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Dear Claire….
Claire,
Thanks much for sending me e-mails about politics and foreign policy. I read your most recent post this morning. (I’m sorry for not subscribing; I have to keep subscriptions down or I’d owe a mortgage worth of bills every month, given my interests. And I do find what you say interesting. How can I forget your advice on Ricochet for writing an interesting post?)
I’m confused as to why you would equate Trump to Hitler by describing Hitler’s “negotiations” with Austrian leader Schuschnigg. First off, I thought we were past Godwin’s Law of calling Trump Hitler. Second, Hitler used his military to take over Austria (along with other ways, I know). I don’t see any movement by the US at all in taking over Ukraine, and I don’t see any wink-winking to let Putin take it over, either.
Yes, Hitler spitting out words like bullets, hollering, and not allowing Schushnigg to speak would make great TV, but for almost 40 minutes last Friday, the US president was fine in his meeting with Zelensky, even complimentary of the Ukrainian president and his people. Yeah, he gets hot under the collar when things don’t go his way, but Trump is not Hitler in this scenario.
On January 20, 2029, I will admit you were right about Trump if Trump takes over the Federal government and outlaws free speech, and if he does all the other things Hitler did to consolidate power. But I’m hoping to see you admit you were wrong, too, when it doesn’t happen. Yes, Putin is bad, execrable, disgusting. He is trying to destroy Ukraine and wipe out the culture, thereby kidnapping children and “re-programming” them. And I’m hoping against hope that Ukraine keeps kicking Putin’s butt in this terrible, sad war. I’m hoping the Europeans stand up for Ukraine and force Putin to back off, even if it means giving up Putin supplying them fuel.
But Trump ain’t Hitler.
Sincerely,
Chris
Published in General
I hope you’re right but would not bet my mortgage on it.
How’s Claire doing? I hope she sought out treatment for her TDS . . .
Whenever you encounter the Trump-is-Hitler motif you immediately know the author is not a serious person with anything illuminating to present. It’s terribly sad that Claire had sunk into that morass.
Thank you for this. I follow her on Twitter and have just subscribed to her Substack.
Nowhere does she state that Trump is Hitler. She provides a description of what happened on Friday that captures the outrage, shame, and revulsion felt by many, including me. Simply appalling.
Dear Yarob,
I’m happy you subscribed. If I weren’t such a skinflint, I would, too.
Claire spent 2,500 words describing — in an excellent cinematic way — the ‘negotiations’ between Hitler and Schuschnigg. She then drew a line across the page, intended to mean that her description of Hitler had ended, and then she wrote what you’ve quoted. Claire later writes that the scene Friday in the Oval Office “instantly evoked the meeting in the Berghof.”
Take a guess who was head honcho at Berghof. And take a guess who is head honcho in the Oval Office.
(You can lead a horse to water….)
Cheers.
Chris
Claire once took Ricochet on a video tour of Notre Dame. I miss that Claire.
I thought Berlinski’s article was pretty spot-on.
BIll Whittle has a good take on this
Churchill and Zelensky: ALLIES vs. FRIENDS – YouTube
Words to negotiate by at https://youtu.be/U3JbvTDX_VY?t=851 : “Vladimir Putin is not our friend. He is not here to save Western Civilization. He is a KGB operative. He is the last Czar. He’s the last General Secretary of the Communist Party, and he is a very, very bad man who looks out for Russia and Russia only.”
I was introduced to Claire B. here when she wrote for Ricochet. I read her books, followed her stories and blogs, and I have realized that she is not, and I don’t think ever was, a conservative or Republican. She seems to be an old school Democrat – I got a clue when she was strongly encouraging everyone to vote for Hilary.
Her writing has always leaned left.
She seems blind to how the world has evolved since WWII and that the old systems don’t work anymore. That includes foreign policy and she is content to live in Paris and have the US guard Europe.
The pendulums swing far right only after they have sat far left. To get back to the middle is difficult but people can and should change their minds and not support every issue on one side – question everything. Liberalism by the old definition is long gone.
Excellent post; you definitely have more support for your opinion of Claire’s writing than I do.
I remember hearing Claire when Peter Robinson interviewed her for Uncommon Knowledge, about her book “There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters.” And I saw her posts on Ricochet and grew fond of her writing. I didn’t notice any liberal leanings, but I don’t look too hard. (I guess that’s what groups like DOGE are for?)
I’ve also heard her father, David Berlinski, on Uncommon Knowledge (we all must listen to Uncommon Knowledge) and I once read David Berlinski’s book “A Tour of the Calculus”, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. (How this all relates to Kevin Bacon, I do not know….)
Claire is a wonderful and brilliant person – I spent a fantastic evening with her in Paris some years ago (Simon Templar was there, too). But she is blind to her own instinctive love of the managerial class as exemplified by the French bureaucracy. That “love of experts” permeates all of her thinking.