Are You Noticing a Pattern Here?

 

It’s dismaying to me, to watch Republicans turn on Donald Trump when the left attacks him:  “Yeah, well, I’m Republican, but I’m not a Trump supporter. He’s mean and racist and stuff. I saw it on the news.” Leftist propaganda is so ubiquitous that you don’t even notice it after a while.

News media, the educational establishment, the FBI, the CDC, every other government organization, social media, Hollywood, and so on and so forth — when all those people say that Trump is a unique threat to democracy and human rights, it almost starts to sound real, after a while. Until you recall that they said the same thing about fire-breathing radicals like Mitt Romney, George W. Bush, and every other successful Republican for as long as anyone can remember.

T. Becket Adams has an outstanding article up today (Right on Schedule, the Media Decide DeSantis is ‘Worse’ than Trump) on National Review, which illustrates — again — this obvious truth:

Amusingly enough, the shared animosity for Florida’s Republican governor has become increasingly deranged in proportion to DeSantis’s growing popularity with the conservative base. Curious! Another especially amusing aspect of the press’s growing anti-DeSantis chorus is this simple fact: They are trying in earnest — in the Year of Our Lord 2023 — to convince the public that the Florida executive poses a greater threat to our core democracy than even Trump does. Yes, the same people who spent four years trying to convince you that Trump posed a unique, once-in-a-lifetime threat to the republic are trying now to convince you that an even greater threat to the republic is now upon us. Just ignore the part where they do this bit every four years. Remember, it wasn’t so long ago that Mitt Romney, the sweetest, most wholesome presidential candidate you ever saw, was out there being accused of manslaughtering a woman diagnosed with cancer.

Believe It: A DeSantis Presidency Could Be Even Worse Than Trump,” warns the New Republic. “DeSantis fully intends to remake America the way he believes God would want it to be, and his knowledge of law and governmental structure allows him to do it on a scale, and with a precision, that Trump could only dream about.”

Elsewhere, Vanity Fair warns that DeSantis should not be “covered like just another Republican.”

They did it to Ronald Reagan, then George W. Bush, then Mitt Romney, then Donald Trump. If DeSantis wins the Republican nomination, they’ll do it to him next.  When Vanity Fair warns that DeSantis should not be “covered like just another Republican,” what they mean is that DeSantis should be covered like just another Republican.

That’s my point.  It really doesn’t matter who it is.  All that matters is that that person is a Republican, so he is by definition evil.

Are you a Republican?

Are you paying attention here?

Who do you think Democrats really consider to be evil?

Think hard about that.  It’s an important point.  Take your time…

Published in General
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 61 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    No doubt about it. The Left will hammer any Republican, especially if he or she is very competent. We wouldn’t want to have competent leadership, would we?

    • #1
  2. Doug Kimball Thatcher
    Doug Kimball
    @DougKimball

    Tribalism at its best!  And projection!  Scorn those who oppose your authority.  It’s so much easier on the conscience when you first declare them evil.  They are destroyers of good, of earth, of Democracy.   Crushing them is an obligation, and you, the crusher, are a hero.  Smite those evil Republicans.  Join us on the right side of history.  Smite them!

    And so history is repeated once again.

    • #2
  3. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    No doubt about it. The Left will hammer any Republican, especially if he or she is very competent. We wouldn’t want to have competent leadership, would we?

    Democrats don’t appear to be fans of competent leaders.

     

    • #3
  4. Max Knots Member
    Max Knots
    @MaxKnots

    Excellent points all, Doc.

    We knew this was coming – the Desantis demonization campaign. What’s sad to me is how Trump is playing their game and joining in. I am one of those who appreciated some of the results of his presidency, wouldn’t necessarily hold him up as a beacon of moral rectitude, but believed him the best tool available at the time. He certainly drove the full weaponization of the various Deep State actors into high and visible gear. The glaring differences between the previous 4 years and the last 2-1/2 are confirmation that for all his faults, he was better than the current pResident. Not a high bar I admit. Yes – Desantis gives me hope but that assumes that the various swing-state Secretaries Of States and Legislatures (my own Michigan included) restore election integrity. Unfortunately I don’t see much attention being paid to that issue. The GOP seems to be afraid of being called names (“election denier”).  Or am I missing something? :-)

    • #4
  5. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Max Knots (View Comment):
    We knew this was coming – the Desantis demonization campaign. What’s sad to me is how Trump is playing their game and joining in. I am one of those who appreciated some of the results of his presidency, wouldn’t necessarily hold him up as a beacon of moral rectitude, but believed him the best tool available at the time. He certainly drove the full weaponization of the various Deep State actors into high and visible gear. The glaring differences between the previous 4 years and the last 2-1/2 are confirmation that for all his faults, he was better than the current pResident. Not a high bar I admit. Yes – Desantis gives me hope but that assumes that the various swing-state Secretaries Of States and Legislatures (my own Michigan included) restore election integrity. Unfortunately I don’t see much attention being paid to that issue. The GOP seems to be afraid of being called names (“election denier”).  Or am I missing something?

    Great points.  And I think a lot of people share your views of Trump.  I certainly do.

    • #5
  6. D.A. Venters Inactive
    D.A. Venters
    @DAVenters

    I don’t doubt the Democrats will say the Republican nominee, whoever it is, is unfit for the office. (Republicans will say similar things at the Dem nominee, whoever it is.) 

    If we can’t avoid nominating someone the Democrats will say is unfit, let’s at least make sure we nominate someone for whom that criticism is inaccurate. 

    • #6
  7. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    I’m wondering what the reactions of the GOP will be: 

    • #7
  8. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Dr. Bastiat: News media, the educational establishment, the FBI, the CDC, every other government organization, social media, Hollywood, and so on and so forth – when all those people say that Trump is a unique threat to democracy and human rights, it almost starts to sound real, after a while.  Until you recall that they said the same thing about fire-breathing radicals like Mitt Romney & George W. Bush, and every other successful Republican for as long as anyone can remember.

    ‘Tis a pity they have no credibility left. Now they’ve all been reduced to the level of CNN, the Unintentional Comedy Network.

    • #8
  9. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    No doubt about it. The Left will hammer any Republican, especially if he or she is very competent. We wouldn’t want to have competent leadership, would we?

    Democrats don’t appear to be fans of competent leaders.

     

    That’s what I found funny about McConnell’s comment about candidate quality. The Democrat’s ballot generating machine doesn’t care about quality. Oz was miles ahead of Fetterman, didn’t matter. 

    • #9
  10. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    Posted this earlier, but it seems more appropriate here: Lockdown Larry Hogan echoes all the Bush Republican talking points in his PBS interview.

    It goes back to what you were just talking about the basic tenets of the Republican policy, and, you know, Reagan’s ‘peace through strength,’ going back to where we used to stand up for our allies and stand up to our enemies. And now we have people in the party that don’t want to help, you know, defend the brave people of Ukraine who are standing up fighting for their freedom. And they’re sympathizing with Putin, who’s, you know, an aggressor. I don’t understand it. But it’s not conservative Republican policy, I can tell you that. Just like, you know, telling businesses that if they don’t agree with you, we’re going to put you out of business. I mean, that doesn’t seem like small government– Yeah. There’s a lot of the things that a lot of the candidates are talking about sound completely foreign to me. It doesn’t sound like the party that I’ve spent my life in.

    All the Bush Republican talking points:

    • Trump and DeSantis are bad because populism.
    • Skepticism about spending hundred of billions of dollars in foreign interventions of dubious strategic value without any oversight means you’re rooting for the Soviets and making Reagan cry.
    • Giant Corporations should be allowed to intervene in culture war politics with no consequences because Republicans love small government and free enterprise. (This from a guy who locked down his state because of a cold virus with a 99.9% survival rate.)
    • “We need sunny Reagan optimism” he says (while violating Reagan’s 11th commandment and bitterly attacking other Republicans)
    • I don’t recognize my party any more.

    These Republicans don’t really want Reaganism, they want Bushism. Invoking Reagan is just an appeal to boomer nostalgia.

    • #10
  11. Joker Member
    Joker
    @Joker

    I do not need my president to be a beacon of moral rectitude. That’s a church thing. America First policies are a bare minimum for the office. Whose life is better under Biden? Maybe if you own some green startup. People will literally line up to vote against their own and their country’s best interest next fall. When you’re that blinkered, when your every action reduces my freedom or impairs my standard of living, you don’t deserve the time of day. Looking at you, Joe.

    Trump was not the first perfect human. People who say his morals make him unfit for office have to overlook a lot to vote Biden.

    • #11
  12. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Biden’s “blood red background speech” on September 1:

    Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.
     
    Now, I want to be very clear, very clear up front: Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans.  Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology.
     
    I know because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.
     
    But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.
     
    These are hard things. 
     
    But I’m an American President — not the President of red America or blue America, but of all America.
     
    And I believe it is my duty — my duty to level with you, to tell the truth no matter how difficult, no matter how painful.
     
    And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution.  They do not believe in the rule of law.  They do not recognize the will of the people. 
     
    They refuse to accept the results of a free election.  And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.
     
    MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.
     
    They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.
     
    They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th — brutally attacking law enforcement — not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots.
     
    And they see their MAGA failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections.
     
    They tried everything last time to nullify the votes of 81 million people.  This time, they’re determined to succeed in thwarting the will of the people.
     
    That’s why respected conservatives, like Federal Circuit Court Judge Michael Luttig, has called Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans, quote, a “clear and present danger” to our democracy.
     
    But while the threat to American democracy is real, I want to say as clearly as we can: We are not powerless in the face of these threats.  We are not bystanders in this ongoing attack on democracy.
     
    There are far more Americans — far more Americans from every — from every background and belief who reject the extreme MAGA ideology than those that accept it.  
     
    And, folks, it is within our power, it’s in our hands — yours and mine — to stop the assault on American democracy.

     

    • #12
  13. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    During the Goldwater campaign – CBS reporter Daniel Schorr pushed the “Russian Collusion” scam of his day.  He claimed Goldwater was appealing to the former Nazis in Germany based on a Der Speigel interview he gave. 

    Democrats and the Nazi card (reporternews.com)

    I wonder what they did before 1933? Who did they compare the GOP president to.  Did the GOP pounce before 1932?

     

    • #13
  14. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Django (View Comment):

    I’m wondering what the reactions of the GOP will be:

    Many people have not gained an understanding of the Trump phenomenon. Trump is a New Yorker who spent his entire life in an environment where he was exposed to and actually observed and learned what the really evil people do. He mixed and mingled socially with the Clintons, the Bushes, the Obamas and New York City and State politicians and associated people, so he had an inside look at what was going on with these people leading America. New York is also the banking and financial center of America and the same for much of the world. Trump apparently has a greater affiliation to America than to this New York/California power mentality and America had a fortunate confluence of events in 2016 that sent Trump to the White House.

    We got lucky. Trump broke the pattern that had been installed over decades by the established “ruling class”. Ron DeSantis saw the same thing when he arrived at Yale. Trump grew up in the environment and eventually saw through it. DeSantis saw it right away. Trump appears crude to many but it is in large part the New York way. DeSantis has taken a different path. I think we need both.

    I’m with Catturd … all the way.

    • #14
  15. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    Django (View Comment):

    I’m wondering what the reactions of the GOP will be:

     

    Many people have not gained an understanding of the Trump phenomenon. Trump is a New Yorker who spent his entire life in an environment where he was exposed to and actually observed and learned what the really evil people do. He mixed and mingled socially with the Clintons, the Bushes, the Obamas and New York City and State politicians and associated people, so he had an inside look at what was going on with these people leading America. New York is also the banking and financial center of America and the same for much of the world. Trump apparently has a greater affiliation to America than to this New York/California power mentality and America had a fortunate confluence of events in 2016 that sent Trump to the White House.

    We got lucky. Trump broke the pattern that had been installed over decades by the established “ruling class”. Ron DeSantis saw the same thing when he arrived at Yale. Trump grew up in the environment and eventually saw through it. DeSantis saw it right away. Trump appears crude to many but it is in large part the New York way. DeSantis has taken a different path. I think we need both.

    I’m with Catturd … all the way.

    Get your ‘I’m With Catturd’ t-shirts on closeout sale now! 

    • #15
  16. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    Great Post!

    I hope some of these so-called Republicans take a real  good look in the mirror and realize how much they have been such willing accessories to America’s descent into full Police State Totalitarianism and finally actually decide to back American Constitutional values full throttle.

    Ya know I think many of these truly idiotic Never Trumpers at any cost and their fellow brain dead Left-turd Fellow Traveling friends  have no clue about history and fail to realize that when the full flower of the Left-turd Stalinist police State fully engages they will be just as much under the boot of the Police State as we will be, or perhaps they should consult the history of one Leon Trotsky.

    • #16
  17. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Unsk (View Comment):

    Great Post!

    I hope some of these so-called Republicans take a real good look in the mirror and realize how much they have been such willing accessories to America’s descent into full Police State Totalitarianism and finally actually decide to back American Constitutional values full throttle.

    Ya know I think many of these truly idiotic Never Trumpers at any cost and their fellow brain dead Left-turd Fellow Traveling friends have no clue about history and fail to realize that when the full flower of the Left-turd Stalinist police State fully engages they will be just as much under the boot of the Police State as we will be, or perhaps they should consult the history of one Leon Trotsky.

    Yabbut they have a signed certificate stating that they will be eaten last and 50 dollars in Quisbucks which can be redeemed for cash or prizes in the new regime. 

    • #17
  18. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    Millions of Republicans did not fall for it when the press claimed that every prior Republican presidential candidate was a monster.  But somehow we fell for it when the press said the same things about Trump.  Or could it be that a lot of Republicans don’t like Donald Trump because of Donald Trump, not because we have succumbed to media brainwashing?  When I watch a Donald Trump speech and see him saying things that tick me off, it is because some of what he is selling is more in alignment with Democratic than conservative principles.  It’s not media bamboozlement that has made a lot of Republicans think that Donald Trump is a buffoon.

    • #18
  19. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    And the next guy is always worse than the all the previous ones.

    • #19
  20. David C. Broussard Coolidge
    David C. Broussard
    @Dbroussa

    GlennAmurgis (View Comment):

    During the Goldwater campaign – CBS reporter Daniel Schorr pushed the “Russian Collusion” scam of his day. He claimed Goldwater was appealing to the former Nazis in Germany based on a Der Speigel interview he gave.

    Democrats and the Nazi card (reporternews.com)

    I wonder what they did before 1933? Who did they compare the GOP president to. Did the GOP pounce before 1932?

     

    Herbert Hoover the “do-nothing” President. 

    • #20
  21. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Don’t forget that after the current evil Republican is safely out of power and not in any danger of coming back, he will start gaining respect from the leftmedia, in comparison with whatever crazy is currently posing a threat to their hegemony.  Note, for example, how Ronald Reagan gets favorable treatment these days when compared with whatever dangerous, anti-democratic(*) extremist is now running. 

    It happens everywhere.  The Shawnee leader Tecumseh, who was partially successful in putting together a native coalition that was opposed to American expansion, had been dead only a few years when European-Americans started naming towns after him, saying he was an honorable Indian who was doing only what they would have done in his position.   Nobody was talking about him that way when he was still alive.  

    (*) anti-democratic = opposed to the ruling class

     

    • #21
  22. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    Joker (View Comment):
    Whose life is better under Biden?

    Maybe divorce lawyers? Does their business increase in bad economic times? I thought though I saw an article around 2015 that some people were staying married because they couldn’t afford lawyers in Obama’s economy. 

    • #22
  23. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Vance Richards (View Comment):

    And the next guy is always worse than the all the previous ones.

    Literally Hitler-er

    • #23
  24. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    David C. Broussard (View Comment):

    GlennAmurgis (View Comment):

    During the Goldwater campaign – CBS reporter Daniel Schorr pushed the “Russian Collusion” scam of his day. He claimed Goldwater was appealing to the former Nazis in Germany based on a Der Speigel interview he gave.

    Democrats and the Nazi card (reporternews.com)

    I wonder what they did before 1933? Who did they compare the GOP president to. Did the GOP pounce before 1932?

     

    Herbert Hoover the “do-nothing” President.

    Probably Lincoln before that. He took away their slaves. 

    • #24
  25. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    Bishop Wash (View Comment):

    David C. Broussard (View Comment):

    GlennAmurgis (View Comment):

    During the Goldwater campaign – CBS reporter Daniel Schorr pushed the “Russian Collusion” scam of his day. He claimed Goldwater was appealing to the former Nazis in Germany based on a Der Speigel interview he gave.

    Democrats and the Nazi card (reporternews.com)

    I wonder what they did before 1933? Who did they compare the GOP president to. Did the GOP pounce before 1932?

     

    Herbert Hoover the “do-nothing” President.

    Probably Lincoln before that. He took away their slaves.

    Excerpted from a letter written by John Wilkes Booth dated 1864 and received by the Philadelphia Inquirer and published in The New York Times April 21, 1865, p.3 (image and full text at link):

    I have ever held the South were right. The very nomination of Abraham Lincoln four years ago, spoke plainly – war – war upon Southern rights and institutions, his election proved it.

    [snip]

    Yet Heaven knows no one would be willing to do, more for the negro race than I. Could I but see a way to still better their condition. But Lincoln’s policy is only preparing the way, for their total annihilation. 

    Booth considered Lincoln a warmonger and racist, so he killed him.

    • #25
  26. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    They want Trump out of the running for president – DeSantis too – I am with you. It is shameful – despicable and cheap to bale on a man who took every blow they could muster and somehow managed to Make America Great Again – and now what do we have under Biden-Harris???

    • #26
  27. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    They want Trump out of the running for president – DeSantis too – I am with you. It is shameful – despicable and cheap to bale on a man who took every blow they could muster and somehow managed to Make America Great Again – and now what do we have under Biden-Harris???

    <sarcasm>What 81 million people voted for.</sarcasm>

    • #27
  28. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    ”But somehow we fell for it when the Press said the same things about Trump”

    Not to give an excuse for the weak minded who excused the treasonous behavior of the UniParty but now with the pervasive data mined personal profile directed personal messaging by Big Tech, it is very easy for the weak minded and utterly clueless to fall hook, line and sinker for “The Narrative” because unless you search out alternative news sources and actually think for yourself, “ The Narrative “ is all your will hear and what you will hear will be specifically designed to seduce and brainwash you to their ways , which has already happened tens of millions of times to millions of clueless Americans already.

    • #28
  29. CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill
    @CarolJoy

    Occasionally a liberal or two post on my social media.

    Their thinking is so concerning.

    They denounce Biden and Hillary.

    Okay great.

    But then they take the position if it had not been for the evils of those two, Bernie Sanders would be in charge.

    With Bernie in charge, or so they say,  we  would be energy sufficient, food would be at normal prices, the people who are refusing to get vaxxed would learn to do it, and love doing it,  and the sun would come out every day, with everyone  getting the perfect daily amount of rain, not a liter too much or too little.

    It is so frustrating. We had almost everything they are now ranting about with Trump in charge. Our economy was a monster and eating up China’s, we were energy sufficient, there was food at affordable prices, and you didn’t need a vaccine to offset the heart attacks people might now be getting for opening their monthly utility bills. (Okay I am being facetious about the vaccine bit.)

    But mention Trump and you are a misogynist supporting, White Supremacist.

    • #29
  30. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    They denounce Biden and Hillary.

    Okay great.

    But then they take the position if it had not been for the evils of those two, Bernie Sanders would be in charge.

    That’s not uncommon. Back in the 90s when I’d denounce the corruption of the Clintons and his Democrat supporters, a leftie might say, “You don’t understand how much we despise Bill Clinton.”

    I think I understood then and understand now.  They wanted someone who was more fascist than Bill Clinton–someone who wouldn’t compromise with the voters.  

    • #30
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.