Patterico's Pontifications

10/13/2017

The Real Problem with Trump

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:00 am



This week, Donald Trump has been in rare form on Twitter: telling citizens of our country not to expect help for too long; threatening broadcast licenses as retribution for content he dislikes; and the other usual jackassery.

OK, “rare” form is not accurate. “Everyday” form.

So are Trump’s tweets actually a problem? Allahpundit at Hot Air suggests that we shouldn’t worry about them so much, because you can’t take what Trump says seriously:

It’s ominous for any president to threaten a broadcaster’s license for “unfair” coverage but the hard fact is that most people simply don’t take POTUS’s Twitter farts seriously anymore. Journalists will hyperventilate and content-hungry hacks like me will churn out posts but we’ve already reached the “pay him no mind” point of his presidency. His authoritarian tendencies seemed frightening during the campaign at times because you never knew how much he’d indulge them if he became president. Now that we’ve had nine months to watch him, the answer is: Not much.

When I read that, I thought to myself: Allahpundit has a point . . . kind of. If you take “possible international destabilization due to world leaders overreacting to his tweets” out of the equation, Trump’s tweets aren’t that big a deal, it could be argued. After all, many Americans are by and large learning that their President is just a nitwit with a smart phone, and they tune him out. So what’s the harm?

And yet I didn’t find the argument convincing. And then I read David French, who says we do need to worry about Trump’s tweets because of the corrupting influence they have on grassroots Republicans. His piece is titled Trump’s Tweets Are Damaging the Republican Character. I almost didn’t write this post because French encapsulates so many of my thoughts so nicely. (But, as you’ll see, I do have a slightly different take in the end.) French uses Trump’s “maybe we’ll revoke your license” threat as a taking-off point:

It shouldn’t take a lawyer to note that any action to challenge “licenses” on this basis would be unconstitutional. It’s Civics 101: The First Amendment protects press freedom, and that protection is easily broad enough to encompass any effort to silence journalists simply because the president believes their work is “partisan, distorted and fake.”

Yet, incredibly, across the country rank-and-file Republicans react to such messages not by rebuking Trump but by trying to find a way to rationalize or justify them. Many go even further, joining Trump in his attacks regardless of their merit. These folks are degrading their political character to defend Trump, and the damage they do to their own credibility and their party’s in the process will endure long after he has departed from the political scene.

The controversy over Trump’s threats to revoke broadcast licenses is such a good example, I hope you’ll forgive me if I take a few extra pixels here and go on a bit of rant.

First, let’s clear way the chaff: the fact that NBC as an entity does not have a “broadcast license” itself, but member stations do, is not the Big Refutation people seem to think it is. (Take him seriously but not literally, people!) A President whose first urge, upon being confronted with news he doesn’t like, is to muse upon the ways that he can use the power of the federal government to lash out at the news organization . . . that is a problem, folks! I don’t care that he would actually have to go after individual stations instead, or that the FCC wouldn’t necessarily be on board.

The same would be true if he threatened to audit them. You can claim that, hey, the IRS is an independent entity — why, they would never go after people for political reasons! Yeah, I don’t find that reassuring, and neither should you. Yes, maybe the doltish chief executive has not yet found the best method for using the government he controls to retaliate against his opponents — but if that is his desire (and it quite clearly is), he’ll find it eventually.

But even if you don’t take the threat from Trump seriously, or literally, the fact that so many people support him on it is what I find terrifying.

As I looked around the Internet after reading Trump’s comments, I was appalled and disgusted to see many conservatives thoughtfully stroking their chins and waxing philosophical about the “public interest” and the alleged need of government to ensure that broadcasters are living up to their responsibilities. Hello! This is exactly the sort of defense that Harry Reid and Barack Obama have employed in the past as they threatened to regulate out of existence broadcasters who did not toe their line. And the very same people who used to decry this sort of thuggery now use the language of the left to defend Trump.

This isn’t supposition on my part, by the way. I have the evidence. Some of these Internet denizens have been around a long time. And they have compared identical leftist threats in the past to threats by the Mafia, or by thugs like Putin. I’m not going to personalize this by citing you chapter and verse. But as French says of the more wild-eyed Trumpers: “There is of course always a measure of hypocrisy in politics — partisanship can at least partially blind us all. But the scale here beggars belief.”

So where do I disagree with French? He says Trump has “damaged” the character of the Republicans who employ such staggering hypocrisy to defend him. Well, I’m not so sure their character was that unsullied to begin with. One could argue that Trump has instead “revealed” their character.

So which is it?

I think the truth is somewhere in between. Trump has not taken pure people and “damaged” their character. Neither has he taken purely evil and laughably partisan people and simply exposed them for what they are.

No, instead what he has done is bring out the worst in people.

I have quoted Alexandr Solzhenitsyn before to the effect that both good and evil lies within the hearts of most men. Almost all of us have the capacity to do great and good things — or to do very bad things. And leaders, by their own example and character, can bring those good or bad qualities to the forefront.

If you study world history and current foreign policy, or just human psychology, you know that people are sheep who tend to unthinkingly follow orders. They are perfectly willing to support the craziest and the most evil actions of leaders — leaders 100 times worse than Trump has ever shown himself to be.

As many wiser heads before me have mentioned, perhaps the most dismaying thing about the way that Germany knuckled under to Adolf Hitler is the fact that Germany was a bastion of culture and intellect. If it could happen there, it literally could happen anywhere. As Solzhenitsyn has said:

There always is this fallacious belief: “It would not be the same here; here such things are impossible.”

Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible anywhere on earth.

Idiots read allusions to Hitler or Stalin in a post like this and make the stupid argument that I am comparing Trump to Hitler or Stalin. It galls me to have to stop near the end of a post that is already very long to say: I am not making that comparison. That is not my point at all.

My point is this: there are many examples in history of people supporting really bad things. Don’t think you are different. And when you sign on to defend blatantly unconstitutional suggestions because you hate hate hate the media, you are surrendering a bit of your soul. You should be able to take on the media without agreeing to surrender to the government the terrible and terrifying power to silence them. And the fact that this does not appear likely to happen tomorrow does not mean it can’t happen next year. Or that it can’t happen here. Human nature is the same everywhere.

The real problem with Trump is that he brings out the worst in people. And bad things happen when the worst in people is brought to the surface.

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]

119 Responses to “The Real Problem with Trump”

  1. When it’s time to fight back, there’s going to be some blood. It won’t look pretty. But it’s necessary.

    Ingot9455 (352e84)

  2. And, to get dialectical, broadcast licenses fall under certain well known laws. They can be pulled under those laws. Isn’t it NBC News that blew up GM trucks with gasoline bombs and claimed they were malfunctions, costing GM millions?

    Ingot9455 (352e84)

  3. I don’t think normalizing his idiocy advisable..

    “And then I read David French, who says we do need to worry about Trump’s tweets because of the corrupting influence they have on grassroots Republicans..”

    Thank the gods for Mattis, Kelly, McMasters and TRex. They find his twats ominous.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  4. beg your pardon but this is what we used to call “concern trolling,” this post

    the proof is in the pudding

    ask anyone just ask them where is the proof

    in the pudding they’ll say

    and the pudding is manifestly delicious!

    President Trump is a man tailor-made to address the challenges of these trying times

    I stand with him, and I do so with pride and humility

    I thank god for these precious moments we’ve been given

    this merciful interregnum

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  5. I blame booosh

    mg (31009b)

  6. What a great post.

    DRJ (15874d)

  7. A Sassetweet..

    “Question for conservatives:
    What will you wish you had said now if someday a President Elizabeth Warren talks about censoring Fox News?”

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  8. this idea what Mr. French has, that the republican character’s supposed to be all precious and frilly and proper – all sweet-smelling lace and finery like romney-panties

    i reject this idea

    America at its best is bold and rambunctious because FREEDOM is bold and rambunctious

    that’s the character of which President Trump is a magnificent paragon

    it resonates with me and I don’t mind saying so

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  9. the fact that NBC as an entity does not have a “broadcast license” itself, but member stations do, is not the Big Refutation people seem to think it is

    no

    the refutation what is BIG REFUTE is that even if NBC were to lose its license, it would still be perfectly free to remain on cable satellite and fiber, where the vast majority of teh Fox News audience is to be found (as well as that of fascist america-hating networks like ESPN and CNN and Comedy Central)

    and the calm?

    away by the storm is chasing

    everything good needs replacing

    look up look down all around

    hey satellite

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  10. I think Trump is like Harvey Weinstein. His only constraint is “What can I get away with?” A sociopath, in other words. But an intelligent, or at least aware, sociopath. I think he has a careful finger on the pulse of his support, from the fervent “Deplorables” to the opportunistic GOPes to the lukewarm “better than Hillary”s to the despairing “maybe we’ll get good judges”, and is careful to toss them us enough crumbs and bones to keep us from throwing his orange ass out of the White House, as he lets out the leash of his inner baboon.

    nk (dbc370)

  11. I think the truth is somewhere in between. Trump has not taken pure people and “damaged” their character. Neither has he taken purely evil and laughably partisan people and simply exposed them for what they are.

    No, instead what he has done is bring out the worst in people.

    To believe that Trump has taken “pure” people and “damaged” their character is to relieve them of responsibility for their own actions and behaviors as independent agents. I do believe that Trump exposed everyone for who and what they are, no matter where on the right side of the aisle one falls. So to see people on the right tie themselves in knots to defend that which they would have previously railed against in a president – a Republican president at that – is a huge tell. But loyalty to a political party when it requires sacrificing one’s integrity is the biggest tell of all.

    The question is, why have so many let one very fallible man determine who and what they are?

    Dana (023079)

  12. He’s spinning as per usual right now.

    Did you know Obama loaded 1.8 Billion onto a plane and delivered it to it’s owners!

    Unpossible..lol

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  13. nothing like oodles of untraceable jew-killing cash in the hands of terrorists to put a Spring in the step of what appears to be the majority of US Army generals

    or maybe just the trashy ones what went to trashy trashy west point

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  14. “The question is, why have so many let one very fallible man determine who and what they are?”

    Because that’s what they are?

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  15. Yeah. I’m sure McMasters wants the new killers to succeed…moron

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  16. Jew-killers..not new killers.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  17. we shouldn’t even need to be having this discussion

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  18. we shouldn’t even need to be having this discussion

    Oh, yeah? I’d like to tell my daughter that she can be President, but I’m afraid that she’ll bring up a picture of Trump on her phone and say “Why?” I thought that the Presidency could not be demeaned any more when Clinton was elected. Then I thought “this time we’ve really hit bottom” when Obama was elected. Then Trump was elected and I realized what a Pollyanna I had been. What the f*** does the f***ing Presidency mean anymore?

    nk (dbc370)

  19. What the f*** does the f***ing Presidency mean anymore?

    Apparently, never having to say you’re sorry, nk.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  20. Jimmah Peanuts and Woodrow Wilson inhaled

    mg (31009b)

  21. the presidency was never not gonna have to be rediscovered after decades of molestation by trash like bush clinton bush obama

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  22. oh i should mention carter too among the execrable president trash america’s had to suffer i just saw the other day on drudge where he’s still alive

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  23. My feelings about the Trump so-called presidency in one word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtvnVxc2Khk NOT SAFE FOR WORK!

    nk (dbc370)

  24. need to see that

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  25. hrm it’s not on netflix or prime right now

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  26. this is the first time since reagan that failmerica’s not inexorably drifting in a more statist direction

    it’s unsettling for some people but to me it feels like something beautiful and holy

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  27. this is the first time since reagan that failmerica’s not inexorably drifting in a more statist direction

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k98mh8yCHMM SAFE FOR WORK

    nk (dbc370)

  28. I would love to ask Iran Bob how the crease in Obama’s slacks looked up close?

    mg (31009b)

  29. The earlier tweet included Sheryl atkinsons rather probing examination of Puerto Rico’s political class, that stink like futon fish markets, yet the congress voted unaminously to fund thorn in strings attached.

    The unfeathered peacock, which denied its own reporter, ronan, to run the story, which
    put a bullseye on George Zimmerman, who misrepresented schucks own eye witness account

    narciso (d1f714)

  30. @ben burn:“Question for conservatives:
    What will you wish you had said now if someday a President Elizabeth Warren talks about censoring Fox News?”

    Progressives have been saying it for years, and will say it as soon as they get back into power. So probably conservatives will say what they’ve been saying the whole time, before progressives suddenly had a problem with it and after progressives remember they’re totally ok with it.

    Frederick (64d4e1)

  31. Trump gets to pick the judges and Hillary doesn’t… all the rest of this crap is noise.

    Jim Trotter (1af51f)

  32. mg#28, he must have been drunk off moonshine and thought he was making it right with Harold Ford.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  33. “…many Americans are by and large learning that their President is just a nitwit with a smart phone, and they tune him out. ”
    – Patterico
    “Trump to End Illegal ObamaCare Subsidies to Insurers”
    – Patterico, same blog, same day.
    What’s my point? Figure it out.

    Neil Ferguson (813262)

  34. The USS Theodore Roosevelt, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, is en route to the western Pacific after leaving San Diego port last week.

    even the feckless incompetent US Navy is imbued with Newfound Purpose

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  35. Yeah, Neil, there is that standard trap.

    Person X whom you don’t like is a ‘moron’.
    Yet Person X accomplishes something very difficult that takes smarts.
    Is he really a ‘moron’?

    He may not be your style. He may not sound or smell sweet to you. He may have a very different kind of intelligence to him. But he can’t be a moron to be that effective over and over.

    Ingot (e5bf64)

  36. Well said Patterico. The end does not justify the means: a government without a free press can not be held accountable. If we give that up, anything goes!

    Tillman (a95660)

  37. Thank you. A terrific post that needs to be said. Unfortunately the consequence is having to watch the crazies flip out but thank goodness for the comment muting feature

    CMD (88e9b1)

  38. Trump’s tweets allow him to communicate directly with the American people without the intential distortions and malignant bias so pandemic in the establishment media’s hate campaign to overturn the results of the most recent presidential election.

    So pervasive is the unhinged animosity toward Trump that it even emerges to sully our otherwise level headed host’s posts nearly every day. Additionally, his mesmerized sycophants echo and exaggerate the spiteful mischaracterizations

    ropelight (bbe920)

  39. I wasn’t finished, but the above will have to do. I’m pretty sure readers will get my drift. No disrespect intended.

    ropelight (bbe920)

  40. I’ll have you know my animosity towards Trump is fully hinged.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  41. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker said Friday he would introduce legislation to fix “major flaws” in the Iran nuclear deal — a step he says will eventually solidify and strengthen the agreement even as President Trump moves to disavow it.

    this tells you he wanted to do israeli genocide all up in it from the beginning

    this is a sick and evil man, this bob corker

    he’s hateful and genocidal

    and his thirst for blood will not be denied

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  42. No he thought more of what Boeing’s business with the sepah would generate, unlike what a similar deal with the kingdom wroight back in the 90s

    narciso (531731)

  43. The real problem with Trump is that he brings out the worst in people.

    This is true. Certainly the extremes.

    As noted half-jokingly, Trump is more or less a transient; an experiment. Like Prohibition.

    So everybody have another beer.
    _________

    Elected as a ‘pragmatist,’ the Trump win has effectively neutered the modern, ideological conservative movement– much to the consternation of older hands of Goldwater/Reagan days and will attempt to regroup accordingly. More fascinating is how easily Trump swings the limelight back on to him and takes control of repeated media cycles whenever it drifts on to other issues, as when Mother Nature strikes, a tragic event occurs or a WH staffer starts to shine. It’s as call-and-response as jazz. Being the center of attention is paramount and w/decades of experience in NYC media circles, he knows how to keep focus on him, w/faux NFL outrage, media bashing or ‘wait and see’ cliffhanger tweets. ‘He’s a ratings man,’ as he often quips. Network execs know golf has a small but steady, loyal audience, too.

    The saving grace- or safety valve- is Trump has the attention span of a child. Just jingle the car keys and he’ll turn and look. All Fox has to do is telecast ‘Thirteen Days’ w/‘Trinity And Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie’ to communicate to him, in bright colors, the dangers and powers in play when he toys w/nuclear talk and he’ll get the message. Better he is ‘the experiment’ in October, 2017, than October, 1962.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  44. DC: Maybe someone could draw him a picture. https://www.google.com/search?q=pic+netanyahu+Bomb&oq=pic+netanyahu+Bomb&aqs=chrome..69i57.15030j0j4&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=aHCB1eUH_DXxlM:

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  45. As a conservative intellectual I find that President Trump not only expresses great sympathy for the conservative cause and its ideals but acts to further them far more readily and decisively than, for example, a severe conservative like Mitt Romney, who’s too often prone to dither about in search of a chimerical consensus.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  46. Ah yes, the point missed of course is of the blockade had failed, it would have been game over, because bolshakov has misled bloshakov about amadyr,resolve your cloening.

    narciso (531731)

  47. French, who lives in rural Tennessee, also brings this up and it’s concerning:

    And I have never in my adult life seen such anger. There is a near-universal hatred of the media. There is a near-universal hatred of the so-called “elite.” If a person finds out that I didn’t support Trump, I’ll often watch their face transform into a mask of rage. Partisans are so primed to fight — and they so clearly define whom they’re fighting against — that they often don’t care whom or what they’re fighting for. It’s as if millions of Christians have forgotten a basic biblical admonition: “Be angry and do not sin.” Don’t like the media? Shut it down. Don’t like kneeling football players? Make them stand. Tired of American weakness overseas? Cheer incoherent and reckless tweets as evidence of “strength.”

    Tillman (a95660)

  48. Rfk about amadyr, Schlesinger was such an easy mark.

    narciso (531731)

  49. Conservatives don’t get The Boy Who Cried Wolf! lesson.

    Yellowcake us once shame on you.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  50. @47 Tillman

    You want that I should have a talk with him?

    The real morons are in Nashville who won’t take down their Hillary yard signs.

    Pinandpuller (673873)

  51. “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” JQ Adams.

    Pinandpuller (673873)

  52. Heh. I guess Adams never met Ben Franklin.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  53. Tillman – and this French – appear to be willfully unfamiliar with… ignorant, I suppose of the Left’s use of 2 minutes of Hate over the last 3 decades.

    Colonel Haiku (7680d5)

  54. Sycophant: From the Greek “showing the fig”, a vulgar gesture made by making a fist with the thumb between the second and middle finger. Although Al Gore’s internets say it’s supposed to represent a lady’s whatsis, the way I learned it growing up was that the guy you were making it at had a penis only as long as the part of the thumb extending from between the fingers. Which definition makes it entirely appropriate when it comes to Trump.

    nk (dbc370)

  55. “I was appalled and disgusted to see many conservatives thoughtfully stroking their chins and waxing philosophical about the “public interest” and the alleged need of government to ensure that broadcasters are living up to their responsibilities.”

    Granting that threatening broadcasters is evil, as is premeditated murder, I’d like to understand how the implicit agreement of the chin-stroking conservatives is different than anyone in favor of the death penalty. Both condone action that is precisely that which, by definition, is evil.

    What I’m asking is how does one reverse the rot and corruption in our institutions? From schools to the arts to media and government, the left’s control is almost total. And I’d argue they did this through evil means.

    “You should be able to take on the media without agreeing to surrender to the government the terrible and terrifying power to silence them.”

    OK, how? (Please don’t tell me to start my own media company. I’m too old.)

    Lenny (5ea732)

  56. Thanks again for virtue signalling to all of us that you are our better, and we should “knuckle under” to your imparted wisdom.

    I guess I’ve lived 56+ years on this earth for not good purpose. I don’t know well enough to know that “the worst in me” has come forward.

    Excuse me now, I’m going to sit in my running car in a closed garage for a couple hours.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  57. Cornered the market on smug, he has.

    People call say ‘beware doll, you’re bound to fall’
    You thought they were all kidding you.

    Colonel Haiku (7680d5)

  58. Really enjoyed watching the latest installment of “Everchanging Timeline of the Vegas Killer”… seeing how he couldn’t seem to lift his gaze to look his audience in the eye. What is going on there?

    Colonel Haiku (7680d5)

  59. You know it might work if they had grisdom and brass doing the presentation, they don’t have a clue.

    narciso (d1f714)

  60. Thanks again for virtue signalling to all of us that you are our better, and we should “knuckle under” to your imparted wisdom.

    Please confirm that you are addressing me in this comment so that I can add you to my ignore list.

    Patterico (e677b4)

  61. His doing something right:
    m.jpost.com/American-Politics/Trumps-plan-for-Iran-deal-already-imperiled-as-Democrats-balk-507363

    narciso (d1f714)

  62. Does Trump bring out the worst in people? Gee, I don’t know. Is rank hypocrisy mixed with the trademark distortions of the author’s point really the best in people?

    Patterico (e677b4)

  63. The beating of Trump’s reputation will continue until morale improves.

    Patterico (e677b4)

  64. The republican party needs a disappearing act.

    mg (31009b)

  65. The same that pretended to hate the rhodes/corker roadshow, Wont settle for modest steps

    narciso (d1f714)

  66. oops it turns out there’s no problem with President Trump at all

    he’s just a great president

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  67. You mock him and he will not be mocked!

    http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/you-mock-me/n9742?snl=1

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  68. What a great post.

    Thank you, DRJ. I appreciate that very much.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  69. “Years before committing herself to radical jihadism, Sally Jones’s name recognition derived from her stint with Krunch, an all-female punk band that had found success during the ’90s.”

    http://diffuser.fm/sally-jones-isis-dead/

    Sedated Cremated

    Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go
    She wanna be cremated
    Nothing to see, not even a bone-o,
    She wanna be cremated
    Just take a hellfire missile, put it on a drone
    Hurry hurry hurry, while she’s on teh phone
    Control it with your fingers, drive that mothah home
    Oh no oh oh oh oh
    Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go
    She wanna be cremated
    Nothing to see, not even a bone-o

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  70. To believe that Trump has taken “pure” people and “damaged” their character is to relieve them of responsibility for their own actions and behaviors as independent agents. I do believe that Trump exposed everyone for who and what they are, no matter where on the right side of the aisle one falls. So to see people on the right tie themselves in knots to defend that which they would have previously railed against in a president – a Republican president at that – is a huge tell. But loyalty to a political party when it requires sacrificing one’s integrity is the biggest tell of all.

    The question is, why have so many let one very fallible man determine who and what they are?

    So you’re much more in the “Trump exposes people for that they are” camp, Dana, than you are in the French “he damages people.” But surely you will acknowledge that the very same people often react very, very differently to different leadership styles, correct? This is why I agree with you that French’s formulation removes too much agency from people — they are making their own chocies — but I also think that many (not all) of the same people could be “exposed as” good people by a different leader.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  71. “Watch them clamber, these swift monkeys! They clamber over one another and thus drag one another into the mud and the depth. They all want to get to the throne: that is their madness — as if happiness sat on the throne. Often, mud sits on the throne — and often the throne also on mud. Mad they all appear to me, clambering monkeys and overardent. Foul smells their idol, the cold monster: foul, they smell to me altogether, these idolators.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

    nk (dbc370)

  72. Rxcrpt German philosiphy has set down very toxic roots, as levin noted about Wilson, he derived much from hegel who both dismiss the concept of inalienable rights

    narciso (d1f714)

  73. Considering that such policies yielded the war lord zuma
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/kobach-apartheid-letter-resurfaces

    narciso (d1f714)

  74. Well, yes, he was a paleo-existentialist. I don’t know that he so much dismissed the concept of inalienable rights as he dismissed egaliterianism. That quote above demonstrates his contempt for democracy which he would call ochlocracy (ochlos meaning mob).

    nk (dbc370)

  75. And the previous eight years and middlebury, missou and Berkeley would confirm his view, the problem lies in the erosion of small r republican values.

    narciso (d1f714)

  76. The problem w/French is although he waxes wistfully about his life in a rural, Tennessee ‘Trump Bubble,’ he writes for a Beltway-centric publication, ‘National Review’ which openly and vigorously opposed Trump’s candidacy:

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430126/donald-trump-conservatives-should-stand-against-him

    …and thus is more or less easily dismissed by Trump supporters as the bitter whine of sour grapes from a shrinking segment of a GOP in flux- and at war with itself. They’ll just tune him out as yesterday’s news.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  77. DCSCA,

    How is that “the problem with French” as opposed to “the problem with Trump supporters”?

    The wrong side is being blamed here. Avid Trump supporters are THE problem.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  78. Disco, is still ticked off over goldwater when he was a teenager, where hofstadker recycled adorn, so perspective he doesn’t have.

    narciso (d1f714)

  79. @79. We’re sane; we know that, although we come at it from different POVs.

    His points are valid but easily dismissed by rabid Trumpsters simply because of where he’s coming from: NR. They don’t and won’t forget their opposition to him.

    It’s a fair message but the wrong messenger using a ‘discredited’ platform by the folks he wants to reach, IMO.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  80. @80. Narc- Mother was a ‘Goldwater Girl’– did work for his campaign; rang door bells, mailings and such. And we never let her forget it.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  81. @81. Postscript, P. He won, too. Which gives added cache to the ‘Rabid Trumpsters,’ too. A viable primary challenger should emerge soon; one immune to nicknames, quick witted w/comebacks and can think on his or her feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  82. FWIW, believe Trump can win again, too, albeit in a squeaker. If he pushes a ‘Make America Great Again’ infrastructure program after midterms toward the end of term 1 (if Mueller doesn’t get him first) w/inevitable bipartisan support, cost be damned, especially in key districts, voters will see- and cheer- bridges revamped, transportation hubs modernized, etc., and job created in places w/lots of electoral votes. Which ever side you’re on, history has shown it has always been a mistake to underestimate Trump.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  83. Trump has exposed what some people are all about… the behavior they accept from certain people but not from others… who they’ve thrown in with … their inconsistency… the hypocrisy of their professed principles… and it has definitely exposed those who fear decimation of the administrative state.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  84. shipwreckedcrew:

    I have reviewed the comment thread and, even absent a response from you, I have determined that you were clearly referring to me. You go in the “ignore” pile along with Haiku, Mike K, and the rest. I do not get paid to read comments as snide as the one you left on this thread, and I choose not to do it.

    If that causes you to leave in a huff or something, I may never know, but if that type of comment is what I’d lose, I can live with that.

    If you choose to stay, and you ever have something you want to get across to me, you can do the following:

    1) Write it in a non-snide tone. AND
    2) Either
    a) Ask someone else here to bring it to my attention, or
    b) Email it to me.

    Do not use email to communicate to me in the same snide tone you used in this thread, or I will filter your email to go straight to trash in the future.

    If your comment was directed at someone else, or you ever wish to apologize and pledge not to adopt such a tone in the future, follow the steps above.

    As with some others, I enjoyed reading some of what you wrote in the past. Perhaps at some future time the Trump insanity will blow over and I will enjoy it again, though I doubt it.

    And now, goodbye.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  85. I’ll add: if I was so wedded to the idea that Donald Trump Must Not Be Criticized as some here seem to be, I would just leave this blog. Not temporarily, only to return periodically with (presumably) snide remarks like Mike K does. I’d just leave. For good.

    At this point I don’t care if you do or not; such people are all in my ignore pile, or will be when I identify them.

    But really. Why are you still here? You apparently don’t like me and I sure as hell don’t like you. So what are you doing??

    Patterico (115b1f)

  86. This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking post, which is frankly hard to write anymore unless it’s about some particular decision or action he’s just taken or made. I agree with most of it.

    Regarding Trump bringing out the worst in people, that’s of course a very broad statement, but true enough often enough to be a fair generalization. I can’t deny that he brings out things from me — revulsion, anger, the urge to pray for divine retribution when I know that’s not a fit subject for prayer — of which I’m un-proud. I don’t like those things in myself. That he has done some things as POTUS of which I approve changes not a bit of that, and is a wholly inadequate mitigation of the worst he’s brought out in me. I will never approve of him; he has too much past of which I disapprove, and he’s utterly incapable of (and of course uninterested in) making any changes in his personality or behavior that would be minimum prerequisites for me to feel the slightest particle of warmth toward him.

    At this moment in the national discourse (including in the comments on this blog today and tonight on the adjacent thread), we’re observing the wonderful plunge of Harvey Weinstein into national shame and disrepute, the impending destruction of his company, and — most of all — the exposed complicity of the bi-coastal blue elites in and out of Hollywood. Even Jeff Bezos’ skirts are getting dirtied in this sh*tstorm, which I’m finding more entertaining than anything else Hollywood has produced in two decades at least.

    How much progress could the political right, the conservative movement (including social conservatives but not limited to them), and the GOP be making right now if it weren’t this guy in the White House?

    His fans are distracted and then enthused by his nonsense. Meantime, the calendar pages turn, and before we know it, it’s the 2018 midterms and our side has bupkus to campaign on. Dems take the House. End of opportunity to do anything meaningful during a rare period of ostensibly unified government. The political opportunity costs are staggering.

    Yes, he’s also toxic and corrosive in many other ways. But it’s the opportunity costs that I think are the real problem with Trump.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  87. Also, and very importantly:

    That Astros win over the Yankees just a moment ago was a brilliantly polished diamond of a game, absolutely riveting.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  88. And that is mostly the fault of those very professional men and women in our dump, it takes two to tango after all. Re another contratemp which escaped notice this week:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/Debradelai/status/919032046353252353?p=v

    narciso (d1f714)

  89. @ Patterico,

    So you’re much more in the “Trump exposes people for that they are” camp, Dana, than you are in the French “he damages people.” But surely you will acknowledge that the very same people often react very, very differently to different leadership styles, correct? This is why I agree with you that French’s formulation removes too much agency from people — they are making their own chocies — but I also think that many (not all) of the same people could be “exposed as” good people by a different leader.

    This gets a bit complicated. I think for many people, their faith informs their politics, and they are firmly wed to those views, unmovably so. Thus when a politician like Trump comes along and is all over the board with what he says he is for or against, these people don’t move across the board with him. They remain static and consistent. This might be considered an example of Trump inadvertently bringing out what you might see as the “good” in people. Through his erratic politics, in which he is wed to no ideology, these individuals remain true to their own moral compass. This would be an example of a bad leader bringing out the best in people, (albeit not in the way to which I suspect are referring).

    For others, they follow his lead and willingly move freely across the board of belief and policy, to and fro, along with Trump. He has more influence over them than any core belief or principle might. This would be a demonstration of him bringing out what you might consider the “bad” in people. They choose to allow a powerful politician to guide and lead them, and inform their politics.

    I don’t believe it’s an issue of “good” and “bad” people. I see it more as “weakness” and “strength”, or perhaps “moored” and “unmoored”. The moored person doesn’t get tossed to and fro, the unmoored person gets tossed to and fro and is driven emotionally. I feel that Trump has skillfully, and with intent, tapped into a seething anger in a lot of the population. These individuals are looking for revenge. They may have been once moored, but their anger has unmoored them as they follow his lead.

    I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know that I remained consistent in my views when Obama was president, and have with Trump as well. With both administrations, there’s been a big gap between them and me, and I have felt out of step with a lot of people I was once previously more in sync with. Not good or bad coming out in people, just what drives and informs our politics. And for me, it’s absolutely *not* the political leader.

    Dana (023079)

  90. This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking post, which is frankly hard to write anymore unless it’s about some particular decision or action he’s just taken or made. I agree with most of it.

    Regarding Trump bringing out the worst in people, that’s of course a very broad statement, but true enough often enough to be a fair generalization. I can’t deny that he brings out things from me — revulsion, anger, the urge to pray for divine retribution when I know that’s not a fit subject for prayer — of which I’m un-proud. I don’t like those things in myself. That he has done some things as POTUS of which I approve changes not a bit of that, and is a wholly inadequate mitigation of the worst he’s brought out in me. I will never approve of him; he has too much past of which I disapprove, and he’s utterly incapable of (and of course uninterested in) making any changes in his personality or behavior that would be minimum prerequisites for me to feel the slightest particle of warmth toward him.

    Beldar,

    I appreciate the kind words. I also agree with your second paragraph as applied to me. DRJ noted upthread that Trump brings out the worst in his enemies as well as his supporters, and I can’t deny that there is justice in that. The news media, usually leftist and bad in many places, has been particularly egregious. The radical left has been out of its mind. And I find myself out of sorts far too often, including today, as I contemplate just how upset I am at the irrationality of people I used to count as friends. I feel that I have not changed a whit in the principles I support, but that I am found wanting because I can see a charlatan for what he is, and call him what I believe him to be. That so many of my former friends choose to defend this guy’s worst impulses, and place themselves in the group of people I consider my political opponents rather than my allies, upsets me more than I think it ought to.

    But I most agree with your last sentence, and this is what makes me nearly want to tear my hair out: “But it’s the opportunity costs that I think are the real problem with Trump.” Well, it’s certainly one of them. I no longer have quite the same admiration for Ted Cruz I once had — Trump brought out some of the best in Cruz during the campaign, but some of the worst after it was over — but while I don’t think a Cruz presidency would have been perfect by any means, it would have been so much better than what we have. MAYBE not in terms of actual policy, the turncoats in Congress being what they are. But I think, along the lines of what I wrote here, that Cruz could have united Republicans rather than divided them, and could have brought out some of their best qualities rather than their worst.

    I’m told “politics is downstream from culture” as a defense of Trump grandstanding about the NFL and the flag, despite the fact that he patently does not really care about the flag other than as a way to score cheap political points. Well, French cited that same phrase in his piece, but as a way to criticize the debasement of the culture of Republican thought since Trump’s election. And he’s right.

    I wonder whether politics and policy would be MUCH better under Cruz. Perhaps not. But the hyper-alpha-male culture of the Trumpers would be history, and the message would be a renewed believe in the Constitution and limited government. It truly is a staggeringly awful missed opportunity.

    Most fundamentally, we have taken one of the worst humans in our country who is not a violent criminal, and elevated him to the highest office in the land, where children see his stunning lack of ethics and morality as something to emulate — or, if they have good parents, to be warned against emulating. The corrosive impact of that alone is impossible to measure.

    And for that, we can blame our crap electorate. There’s really nowhere else to look.

    Again: thanks for the kind words.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  91. I have felt out of step with a lot of people I was once previously more in sync with

    That is the most jarring aspect of all this. It’s clarifying — I’ll give Trump that. I appreciate the people I currently admire so much more today than I did 2-3 years ago. But with that comes a deep disappointment in the people I admire less . . . or worse, have come to hold in utter contempt when I was friendly with them just 2-3 years ago.

    I recognize these as negative emotions. But it’s difficult to figure out how to deal with them.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  92. Can we weight day e of what he says , which I don’t care for, compared to what Obama did with the alnist unanimous collobaration of media, practically no resistance in got, education. To cement and mold perceptions. In areas small and large, from a military carved up, to a minority population driven to constant agitation. Like I say its a midfield with barbed wire.

    narciso (d1f714)

  93. I’ll try to stop ranting, but just to take a simple example: I never would have thought that I would become so disgusted with many of the long-time commenters here that I would eagerly welcome a script that allowed me to read my comment threads without even having to glance at their claptrap. This is a true sign of a deep rift.

    I can hear the voices of the muted rising up saying: “if so many of us feel this way, you should take it as a hint that we are right and you are wrong.” Wrong on two counts. First, and most important, as Dana said, I feel perfectly moored. I feel very confident that the changes are not within me. But second: even if I were to look to others as an indication of whether I have changed — whether I have BECOME LITTLE GREEN FOOTBALLS as the Trumpers love to claim — I find that the people I admire the most are pretty much right in the same boat with me. They don’t necessarily agree with every Trump post I write, and they are able to say with honesty that they don’t hate the man. But they have their eye on the same ball I am looking at. They don’t seem to have changed the way I have seen changes in my new political opponents.

    So I am left to conclude that Trump really has had a perfectly awful effect on a huge swath of the country, and I am just seeing the effects in my own tiny little corner of the Web. Were these people always such rank hypocrites? Were they always this irrational? Have they simply been “exposed”? Again, I keep coming back to the same conclusion: No. Not exactly. They, like all of us, have mixtures of good and bad, and Trump has brought their bad to the fore. Maybe a different type of figure would bring some of my worst qualities to the fore. Maybe Trump is (as I noted two comments ago) already indeed bringing some of my worst qualities to the fore: not a quality of hypocrisy or irrationality, perhaps, but qualities of anger, resentment, and the like.

    Enough ranting.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  94. Keep letting it out, Patterico. It will keep your blood pressure low.

    mg (31009b)

  95. Most fundamentally, we have taken one of the worst humans in our country who is not a violent criminal, and elevated him to the highest office in the land, where children see his stunning lack of ethics and morality as something to emulate — or, if they have good parents, to be warned against emulating. The corrosive impact of that alone is impossible to measure.

    I disagree that he is “one of the worst humans in our country”. He is an individual that is severely flawed, without any foundational principles to guide him, and without a firm grasp on truth and reality, but there are far worse to be had. In this case, though, I would agree that he brings out the good and bad in people: that so many put him in power speaks to that in spades. But in your example of parenting, again Trump inadvertently brings out the good and the bad in parents, depending on how they instruct their kids regarding the example he sets.

    Dana (023079)

  96. Like Roy batty, ewe have seen i won’t recipe that long passage of dialogue.

    So mg would you have nit toppled saddam considering much of the leadership of Islamic state. Came from his military and intelligence ranks.

    narciso (d1f714)

  97. I’ll tell you, Beldar, I wish your team well, but I’d rather have the Cubs beat the Yankees. For comeuppance. Year after year, we play them in the interleague games and even though the Cubs show them the courtesy of letting them win at Wrigley Field, the Yankees never reciprocate by letting the Cubs win at Yankee stadium. 😉

    nk (dbc370)

  98. Well it might teach them, humility or humiliation

    narciso (d1f714)

  99. I recognize these as negative emotions. But it’s difficult to figure out how to deal with them.

    I keep the big picture in focus: God sovereign, and for whatever reason, a dolt like Trump was allowed in office. The “why” doesn’t concern me because I can’t know anything other than what I see: people wanted this nut in office, God gave them what they wanted. But like everything in this life, this too shall pass, and the pendulum will swing. I would go nuts with frustration, anger, worry and fear without the big picture in my sights. It also makes it easier to be gracious and kind to those from whom I have been “separated” now. Trump uncannily reveals what already lay in the hearts and minds of so many, not all of it is attractive. But I thinks the old log in our own eye is a good checkpoint and wise way to deal with everyone with whom we disagree now, and especially those who have flipped over and seemingly become someone else entirely. You can’t change anyone or persuade, likely, but you can be kind. Maybe later they’ll come back to you with a clearer focus and thank you for being patient with them. Or maybe they’ll forever you look at you with a tad of contempt for your stubborness and for not yielding. Doesn’t matter. You can’t control any of it.

    Dana (023079)

  100. I disagree that he is “one of the worst humans in our country”.

    Other than violent criminals! An important qualifier.

    I actually do. You can pick just about any positive human trait that exists. Honesty. Kindness. Intellectual curiosity. Genuine concern for others and selflessness. I could go on and on. He possesses none of these positive qualities. I truly believe him to be one of the ugliest examples of humanity in existence, save those who are criminally preying on people, especially in violent ways. There’s just nothing positive about his personality that I see.

    It’s not important to me that you agree with me. But I want to make my point of view clear, at least…

    But in your example of parenting, again Trump inadvertently brings out the good and the bad in parents, depending on how they instruct their kids regarding the example he sets.

    I brought my kids up well. I don’t have to tell them what a bad guy he is. They can see it on their own. What a sad fact about the President of the United States.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  101. You can’t change anyone or persuade, likely, but you can be kind.

    It’s hard. Honestly, right now, the kindest thing I can do for these people is ignore them. It will prevent me from saying nasty things that are hard to take back. And when snide nastiness is coming at me in a steady stream, it’s hard not to respond in kind. Easier when I can shut off the flow — and let people know, quite clearly, that their ugliness is not even noticed.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  102. About to publish another post in praise of Trump’s actions today. This one on the Iran deal.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  103. “our crap electorate…”

    Patterico– believe the more urbane and fashionable term of late is ‘deplorables.’ 😉

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  104. The people who call themselves deplorables on Twitter tend to be the biggest assholes on the Web. I block those people routinely.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  105. @107. Meh. Don’t use Twitter; keeps my blood pressure low.

    ____

    …the debasement of the culture of Republican thought…

    Thing is, this a flaw in French’s pitch from the eternally conservative National Review. It’s conservative thought perceived as ‘being debased’ not Republican thought. It’s the Republican Party, not the Conservative Party. That’s really the heart of it- loss of party control and the battleground of the civil war.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  106. It’s conservative thought perceived as ‘being debased’ not Republican thought.

    I continue to be an adherent of conservative thought but not Republican thought. If you believe the popular conception, conservative thought is dead. I’m not so sure; I think things would be different with a better leader. Unfortunately Trump was born so we’re stuck with the pile of sh!t we have now.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  107. They talk a good game.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  108. But where are their results? WTF have they accomplished?

    Here’s an accomplishment: https://www.wsj.com/articles/scalias-all-the-way-down-1507847435?mod=e2two

    While some allow their own eccentricities to rule their thought process, others get ‘er done, however buffoonish their methods may be.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  109. Will the RNC re-brand with a name change and superficial face-lifts? Bring back Goldwater Republicans. Changing underwear won’t do it.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  110. Yoram heading has a good grip? But if you want gnashing, comedy and Mueller conspirator goldsmith will oblige you.

    narciso (afecf4)

  111. Hazony, a foreign perspective.

    narciso (afecf4)

  112. @109. Conservative thought isn’t ‘dead’; it’s simply returning to the marginalized niche it occupied within the party as a whole; Buckley’s NR never projected ‘mainstream’ party thought for most GOP moderates; it didn’t draw voters ‘into the tent.’ But if you believe there’s a cadre of conservative voters today that wide and deep, forming a purist ‘conservative’ party should be easy. I’m not so sure there’s enough to do it.

    Thing is w/Trump, he could have hijacked either party for a run- he just hit on the one most fragmented, running too many weak and lackluster candidates. Did research on this many, many years ago. Dry stuff. The data showed the trend for ‘initial elected offices’ of major party candidates w/no previous elected office experience on the local, state and national level was trending toward nominating ‘businessmen’ to run– and win. For the nat’l office category, Perot was an outlier; not a major party nominee and didn’t win but reinforced the projections given his percentage of the vote. But Trump confirmed the trend. There’s other factors involved today; changes in campaign finance law, demographics, world events and so forth.

    But Trump’s win has piqued interest by other businessmen w/no previous elected office experience to quietly ponder a run. So his performance in office will likely determine if a ‘businessman’ w/no previous elected office experience secures a major party nomination again in the near future and the confidence of the electorate. See- dry stuff.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  113. What Trump did was to try to say somethuing that sounded old-fashioned conservative – from the 1960s maybe. That’s why he spoke of challenging licenses. because that’s very old-fashioned.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  114. anachronistic yes yes Mr. F, especially given the multitudinous array of competitive communications platforms and schemata what are available to dirty democrat rape-lovin’ nbc

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  115. If you take “possible international destabilization due to world leaders overreacting to his tweets” out of the equation, Trump’s tweets aren’t that big a deal, it could be argued. After all, many Americans are by and large learning that their President is just a nitwit with a smart phone, and they tune him out.

    This is what former New York Times columnist Russell baker said:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/business/media/trump-news-media-attacks.html

    Extracting the quote:

    One has to suppose that he’s looking for ways to shock people. It may go through, or he might probably forget about it. Is anybody shocked anymore? He’s used it up. It can only last so long.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  116. I think Russell Baker is assuming amore informed audience than – well more informed than Donald Trump assumes.

    More than reality, too maybe.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)


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