2aguy
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2014
- 111,952
- 52,205
- 2,290
This is a great look at President Trump vs the Never Trumpers vs the establishment republicans vs the far left asshats.....
In fact, our current crisis speaks as much to the failures of the old-guard conservative movement, particularly neoconservatives, as it validates the triumph of the Left.
The pre-Trump Republican Party prioritized nation-building abroad at the expense of nation-building at home. Republican leaders, including presidents and presidential candidates, insisted that we ātake the fightā against Americaās enemies to some faraway land without realizing there already was a fight here and it was far more destabilizing than a faction of terrorists in Fallujah. (Or perhaps they did realize it and just didnāt have the guts to do what was necessary to counterpunch?)
Pre-Trump Republican Party establishment turned a blind eye to the consequences of their failed wars and disastrous trade pacts and ācompassionate conservativeā immigration policies. Oh sure, they gave lip service to welfare reform and deficit reduction, but itās sort of hard to cut the debt when Republicans commit trillions in U.S. tax dollars to unsuccessfully spread democracy in undemocratic hellholes around the world. Every bit of political capital was squandered.
All the while, the Left laughed at the fecklessness of the pre-Trump Republican Party and āconservativeā movement, confident that the likes of Paul Ryan, George W. Bush, and John McCain were impotent opponents. Pre-Trump Republicans had no plan to halt the Leftās stranglehold on academia; the kids they didnāt send to fight in the Middle East were brainwashed on college campuses in the Midwest and elsewhere without a peep of dissent from Republicans in Congress or the White House. The national news media, and now social media, act as the near-monopolistic organ to spread leftist propaganda while silencing dissent. To this day, NeverTrump āconservativesā reject any use of federal power to stop it.
Corporations and business interests that openly discriminate against conservative viewpoints still receive federal subsidies and tax benefits without question. The nationās most powerful law enforcement and intelligence agencies can target innocent Republicans and these same prostrated āconservativesā will justify it as a credible attempt to save the country from imaginary Russian agents.
No one embodies the scourge of the pre-Trump Republican Party more than Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a pathetic sycophant once considered a racist, sexist pig by the Left when he ran against Barack Obamaāand who last week attended a Black Lives Matter protest organized by the same forces that once tried to destroy him.
Romneyās antics prove Douthat and company wrongāand Trump supporters right. The notion, as Douthat later argued, that a ācenter-rightā president such as Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio or John Kasich would have achieved the same policy goals and political victories as Trump without the ruckus is pure fantasy. The ruckus wouldnāt have been necessary precisely because they would have caved.
Does Douthat really think a President Jeb Bush would have stuck by Brett Kavanaugh? Would a President Marco Rubio have survived a special counsel investigation or a concocted impeachment trial without submitting to whatever demands the Left would have made of him?
In fact, our current crisis speaks as much to the failures of the old-guard conservative movement, particularly neoconservatives, as it validates the triumph of the Left.
The pre-Trump Republican Party prioritized nation-building abroad at the expense of nation-building at home. Republican leaders, including presidents and presidential candidates, insisted that we ātake the fightā against Americaās enemies to some faraway land without realizing there already was a fight here and it was far more destabilizing than a faction of terrorists in Fallujah. (Or perhaps they did realize it and just didnāt have the guts to do what was necessary to counterpunch?)
Pre-Trump Republican Party establishment turned a blind eye to the consequences of their failed wars and disastrous trade pacts and ācompassionate conservativeā immigration policies. Oh sure, they gave lip service to welfare reform and deficit reduction, but itās sort of hard to cut the debt when Republicans commit trillions in U.S. tax dollars to unsuccessfully spread democracy in undemocratic hellholes around the world. Every bit of political capital was squandered.
All the while, the Left laughed at the fecklessness of the pre-Trump Republican Party and āconservativeā movement, confident that the likes of Paul Ryan, George W. Bush, and John McCain were impotent opponents. Pre-Trump Republicans had no plan to halt the Leftās stranglehold on academia; the kids they didnāt send to fight in the Middle East were brainwashed on college campuses in the Midwest and elsewhere without a peep of dissent from Republicans in Congress or the White House. The national news media, and now social media, act as the near-monopolistic organ to spread leftist propaganda while silencing dissent. To this day, NeverTrump āconservativesā reject any use of federal power to stop it.
Corporations and business interests that openly discriminate against conservative viewpoints still receive federal subsidies and tax benefits without question. The nationās most powerful law enforcement and intelligence agencies can target innocent Republicans and these same prostrated āconservativesā will justify it as a credible attempt to save the country from imaginary Russian agents.
No one embodies the scourge of the pre-Trump Republican Party more than Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a pathetic sycophant once considered a racist, sexist pig by the Left when he ran against Barack Obamaāand who last week attended a Black Lives Matter protest organized by the same forces that once tried to destroy him.
Romneyās antics prove Douthat and company wrongāand Trump supporters right. The notion, as Douthat later argued, that a ācenter-rightā president such as Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio or John Kasich would have achieved the same policy goals and political victories as Trump without the ruckus is pure fantasy. The ruckus wouldnāt have been necessary precisely because they would have caved.
Does Douthat really think a President Jeb Bush would have stuck by Brett Kavanaugh? Would a President Marco Rubio have survived a special counsel investigation or a concocted impeachment trial without submitting to whatever demands the Left would have made of him?
No, Trump Didnāt Radicalize the Left āŗ American Greatness
A new poll offers grim but realistic news about America: One-third of our fellow countrymen, including 40 percent of Republicans, say we are on the verge of a civil war. It is a dangerous timeā¦
amgreatness.com