Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

~~~

~~~

Friday, January 22, 2016

The National Review: Anti-Trump Edition


PLEASE GO TO Infidel753's BLOG TO READ A GREAT ANALYSIS OF TRUMP'S MARCH TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY'S NOMINATION.




Check out all the conservative bigwigs who are against a Trump nomination.  

Especially interesting is Thomas Sowell, a revered columnist and the TeaPublicans' favorite African-American conservative writer.  I've read many times on right wing news sites and blogs how brilliant and what a "true" conservative he is.

What do the rabid righties, so in love with the Trumper, think of Sowell's and the other conservatives' defection? 









The issue features a blistering editorial that labels Trump a threat to conservatism, as well as essays by 22 prominent conservative thinkers from various ideological factions, in opposition to Trump's candidacy. 


 "Donald Trump is a menace to American conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it underfoot on behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as The Donald himself," the editorial states.

One of Trump's competitors, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, quickly tweeted out the cover Thursday night. "Welcome to the fight, all. Trump is not a conservative," he said.





What? Trump's not a conservative?  Then why is he so popular with so many of them? Trump is the embodiment of what the GOP has become: Angry, Loud, Petulant, Nasty, and Frightened of the Other.  

It's too late to jump off of the tiger's back.





26 comments:

Infidel753 said...

What will the rabid righties think?

"conservative panytwaist pointyhead attack Trump. Trump poll numbers rise."

That's an actual comment from an actual Trumpoline. More comments from various brands of Republicans here and here.

I agree with Matt Coulter -- too little, too late. The Trumpolines have had months of being ridiculed by "respectable" conservatives, and their "stick it to the establishment" mood is now immutable. You can't logic somebody out of a state of rage.

The special issue is a nice effort, but they should have started on this months ago. It will have no effect now.

Ahab said...

I take some comfort in knowing that the American right-wing is this divided. I hope these divisions can prevent Trump from winning the 2016 election, but until his defeat occurs, I'm nervous.

Shaw Kenawe said...

RN USA has been correct about Trump all along, and Trump's supporters have shown themselves to be unhinged know-nothings, supporting a demagogue who will destroy the party. It doesn't matter to these rabid righties, because Trump expresses their dystopian view of America.


From the National Review:

The conservative National Review launched a broadside against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday, publishing a scathing editorial that called the billionaire "a menace to conservatism."


"Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones," the editors say in the beginning of the piece.

The magazine blasted Trump as clueless on foreign policy — inconsistent on how he would fight the terror group ISIS and too accepting of praise from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"He is fixated on stealing Iraq's oil and casually suggested a few weeks ago a war crime — killing terrorists' families — as a tactic in the war on terror," the editors wrote.

It called Trump's plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants as beyond the capacity of the government."

Jerry Critter said...

I don't think I am ready to say now Trump is the Republican Party, but if he gets the nomination he certainly will be.

Shaw Kenawe said...

From the National Review:

"On foreign policy, Trump is a nationalist at sea. Sometimes he wants to let Russia fight ISIS, and at others he wants to “bomb the sh**” out of it. He is fixated on stealing Iraq’s oil and casually suggested a few weeks ago a war crime — killing terrorists’ families — as a tactic in the war on terror. For someone who wants to project strength, he has an astonishing weakness for flattery, falling for Vladimir Putin after a few coquettish bats of the eyelashes from the Russian thug. All in all, Trump knows approximately as much about national security as he does about the nuclear triad — which is to say, almost nothing."

Kevin Robbins said...

If the Right loses the presidential election badly, it's gonna be interesting to see where they go from there.

Dave Miller said...

Trump and Palin, who Bill Kristol tried to foist on us in 2008... A foreign policy match made in... well, I just cannot say.

But here's the problem... his followers, and apparently those of Ted Cruz, don't care what these guys at NR think and together they make up over 50% of the likely GOP primary voters.

They are convinced that the status quo is not working, that their wages are not growing, and that, in fact, they are not moving forward in today's economy. They are angry and I think are the GOP equivalent of the Bernie Sanders voters. In short, they are fed up.

I think if political leaders dismiss this group, even though they do express a lot of nativist extremism, they do so at their peril. They should try listening to the reasons behind their hyperbole and extreme blog rants.

Many of these folks have become victims of the hollowing out of the middle class, as Bernie would describe it, even as they were led to believe it was primarily the fault of the "other" party.

Dave Miller said...

Kevin... a lot of this is demographics... as in, how does a group that has spent months insulting minorities and people of color, get their needed votes?

I've seen a few metrics that say this might be the last shot for GOP to win with a primarily "get out the white vote" strategy.

As I look at the electorate, it's all about flipping states.

If we start with the Obama map, I see it like this... whichever party wins 2 out of the Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania group, wins the elections. period.

I think Trump, and even Cruz can win Penn. Then we're down to Florida and Ohio... Kasich or Rubio as VP?

The Dems can survive to fight another day if they can win the Senate. That to me is the most important battle to fight and win.

Les Carpenter said...


I take some comfort in knowing that the American right-wing is this divided. I hope these divisions can prevent Trump from winning the 2016 election, but until his defeat occurs, I'm nervous.


I have the same sentiments with respect to Trump Ahab, believing he must not become president. Should that happen this nation will lose credibility among the nations of the world.

Jerry Critter said...

How bad is Trump? Even skud, the resident Tper, cannot say anything good about him.

Kudos to skud.

Ducky's here said...

@Dave -- I think Trump, and even Cruz can win Penn. Then we're down to Florida and Ohio...

-------
There are a few Florida polls out and Trump is way ahead.

If he takes Iowa, he's way ahead in N.H, South Carolina and Nevada.
He could take the air out of it and run the table.

Robert D. said...


I've watched the Republican Party promote and market racism over decades with one policy after another (Reagan's Contra crack cocaine scandal, tough on "crime" justice system, continued school segregation, etc.) and numerous dog whistles to its base. In short, the Republican Party rode the tiger of racism and false promises to its base into the realm of power and profit. Now, it finds itself in the mouth of that tiger, being chewed up by all the forces of evil that it has created. It is a stunning revelation, but no one should really be surprised that it all gave birth to the likes of Trump and Cruz crazies. I'm not sorry for them...I'm sorry for our country that used to have two viable, reasonable political parties.

Shaw Kenawe said...


A lot of Trump supporters believe he's universally adored by conservatives, but they're wrong. Even if 40% of Goopers support the Trumper, that means a whopping 60% do NOT.

See this on the National Review's issue:

These are the lamentations of the 68 Percent — the significant majority of Republican voters here who are immune to Mr. Trump’s charms and entreaties, according to a battery of voter interviews on Thursday at campaign events for his rivals.

For months, great quantities of ink, political-science brain power and polling resources have been expended trying to dissect, if not exactly diagnose, the Trump phenomenon — precisely who supports him and why. Far less energy has been devoted to sounding out a much larger segment of the electorate: those who reject him.

From Brookline to Laconia, these voters call Mr. Trump “unhinged.” They object to his “temperament.” They doubt his motives.

Their disapproval runs strikingly deep. Several spoke of changing the channel whenever his face (or, more frequently, his New York-accented voice, via telephone) turned up on television.

“I really try not to watch him,” one resident, Paul Brennan, said as he walked out of an appearance by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida in a factory in Brookline, along New Hampshire’s southern border. “I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.”

Howard Brazee said...

Conservativism is about many things.

In politics, it is about personality ahead of issues. If you like the guy, his force of personality will rule the nation well.

And it's about "My way is right, therefore your way is wrong". This leads to people fighting for "Christian" values while rejecting the values that the Bible shows Jesus Christ to have. It's not about Christ or issues or what's good for the country, or what's good for the planet.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Bob, we're not surprised the Republican Party gave birth to people like Palin, Trump, and Cruz. It's the Goopers themselves who seem to be surprised that when idiots and demagogues are respected in one's party, they eventually become the party's leaders.

Palin, Trump, and Cruz -- and Christie, if he had the numbers -- are all of a piece. They represent the worst, not the best, in the American character. And yeah, the loonies who support Trump don't get the fact that a minority of Goopers support him. A minority of a minority. Plenty of sensible Republicans reject the jerk.

That would make a great slogan for the sensible GOPers: Trump: Reject the Jerk!

Shaw Kenawe said...

Howard Brazee: "In politics, it is about personality ahead of issues. If you like the guy, his force of personality will rule the nation well."

Yes. THat explains Palin's continued popularity with the fringe righties, and now Donald Trump! He's all bluster and demagoguery with no details on how he's going to build that beautiful wall and make Mexico pay for it. He has no details on how he'll deport 11 million people and let only the "good ones" back in, how he'll "bomb the sh*t" out of ISIS.

The folks who think with their emotions instead of their intellect are all in for this clown.

Robert D. said...



Shaw, that should read Palin, Trump, Cruz, Christie: REJECT THE JERKS!

Ray Cranston said...

Hey Bob and Shaw, Kathleen Parker agrees with you:

Kathleen Parker mocks the Trump-Palin antics road show, suggesting that once the Republican Party took Sarah Palin seriously as John McCain's vice-presidential pick, "they opened a populist door that they’ll not easily shut."

They have only themselves to blame.

Anonymous said...

OT: Ted Cruz was in New Hamphsire recently and said his health insurance was cancelled because of the ACA. Ted Cruz is a LIAR!

"The Wall Street Journal reported that the Cruz campaign was forced to admit that he had been moved to another plan:

Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said Friday that Mr. Cruz’s insurance broker had told him that he lost his health coverage when his Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas preferred provider organization or PPO, policy terminated on Dec. 31.

But Mr. Cruz had in fact been automatically enrolled by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas in another, narrower-network “health maintenance organization” plan that kept him covered in January.

Customers don’t get one letter and dropped. If the customer does not pick a new plan in the marketplace, their insurance provider moves them to a new plan automatically."


Trump is a demagogue and Cruz is a liar. The Gop have two great choices. NOT!

Anonymous said...

John McCain and that old Republican establishment that their base now hates, forced silly Sarah Palin down their party's throats. McCain et al are squarely to blame for foisting idiots on us by insisting Palin was qualified for anything other than a barroom brawl. Just because Alaska fell for that roguey, screechy, fecundy thing didn't mean it had to be exported like ebola to the rest of the country.

Even if you agree with Republican values you should hate them for this thing they unleashed. They made anti-intellectualism, hell anti-average-intellect, something to admire and we have to pay to price.

We'll pay for it with the Donald's promises to be all things to all people, something he has no policy or plan to do, and with having to listen to this ignorant, catterwalling, know-nothing for ever and ever. Thanks GOP. You can't, but you will try, to blame this on Obama.

Les Carpenter said...

I keep trying to figure out exactly how the national political wars (charade) will benefit anyone. So far nothing.

It has become a tit for tat environment and the limiting affect of this continuing exercise benefits no one.

It will continue on Que.

Shaw Kenawe said...



Every presidential election season becomes a silly season. But this one is especially so with the re-introduction of Palin and the nativist/populist Trumper. There were GOP candidates who are not crazy extremists, but the GOP seems to be hellbent on destroying itself by sticking with a demagogue and his nincompoopery. People understand frustration and anger -- but expressing it through a hee-hawing jackass is not the way to deal with it.

okjimm said...

I like Infidel's 'Trumpoline'....and whether he coined he or just repeated it...I will steal it.

But speaking of demagogues and their ilk, it is always good to remember the ones from the past, Hitler,Lenin,and the depression era ones, Huey Long, Father Charles Coughlin and realize that it is just the same old shit on a fancier plate. Recall the ah, good Father, and his National Union for Social Justice and some of the bullshit he threw out:"Must the entire world go to war for 600,000 Jews in Germany who are neither American, nor French, nor English citizens, but citizens of Germany?"

"If Jews persist in supporting communism directly or indirectly, that will be regrettable. By their failure to use the press, the radio and the banking house, where they stand so prominently, to fight communism as vigorously as they Nazism, the Jews invite the charge of being supporters of communism."

"From European entanglements, from Nazism, communism and their future wars, America must stand aloof. Keep America safe for Americans and the Stars and Stripes the defender of God."

"When we get through with the Jews in America, they'll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing."

"Jewish persecution only followed after Christians first were persecuted."

These are strange days, my friends. The sad part is we have been there before.

I need a beer.

Shaw Kenawe said...

okjimm, depressing and chilling. Humans don't learn from their past, do they. Same hatred, different religion and cultural group. Humans have a fascistic streak in them that, under the right conditions, comes to the surface when the right demagogue comes along. During the GWB administration, plenty of people we angry. Angry at how reckless he and his administration had been in dragging the country into war under false pretenses, angry at putting two wars and a Medicare program on the country's credit card, but instead of choosing a neo-fascist demagogue, we went with a Democrat who appealed to our better angels. And the opposition party has never recovered from that and has wallowed in a miasma of hate, racism, and fear every since. Trump is the outcome of giving into their irrationalities.

Infidel753 said...

I originated "Trumpoline" as far as I know. It's from the way that every time in this campaign that Trump has dropped a bit in the polls and the "mainstream" Republicans hoped he was finished, he always went back up. The Trumpolines always give their man another bounce!

okjimm said...

I like it,Trumpoline. Then I read somewhere that all snow flakes have six sides.....so maybe Cruz is a Canadian snowflake....or maybe just a flake.