Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
For the Establishment
“Burn it down.” That’s the slogan of faux conservatives who now rejoice that the Republican Party is being smashed by a slick, howlingly transparent grifter. The urge to destroy has a kind of pornographic appeal to a certain personality – but it’s a shock to find it so widespread.
The Republican Party is choosing an odd time to commit suicide. Obama’s two victories were painful setbacks, but in the Obama era the Democrats lost 13 US Senate seats, 69 House seats, 910 legislative seats, 11 governorships, and 30 legislative chambers. All that stood between Republicans and real reform at the federal level was the White House – and the Democrats were sleepwalking toward nominating the least popular major player in American politics.
Republicans have managed to find someone who is even less acceptable. One-third to 40 percent of Republican primary participants are embracing a figure who not only loses the general election but who introduces an element of fascism to American politics, and thus demoralizes the Republican majority while delegitimizing the party in the eyes of others. It is Trump’s unique contribution to wed authoritarianism — threatening the First Amendment, promising war crimes, admiring dictators, encouraging mob violence, fomenting racial and ethnic strife — with Sandersesque leftism on entitlements, abortion, and a 9/11 truther foreign policy.
And what sin has brought down this despoiler upon the Republican Party? Why are so many self-styled conservatives complacent about his success? Failure to stop Obamacare? Please. That was never possible with Obama in office. It would have been possible, in fact it was probable, that it would have been replaced if Republicans held majorities in Congress and got an agreeable executive. Now? No. Failure to get control of the border? Illegal immigration from Mexico has slowed to a trickle and, in fact, more Mexicans are now leaving than coming. Failure to defund the Export-Import Bank? Yes, crony capitalism is disgraceful, but the irony of those who are offended by such things sidling up to Trump – who boasts of buying influence – is rich.
As Edmund Burke observed about the extremists of his day: “He that sets his home on fire because his fingers are frostbitten can never be a fit instructor in the method of providing our habitations with a cheerful and salutary warmth.”
Here are a few words of praise for the Republicans. The Republican Party has become more reform-minded and more conservative over the past 30 years. The Arlen Specters and Bob Packwoods are pretty much gone. In their places are dynamic, smart, and articulate leaders like Tom Cotton, Ben Sasse, Cory Gardner, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Ted Cruz, Suzanna Martinez, and Marco Rubio. The party has become more conservative and more ethnically diverse.
Between 2008 and 2014, when Republicans were the minority in the Senate, they blocked cap and trade, the “public option” in Obamacare, and card check. Republicans declined to give President Obama universal pre-K, the “Paycheck Fairness Act,” expanded unemployment benefits, a higher federal minimum wage, varieties of gun control, mandatory paid sick leave, a tax on multinational corporations, higher taxes on individuals, and more. They passed bills authorizing the Keystone pipeline (which was vetoed) and trade promotion authority (the one issue Obama is not wrong about). They endorsed entitlement reform.
The American system is slow and balky by design. It requires maturity and patience to achieve your political goals. Democrats have been remarkably strategic, returning again and again to cherished objectives, whereas Republicans have told themselves that leadership treachery rather than Madisonian architecture accounts for their frustration.
Those who encouraged the “burn it down” mania and who popularized the narrative that a malign Republican “establishment” was responsible for the state of the nation may be many things but they are not conservative. Conservatives respect institutions and traditions. They understand that process is ultimately more important than policy outcomes because it guarantees legitimacy and political stability. Laws can be repealed. That is why Obama’s worst offenses were not Dodd/Frank, the stimulus bill, or Obamacare, as bad as those were. His worst offenses were against Constitutional constraints. He governed by executive fiat and got away with it, thus undermining the rule of law.
A plurality of Republicans seems to have accepted and adopted contempt for the Constitution. They will reap the whirlwind and look back longingly at the Republican “establishment.”
Published in General
Perhaps Trump won’t be the limited government gladiator that Senator Sasse (and I) want him to be, but an authoritarian? No difference from Hillary? I really do not see it anymore than I thought that Romney and Obama were the same. I didn’t like Romney either, but I still voted for him because the difference with the other side was so clear. It remains so with Trump, only this time Trump actually has a chance to actually expand the tent like everyone has been talking about all these years.
You know, most of the people I know angry at the current republican leadership (I include myself here) are supporters of Cruz.
And I understand that a number of Trump voters are cross-over Dems and historical non-voters. Further, there are very few states where Trump received > 50% of the vote, so in most states, more republican voters voted for a non-Trump candidate.
So quit yelling at us, and take a look at yourself and ask what you may have done to contribute to this mess, lady. You can start with the novel idea that insulting people you want to persuade might not be productive or helpful.
And, I STILL think Gang of 8 was a shockingly stupid and clueless move, guaranteed to agitate voters. Where is your anger at the ‘leadership’ for trying to push that on a people who wanted their laws enforced?
If Trump gets the nomination, but does not get elected President, that destroys the party? More so that the simple act of him getting the nomination? More so that if he actually gets elected? I think not.
In my view, the fact that Republicans in large numbers support his nomination is what is destroying the party.
My understanding of the OP is that the Republican Party is dying. That is separate from conservative, however defined.
Huh?
I agree, but I also thought Romney would win 4 years ago because of the 2010 midterms, the bad economy, and the unpopularity of Obamacare. Wrong-o.
Yeah, I was optimistic, too, but the voters have spoken.
Does saying “I’m for Rubio” every ten minutes on every podcast she’s done for the last year or so constitute an endorsement?
If so, then yeah, you’re wrong.
I don’t think anyone paying attention to politics is making a case that Trump is conservative, for limiting government, or stands for anything.
The same criticism can be leveled at the Republican Party.
It was obvious from moment one that Mona’s attacks on Trump did nothing but help Trump. Here we are nine months later and she still hasn’t clued in.
This from a woman who’s entire MO is calling those she disagrees with stupid. The irony is indeed rich.
Yes, and 60,933,499 others joined you, the most votes cast for a Republican in history besides the 62m wartime Bush received against the insufferable John Kerry. I don’t disagree with your analysis, although I’m not sure about the “likable” part (maybe because I like “gentlemanly”).
Where I part company with some is the idea Romney was a “bad” candidate after getting the above-stated vote totals against a sitting president with a monolithic ethnic vote and the most sophisticated campaign apparatus in history. When you consider that, the Candy Crowley pushover mantra really doesn’t play.
Had that happened, the Democrats retaken the legislature and then passed a swath of horrible legislation – I suspect many people currently lamenting the Republican’s ineffectiveness to be singing a different tune. Counter-factuals aren’t very useful – but when you ignore what was stopped and focus only on what wasn’t you are ignoring half the picture. No politician can win with that attitude.
I voted for Romney, McCain, Dole, and both Bushes.
Why is it that Mona and the the ‘establishment’ side can tell us all to vote for their guy for ‘party unity’ in the past, but they can’t bring themselves to get behind Cruz to stop Trump? They just want to throw tantrums and spew blame.
“Anybody but Trump, as long as its
JebRubio!”Boom!
In addition, there have been those who have used the idea of a “big tent” in order to hush those nasty SoCons, Small-Government Cons, DefCons – all the inconvenient rabble that were supposed to vote for the “least bad” choice.
The tent is yuuuge now. You got precisely what you’ve been begging for all these years. Pity it meant delivering the whole thing into the minuscule mitts of an arrogant, ignorant blowhard.
Two lines crossing on a graph almost a year before an election and neither of them ever exceeding 50% is not a substantive case for democrats taking back the legislature. Ted Cruz supposedly risked the chance of a majority by reading Green Eggs and Ham. Republicans won a landslide. I wish he would’ve read Sword and Sovereignty twice.
“Conservatives respect institutions and traditions” is one definition. So the Republican Party is to be respected merely because it’s an institution.
“Obamas two victories were painful setbacks” …interesting way of putting that. It wasn’t any kind of failure on the part of the GOP. I’m imagining that fealty to “tradition” may play a part in all this because Republicans lose, ignore conservatives, misdiagnose the ailment and run another Bush! That’s respect for tradition!
We tried to tell you Mona but you and your ilk don’t listen and work out your own rationales.
Every time I read one of Monas drive-by posts here I am nudged toward Trump.
Trump has exposed the lot of you. Clowns do that. I’d rather a clown than a Bush.
My feeling is that the republican leadership should have correctly assessed the mood of the republican voters, and worked to recruit more ‘compromise’ candidates to run this cycle instead of getting out early to push Jeb on us.
It Would have been nice of the republicans to try actual ‘leadership’ instead of trying to control the entire process to work the situation out to their own satisfaction. And, IMO, we wouldn’t be here now if they’d tried that approach.
I don’t know about diagnosis; this was my own reasoning and thoughts.
And rich doesn’t have anything to do with it. All the rest are matters of interpretation. The corrupt charge really falls flat with me; just because a NY real estate guy played the game he found himself in doesn’t mean he will take those rules to elected office.
I understand there’s frustration with Mona here, but, while she is resolutely anti-Trump (and probably pro-Rubio), I don’t see her going out of her way to bash Cruz. In addition, I’d be interested in any specific criticisms of the passage above, which strikes me as well done..
Just because the Governor of Taxachusetts plays the game his liberal legislature sets for him doesn’t…oh nevermind…
How is Donald Trump – a man who has the Clintons at his wedding, boasts about all the rich and famous people who are his friends, who lives an outwardly ostentatious lifestyle, gives very little to charity and is in no way a pious man considered less elitist than Mitt Romney?
Did anyone but Jeb! (and his financial backers) really push Jeb on us?
Trump fear is not rational. I think part of it is because the talking class is not used to his blunt and crass personality. Many of the rest of us are totally comfortable with it. But it’s not something you see much in the cocktail circuit.
I also think a lot of that fear is because the talking class thinks this was the shot to put a true conservative into office. They are struggling with the realization that such an outcome was never going to happen. That’s NR, the Weekly Standard, and many here on Ricochet too.
The votes aren’t there. It’s causing a lot of personal angst because the talking class thought they were making progress. It was an illusion. Just because the public was turning on the Democrats, doesn’t mean they were becoming conservatives.
I say that as a conservative who would much rather have had Walker or Perry or Jindal. But I also say that as a person who refuses to fight against reality and one who never feared Trump.
Apparently the analysis of Trump as fascist isn’t confined to just Trump anymore. Now it includes all of his supporters and defenders.
That’s how I read her anyway.
Yes, the goldilocks wing.
According to this the number of new illegals from Mexico is declining. It doesn’t address all of the central American countries and the last data, 2014, still shows net increase in illegal immigrants from Mexico.
Thanks for sharing the link.
I feel like the answer is yes. Some of the alternatives I liked better exited, in part, because they didn’t have the money to stay in and see if they could catch on with the voters.
I also am angry at the way the early debates were structured. If you put people at the “kids” debate, you’ve undermined them. This was not a “pro-Jeb” move, but still, another colossally stupid decision. They needed to think creatively to allow some of the lesser known candidates a chance to be taken seriously.
Still waiting for you to quit trolling, kemosabe.
Mona lost me during the shutdown fight of 2013 (jeez was that really 21/2 years ago? where did 2015 go?). Anyway, last summer I was ready to throw in with Trump and destroy the Republican party, but a lot of my anger eased when Boehner left. From then until the IA caucus I was pretty unsatisfied with the remaining field.
However, the more I learn about Trump the more I realize that Trump is duping his supporters. Trump is completely non-ideological and his whole anti-Washington shtick is just that – a ploy. If Trump wins the presidency his supporters are going look like fools that have been played.
I am not worried about the country with a Trump presidency, but I cannot support a charlatan.
I believe Mona specifically referenced Mexicans, but point taken.
I believe in that link it specifically referenced “number of Mexican illegals living in the United States” as having declined by 1M. That seems to indicate a net reduction.
I c0nsider fear of Trump getting waxed in the general election to be eminently rational–in fact the most rational of all explanations for supporting or not supporting someone. Of all the myriad possibilities for November, the one that’s closest to a certainty (and admittedly nothing is) is that Hillary Clinton wins the Presidency v. Donald Trump big time.