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A Petulant Kevin Williamson: Trump Deserves No Credit for the Dobbs Decision
Hoo-Boy. Roe v. Wade was overturned last week in no small part due to Trump-appointed Justices Comey-Barrett, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch. If Hillary had prevailed in 2016 (as Never Trumpers would have preferred*), all three of those justices would have been replaced with ideological clones of Ruth Bader “Populations We Don’t Want to Have Too Many Of” Ginsberg. (Which, incidentally, means the gun rights and religious schools cases would have gone the other way as well). The Babylon Bee brilliantly as usual captured the spirit of the thing.
“As Nominee, Donald Trump Would Do Incalculable Damage to the Pro-Life Cause,” wrote French in 2016. “Get ready for a slow-motion pro-life train wreck if Trump’s the nominee.”
Never Trumpers have been a bit stung by the criticism they’ve gotten. “Well, we did like his supreme court picks but any other Republicans would have chosen the same type.” This ignores the salient point that there wasn’t another Republican on the presidential ballot to vote for in 2016, and they were really pulling for Trump’s defeat.
Anyway, Kevin D. Williamson isn’t going to take this lying down. He has produced one of his trademark screeds saying that Trump deserves no credit, and Never Trump deserves no blame, for the outcome of the Dobbs decision.
“A lucky or unlikely outcome, no matter how pleasing it is when it happens, does not retroactively redeem stupid and irresponsible decisions. The fact that something dumb worked out in a fortunate way does not mean that the thinking that went into it wasn’t stupid and irresponsible.” – Kevin D. Williamson (It’s behind the Wall of Shame, so Twitchy provides an excerpt.)
So, no, the Dobbs decision does not make me regret opposing Donald Trump in 2016. If anything, it highlights exactly how shallow and dishonest Trumpist criticism of the conservative movement often has been.
Donald Trump was, until he decided he wanted the Republican presidential nomination, an across-the-board social progressive: not only pro-abortion but “very pro-choice” in his own words, a supporter of gay marriage, a supporter of left-wing gun-control proposals, etc.
…
Donald Trump is still a ridiculous buffoon, and those who supported him in 2016 were still fools to do so.
To be honest, this is a big reason I prefer Trumpism to Bush-Republicanism. The Bushies viewed elective office as a mandate to pursue their personal policy preferences even when they were at odds with what their voters wanted. George W. Bush’s focus on passing an amnesty for illegal immigrants is no doubt the premier example. Whereas Trump evidently pushed policies on gun rights, anti-abortion, and religious freedom that were at odds with his personal beliefs, because, unlike Bush, understood that he was obliged to represent the will of his voters in office and not his personal beliefs.
*Never mind their silly, desperate schemes to throw the election to the House of Representatives. Four years later, they declared that disputing the results of a presidential election was tantamount to sedition.
Published in General
Calvin Freiburger unloads on KW in this thread here. I think he’s nailed every criticism I’ve ever had about KW.
Why do so many conservatives always leap to his defense? “Owning the libs” is no replacement for a moral compass.
KW obviously has an enormous ego; a lack of humility that he, ironically, shares with Donald Trump. Neither man can ever admit being wrong. It is inarguable that the the election of Hillary Clinton in 2016 would have reversed every conservative gain of this Supreme Court session. But he cannot admit to that, so he deflects. “Never Trump won the lottery,” he declares, as though the selection of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Comey-Barrett were mere chance occurrences…. even though Trump, as a candidate, promised to appoint those exact people.
I have said it before, anyone who supported a plan that would have led to the selection of a president that over 90% of the nation did not vote for is someone who believes that he knows better than almost everyone else.
This is the height of hubris. It would have torn the nation apart. I would have supported Clinton over that scheme. I never would have supported any Republican again with that stunt. I don’t think I would have been alone.
“The Bushies viewed elective office as a mandate to pursue their personal policy preferences even when they were at odds with what their voters wanted. George W. Bush’s focus on passing an amnesty for illegal immigrants is no doubt the premier example. Whereas Trump evidently pushed policies on gun rights, anti-abortion, and religious freedom that were at odds with his personal beliefs, because, unlike Bush, understood that he was obliged to represent the will of his voters in office and not his personal beliefs. “
Yes!
You are completely right.
There is an old saying I learned in the Army. “If it’s stupid and it works, it isn’t stupid!”. Perhaps the Williamson corollary should be “If you oppose the stupid plan that works, maybe you should reassess your opposition to the plan you said was stupid. If you cannot do that, then perhaps you are the truly stupid one.”
If Hillary had prevailed on Nov 2016, we might not even be here at all, abortion issue or no abortion issue.
Her favorite American general wrote a book about the plans he and Hillary held for our nation once she was victorious – bringing about a major war with Russia which was necessary to commence by Dec 2017.
As bad as abortion is, thermonuclear war trumps that issue by a factor of billions. (Many officials of NATO representing a half dozen nation states are now using the “n” word as the only means left by which to curtail the evils of Putin.)
Excellent point.
I don’t care much about David French one way or the other, but this is kind of amazing.
Still waiting for KW to get his U-Haul and leave. I believe that since the Atlantic told him to clean out his desk, he can’t figure out where he belongs.
And then he wrote a 2020 follow-up, insisting that Presidents have little affect on the abortion debate at all, so pro-lifers could feel okay voting for Biden.
0 comments. That seems unbelievable
LOL
Total tool
The truth is that a lot on very conservative people thought up and executed a plan to reverse Roe. An integral part of that plan involved a POTUS with a set of brass ones to put constitutional (not ideological) justices on the SCOTUS. That POTUS was DJT. There are many who voted him in despite his many flaws just for those brass balls and they paid off. Credit goes to many people. First and foremost the Justices that stuck to the law and did what was right. Mitch McConnel get a bit of credit getting them through the process. DJT get credit for taking the flack and doing what most GOP POTUS have not really done a lot of lately. The conservative think tanks get the credit for formulating and executing the plan. And mostly the grass roots activist get the credit and staying the course and holding those others to the goal.
But not to the Never Trumpers who supported Hillary.
But don’t you see? President McMuffin would have been even better!
Do you remember that time that Hillary as SoS invaded Libya? That country has still not recovered.
You know, I get the feeling that a lot of people may have never heard of David French before the Bee story.
And Bill has never recovered from invading Hillary.
I believe it was more of an “incursion” than an “invasion”.
David French is still very, very disappointed in us. (Trigger warning: many straw men gave their lives for his column.)
Years ago he said he was moving to Switzerland. Did that ever happen?
Wow. Poor guy can’t sit at the cool kid’s table and is mad at us.
Well. I read the whole thing on NR (not, I hasten to add because I subscribe, but I must somehow have had one of my very few free views for the month still left. Funny how that works. And so:
Wonderful. So well said.
Good.
Nicer than I would be.
The man is a lout.
Very well done. Bravo.
KDW and David French are among those who are in it for the write, not the fight.
What is French’s actual world view, anyway?
Luke 18:9–12
I mean, it’s kind of funny he got dinged for celebrating the overturning of Roe when it’s due to the President he opposed (and even considered running against). But instead of pausing for self-reflection, he lashes out at the pro-life movement. “A movement animated by rage and fear isn’t ready to embrace life and love.”
Wait a second, Davey. Did you not notice the way you’ve been raging against Christians for the last five years for daring to vote for the man you hate? I suppose you’re going to tell us you condemned them to hell out of love?
I mean it when I say that his piece is filled with straw men. He paints the pro-life movement in the grossest of terms, but never gets specific regarding who he’s talking about. It’s just general slander. Though he does say nice things about Pro-life Pregnancy Centers.
But what it really comes down to is that he’s still a sour-faced rat about so many on the right — especially Christians — unwilling to do what he believed was their duty to get jabbed by a “vaccine” that we are increasingly seeing doesn’t work, and causes serious health problems to large numbers of people. This is what’s really bothering him. They wouldn’t listen to him. He yelled at them to get vaxxed, and they refused. He sees the death toll of COVID, and he blames the right. In this way, he’s simply echoing the slander of the left that declared those backward red state residents were the reason COVID won’t go away.
So he thinks that conservatives who opposed mandatory vaccines just don’t belong in the pro-life movement.
There you go.