David French Is Not a Serious Conservative

 

The one area where we have had strong movement, gun rights, he attacks. Idolatry? Please. French wants to compromise and give up on progress made.

But, that is not the real reason he is not a serious conservative. No, this is just icing on the cake. Proof, if you will, of his nature. He proved he was unserious when he genuinely considered Bill Kristol’s plan to run for President and try to get the election thrown to the House. A serious conservative would never have courted a constitutional crisis because he did not like the GOP nominee.

So, of course, French is against standing our ground on guns. What else can we expect from a man who thought it would have been a good idea for our Republic to be selected President after 90%+ of the voters voted for someone else.

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  1. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I think that French makes one reasonable point, though I don’t know if the problem he identifies is as widespread as he indicates.  He argues that:

    Something has changed in the streets as well. It’s now common to see men and women armed to the teeth,

    Why doesn’t he lose all credibility with that “armed to the teeth” bit?

    • #121
  2. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    Terry Mott (View Comment):
    The problem is that the GOPe idea of “compromise” is that the left gets some of what it’s asking for and conservatives get jack squat.

    I would have said the left gets most of what it wants now and comes back later for the rest. Conservatives get Failure Theater.

    The Motor-Voter Act was a “Bipartisan Compromise.” Democrats got to register voters at the DMV. Republicans got a requirement that voter rolls be regularly audited and ineligible (dead, relocated, non-existent) voters be removed. The Democrats got what they wanted, but blue states fought against voter roll audits and Democrat groups sued to prevent them from happening in Red States.

    The Bush 41 Tax Increase was also supposedly a “Bipartisan Compromise” of spending cuts in return for a tax increase. The Tax increase happened. The Spending Cuts Didn’t.

    The Simpson-Mazzoli Amnesty Act was supposed to bring about Border Security in exchange for a mass amnesty of illegal immigrants. The amnesty happened, the border security didn’t.

    Such is the history of the GOP “reaching across the aisle” to forge “Bipartisan Compromises.”

    • #122
  3. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    BDB (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Concretevol (View Comment):

    Phil Turmel (View Comment):
    The vast majority of conservative voters have written NR

    That’s ridiculous Phil. The vast majority of Trump followers perhaps but those aren’t the same thing. The groups overlap but are definitely not equal

    There are how many millions of conservative/Republican voters?

    And how many hundreds or thousands of NR subscribers?

    Based on Jerry’s 1 of 1 small poll (so far) a few threads over, I’ll sustain Phil’s objection. Of ALL PLACES, this place should have a pro-NR biased membership. Doesn’t seem to.

     

    Well, on the plus side I suppose – in terms of your argument, anyway – Ricochet probably has a lot fewer subscribers than National Review.  So what do WE matter?

    • #123
  4. MDHahn Coolidge
    MDHahn
    @MDHahn

    philo (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment): If you’re going to a political protest or rally, carrying an assault rifle could understandably be perceived as a threat. Even open carrying a handgun could look threatening. This is a genuine problem, though it does not lead me to reject the idea of open carry. The circumstances matter, though. Open carry can transition into intimidation pretty quickly.

    Wrong. Now try some of that logical contortionism with the First Amendment. Or with the “threatening look” of the ANTIFA garb as they gather for the circumstances of their next insurrection riot mostly peaceful protest.

    Constitutional rights matter.

    Have to agree with Jerry on this. As with all rights, whether a person has a right to do something does not mean that they should do that thing. You need to think about whether it is wise to take a deliberately provocative stance. We should be able to draw such lines, even if we don’t want people arrested or punished.

    • #124
  5. BDB Inactive
    BDB
    @BDB

    kedavis (View Comment):

    BDB (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Concretevol (View Comment):

    Phil Turmel (View Comment):
    The vast majority of conservative voters have written NR

    That’s ridiculous Phil. The vast majority of Trump followers perhaps but those aren’t the same thing. The groups overlap but are definitely not equal

    There are how many millions of conservative/Republican voters?

    And how many hundreds or thousands of NR subscribers?

    Based on Jerry’s 1 of 1 small poll (so far) a few threads over, I’ll sustain Phil’s objection. Of ALL PLACES, this place should have a pro-NR biased membership. Doesn’t seem to.

     

    Well, on the plus side I suppose – in terms of your argument, anyway – Ricochet probably has a lot fewer subscribers than National Review. So what do WE matter?

    Just looking at this from a sample data perspective.  We know it’s a small sample and self-selected to boot, BUT it is still more information than we had before the question was asked.  I would not think that the score of respondents so far matter in gross terms.  As a breakdown, however, it is valuable.

    • #125
  6. BDB Inactive
    BDB
    @BDB

    MDHahn (View Comment):

    philo (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment): If you’re going to a political protest or rally, carrying an assault rifle could understandably be perceived as a threat. Even open carrying a handgun could look threatening. This is a genuine problem, though it does not lead me to reject the idea of open carry. The circumstances matter, though. Open carry can transition into intimidation pretty quickly.

    Wrong. Now try some of that logical contortionism with the First Amendment. Or with the “threatening look” of the ANTIFA garb as they gather for the circumstances of their next insurrection riot mostly peaceful protest.

    Constitutional rights matter.

    Have to agree with Jerry on this. As with all rights, whether a person has a right to do something does not mean that they should do that thing. You need to think about whether it is wise to take a deliberately provocative stance. We should be able to draw such lines, even if we don’t want people arrested or punished.

    I thought that the fat dorks sporting rifles at Starbucks were abusing their rights, and counterproductive.  However, open carry at a protest is fine by me.  Open carry is even better than concealed carry at helping people remember to mind their manners.

    • #126
  7. BastiatJunior Member
    BastiatJunior
    @BastiatJunior

    NR started to lose me after our loss in 2008.

    The GOP had been running away from Reaganism, limited government and free markets since Jan 20th, 1989.  That abandonment contributed to the 2008 financial crisis and the butt-kicking we received that year.

    Right after that loss, NR’s David Frum, a “reform” conservative, started publishing articles saying we need to run even further from Reagan and limited government.  He seemed to think that free markets were just a fad of the ’80s and those principles were no longer applicable.

    NR’s embrace of that and other forms of big-government conservatism (like American Compass) were a major turn-off.

    Ironically,  NR’s “Against Trump” issue made me think that maybe NR was returning to its roots.  (Sorry folks,  I thought Trump was a stealth liberal.)

    I would prefer a conservative publication to be firmly against big-government conservatism, and not be a platform for big government groups to get their start.

    How does this relate to David French?  Just his similarity to many other NT’s that got their start at NR.

    • #127
  8. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    Challenge: Name a single “Never Trump Conservative” who has maintained his intellectual integrity.

    BY which I mean, someone who maintains the same conservative philosophy they espoused prior to the Trump administration, and/or has not supported or endorsed Democrat candidates or gone to work for Democrat media outlets with views antithetical to that conservative philosophy.

    How about Jonah Goldberg, David French, Mona Charen. Steve Hayes, Charlie Sykes, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Rob Long, John Podhoretz, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Noah Rothman, Matthew Continetti, Christine Rosen, or Yuval Levin? Or given Comment #31, James Lileks?

    There is a whole other world that the Trumpsters and Claremonsters don’t acknowledge.

    Right now Trump acolytes are ascendant. But Reaganism is Conservatism’s DNA. Some day Conservatives will abandon the Trump Cult of Personality, and will again embrace principles over personalities.

     

    David French is advocating giving ground of the right to keep and bear arms, and you are saying he has been consistent in his conservatism? If you are going to make that claim, you cpulx at least adress my point in the OP. Instead, you have not only not addressed the point, but have reverted to calling Trump supporters cultits. Again.

    Bryan there is a massive difference between religious cultists, and political “Cults of Personality.” I did not call you a “cultist.” I am saying that Trump promotes a “Cult of Personality” where he insists that Republicans adopt his Big Lie.

    Sorry, Gary, but you are calling us cultists, as in followers of the Cult of Personality. The whole point of saying there is a “Cult of Personality” is to imply the people following the person are irrational, and somehow in thrall to the person. That is what you mean, and that is been a charge of Never Trump from day one. 

    As is usual for you, you refuse to own your own bad behavior on all things Trump.

    • #128
  9. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    MDHahn (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Headedwest (View Comment):

    I have often wondered why NR shot itself in the foot with the “Against Trump” cover and inside content. I think of it as an unforced error or an ‘own goal’.

    Instead, they could have put their preferred Republican candidate on the cover with a major piece about why that candidate is just what we need right now.

    Would have made the same point without the temper tantrum that (I believe) they will never fully recover from.

    It was utter hypocrisy. Places like NR called for Trump to support the nominee if he lost. When he won, they refused to support him. Different rules for different people I guess.

    That’s not a correct timeline of the Against Trump issue. It was published in January 2016 as an attempt to get someone, anyone, else nominated. After the primaries were over, the writers generally split between NT and the binary choice argument in favor of Trump.

    I get that people hate NR for that issue, but at least get that right.

    No, the Never Trump thing started before he won. It was a strategy to help him lose. The idea was he would not be supported even if he won, so he had better not win! 

    That is utter hypocrisy. 

    • #129
  10. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Charles C.W. Cooke responds.

    (Warning: link is to NRO).

    Out of free articles. And I’m not reading The Dispatch, so, oh well.

    Funny they make their big counter behind a pay wall. Really sad.

    What?

    NRplus is something you have to pay for. Not gonna do it. Not while the official postion of their editor in chief is against me as poor Ole southern racist for not wanting monuments removed.

    I don’t know what their business model is admittedly. I took the earlier comment to mean that they gave a certain number go free articles, usually five. I would always defend your right to spend your $$$ as you see fit, as I would their own decisions about how to stay in business.

    Does any part of NR actually stay in business because of paying customers, rather than donors?

    I don’t think so

    Well, where is the tipping point? Let’s assume that NR stays alive by donations. But, depending on the level of donations, they may also stay alive by subscription. In short, every little bit helps.

    Unless something has changed, the print version isn’t a money maker. NR Plus is a good product. The website is clean and easy to navigate.

    This is so not the case. The NRO website is a total mess. It is full of pop up ads that rescale the page when you view it on a tablet or phone. It is nigh unreadable. American Greatness is bad enough, but NRO takes the cake. It did not used to be that way!

    You can read the site if you want to, but the idea that is is easy to navigate and clean is objectively false. 

    • #130
  11. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Ole Summers (View Comment):

    The Big Lie will be coming from the show-trial committee with Liz Cheney backing the latest attempt to distract from the real damage done to our country

    Also someone Gary supports 100%

     

    • #131
  12. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    Challenge: Name a single “Never Trump Conservative” who has maintained his intellectual integrity.

    BY which I mean, someone who maintains the same conservative philosophy they espoused prior to the Trump administration, and/or has not supported or endorsed Democrat candidates or gone to work for Democrat media outlets with views antithetical to that conservative philosophy.

    Well, I was NT before the election, but his victory made that a moot and silly position; I subsequently shifted to not focusing on DJT The Man and considered the overall effect of his tenancy in the office, i.e., are the policies sufficiently conservative and do they produce better outcomes for the country. The idea that I should vote D or trumpet D candidates to restore balance and thus ensure mythical future conservative victories seemed ridiculous.

    This perfectly describes my position and to this day I cannot understand commentators like Goldberg that could not see the idiocy of voting for Hillary or McMuffin over a guy that seemed to put them off their feed because they just didn’t like him.

    Remember, the vote for McMullin was engaging in a plan to throw the vote to the House and have them select someone that 90%+ of the people did not vote for. In the name of “Democracy”

    Idiocy

    I can’t tell who this is directed at. 

    • #132
  13. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):
    French seems to think the left will want to reach some sort of compromise on this issue. They won’t. They want to disarm us, and would if they could.

    A lot of Bush-Republicans are very into this “reach across the aisle and compromise” thing. I don’t think it’s because they’re naive, I think it’s because they agree with Democrats on most things.

    I think any Republican that wants to see anything they advocate done in government better understand that they will likely have to reach across the aisle for some support. That includes when Republicans have POTUS and both houses of Congress.

    Republicans need to have the help of the Democrats to enact an agenda. 

    Democrats don’t need Republican’s to keep moving the nation into socialism.

    Sad.

    • #133
  14. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    ToryWarWriter (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Charles C.W. Cooke responds.

    (Warning: link is to NRO).

    Out of free articles. And I’m not reading The Dispatch, so, oh well.

    Funny they make their big counter behind a pay wall. Really sad.

    What?

    NRplus is something you have to pay for. Not gonna do it. Not while the official postion of their editor in chief is against me as poor Ole southern racist for not wanting monuments removed.

    I don’t know what their business model is admittedly. I took the earlier comment to mean that they gave a certain number go free articles, usually five. I would always defend your right to spend your $$$ as you see fit, as I would their own decisions about how to stay in business.

    To find out how the paywall works on NR I would have to visit NR. Life is too short.

    Wow. How Red pilled I have become where NR is now considered by many of us the enemy where it used to be our gateway drug.

    For me, I still find good stuff at NRO. I just don’t want to pay them for NR Plus or a subscription. Those dollars go to Ricochet, to Powerline, Clairmont Review of Books, and to VDH on his site. I have to be targeted. And if I had more money, I’d look at Reagan status here. I want to support the sites that feel they mostly line up with me. NR has moved away from me, or I them, or both.

    I will sign up to VDH’s. Meant to some time ago but have been real busy.

    Go for it! He is a treasure. 

    • #134
  15. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    GFHandle (View Comment):

    philo (View Comment):

    I clicked on the link provided but couldn’t make if past his subtitle. Forget “conservative”, he is not a serious thinker. Period.

    Just curious. What was that subtitle?

    BTW, I think titles are generally not writen by the actual authors, or at least headlines aren’t. Over the years I have heard many complaints by authors about how their work was titled. Still, it probably isn’t far off from Mr. French’s intention.

    The subtitle is: “As American gun culture moves from defense to defiance, it puts our democracy at risk.”

    These may not have been French’s words, but I think that they are a fair summary of his article. Among other things, the body of the article stated:

    • “No, the threat to America’s gun culture comes from the gun rights movement itself. The threat is gun idolatry, a form of gun fetish that’s fundamentally aggressive, grotesquely irresponsible, and potentially destabilizing to American democracy.”
    • “This transition from defense to defiance can destabilize our democracy.”

     

    They are on his article, therefore, French owns them. The man who, himself, considered doing something, and then supported McMullan doing it, that would have destabilized our democracy for sure should shut up. I will never trust this man again. Anyone supporting the Krystol plan with McMullan is an anti-democratic, anti-republican technocrat. I have yet to see anyone even try to defend the plan as anything else, and I have made two previous posts about it. 

    David French cannot be serious about the defense of our Republic when he considered participating in, and supported his scheme. It is the sort of thing bad drama villains would try. Talk about stealing an election fair and square. 

    • #135
  16. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    BDB (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Concretevol (View Comment):

    Phil Turmel (View Comment):
    The vast majority of conservative voters have written NR

    That’s ridiculous Phil. The vast majority of Trump followers perhaps but those aren’t the same thing. The groups overlap but are definitely not equal

    There are how many millions of conservative/Republican voters?

    And how many hundreds or thousands of NR subscribers?

    Based on Jerry’s 1 of 1 small poll (so far) a few threads over, I’ll sustain Phil’s objection. Of ALL PLACES, this place should have a pro-NR biased membership. Doesn’t seem to.

     

    It does have a pro NR Biased Ownership and Leadership.

    I have fond memories of NR and I still read them once in a while. But mostly that is when Powerline links to them. 

    • #136
  17. ToryWarWriter Coolidge
    ToryWarWriter
    @ToryWarWriter

    Concretevol (View Comment):

    Phil Turmel (View Comment):
    The vast majority of conservative voters have written NR

    That’s ridiculous Phil. The vast majority of Trump followers perhaps but those aren’t the same thing. The groups overlap but are definitely not equal

    Ok, I am going to burst some bubbles here.

    National Review magazines circulation is about 90000.  Lets triple that for maybe online subscribers.

    The magazines I used to work for had maybe 20-25o00 circulations.  

    So the vast majority of conservatives dont even know NRO is.  

    Compare that to Breitbart.com.  In Internet rankings they are 1624th.  Vs NRO 12082nd rank. 

     

     

    • #137
  18. Jim Kearney Member
    Jim Kearney
    @JimKearney

    GFHandle (View Comment):

    Jim Kearney (View Comment):
    R’s too often lose on the seeming compassion of being “sympathetic to the downtrodden.” It becomes a bidding war they can’t win. Ask the downtrodden whether they prefer bootstraps values and tough love or cold hard cash.

    I agree on the compassion point, but I hope the second is a false dichotomy. There are ways to be compassionate that don’t involve throwing money. Democrats oppose school choice, for example. How compassionate is that? They won’t allow all boys’ schools (which can really matter), how compassionate is that. And as for the abandonment of the working person, Amen. They seem to hate the workers these days.

    Shows of political “compassion,” e.g. “kinder, gentler conservatism” or showing up to empathize after a shooting, are usually just posturing, triangulating, etc. Id est, BS. 

    The most compassionate thing we can do high crime areas is re-toughen law enforcement, back to what Giuliani & Co. successfully did in NYC in the 1990s, and maybe more so. Raise the salaries of cops in high crime precincts. Put up CCTV everywhere like in the UK. Give neighborhood informants Swiss bank accounts.

    I’m all in on parental choice, but what if all the schools are teaching propaganda? The most prestigious and expensive private schools are infused with wokeism. Ricochet is doing its part in this fight, but the problem is deeply embedded. Until the right can somehow claim its share inside the accreditation bureaucracy and the teachers’ colleges, school choice may be limited to the lesser of evils.

    All-boys schools? Been there, done that. Didn’t help my grades, but a proven remedy for impure thoughts! But now you’d need too many schools. Miss Peregrine’s Academy for the Otherly Gendered?

     

    • #138
  19. Hoyacon Member
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    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

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    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Charles C.W. Cooke responds.

    (Warning: link is to NRO).

    Out of free articles. And I’m not reading The Dispatch, so, oh well.

    Funny they make their big counter behind a pay wall. Really sad.

    What?

    NRplus is something you have to pay for. Not gonna do it. Not while the official postion of their editor in chief is against me as poor Ole southern racist for not wanting monuments removed.

    I don’t know what their business model is admittedly. I took the earlier comment to mean that they gave a certain number go free articles, usually five. I would always defend your right to spend your $$$ as you see fit, as I would their own decisions about how to stay in business.

    Does any part of NR actually stay in business because of paying customers, rather than donors?

    I don’t think so

    Well, where is the tipping point? Let’s assume that NR stays alive by donations. But, depending on the level of donations, they may also stay alive by subscription. In short, every little bit helps.

    Unless something has changed, the print version isn’t a money maker. NR Plus is a good product. The website is clean and easy to navigate.

    This is so not the case. The NRO website is a total mess. It is full of pop up ads that rescale the page when you view it on a tablet or phone. It is nigh unreadable. American Greatness is bad enough, but NRO takes the cake. It did not used to be that way!

    You can read the site if you want to, but the idea that is is easy to navigate and clean is objectively false.

    It’s less of a mess if one subscribes.

    • #139
  20. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
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    ToryWarWriter (View Comment):

    Concretevol (View Comment):

    Phil Turmel (View Comment):
    The vast majority of conservative voters have written NR

    That’s ridiculous Phil. The vast majority of Trump followers perhaps but those aren’t the same thing. The groups overlap but are definitely not equal

    Ok, I am going to burst some bubbles here.

    National Review magazines circulation is about 90000. Lets triple that for maybe online subscribers.

    The magazines I used to work for had maybe 20-25o00 circulations.

    So the vast majority of conservatives dont even know NRO is.

    Compare that to Breitbart.com. In Internet rankings they are 1624th. Vs NRO 12082nd rank.

    Yes, and according to the “google machine,” the much-vaunted (by those who work at it, anyway) “Commentary” magazine has a circulation of about 26,000.

    Last I remember, “circulation” is the number of actual subscribers/buyers multiplied by some number on the assumption that subscribers/buyers let other people read their copy too.  So the actual number of copies sold is something less than 26,000.

    • #140
  21. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
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    Charles C.W. Cooke responds.

    (Warning: link is to NRO).

    Out of free articles. And I’m not reading The Dispatch, so, oh well.

    Funny they make their big counter behind a pay wall. Really sad.

    What?

    NRplus is something you have to pay for. Not gonna do it. Not while the official postion of their editor in chief is against me as poor Ole southern racist for not wanting monuments removed.

    I don’t know what their business model is admittedly. I took the earlier comment to mean that they gave a certain number go free articles, usually five. I would always defend your right to spend your $$$ as you see fit, as I would their own decisions about how to stay in business.

    Does any part of NR actually stay in business because of paying customers, rather than donors?

    I don’t think so

    Well, where is the tipping point? Let’s assume that NR stays alive by donations. But, depending on the level of donations, they may also stay alive by subscription. In short, every little bit helps.

    Unless something has changed, the print version isn’t a money maker. NR Plus is a good product. The website is clean and easy to navigate.

    This is so not the case. The NRO website is a total mess. It is full of pop up ads that rescale the page when you view it on a tablet or phone. It is nigh unreadable. American Greatness is bad enough, but NRO takes the cake. It did not used to be that way!

    You can read the site if you want to, but the idea that is is easy to navigate and clean is objectively false.

    It’s less of a mess if one subscribes.

    Don’t think I should have to pay money to avoid ads of random size. 

    • #141
  22. Hoyacon Member
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    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

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    Charles C.W. Cooke responds.

    (Warning: link is to NRO).

    Out of free articles. And I’m not reading The Dispatch, so, oh well.

    Funny they make their big counter behind a pay wall. Really sad.

    What?

    NRplus is something you have to pay for. Not gonna do it. Not while the official postion of their editor in chief is against me as poor Ole southern racist for not wanting monuments removed.

    I don’t know what their business model is admittedly. I took the earlier comment to mean that they gave a certain number go free articles, usually five. I would always defend your right to spend your $$$ as you see fit, as I would their own decisions about how to stay in business.

    Does any part of NR actually stay in business because of paying customers, rather than donors?

    I don’t think so

    Well, where is the tipping point? Let’s assume that NR stays alive by donations. But, depending on the level of donations, they may also stay alive by subscription. In short, every little bit helps.

    Unless something has changed, the print version isn’t a money maker. NR Plus is a good product. The website is clean and easy to navigate.

    This is so not the case. The NRO website is a total mess. It is full of pop up ads that rescale the page when you view it on a tablet or phone. It is nigh unreadable. American Greatness is bad enough, but NRO takes the cake. It did not used to be that way!

    You can read the site if you want to, but the idea that is is easy to navigate and clean is objectively false.

    It’s less of a mess if one subscribes.

    Don’t think I should have to pay money to avoid ads of random size.

    I disagree.  The extra ads are paying your freight.

    • #142
  23. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

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    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Charles C.W. Cooke responds.

    (Warning: link is to NRO).

    Out of free articles. And I’m not reading The Dispatch, so, oh well.

    Funny they make their big counter behind a pay wall. Really sad.

    What?

    NRplus is something you have to pay for. Not gonna do it. Not while the official postion of their editor in chief is against me as poor Ole southern racist for not wanting monuments removed.

    I don’t know what their business model is admittedly. I took the earlier comment to mean that they gave a certain number go free articles, usually five. I would always defend your right to spend your $$$ as you see fit, as I would their own decisions about how to stay in business.

    Does any part of NR actually stay in business because of paying customers, rather than donors?

    I don’t think so

    Well, where is the tipping point? Let’s assume that NR stays alive by donations. But, depending on the level of donations, they may also stay alive by subscription. In short, every little bit helps.

    Unless something has changed, the print version isn’t a money maker. NR Plus is a good product. The website is clean and easy to navigate.

    This is so not the case. The NRO website is a total mess. It is full of pop up ads that rescale the page when you view it on a tablet or phone. It is nigh unreadable. American Greatness is bad enough, but NRO takes the cake. It did not used to be that way!

    You can read the site if you want to, but the idea that is is easy to navigate and clean is objectively false.

    It’s less of a mess if one subscribes.

    Don’t think I should have to pay money to avoid ads of random size.

    I disagree. The extra ads are paying your freight.

    Remember, if you’re not paying for a product, then YOU ARE the product.

    • #143
  24. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Charles C.W. Cooke responds.

    (Warning: link is to NRO).

    Out of free articles. And I’m not reading The Dispatch, so, oh well.

    Funny they make their big counter behind a pay wall. Really sad.

    What?

    NRplus is something you have to pay for. Not gonna do it. Not while the official postion of their editor in chief is against me as poor Ole southern racist for not wanting monuments removed.

    I don’t know what their business model is admittedly. I took the earlier comment to mean that they gave a certain number go free articles, usually five. I would always defend your right to spend your $$$ as you see fit, as I would their own decisions about how to stay in business.

    Does any part of NR actually stay in business because of paying customers, rather than donors?

    I don’t think so

    Well, where is the tipping point? Let’s assume that NR stays alive by donations. But, depending on the level of donations, they may also stay alive by subscription. In short, every little bit helps.

    Unless something has changed, the print version isn’t a money maker. NR Plus is a good product. The website is clean and easy to navigate.

    This is so not the case. The NRO website is a total mess. It is full of pop up ads that rescale the page when you view it on a tablet or phone. It is nigh unreadable. American Greatness is bad enough, but NRO takes the cake. It did not used to be that way!

    You can read the site if you want to, but the idea that is is easy to navigate and clean is objectively false.

    It’s less of a mess if one subscribes.

    Don’t think I should have to pay money to avoid ads of random size.

    I disagree. The extra ads are paying your freight.

    Not my point. It ain’t the ads, it is how they are displayed. 

    But if you think it is good business to drive people away from the free content, you can think so.

    • #144
  25. ToryWarWriter Coolidge
    ToryWarWriter
    @ToryWarWriter

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    Bryan, thanks for the post.

    It might be a good idea to address the substance of French’s article. Cooke may do so, but his article is behind a paywall.

    French’s article doesn’t take any substantive position on gun issues. It doesn’t advocate any particular policy, beyond generally stating that he is “more conservative” on the issue than some fellow with whom he had a podcast discussion.

    French’s objection is to the tone and imagery of some pro-gun advocates. He seems quite hysterical to me, claiming that this tone is “potentially destabilizing to American democracy.”

    I do think that there is an indication that his anti-Trump views are the source of this, at least in part. The first specific example that French gives is a Senate candidate running “on a platform that’s ‘pro-God, pro-Gun, and pro-Trump.’” He also objects to t-shirts and signs declaring a person “pro-life, pro-God, and pro-gun.” He objects to candidates posing with guns.

    He objects to a picture of a young boy holding an assault rifle, with the Biblical quote: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

    These all seem like perfectly acceptable messages, to me. The picture of the kid suggests that we should train our sons to be responsible gun owners, not afraid of guns (like many on the Left), and understanding the importance of our right to bear arms and the responsibility that they will have to protect their families when they grow up. I don’t see the problem.

    Gun issues seem to be pretty popular for Republican candidates. I’m not going to detail specific polling, but I did look for a few, and there was evidence that both on policy and voter preference, there is a significant gap between the parties on this one.

    I also find the political rhetoric that French finds objectionable to be an effective signal of a candidate’s overall position. Pro-life, pro-God, pro-Gun is a pretty good, brief description of social conservative.

    I don’t have the fear reaction that French suggests that images of guns create. When I see an ordinary-looking American posing with an AR-15, I react as I would to a Minuteman logo or statue. A free man prepared to take up arms in defense of his family and country, if necessary.

    French also comes across as a downer. It seems as if he can’t stand the idea that anyone might have fun with guns.

    French claims that there has been a “transition from defense to defiance.” The tone doesn’t bother me, nor is it new. Maybe he didn’t like Charleton Heston’s “from my cold, dead hand” line. I did.

    If French does still support substantive gun rights, the timing of this article is terrible, in my view, encouraging the opposition.

    All true.

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I want to comment a bit more about the terrible timing of French’s article.

    We’re in a moment after a terrible school shooting, and several others. This typically leads to an emotional reaction in many people, with suggestions of policy changes, most or all of which are bad ideas when viewed soberly, I think. The usual course of events is that people calm down, and nothing is done, because there’s nothing effective to be done (from a cost-benefit standpoint).

    But right now, the anti-gun folks are using this tragedy to promote their policy position. Defiance actually seems like an appropriate reaction, to me. Moreover, as far as I can tell, French’s complaints about the tone of some pro-gun advocates are not very recent — not specific excesses since the tragedy in Uvalde. He just chooses this moment to distance himself from many people on his side politically on the issue (assuming, of course, that he hasn’t changed his generally pro-gun position, which he does not say that he has).

    So what is the point of French’s article? It seems to give support to the other side of the debate. Why would he do that, at this particular time?

    I don’t know. Maybe he’s virtue signaling. Maybe he just needs to get out an article this week. Maybe he just hates pro-Trump Republicans so much that he has to do something like this from time to time, and current events prompted him to do so now. Maybe it’s something else. I don’t know. It’s just strange, to me.

    It seems, rhetorically speaking, like French has an instinct to shoot himself in the foot, and the rest of us in the back.

    French seems to think the left will want to reach some sort of compromise on this issue. They won’t. They want to disarm us, and would if they could.

    It happened in my country.  Dont let it happen to yours.

    • #145
  26. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    Headedwest (View Comment):

    I have often wondered why NR shot itself in the foot with the “Against Trump” cover and inside content. I think of it as an unforced error or an ‘own goal’.

    Instead, they could have put their preferred Republican candidate on the cover with a major piece about why that candidate is just what we need right now.

    Would have made the same point without the temper tantrum that (I believe) they will never fully recover from.

    I can explain some of it and will at some point.

    It would be interesting to find any kind of rational reason for that stupidity.

    • #146
  27. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    ToryWarWriter (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    Bryan, thanks for the post.

    It might be a good idea to address the substance of French’s article. Cooke may do so, but his article is behind a paywall.

    French’s article doesn’t take any substantive position on gun issues. It doesn’t advocate any particular policy, beyond generally stating that he is “more conservative” on the issue than some fellow with whom he had a podcast discussion.

    French’s objection is to the tone and imagery of some pro-gun advocates. He seems quite hysterical to me, claiming that this tone is “potentially destabilizing to American democracy.”

    I do think that there is an indication that his anti-Trump views are the source of this, at least in part. The first specific example that French gives is a Senate candidate running “on a platform that’s ‘pro-God, pro-Gun, and pro-Trump.’” He also objects to t-shirts and signs declaring a person “pro-life, pro-God, and pro-gun.” He objects to candidates posing with guns.

    He objects to a picture of a young boy holding an assault rifle, with the Biblical quote: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

    These all seem like perfectly acceptable messages, to me. The picture of the kid suggests that we should train our sons to be responsible gun owners, not afraid of guns (like many on the Left), and understanding the importance of our right to bear arms and the responsibility that they will have to protect their families when they grow up. I don’t see the problem.

    Gun issues seem to be pretty popular for Republican candidates. I’m not going to detail specific polling, but I did look for a few, and there was evidence that both on policy and voter preference, there is a significant gap between the parties on this one.

    I also find the political rhetoric that French finds objectionable to be an effective signal of a candidate’s overall position. Pro-life, pro-God, pro-Gun is a pretty good, brief description of social conservative.

    I don’t have the fear reaction that French suggests that images of guns create. When I see an ordinary-looking American posing with an AR-15, I react as I would to a Minuteman logo or statue. A free man prepared to take up arms in defense of his family and country, if necessary.

    French also comes across as a downer. It seems as if he can’t stand the idea that anyone might have fun with guns.

    French claims that there has been a “transition from defense to defiance.” The tone doesn’t bother me, nor is it new. Maybe he didn’t like Charleton Heston’s “from my cold, dead hand” line. I did.

    If French does still support substantive gun rights, the timing of this article is terrible, in my view, encouraging the opposition.

    All true.

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I want to comment a bit more about the terrible timing of French’s article.

    We’re in a moment after a terrible school shooting, and several others. This typically leads to an emotional reaction in many people, with suggestions of policy changes, most or all of which are bad ideas when viewed soberly, I think. The usual course of events is that people calm down, and nothing is done, because there’s nothing effective to be done (from a cost-benefit standpoint).

    But right now, the anti-gun folks are using this tragedy to promote their policy position. Defiance actually seems like an appropriate reaction, to me. Moreover, as far as I can tell, French’s complaints about the tone of some pro-gun advocates are not very recent — not specific excesses since the tragedy in Uvalde. He just chooses this moment to distance himself from many people on his side politically on the issue (assuming, of course, that he hasn’t changed his generally pro-gun position, which he does not say that he has).

    So what is the point of French’s article? It seems to give support to the other side of the debate. Why would he do that, at this particular time?

    I don’t know. Maybe he’s virtue signaling. Maybe he just needs to get out an article this week. Maybe he just hates pro-Trump Republicans so much that he has to do something like this from time to time, and current events prompted him to do so now. Maybe it’s something else. I don’t know. It’s just strange, to me.

    It seems, rhetorically speaking, like French has an instinct to shoot himself in the foot, and the rest of us in the back.

    French seems to think the left will want to reach some sort of compromise on this issue. They won’t. They want to disarm us, and would if they could.

    It happened in my country. Dont let it happen to 

    The shot heard around the world was the government trying to disarm the people. 

    It was the point of no return then, and will be again if it comes to it.

    • #147
  28. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    It’s less of a mess if one subscribes.

    Not gonna happen.

    • #148
  29. AMD Texas Coolidge
    AMD Texas
    @DarinJohnson

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):
    French seems to think the left will want to reach some sort of compromise on this issue. They won’t. They want to disarm us, and would if they could.

    A lot of Bush-Republicans are very into this “reach across the aisle and compromise” thing. I don’t think it’s because they’re naive, I think it’s because they agree with Democrats on most things.

    I think any Republican that wants to see anything they advocate done in government better understand that they will likely have to reach across the aisle for some support. That includes when Republicans have POTUS and both houses of Congress.

    Republicans need to have the help of the Democrats to enact an agenda.

    Democrats don’t need Republican’s to keep moving the nation into socialism.

    Sad.

    Neither side has the numbers to do it by themselves generally speaking. The Democrats hve sadly been more effective at pushing their agenda through.

    • #149
  30. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):
    French seems to think the left will want to reach some sort of compromise on this issue. They won’t. They want to disarm us, and would if they could.

    A lot of Bush-Republicans are very into this “reach across the aisle and compromise” thing. I don’t think it’s because they’re naive, I think it’s because they agree with Democrats on most things.

    I think any Republican that wants to see anything they advocate done in government better understand that they will likely have to reach across the aisle for some support. That includes when Republicans have POTUS and both houses of Congress.

    Republicans need to have the help of the Democrats to enact an agenda.

    Democrats don’t need Republican’s to keep moving the nation into socialism.

    Sad.

    Neither side has the numbers to do it by themselves generally speaking. The Democrats hve sadly been more effective at pushing their agenda through.

    Nope. Very effective. 

    • #150
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