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Trump’s Virtues: An Important Speech
Very short and very challenging food for thought. I was drawn to read the entire piece and that proved to be a most rewarding exercise as it introduced me to an excellent short talk on the virtues of Donald Trump and why we shouldn’t be turning our backs on him at this early stage of the 2024 Presidential Campaign. Here, before linking to the video itself, is the opening paragraph of the article, which can be found here:
I recently wrote a column about why I believed Trump should not run in 2024. I was wrong. I allowed my distaste for Trump’s personality to override his virtues, which are considerable. Some people want Trump without his vices. I was among them — until yesterday, when I watched and listened to Tom Klingenstein’s speech titled “Trump’s virtues.” It was masterful and shamed me that I did not make the distinction between Trump’s character and his virtues, the former being deeply flawed, the latter being almost perfect. I need to man up in my defense of the former President’s virtues. The speech was among the most pointed I have heard and deserves some exposure. Klingenstein says:
Other Republicans say some version of “I like Trump policies but I don’t like the rest of him.” This gets it almost backwards. Although Trump advanced many important policies, it is the ‘rest of him’ that contains the virtue that inspires the movement… Trump was born for the current crisis, a life and death struggle against a totalitarian enemy I call woke communism… that control all the cultural and economic powers in America…
[Trump] revealed, not caused, the divide in this country. In war, you must make a stand… Trump is a manly man… traditional manhood, even when flawed, is absolutely essential… Trump plays to win… There are no clean hands in a fistfight…Trump is unreservedly, unquestionably pro-America… Trump is a refreshing break from the guilt and self-loathing that marks our age…
How wonderful it is to hear a speaker in this age of wokeness and cowardly cancellation for saying the “wrong” thing, i.e., something not within the approved narrative of the Ruling Elite come right out and refer to someone as “a manly man”! I must admit I had to go back and rerun that part of the video I enjoyed hearing it so much! I am sending this video along not in the interest of starting any kind of debate about the 2024 election as it is far too early to be joining that battle. I am, however, sending it along as I think it represents a very valuable contribution to that future debate and the decision we will all be required to make in the future. I hope you find it as interesting and illuminating as I did.
God Bless America!
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I don’t know. But he’d have to hit hard to knock him out, right? What would he use? COVID response? Disney and anti-CRT legislation? He can’t cede all the successes and say he would do the same things Only Better.
If Trump thought the actual enemy was the left, and DeSantis seemed better equipped to push back – given his record, his ability to parry the press, his engagement with the details of the issues, his lack of negative ratings among people who pay scant attention – why would he run at all? Here’s a sharp, smart guy without the baggage. Let him have the stage.
There are virtues that your father’s activities point to, but the activities are not necessary for those virtues and those engaging in the activities do not necessarily have those virtues.
It isn’t the activities. One of the things that’s come out of the gender non-conformity crap storm is trying to distill what is a man without it being linked to military as opposed to, say, the arts. A MAN can do both. While I’m more confident I’ll find him in the military, the arts can be in possession of them, as well.
And being a man includes this:
He stands for what is true, even though it cost him.
He protects and defends innocents incapable of protecting or defending themselves.
You were flippant on something deserving a good conversation because of your distaste of Trump. If you think being petty is among his vices, why would you also be petty?
If it is we need to inoculate it. I hope it’s not. I hope that most other states … all other states wake up.
I live in Colorado. It’s too late for some of us (although our governor was saner than 99% of other Democrats about COVID). But, we’re getting the green agenda good and hard. And all the rest eventually, I suppose.
In Colorado, the Trump Endorsees lost to non Trumpy Republicans in the primary. Good for you.
I’d agree, and also say that those activities are highly likely to correspond to virtues of courage, hard work, family formation and preservation, stability, and the like. But of course someone could have behaved exactly like my father and been unvirtuous in a variety of ways. Not the case here, though.
“Manly Man” is a cultural cliche: the cowboy, the fighter pilot, the stevedore, etc. In the last few decades it’s been used with faint derogation, or slightly embarrassed approval. Artists can be Manly Men, too – look at all the glowering hairy-armed abstract painters.
I agree, “masculine” is a set of values. “Masculine” or just “male” virtues are tied to behavior and ethics – which my father exemplified in the typically humble way of his generation.
I think the good conversation did okay on its own despite my demurral on one point that seemed absurd. Petty? Okay.
Why do people want to take DeSantis out of Florida? I think he needs to be there a few more years to show the rest of the wobbly GOP governors how it’s done. Governors can do things that Presidents cannot. While he’d be a good President, Florida would likely suffer without him. As it stands, Florida is now acting as a haven from the Oppressive States of America.
Hopefully, DeSantis can do for the U.S. what he is doing in Florida.
It’s definitely a tough call. Florida needs a great governor and we all need a great President.
The question is “by whom?” I think it’s either agents of the CCP, or a South Korean girl pop band, or TPTB. There’s circumstantial evidence for all of the above.
While noting my admiration for your gentlemanly restraint and although our parents taught us to stay out of other peoples’ disputes, I must say that if someone had said that about my Dad after the beautiful way you described yours, I would (very) strongly suggest that an apology was in order– and very, very quickly at that. Additionally, that this much ink (or digits or bytes, but I’m frankly too old to know about all that stuff and ink is my choice of media for important correspondence, anyway) could be spilled about a phrase like “manly man”, which should be as easy to understand as “man” or “woman” (showing my age again there) is just a tad astonishing to me. I guess that makes me what John Kerry would call “simplisme” but after so many decades in the arena as a trial lawyer that would be a minor insult indeed.
Really? I didn’t insult his dad. I insulted Lileks for criticizing the original claim about Trump being manly by juxtaposing him against a better specimen with stereotypical hamfistedness.
I have seen an awful lot of claims of being masculine over the last 5 years dripping in antagonism for toxic masculinity. That’s what Trump has. Lileks, I’m sure, is completely without. But I will tell you right now, every positive trait being demonized by our culture is exactly what is missing from the men that criticize Trump.
Men without chests.
That isn’t about Lileks’ dad except insomuch as Lileks wanted us to see Trump’s deficiencies through his dad’s excellence.
Maybe I’m reading more into Lileks comment than what he intended. But Lileks is a gifted communicator. I doubt he was completely ignorant of what he was doing.
Your initial insult was “I don’t think you know what it means to be a manly man.” Which struck me as a presumptuous thin-air concoction. If one believes that all criticism of Trump comes from the chestless betas, I can understand why one would say that.
I’m not sure what this means. I’m completely without . . . what? Toxic masculinity? Antagonism for it? Commendable virtues that are being retconned as poison? What does Trump have that you are sure I am completely without?
DeSantis has been excellent in Florida. He has fought smartly. It is entirely reasonable that he would about as good as Trump where Trump is good and better where Trump is not. Entirely reasonable but not certain.
DeSantis has not yet been tested to the extent that Trump was. Will he stand up under pressure? Is he immune to blackmail? Can the FBI find an angle that would make DeSantis fold? Could DeSantis find funding for a campaign? DeSantis may be all that but it is foolish to act like you are certain. Of Trump, I am certain.
My word count was disappearing. I’m sure you believe you have no toxic masculinity while Trump is full of it.
Trump exhibits manly traits that don’t show up on resumes. And they aren’t always pretty. And those virtues are currently under attack by the current culture and called “toxic masculinity.”
But it is THOSE traits that protect the weak and innocent.
And everything I’ve seen from the NT Right is pusillanimity masquerading as virtuous manhood. Jonah, French, and Kristol are that in spades. I wouldn’t trust any of them with leadership because they are more invested in promoting their own virtuosity than the welfare of those they lead. And they ARE leaders. Pundits are thought leaders. And people trust them and listen to them.
Your comment sounded like you were attacking the premise of the post, but in a passive aggressive way.
Do you recognize that Trump has virtues that are necessary in men who lead today? Do you think those traits are under attack by the culture? Or does his lack of military service and marital fidelity make calling him a manly man an insult to your family legacy?
Which is one of the reasons we’re in such a mess.
Kristol is now little more than a reactionary leftist. He’s certainly a Biden-licker these days.
Here’s Kristol complaining that it’s “Stalinist” to oppose “Marxism.”
. . . uh, . . . yeah.
Is this fat dweeb still given space on Ricochet to spew out his nonsense? I don’t pay any attention to the Podcast feed.
That contract must have finally ended. I don’t think I’ve deleted an episode from the Superfeed in a long time.
And you’d know what I believe for sure, I guess. I don’t use the term “toxic masculinity” because it’s one of those invented concepts beloved by progressive misandrists, a stand-in for actual thought or meaning. Branding something “toxic” signals the proper response, which is to hoot and point and throw feces, end of discussion.
Since they use the term, the other side has to use the term to refute their preconceptions and definitions, but it’s just jargon.
Some unpretty manly traits might be described as being a selfish jerk, which some mistake for Strength and Dominance. The left will call them out as “toxic” and promptly reward them as signs of leadership when it comes to their team. Gov. Cuomo comes to mind.
Just found the “manly man” bit a bit absurd.
Some of them, sure. Although I’d use the term skills, or abilities, to avoid getting caught up in the moral aspect of virtues. Or, if that doesn’t work, make you peace with people who voted for Trump but not consider him a particularly virtuous man.
Absolutely. Except when the culture finds them necessary, and then they are rehabilitated in a trice and become the new embodiment of whatever hero the culture wants us to valorize. Keep in mind that Trump was attacked by the NYC snobs back when he was a libertine Democrat, and it had nothing to do with his manly virtues; it was because they saw him as a noisy arriviste from the provinces who thought everyone should be impressed by his gilded chariots.
I can’t possibly see how. I wasn’t insulted by the use of the term. I was amused. But I know, I know: it’s not enough to vote for Trump. One has to admire him completely as well, foreswearing all criticism, or one is just another Chestless Kristol.
Can you be chestless and also have moobs?
Whoa! What an imagination you have! Here’s how you can verify my existence. Before 7:00 p.m. today, go to the Northern Arizona University Football Dome Stadium, East Entrance which is the home to Election Precinct Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. Look in the window. You will see a youthful bald 70 year old sitting behind a plexiglass barrier. That’s me!
You can also confirm with the Republican Poll Watcher that I have been here all morning. (I got here at 5:00 a.a., he got here around 7:00 a.m.)
Oh come on. That could be anyone.
The problem is that with those doggone NeverTrumpers, Trump is unelectable. With DeSantis, you get a younger Trump with a modicum of self-restraint and a Harvard Law degree. What’s not to like.
News from 2016.
I never said that.
Taking him out of Florida where he is probably more effective. We need an uprising at the state level to push back against the federal leviathan. He can encourage other governors and demonstrate how to do things. I didn’t know he had Harvard stink on him or a law degree. No one’s perfect.
Without Trump supporters, you can’t elect a dog catcher. You seem blind to that fact for some reason known only by God.
You know, I’ve come to believe the problem with NTs is just petty jealousy. Trump has lived large and by his own rules, made, lost, re-made fortunes, bedded more than is fair share of beautiful women, raised successful children, got elected President on his first try at elective politics, and now has Melania. You can call him vulgar, and maybe you have a point, but it still comes across as petty jealousy on your part.
The media may have used jealousy, but it’s ultimately brain washing.
I don’t know anyone who ever has. Yet it is oft-cited …
Most Trump supporters have never said that. That’s part of the ongoing smear of Trump supporters. It’s part and parcel of saying they were all irrationally entranced by the man and his cult of personality.
And the argument ultimately shows the contempt many people have for Trump supporters.