Burchstead

Lucy Caldwell

Tom Campbell

Steve Carey

Arne Carlson

Davy Carter

Rod Chandler

Mona Charen

Michael Chertoff

Eliot Cohen

Tom Coleman

Barbara Comstock

George Conway

H. Bryan Cunningham

Marilee Cunningham

Soren Dayton

Charlie Dent

Murray Dickman

C.J. Diegel

Charles Djou

T. Greg Doucette

David Durenberger

Mickey Edwards

Chip Felkel

Mindy Finn

John Fluharty

Emil Frankel

Christopher Gagin

Stuart Gerson

Wayne Gilchrest

Jim Glassman

Jim Greenwood

Michael Hayden

Jim Hendren

Thomas Hill

Rachel Hoff

Jennifer Horn

Reed Howard

Joe Hunter

Edward Tobin III

Bob Inglis

Charles Jeter

Karen Johnson

Bryan Jones

Laura Holmes Jost

Paul Jost

Bobbie Kilberg

William Kilberg

John Kingston

Karen Kirksey

Jim Kolbe

Hannah Kummer

James Kunder

Justin Kurth

Gene Kussart

Rick Lazio

James Leach

John LeBoutillier

Eli Lehrer

Marty Linksy

R.J. Lyman

Mike Madrid

Bruce Maloch

Chad Mayes

Heath Mayo

Molly McKew

Evan McMullin

David Meeks

Jerid Miller

Paul Mitchell

John Mitnick

Connie Morella

Mike Murphy

John Negroponte

Sophia Nelson

Elizabeth Neumann

William O’Reilly

Robert Orr

Eileen Padberg

Richard Painter

Robert Patricelli

James Peppe

Susan Del Percio

Jacob Perry

Mary Peters

Thomas Petri

Trevor Potter

Kristopher Purcell

Sam Reid

Reid Ribble

Tom Ridge

Scott Rigell

Denver Riggleman

Ted Roosevelt

Jonathan Rose

Paul Rosenzweig

Andrew Sagor

Mark Sanford

Matthew Sarelson

Anthony Scaramucci

Glenn Schatz

Lynn Schmidt

Claudine Schneider

Gabriel Schoenfeld

Joel Searby

Tara Setmayer

Rina Shah

Jeffrey Shane

Robert Shanks

Neal Simon

Shermichael Singleton

Peter Smith

Michael Steele

Miles Taylor

Jeff Timmer

Olivia Troye

Stanley Twardy, Jr.

Michelle Udall

Chris Vance

Kathy Varga

Josh Venable

Joe Walsh

Matt Walton

Mark Weatherford

Jack Weinstein

Bill Weld

Christine Todd Whitman

Gregory Wilson

Cole Wist

Charles Work

Bob Worsley

Julie Wright

Bob Yudin

Dov Zakheim

Dick Zimmer

Hat Tip to Vox Day for Finding This Excellent Critique of Max Boot

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Vox reads a lot of stuff.  This was a very good choice to link to.

Here’s a direct link to the article itself.

https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/04/giving-the-boot

Max Boot is one of the most contemptible of the NeverTrumpers.  This review of him and his book is also extremely clear about why the NeverTrumpers are anything but conservatives.

08JAN2018 – American Greatness Post of the Day – Julie Kelly – Carlson’s Invisible Hand Riles Conservative Critics

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It seems everyone on our side of the fence was impressed with Tucker Carlson’s video monologue on what’s gone wrong in America.  But in Julie Kelly’s post she finds the reaction of NeverTrump folks like David French and Ben Shapiro to be decidedly negative.

Carlson’s Invisible Political Hand Riles Conservative Critics

Well, I’m not surprised.  Tucker must be doing something really right to have the friends he does and the enemies also.  Let’s hope he can help President Trump get his message out and start reversing some of the damage that Carlson has highlighted.

05DEC2018 – Grab-Bag of Interesting News Items

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Plenty of interesting things are going on in the world.  Apparently  Never-Trumping isn’t as popular or lucrative as some might have thought.  The Weekly Standard, led by Bill Kristol and sticking to his NeverTrump platform seems to be going out of business.  Well, it’s hard to generate any sympathy for them.  I used to read their magazine about fifteen years ago but they never seemed interested in forwarding the goals of the conservative movement they claimed to represent.  Farewell Bill.

The Trump haters are starting to whine that Mueller’s investigation doesn’t seem to have much to show for all the blather that’s been done over the last couple of years.  It’s still too soon to tell but I’ll take it as a good sign if the true believers are feeling short-changed.

And word from France is that the yellow vest movement is getting bigger than just a revolt against the idiotic carbon tax on fuel.  It sounds like a full-fledged populist revolt is imminent.

These three news items are relatively unrelated.  But what they share is a pain for the Left.  The items about the Weekly Standard and the Yellow Vest revolt shows everyday people unwilling to support the leftist narrative.  Most conservatives aren’t going to pay to read Bill Kristol trash President Trump.  And the working and middle class French aren’t going to pay through the nose to support climate-change propaganda.

And the angst about the Mueller investigation shows that those in the know, know that there’s no there there.  (See what I did there?)

I’m still waiting to see if any swamp draining gets done this week.  I guess, to be fair, I can give them a week to make up for the GHWB funeral circus to end.  But if nothing comes of it I’ll be sorely disappointed in the President over what I’ll take to be a bluffing Tweet.

The Trump Coalescence

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An interesting thing about the Trump realignment is how the different factions of the Right interact with each other.  So just as an example, I know this guy who I would say is a blue-collar conservative.  He has never trusted the Republicans or the Democrats and he pretty much thinks the fix is in all the time.  So, he contrasts with my background.  I started out as a Reagan Republican and became disillusioned with the Republicans during the W years and embraced the Trumpocalypse in early 2016.  When we talk he comes from his default position of pessimism.  He’s afraid that it’s too late to vote our way out of the Leftist future and frets about the Mid-Terms.  When I speak to him about all this I tell him to start by relaxing a little bit because the Media is once again spinning the FUD to suppress voting by the Right so it’s definitely not going to be a Blue Wave.  Then he says that the future demographics will eventually tilt everything to the Left.  And I tell him that it’s time to start speaking up for what you want.  Just like Trump answered the call for forgotten Blue-Collar Democrats, another leader will be there in the future and a coalition can be formed that addresses the most important concerns of the Right at that time.  But the important thing to remember is that compromising to reach consensus is a lie being used to unilaterally pressure us into adopting the agenda that will disenfranchise us.

Fifteen years ago, I was struggling to understand how the Republicans could let the Left trample on the American way of life so effortlessly while my friend was unsurprised by their failure because he saw both parties as a conspiracy.  Whereas today he is unsure whether to become emotionally invested in the political scene and be disappointed in the outcome while I see events unfolding according to the plan of attack that President Trump is waging against the Left and the strategies he is using to rally the sclerotic forces on the establishment right.  It’s almost as if my disillusionment with the republicans forced me to delve deeper than those who never trusted them in the first place and never had to understand exactly how the system dysfunctioned (to coin a ridiculous term).

Another faction is those who didn’t trust Trump because they thought he was a joke or thought he was going to govern as a liberal.  Slowly but surely all of these folks have been coming around to at least a place where they admit that he is undoubtably doing a lot of good.  Even if they aren’t crazy about the man they are happy about the results.  And they are beginning to understand just how effective he is against their enemies.  These folks can help but they need to fight their learned reflex to compromise whenever a Leftist backs them into a corner (which is every time).  They need constant supervision.

And finally, we have the NeverTrumpers.  Despite their extreme hatred of Trump even these characters are starting to make noises like they’re ready to rejoin the flock.  And if the mid-terms go as well as they seem to be it won’t be long before they’ll be declaring themselves the real leaders of the Trump Revolution complete with New York Times best sellers, cruise ship seminars and proof that transgendered undocumented workers are the most important Trump constituency.  I think the main point that I’m trying to make is these characters should be compelled to embrace their choice and never join with Trump or anyone who stood with him.

So, the Trump Revolution moves apace and all that needs to be decided is the secret handshake, the setting of the decoder ring and how to keep the Bushes and Romneys from crashing the Christmas Party.  But seriously, you could have worse problems than how to on-board so many new recruits.

The Wind is Shifting

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Some pundits like to draw their examples from history.  They’ll point to Athens or Rome or England to lend support for some point being made.  Some draw from classic literature or drama, Homer or Shakespeare.  I’m a science fiction and fantasy geek.  So, even though I’ll quote Xenophon or Thucydides, Odysseus or Macbeth, I often find myself drawn to a scene by Tolkien.

In the Lord of the Rings there is a chapter called The Ride of the Rohirrim where King Theoden has asked for the help of the Wild Men of Druadan Forest to bypass an army of orcs and thereby reach Minas Tirith before the city falls.  Ghan-buri-Ghan, the chieftain of these stone-age primitives agrees to aid him.  As the tribesman prepares to leave them he sniffs the air like some wild creature and with a startled expression says “Wind is changing!” and bolts away.  This sentiment is repeated several more times by individuals from all sides of the battle ahead.  And the change in the wind is both a sign and also an actor in the drama.  Literally the direction of the wind changes the environment for the characters in the story from darkness and fear to light and courage.  It not only lets them see what they need to know but it gives them the courage to attempt it.

Now, far be it from me to compare Donald Trump to Gandalf the White or Mitch McConnell to King Theoden.  Although, I could be convinced that Bush Senior is a stand-in for Denethor.

But without a doubt I will say the wind is most definitely changing.  Here are my proofs:

  1. Those most notorious of weather vanes, the Republican Congress, are pointing in Trump’s direction. Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and the rest of the gutless, spineless hollow men in the Senate got up on their hind legs and gave an almost convincing impression of adult male Americans, in other words men.  Astonishing.
  2. A Republican appointee for the Supreme Court was allowed to defend himself against outrageous charges from shrieking harpies instead of being withdrawn post haste by a cowering Republican establishment.
  3. The #metoo media-political complex fired every single round they had in their guns at Justice Kavanaugh, the President and the Senate during this pitched battle and when the smoke cleared Kavanaugh was installed in the Supreme Court, Susan Collins called them out, Democrat Senator Joe Manchin signed onto the approval and President Trump’s approval rating broke 50% for the first time in many months.
  4. Just about every NeverTrumper who hadn’t already sold his soul to George Soros admitted that he was glad Donald Trump was president right now.
  5. And finally, even the most timid centrists are finally starting to understand that losing less quickly is not necessarily the best case scenario they can hope for.

Some of these signs are actually lagging indicators.  I think some of the NeverTrumpers are coming around because they lost most of their readers.  Their conversion is one of convenience due to how much the facts on the ground have already shifted against them.  The Congress has taken two years to decide which way the wind is blowing, the invertebrates.  But without a doubt, things are definitely building on existing momentum.

I expect setbacks, unexpected losses will occur and unreliable allies will bolt from time to time.  But I predict that this momentum is peaking at just the right time to sway the electorate for us.  And that will further depress the Left and its allies in the Press and Hollywood.  So this is the time for the Right to strike while the iron is hot.  If we manage to gain a few seats in the House it’s time to start building the wall and fixing the illegal immigration situation.  It’s time to start cleaning out the Justice Department and the other Executive Branch departments.  And it’s time for the Republicans to coordinate at the state and federal level to advance cases to the Supreme Court to challenge many of the unconstitutional precedents that need to be reversed.

I hate to sound so cheerful.  But honestly, things are going very well.  A lot of my friends are very fearful about a #metoo backlash and Mueller and blah, blah, blah.  Meh.  I say things are looking up.  The wind is shifting and that is the time to press ahead.