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Never Trump, Ever Wrong – A Belated Review of “Make Russia Great Again”
I’m the first to admit, to my sorrow, that I’m no Seawriter. I’m not reviewing a new book, but one that’s been out for over four years. I didn’t set out to read this book, let alone review it, but here we are.
Several weeks ago, in preparation for a move, I took a flight out to Ohio and read books before returning. So, I stopped at a bookstore and bought Christopher Buckley’s Make Russia Great Again (at a substantial discount from the original price). I’ve very much enjoyed some of CB’s work in the past, such as Little Green Men, Florence of Arabia, and especially the very fine Thank You for Smoking (which was made into a decent film.)
I knew Buckley was a Never Trumper and thought that would figure into the book. But there is plenty about Trump that is funny and I’ve laughed at satire of Trump. I voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024 (voted for no one in 2016) but I hoped the book might still amuse.
It did not.
The novel was published in 2020, well before the election and some other significant incidents. (There is a single reference to Covid in the book, but there is no hint of the great impact that virus would make on the world.) Here are the key plots in the novel:
- Trump won the 2016 election through Russian interference.
- The intelligence agencies of the United States (who uncovered the Russian interference in our election) are extremely honest and competent.
- “Mike Pants” is the clever alias for Vice President “Mike Pence” in the novel. And he was a Satanist in his youth.
- Donald Trump, as judge in the 2014 Miss Universe competition, coerced contestants into sex with promises that each would win the contest. These sexual trysts were filmed, opening the President to threats of blackmail. When one of the women threatened to go public with this information, Trump encouraged a Russian mobster to keep her quiet. She died mysteriously.
- Trump is a complete narcissistic idiot, barely able to follow conversations and with no compassion for anyone other than himself.
- Trump wins the 2020 election.
There is obviously more to the book, but these are the things I’d like to discuss.
First of all, Buckley should have been able to know the hoax of Russian interference on Trump’s behalf had been completely debunked. But Buckley is looking to tell a story of Trump leading an administration that was subservient to the whims of Vladimir Putin. The facts would kill the central premise of the book. (Funny how Putin invaded Ukraine when Biden was in office but not during Trump’s term. I wonder why that was…)
Secondly, the incompetence of our intelligence services was also quite apparent when this book was written. So, when Buckley writes in the book that all of our intelligence services confirmed that Russian espionage led to the election of Donald Trump, it should be a laugh line, but it is not.
Thirdly, why does Buckley use Trump’s real name but not Pence’s real name? I guess because using “Mike Pants” shows off his wit… Cause, you know, “Pants” is a funny word.
Fourthly, the whole subplot of Trump coercing beauty pageant contestants to have sex is just sick and not humorous.
Fifthly, though Trump can be a jerk, it doesn’t take much research to find that he has treated many people with kindness and compassion. Just talk to Gold Star family members who speak quite well of the man.
Sixthly, poor prediction skills on the election.
The year of 2020, with the Covid debacle, the BLM riots, the Basement Campaign of FJB, was so much wilder than the satire that Buckley imagined. And more darkly funny. Can’t blame him for not foreseeing that madness, but his nasty view of Trump and all around him led him to write a book that is sadly unfunny.
Who knows what Christopher Buckley’s father would have thought of the presidency of Donald Trump or this book. But I think the man who saw merit in Ronald Reagan when the establishment dismissed him might well have been supportive of the former and future president.
The one thing that brought me pleasure in reading this book was thinking about how incredibly ineffective the satiric skills of Christopher Buckley (and the satire of other Never Trump Clowns) were in preventing Trump from winning a second election. The imagined sounds of Buckley’s current grinding teeth were what I enjoyed most about the book.
Published in General
I’ve read and enjoyed a few of Buckley’s novels starting with The White House Mess. I thought it was hilarious and never forgot his comment that anyone who had served so much as fifteen minutes in a presidential administration was obligated to write a memoir, the main them of which is “It would have been much worse if I had not been there.” That led me to read a few more.
There used to be an interview on youtube where someone asked him the source of his ideas. He replied, as best as I can remember, that if one sits as the kitchen table staring at the bills that are due, inspiration will follow. I suppose he was just trying to pay some bills with this effort.
EVER wrong. Zero sense of the big picture – domestic or international. But completely convinced of their own knowledge and intellect. Absolutely tone deaf to reality and unable to listen to any other viewpoint.
He fell in love with Obama during that first campaign and those creased pants and he’s been absolutely useless since. He immediately published his Obama endorsement and resigned ahead of the inevitable firing at his father’s own National Review. He’s pining for the Obama, but Obama remains aloof to him.
Never met any of the WFB kids. Reid Buckley ran a “speeching school” in S.C.. Died in Columbia. Christopher sounds like somebody I wouldn’t want to met-quite the opposite of Brent Bozell.
I remember when Buckley said Obama had a “first class temperament”.
Unlike his father, I bet Chris would vote for the Harvard facility instead of the first 400 entries in the Boston directory
Speaking of Brent Bozell, …
“Buckley said that when he learned recently that the Media Research Center founded by his cousin Brent Bozell intended to bestow its own William F. Buckley Award on Sean Hannity of Fox News, he again intervened. Bozell retreated, leaving Hannity “snarling,” according to Buckley. (Hannity, a vocal Trump defender from his perch at Fox News, is depicted in “Make Russia Great Again” as media personality Seamus Colonnity).”
Bozell wasn’t the only target of Buckley’s Trump Derangement Syndrome. None other than Rush Limbaugh proved to be insufficiently pure for his taste:
“Buckley revealed that he has personally intervened twice in the past couple of years to keep conservative media prizes out of the hands of Trump supporters. Buckley said that he almost sued National Review for awarding their William F. Buckley prize to Rush Limbaugh last fall.
“It came very close to a lawsuit, but in the end I couldn’t go through with it because I figured it only would have added oxygen,” Buckley said. “I was very upset. Amidst the volley of increasingly angry letters between me and the chairman of the board of directors, I asked him if he was planning to serve Vichy water at the awards ceremony.”
Describing himself as a Never Trumper, Buckley said that his anger at National Review stemmed from his realization that for the magazine to endorse Rush Limbaugh was a proxy Trump endorsement.”
Imagine just how TDS-addled one would have to be in order to respond to National Review’s plans to bestow its prize to Rush Limbaugh by invoking a historical reference to Hitler-collaborationist Vichy France. Good grief.
Link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/author-christopher-buckley-everything-trump-touches-dies-204111003.html
Bozell and James Buckley were NR cruise speakers. Christopher was not on any, at least since 2004. WFB was fond of Rush. NR acted re Rush as WFB, not Christopher, would have approved. I’m considering jumping over to do MRC cruises.
The only one drinking the ‘vichy’ water is weak-kneed sycophant Christopher Buckley.
David French may be his H2O supplier.
Jesus.
Why do GOPs vote for more government force, and hate Trump for messing around with it a little bit? These people are out of their minds.
Unreal. These people are out of their minds.
Again—>
Why do GOPs vote for more government force, and hate Trump for messing around with it a little bit? These people are out of their minds.
I was a great admirer of WFB and read many, many of his books and articles but I can’t help but wonder if he too would consider Trump …Ickky. I hope not, I know Rush used to relate how thrilled he was when just starting out to be invited to WFBs apartment. I let my decades long subscription to NR lapse when I realized the current staff despises me, that was before the Never Trump issue.
Buckley’s earlier satirical works were hilarious. For whatever reason, he lost his way a long, long time ago, publicly (and proudly) stating he’d vote for Obama, etc. NR went hard sideways a long time ago and I stopped reading it, as a result of that.
WFB died in early 2008. His son voted for Obama in November 2008.
If you’re citing your own personal echo chamber and David Brooks as justification for voting for a communist, then the number of spins WFB was forced to perform in his grave cannot be measured with existing technology.
If they thought Palin, the successful Governor, was bad, what in the world did they think of the absolute nothingness of Kamala Harris? Did they vote for her? I think the distain for Palin came from the same place as the distain for Trump. ‘Tut, tut, just not our kind of people’
This is just mind bending. We don’t need more government force.
How could they hop on the Obama bandwagon; a man with no significant accomplishments either privately, or in political office? A man whose allies on the left, who funded and engineered the realization of his political ambitions, were all America hating Marxist terrorists.
Yet I should find Palin embarrassing? Good God, what planet do these people live on?
He did. But he also said he misjudged Obama 3 months into his term as president.
In fairness, it’s forgotten that Obama ran as a moderate. Some saw through it, Joe the Plumber did. And I was skeptical too.
Christopher Buckley wrote a book about his father and mother. You can tell he loved his father, but was deeply resentful as well.
I have family members I resented. Outside of family, I keep it to myself.
It was soon after he published that memoir he left National Review.
Except he, Buckley fils, takes it all back as he comes in for a landing:
But he gives Peter Robinson fine kudos, so I will call off the hit team.
Palin was on early victim of lawfare.
Maybe. She resigned as governor because she was tired of the grievances filed under Alaska law, which were really legalized harassment. They were filed by private citizens. She was supposed to defend herself against these grievances without the aid of her staff, and if she hired a lawyer to take care of them, she was supposed to do so out of pocket.
Nevertheless, she wasn’t forced to personally defend herself in court either civilly or criminally.
Once she left office, it was over. I don’t think that subsequent governors have had the vulnerability, probably because state law was changed.
She exhausted her savings and the Democrats started going after her staff.