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. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Dbroussa (View Comment):

    That story is repeated daily throughout the US, and not just in employment law. In family law, in criminal law, in every aspect of law. Lawyers are expensive and few can afford them. The supposed legal protections mean nothing if they are unattainable, and David French appears to not care about that. In fairness, that describes the majority of lawyers (IMO).

    I appreciate the IMO. However, I note that you seem to be extrapolating a single experience with one lawyer into a broad-based generalization. The most immediate thought that comes to mind is why there would be so many lawsuits at different levels of importance if “few” can afford them. I’d also note that the rolls of attorneys include thousands of small firms and solo practitioners. These would not exist if the profession was not economically viable–that is, if their prices were prohibitive to clients.

    Like many things, the performance of many affect the reputation of all. I see very little effort to police their own field, from judges down to law schools.

    • #181
  2. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Dbroussa (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Dbroussa (View Comment):

    That story is repeated daily throughout the US, and not just in employment law. In family law, in criminal law, in every aspect of law. Lawyers are expensive and few can afford them. The supposed legal protections mean nothing if they are unattainable, and David French appears to not care about that. In fairness, that describes the majority of lawyers (IMO).

    I appreciate the IMO. However, I note that you seem to be extrapolating a single experience with one lawyer into a broad-based generalization. The most immediate thought that comes to mind is why there would be so many lawsuits at different levels of importance if “few” can afford them. I’d also note that the rolls of attorneys include thousands of small firms and solo practitioners. These would not exist if the profession was not economically viable–that is, if their prices were prohibitive to clients.

    The question that you should be asking is…how many lawsuits are never filed because doing so is too expensive. If I had to go to court to fight something that required a lawyer I would not be able to afford it, absent selling my house or otherwise leveraging my home’s equity. When my wife and son were in a single car accident I talked to a lawyer about our options. He was a personal friend and advised me for free what to do. In the end I had to sue my wife on behalf of my son and the insurance company had to pay for it, as well as the guardian at litem. Just crazy for an award that was automatic and capped. In another couple of years when he turns 18 he will get the first payment of that award fourteen years after the accident. The only reason any of that happened is because I didn’t have to pay for it. If I had, then there would have been nothing. When someone goes to a lawyer they do so as a last resort, because few people have thousands of dollars to spend unless there is going to be a tangible benefit. Heck, many people don’t have thousands to spend when there IS a tangible benefit.

    I wouldn’t be asking that question because the answer is speculative and essentially an unknown.  I can calculate the number of suits that are filed (many, many) and I could, if so motivated, figure out how many small practices exist that make their livings off of general practice.   But I agree that hiring a lawyer should be a cost benefit decision like any other significant economic decision.

    • #182
  3. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    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%

    Oh Bryan! With all due respect, you suffer from GRDS.

    This prove my point on the cult of personality thing, Gary. Instead of calling me a cultists, you are saying that I have a derangement syndrome. To my memory, I have never accused you of TDS or being in thrall to a cult of personality. 

    And it is beside the point. You do support Liz Cheney. Stating that fact is not me suffering from anything. 

     

    • #183
  4. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Red Herring (View Comment):

    You better worry less about NR and more about ricochet. Time to upgrade your membership level and give some gifts to others.

    Problem is, the only upgrade from Coolidge at $5/month, is to Reagan at $42.something/month. They got rid of levels in between, except for people who had them before can keep them.

    Yeah, that is a heck of a jump. I made the point I won’t leave Thatcher because I can’t come back.

    • #184
  5. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Dbroussa (View Comment):

    Two things. First, I liked this post before reading it because the title itself is truth.

    The second is a quibble I have over the term Constitutional crisis. Throwing the election into the House isn’t a crisis at all. It is the enumerated way that elections absent a majority in the Electoral College are decided. That is hasn’t happened since 1824 doesn’t make it any less legitimate.

    Now, one can say that throwing the election to the House to try and get another candidate wasn’t wise, or one can say that it wasn’t realistic, but it would not be a crisis.

    I am not saying it is illegitimate, but it is a Constitutional Crisis. It was bad when it happened before and it will be bad if/when it happened again. Having the Supreme Court weigh in in 2000 was a form of Constitutional Crisis. At least, as I see it. We may differ on the meaning and that is understandable. 

    • #185
  6. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Dbroussa (View Comment):

    Two things. First, I liked this post before reading it because the title itself is truth.

    The second is a quibble I have over the term Constitutional crisis. Throwing the election into the House isn’t a crisis at all. It is the enumerated way that elections absent a majority in the Electoral College are decided. That is hasn’t happened since 1824 doesn’t make it any less legitimate.

    Now, one can say that throwing the election to the House to try and get another candidate wasn’t wise, or one can say that it wasn’t realistic, but it would not be a crisis.

    I think the main point was that doing it intentionally to bypass the expressed will of at least 90% of voters, who did vote for either of the main candidates, would be Bad.

    • #186
  7. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Dbroussa (View Comment):

    Red Herring (View Comment):
    He definitely was treated poorly by many Trump supporters who did nothing to help Trump. Even I was late getting on board because their boorish behavior back then only reinforced the boorish image of Trump. Since I have cruised with him many times and was even at his supper table several times, I know him as a nice person; however, I now see him as woefully wrong about several things and am sad he sold out his pro -life creds. He is merely someone to disagree with, not someone to hate… more of a tragic figure than anything else. I had blocked him on Twitter but followed him again this week to see what he wrote that Kevin referred to. I noticed his support in the comments leans heavily left. I wonder if he has noticed. Sad.

    I have no doubt that David is a fine person. My disagreements with him are not personal, but in his policy choices, and, more so in his approach to how to address issues. Specifically, he thinks like a lawyer and sees lawfare as the resolution of everything. He seems completely out of touch with the fact that the vast majority of people cannot afford to fight.

    Here is an example (not political, but worse). I have a friend who had accommodations under the ADA for severe asthma. His employer (a heath care provider) decided to revoke his accommodations in an effort to get him to quit his job. They knew that if they fired him he could sue them and win, easily, because of his accommodations. So, they made his work environment unbearable with petty BS. On my recommendation he talked to an employment lawyer who would not even talk to him until he paid him multiple thousands of dollars in a retainer. The advice was that he could win his suit, and likely would, but it would cost him about $50,000 up front and no guarantee that he would recover that in damages. The lawyer wrote a letter to the employer letting them know that a suit was possible but that if they gave him back his accommodations (and his job that he had finally quit), that there would be no suit. They refused and my friend, who had no job and thus no income, didn’t have $50k to roll the dice on a trial.

    That story is repeated daily throughout the US, and not just in employment law. In family law, in criminal law, in every aspect of law. Lawyers are expensive and few can afford them. The supposed legal protections mean nothing if they are unattainable, and David French appears to not care about that. In fairness, that describes the majority of lawyers (IMO).

    If the lawyer thought he had a good chance of winning, why not do it on contingency?  Not doing so, suggests the lawyer didn’t really think he would win.

    • #187
  8. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Dbroussa (View Comment):

    That story is repeated daily throughout the US, and not just in employment law. In family law, in criminal law, in every aspect of law. Lawyers are expensive and few can afford them. The supposed legal protections mean nothing if they are unattainable, and David French appears to not care about that. In fairness, that describes the majority of lawyers (IMO).

    I appreciate the IMO. However, I note that you seem to be extrapolating a single experience with one lawyer into a broad-based generalization. The most immediate thought that comes to mind is why there would be so many lawsuits at different levels of importance if “few” can afford them. I’d also note that the rolls of attorneys include thousands of small firms and solo practitioners. These would not exist if the profession was not economically viable–that is, if their prices were prohibitive to clients.

    Small firms and solo practitioners are more likely doing wills and stuff, not fighting big corporations in court.

    • #188
  9. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Dbroussa (View Comment):

    Two things. First, I liked this post before reading it because the title itself is truth.

    The second is a quibble I have over the term Constitutional crisis. Throwing the election into the House isn’t a crisis at all. It is the enumerated way that elections absent a majority in the Electoral College are decided. That is hasn’t happened since 1824 doesn’t make it any less legitimate.

    Now, one can say that throwing the election to the House to try and get another candidate wasn’t wise, or one can say that it wasn’t realistic, but it would not be a crisis.

    I am not saying it is illegitimate, but it is a Constitutional Crisis. It was bad when it happened before and it will be bad if/when it happened again. Having the Supreme Court weigh in in 2000 was a form of Constitutional Crisis. At least, as I see it. We may differ on the meaning and that is understandable.

    If someone’s definition of “Constitutional Crisis” is something that the Constitution DOESN’T address, I think that’s taking it too far.

    • #189
  10. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Dbroussa (View Comment):

    Two things. First, I liked this post before reading it because the title itself is truth.

    The second is a quibble I have over the term Constitutional crisis. Throwing the election into the House isn’t a crisis at all. It is the enumerated way that elections absent a majority in the Electoral College are decided. That is hasn’t happened since 1824 doesn’t make it any less legitimate.

    Now, one can say that throwing the election to the House to try and get another candidate wasn’t wise, or one can say that it wasn’t realistic, but it would not be a crisis.

    I think the main point was that doing it intentionally to bypass the expressed will of at least 90% of voters, who did vote for either of the main candidates, would be Bad.

    I would have preferred Clinton.

    • #190
  11. Pagodan Member
    Pagodan
    @MatthewBaylot

    kedavis (View Comment):

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Charles C.W. Cooke responds.

    (Warning: link is to NRO).

    I’m biased of course, but I don’t get it. Warning: link goes to a site whose senior writer is one of the most effective and intelligent gun-rights advocates working in the media today. Are good conservatives supposed to reel away from NR on general principle, and only venture into the den when assured the headlines on the front page will not cause anger or distress?

    I dunno, maybe reading NR occasionally isn’t so bad, as long as it’s done in a way that they don’t get money for.

    Why shouldn’t they get money for it. I mean other than the queen of squee Jay Nordlinger, most of NR is benign to Ricochet political opinion and analysis from the the right. 

    • #191
  12. Pagodan Member
    Pagodan
    @MatthewBaylot

    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.

    To be honest, I might not have been immune to a D politician who had the character of some Ds of my youth when I was a Good Liberal: belief in American exceptionalism, anti-Communist, pro-defense, pro-middle-class values, sympathetic to the downtrodden, and all that. There were a few of those, once. It’s still a potent combination. Voters can wave away the things on the margins – more social spending, lax immigration, regulations that don’t affect them directly – because they feel good about voting for someone who seems cool and smart and compassionate.

    But if the party put up someone like that today, it would be a Trojan horse: the intellectual energy on the D side is utopian, Jacobin, intersectional, and unmoored from economic and cultural realities. Sorry, no. I say it’s spinach, and to hell with it.

    I don’t think it bears out that lax immmigration is one of those things you can waive away on the margins, at least not for most the right. (I point to the unstoppable juggernaut of Jeb!, who basically gave us Trump.)

     

    • #192
  13. Pagodan Member
    Pagodan
    @MatthewBaylot

    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.

    People who run around saying stupid crap like “Big Lie” over and over are pretty culty if you ask me. 

    • #193
  14. Dbroussa Coolidge
    Dbroussa
    @Dbroussa

    Pagodan (View Comment):

    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.

    People who run around saying stupid crap like “Big Lie” over and over are pretty culty if you ask me.

    Of using the term Trumpsters, or any other derogatory term.  I’d include TDS in that, though it certainly applies for some (Rubin, Kristol, and Boot come to mind).  When you insult someone else, your argument loses weight.  I suppose we all could use to remember that.

    • #194
  15. BDB Inactive
    BDB
    @BDB

    Dbroussa (View Comment):
    When you insult someone else, your argument loses weight.

    Dang.  My argument must be on a diet!

    • #195
  16. Dbroussa Coolidge
    Dbroussa
    @Dbroussa

    BDB (View Comment):

    Dbroussa (View Comment):
    When you insult someone else, your argument loses weight.

    Dang. My argument must be on a diet!

    That’s heavy man…

    • #196
  17. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Dbroussa (View Comment):

    Pagodan (View Comment):

    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.

    People who run around saying stupid crap like “Big Lie” over and over are pretty culty if you ask me.

    Of using the term Trumpsters, or any other derogatory term. I’d include TDS in that, though it certainly applies for some (Rubin, Kristol, and Boot come to mind). When you insult someone else, your argument loses weight. I suppose we all could use to remember that.

    At least on Ricochet it seems the insults are left for those who have demonstrated an unwillingness (or inability) to respond to anything else.

    • #197
  18. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    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.

    Gary, what does the Big Lie actually claim?

    • #198
  19. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Saint Augustine (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    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.

    Gary, what does the Big Lie actually claim?

    “Here we go!”

     

    • #199
  20. Dbroussa Coolidge
    Dbroussa
    @Dbroussa

    kedavis (View Comment):

    “Here we go!”

    I regret that I have but one like to give for this comment

    • #200
  21. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    BDB (View Comment):
    I think the salient point is that if subscriptions do not keep the lights on, then it is not a proper for-profit business.  Sophisticated panhandling is not a business model.

    It’s an opinion magazine.  When in the entire history of opinion magazines, has an opinion magazine made money?

     

    • #201
  22. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    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

    The “vast majority” of “Conservative voters” have probably never even heard of National Review.

     

    • #202
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