2aguy
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2014
- 112,334
- 52,581
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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 “take the fight” against America’s 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 didn’t 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 “compassionate conservative” immigration policies. Oh sure, they gave lip service to welfare reform and deficit reduction, but it’s 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 “conservative” 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 Left’s stranglehold on academia; the kids they didn’t 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 “conservatives” 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 nation’s most powerful law enforcement and intelligence agencies can target innocent Republicans and these same prostrated “conservatives” 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 Obama—and who last week attended a Black Lives Matter protest organized by the same forces that once tried to destroy him.
Romney’s antics prove Douthat and company wrong—and Trump supporters right. The notion, as Douthat later argued, that a “center-right” 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 wouldn’t 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 “take the fight” against America’s 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 didn’t 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 “compassionate conservative” immigration policies. Oh sure, they gave lip service to welfare reform and deficit reduction, but it’s 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 “conservative” 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 Left’s stranglehold on academia; the kids they didn’t 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 “conservatives” 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 nation’s most powerful law enforcement and intelligence agencies can target innocent Republicans and these same prostrated “conservatives” 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 Obama—and who last week attended a Black Lives Matter protest organized by the same forces that once tried to destroy him.
Romney’s antics prove Douthat and company wrong—and Trump supporters right. The notion, as Douthat later argued, that a “center-right” 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 wouldn’t 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 Didn’t Radicalize the Left › 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 time…
amgreatness.com