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Reconsidering Bill Barr
Former Attorney General William (Bill) Barr is in the news again because he has a new book out which, among other things, contains some unflattering commentary on President Trump. And because the news is starving for Trump! Trump! Trump! Bill Barr’s book will get a lot of play.
I think Bill Barr is a patriot and an honest man. Do I agree with his reported summary of President Trump’s unsuitability for office? I do not. But unlike many NTers who have swallowed the “corruption” claims, Barr’s critique is only one of “conduct unbecoming” and/or self-defeating behavior.
Barr is GOPe with an independent twist. That is, his general sensibilities lie with the good that government can do. He sees the battle with agency overreach as a problem to be solved with surgical precision rather than a broad sword. But he is not playing the game. He is not looking for personal advantage; he is not selling his soul. He is genuinely promoting a vision of America that is decent, top to bottom.
But he is doing so with an elitist’s frame of reference. This blinds him to fully crediting the evil of progressive stratagems. It makes him a little too comfortable with half measures that avoid risks of cutting out a healthy organ but leaves a small malignancy in place. If not excised that malignancy once again grows and will metastasize.
The real question is not President Trump’s suitability to lead —he has more than demonstrated that. Not perfect, either as leader or a man, but President Trump promoted policies that strengthened America and created general well-being for its citizens. The question is one of a match between the man (or woman) and the current challenge. Several Ricochet authors who supported President Trump’s presidency have raised this question. And it is a fair one.
My own view is that he is. Or at least that we continue to face challenges that require extraordinary energy, determination, and—most importantly— a dedicated following. It was said that Dwight Eisenhower fresh off his leadership of the victorious Allied Forces in Europe could have been a winning presidential candidate for either party. That is what a following does. That is what no Republican president has had since Reagan in 1984 and before Trump in 2020. That is no small thing.
Bill Barr cries out for an alternative to President Trump, the man. Barr is not wrong to do so — were that the world was as Barr sees it. But it is not. President Trump’s time is not over because the progressives in government, the media, academia, finance, and corporations continue to assault our people viciously and mercilessly. One day President Trump can transition from champion to architect, but not today.
Published in General
There doesn’t seem to have been a long shelf-life for the last five-dozen “insider” books about the Bad Orange Man. I should write one. Quick, fast cash (mostly from paid media appearances) and who cares if it’s in the remaindered bin in a week? I’ll have already put down cash on a new house by then!
All I want from an AG is someone who upholds the law equally. I don’t need more than that. I want lawbreakers in the senate to be held to the same laws and punishments as the this guy.
I wonder what our estimation of LBJ would be like today if he’d had a twitter account. Some of his statements about blacks I can’t reproduce here because they are so crudely and nakedly racist. Even for people of his day he was racist to the point of disqualification. Woodroe Wilson was another racist, also more so than most of his contemporaries. JFK not only talked about grabbing women a certain way, he did it again and again. And Truman was probably the best of the bunch in terms of personal behavior but as fowl mouthed and needlessly divisive as they come.
I say again, in terms of personal behavior Trump was better than certain other presidents, including some the Democrats revere.
That’s how they grift. Its pro wrestling. They get an obscene advance and the publisher doesn’t care if it sells a single copy.
I’m sad that Barr decided he had to speak out against Trump; I agree with your overall assessment of him. He’s entitled to his impressions and even entitled to write the book, but somehow I think it’s unseemly for him to write this book.
They’re given a script and a chance to get a big pay day so they don’t have to subsist on Congress critter wages.
Thoughts?
100% accurate – Barr is a long time swamp creature, propaganda notwithstanding.
Our nation’s biggest problem is corruption–corruption of the politicians, corruption of intelligence agencies, corruption of the justice system. Bill Barr made all that worse and not better. Obama corrupted everything and maybe that is too much for one man to fix, but his failure to make it better means he made it worse. More entrenched than ever.
That is an interesting take. If Trump had only engaged in petty snipes in private and not in public, would our opinion of him be the same? Reminds me of one of my favorite lines in Bridesmaids:
“Why can’t you just me happy for me and then go home and talk behind my back like a normal person.”
I agree. I held him in high regard, even when many on the right didn’t, as I thought he performed his job with integrity. I wish he had resisted the urge to add yet another book. We have enough doorstops.
Barr did all of things necessary to make sure Trump did not get Justice. And, aided and abetted those stealing the election. Among other sins
Into the abyss he should be kicked.
There’s another side to this.
Trump became president because of Twitter. He used social media to get around the corporate press and speak truths that nobody else was allowed to say. He doesn’t get the following he has without mean tweets.
Yes, that is what I believe too although I wish he had had more discipline and didn’t engage in petty insults on some occasions. But I think it is an interesting thought exercise as to what a twitterless Trump presidency might have looked like.
What most people never seemed to notice is that for every “mean Tweet” there were generally a couple dozen really good ones.
I’d trade everything we’re enduring now for some mean Tweets.
I considered then, and still do, that Bill Barr was fundamentally a decent man, and a very savvy man. I wish he had been AG from the beginning of Trump’s tenure. Trump reminded me of some very temperamental surgeons that I have worked with through the years–utterly no bedside manner but very effective at surgery. Sadly, the country has devolved to the point that the ‘bedside manner’ of the president is more important then competence or positive vision. I think Barr, much like Andrew McCarthy, simply cannot process the hatred for Trump that resulted in malignant actions by government officials that they have worked with through the years.
I think both Barr and McCarthy elevated institutional reputation over application of the law and are now shocked at the whirlwind being reaped.
I cut Barr slack for saying out loud that Trump was surveilled and for appointing Durham. He’s allowed to hold opinions I disagree with.
I think the unsuitability to office matter needs discussion generally, not just as it relates to Trump. Our founding fathers would have put term limits in place for legislators if they had any notion that a senate career could span 40 years. Our elected officials are more interested in re election than anything remotely in the interest of the average American.
I want elected officials who have made their bones outside government. Those who are not tied directly to the campaign contributions of teachers unions, who have experienced actual decision making that required them to say no, who have had to consider consequences of decisions. I liked that about Trump. It meant something when we talk about Washington and Jefferson. They had lives outside of government, and brought practical experience to the job and understood that the money government runs on is the result of labor and innovation applied to real life. I want there to be questions about what a candidate did before taking office, fair game. But I have a distinct bias against anyone whose sole source of income is taxpayers. That means that their experience is in a fantasy world that is unfamiliar to voters.
I think our bureaucratic workforce would be in much better shape if you couldn’t get hired until you were 30. At least hold a job or two in the real world before entering a gauzy world where showing up is the sole criterion for drawing a paycheck, and the path to advancement is determined by seniority. Where no amount of damaging screw up can endanger your job. (Still waiting for a single head to roll over the Afghanistan withdrawal.) I’m not saying there are no hard working, moral government workers, just that there are a lot of useless logrollers showing up till that sweet, sweet retirement benefit kicks in.
Suitability for a government position that has given us Biden and Fauci needs to be rethought.
Not just shocked, as in once. Repeatedly shocked, each time it happens again and then they revert back to their previous position, until the next time… Peter Robinson seems to get that fairly often too.
Need more farmers and truck drivers. Less Ivy League lawyers.
Durham has racked up so much justice I can’t believe my eyes. 1000’s of indictments. Perp walks daily. Wait. That didn’t happen? Instead he pretended to investigate something while protecting the institution and running out the statute of limitations clock. Justice denied is justice denied.
DonG, I don’t think Barr appointed Durham with the expectation that it would be moving this slow. And he’s not done. But that doesn’t mean Barr wasn’t interested in getting to the bottom of it. I’m pretty sure that type of decision did not make him more popular on the DC cocktail circuit.
I agree I think Barr appointed Durham because he has a history of being willing to go after the intelligence community and the FBI and that was necessary in this case. I think the speed of the investigation is a side effect of the decision to appoint Durham, who is known for being meticulous. That having been said it did not work out to DJT’s benefit.
Durham will end up being a grift just like all the others.
Barr’s credentials as a serious conservative who sees liberalism for what is are impeccable. Remember how much he drove the liberals nuts while he was working in the Trump admin? And yet his final estimation of Trump is the same as so many others. Why is that? That makes him an elitist? He makes the point in his book apparently that his Jan. 6 speech doesn’t meet the legal definition of incitement. Doesn’t sound like an elitist to me.
Yes, Trump promoted the right policies. But Barr sees Trump clearly for who he is … someone who sees other people only as means to ends … and thinks we need someone else. If there isn’t anyone else, we’re in trouble.
The only kind of person who is suitable for high office these days is someone who is unfit for high office.
I heartily disagree with Barr on that. He might think Trump is not “for” people like Barr, but that’s a feature, not a bug.
Barr is CIA. It’s no wonder he supported the election results and said that he found no evidence of election fraud.
He made that claim basically within hours of election day, complete claptrap.