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Trumpalooza (Limited Edition)
In our latest Need to Know, Mona Charen and I talk about Election 2016 and related catastrophes. Despite all that talk, my fingers itch, and I would like to do some writing.
Trumpsters like to compare themselves to Brexiteers, understandably. In August, their candidate tweeted out, “They will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT!” But it occurs to me that they are like Remainers, in one important respect.
Remainers launched what their opponents called “Operation Fear.” They campaigned on fear. They forecast all sorts of doom, should voters opt to leave the EU. It was 24/7 scaremongering.
What do I hear from Trump and his army? “This is the last election we’ll ever have. It’s now or never for America. If you fail to elect Donald J. Trump, America is over.”
I have been against Hillary Clinton for 25 years. Have written and cried against her. Even questioned her once. (She looked at me like she could kill me.) I was against her when Donald Trump was funding her, praising her, and insisting that she be the trophy guest at his wedding, in the first pew.
Yet I think America could survive her. Maybe even more easily than it could survive him.
***
Character used to be a huge part of conservatism. “Character is king,” people said. “Character is destiny.”
This year, however, conservatives, many of them, turned their backs on character. Character was a luxury we could not afford, in these parlous times.
They also turned their backs on conservatism – a conservative worldview. “No box-checking,” they said. “This is no time for box-checking. No time for philosophical purity.”
What did that leave? Electability. Trump may not have character, and he may not be a conservative, but, by golly, he can win. He fights. He’s a winner. And he’s going to show the rest of you chumps how to win.
Romney was a loser. Too polite, too much a gentleman. He let the Democrats walk all over him. Not this time, not with our great orange brute.
Okay. How’s that working out for you? Feel like a winner?
Conservatives – again, many of them – sacrificed character and conservatism, and it looks like they won’t get the win, either. Hillary Clinton was very beatable this year. Is beatable. But with DJT?
Also, if you won with Trump, what would you win? A statist authoritarian whose mental and emotional problems make him a danger around the button? That’s the win?
Thanks.
***
A prediction: After the election, Trump talkers – Trump boosters, Trump advocates – will revert to their former role of conservative commissar. Pre-Trump, they were the ideological enforcers. They were always on the hunt for heretics. They scoured the land for infidelity and disobedience. If you veered one inch from conservative orthodoxy (as they defined it), you were consigned to darkness.
Everyone was a “RINO.” Remember that? Everyone was a tool of the “establishment.”
Then Trump came along. (A genuine RINO.) And it was, “Conservatism, conshmervatism. Hey, no box-checking, dude. Stop harshing my mellow. Dontcha wanna win? What are you, some kind of ideologue? Politics is not for the dogmatic, you know.”
Post-Trump, they will resume their former role, I’m afraid. Keep an eye on it.
***
Eric Cantor was considered insufficiently conservative for Congress. He was a RINO who had to go. Compared with Donald Trump, he is the reincarnation of Russell Kirk. Cantor has more conservatism in a follicle of his hair than Trump has in … than exists, probably, in all of Trump Tower.
***
All of my life, I’ve heard conservatives talk about virtue, family values, and morality. I don’t want to hear a peep from them on those things for the rest of my life. Not after seeing what they have done this cycle – covering for, excusing, papering over Donald J. Trump.
Once upon a time, Henry Hyde was my favorite politician. Indeed, he was pretty much my favorite person in public life. I used to say, “If I had to appoint someone president of the United States, I would appoint either Henry Hyde or Bill Bennett.”
I met Hyde once, in a hallway on the Hill. Gushed all over him.
During Lewinsky days, there was a very bad story about him and another man’s family. No need to go into details now. But it was pretty lousy. And I mentioned around the office that I felt sorry about Hyde.
I had always known that it was stupid to have heroes in politics. That mortals were mortals. That boys would be boys. “Put not your trust in princes.” “Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils.” Blah blah blah. But still: Hyde was kind of a blow.
A colleague of mine mocked me, for being a square. He said that it was ridiculous for my opinion of Hyde to be affected. Who’d I think I was, Cotton Mather? In answer, I said something like this:
We all get to pick what we value. What we admire, what we disdain. What we consider important, what we consider less so. We all have our priorities. I can’t pick for you, and you can’t pick for me. It’s an individual thing.
Many, many women have accused Trump of assaulting them, sexually. They seem credible to me. And we have Trump’s testimony: about what his m.o. is. The women’s testimony conforms to Trump’s own.
Either this matters or it doesn’t. Either this is a big deal or it isn’t. I can’t decide for you, and you can’t decide for me. It’s a matter of conscience, taste, etc.
Some conservatives are aghast. Some are blasé. Some are a little in between. I hear, “Yeah, I’m not too cool with sexual assault. I feel kind of bad for the women. But, you know, the Supreme Court. And Hillary. #NeverHillary. Sometimes you have to swallow a little assault, for the greater good.”
Oh, what a miserable year. For eons, the Left has said that the Right is a bunch of hypocrites. I always argued against it. I won’t anymore.
In my view, the “conservative movement” has forfeit its right to talk about morality or character in politics ever again.
***
The alliance between the Republican party and Putin’s Kremlin is a rather curious thing. The Russian strongman is the GOP’s best friend – doing all he can to elect the Republican nominee. He’s doing a lot more than Paul Ryan, for example.
But I caution Republicans against falling in love: Putin may be your friend for the moment, but he’s no friend of America, or of democracy.
It’s interesting to read Team Hillary’s e-mails. (Thanks, Vlad!) Some of them make me like Hillary better, frankly (or dislike her less). She is friendlier to trade in private than she is on the stump. But I was thinking not long ago: I wish Vlad would switch sides, just for a day or two. Because it would be a pleasure to read Team Trump’s e-mails: Corey, Ivanka, Manafort, Kellyanne, Eric, Donald Jr., Bannon, Hannity, Laura, Ann, Newt, the Donald himself …
That could be some juicy reading.
***
I learned a lot from this eye-opening piece by James Kirchick. It’s about Trump’s support on the left. There’s a lot of it, and it makes sense. Especially in the realm of foreign policy.
One of the things I learned from Jamie is that, in 2013, Trump praised Putin for knocking President Obama. What had gotten Vlad’s goat? Obama had spoken of America as an exceptional nation.
Interesting. Conservatives have long knocked Obama for not acknowledging or respecting America as an exceptional nation.
Trump was 100 percent with Putin. The term “American exceptionalism,” said Trump, is “very insulting, and Putin really put it to him about that.”
More Trump:
… if you’re in Russia, you don’t want to hear that America is exceptional. And if you’re in many other countries, whether it’s Germany or other places, you don’t want to hear about “American exceptionalism,” because you think you’re exceptional. So I can see that being very insulting to the world.
And that’s basically what Putin was saying, is that, you know, you use a term like “American exceptionalism,” and frankly, the way our country is being treated right now by Russia and Syria and lots of other places and with all the mistakes we’ve made over the years, like Iraq and so many others, it’s sort of a hard term to use. But other nations and other countries don’t want to hear about “American exceptionalism.” They’re insulted by it. And that’s what Putin was saying.
Very nice. And I can understand it from a poli-sci prof at Brown (in different language). But from the man who, three years later, would become the Republican presidential nominee?
The embrace of Donald J. Trump by American conservatives – millions and millions of them, intellectuals and rank ’n’ file – is one of the damnedest things I ever saw.
***
Is it dangerous for Trump to claim that the election is rigged? Well, it is certainly standard – standard for him. That’s the same thing he said during the primaries and caucuses, when he was losing ground. The elections are rigged, the system is rigged. Then he came back to win it all, of course – win the nomination.
Apparently, the idea of losing is so intolerable to him, he must claim he is cheated. He can never lose, you see; he can only be cheated. I believe this mindset is dangerous in a leader, but that’s a different discussion.
Back to my earlier question: Is it dangerous for Trump to claim that the election is rigged? Dangerous to our democracy? Well, I think of a wolf-crying problem. Sometimes, in some places, elections are rigged. And there may be some serious rigging in our future. (Just play with me here.) What will people say then? They could well mutter, or snort, “That’s what Trump said.”
The rigging of an election is a serious charge. You’d better have a leg to stand on.
***
I have some more questions: When Trump talks about international bankers and a dark plot against American sovereignty and all that – does he know what he is doing? Does he know the anti-Semitic baggage of such talk, or is he innocent of it?
When he said, earlier on, “America First,” did he know the history?
I don’t think so, really. I don’t think he’s anti-Semitic (though he certainly attracts that kind of support). I think he is simply ignorant and demagogic. But I don’t really know.
***
By the way, I have never really gotten a straight and satisfying answer on something: When Trump and his folk talk about “globalism,” what do they mean? Trade? Alliances? Something else? Does “globalism” play the role – the odorous role – that “cosmopolitanism” once did? WTF?
“America First” is posited against “globalism.” Trump and his spokesmen will often say, “We’re for America First, not globalism.” I wonder whether they know what they are saying.
***
I was thinking last week about poor John Edwards. He was too early. The bar is so much lower now. I guess Trump folk would say he was the victim of “moral preening.”
That’s what I often hear: that if you object to Trump’s behavior, you are “morally preening.”
***
One of his defenses against the sexual accusations against him is, I would never have, she’s far too ugly.
I imagine this has sway with some. And not with others.
***
You know who was really too early? Gary Hart. That ride on Monkey Business – it seems positively quaint. Autres temps, autres mœurs.
***
A final question for you: If Trump loses the election, how long before he is back in the Democratic party? Six months? Less? Before Inauguration Day? To ponder …
Published in General
Guess you’ve missed that David Duke is running for office again, and Donald Trump has been endorsed by the KKK. Plus you know “Alt Right” leader Steve Bannon going “full Leninist” with Trump.
This is Trump’s Party.
Well, not now. You people pushed a man who connected the GOP with David Duke and the alt-right movement. Instead of the GOP being seen as the “right” party, it’s now the “white” party. The mostly elderly white male party, since Trump is losing white males under 35.
Betraying GOP? Sunshine, the RNC has defended Trump ever since Indiana. Reince stopped the movement to let the delegates pick the candidate. Despite the fact Trump only won 44% of the primary vote. They’ve since continued to support him to this very day. You people are the new GOP establishment. Your group lost the debate on immigration, because they’ve tied it to race, and Trump is going to lose the election. Mostly because Trump is a 13 year old emotionally.
I really hope you don’t go, at least for long. Things will be so much better after the election is over. We need people like you around so we can have fun here again.
Mostly because Trump is a 13 year old emotionally.
I have had the pleasure and privilege to teach some fine 13-year olds, and I can tell you that Trump doesn’t rise to their level of maturity, empathy, and decency.
Yes. When the Trump supporters say that Trump is the anti-establishment candidate, I honestly have no idea what they are talking about. Once Trump became the presumptive nominee, the RNC ushered Trump to the nomination. John Boehner is Trump’s golfing buddy, and strongly preferred Trump over Cruz. Mitch McConnell is not exactly an outspoken critic or Trump. Paul Ryan endorsed him, then when he backed out of campaigning with Trump, he was called a traitor. The establishment just wants candidates that win for them, and when Trump is winning they like him just fine.
I’m not a principled voter. I think voting is just about picking the least bad option to stop the worst option. But I don’t see Trump as being a better option than Hillary. He’s really good at wrecking Republicans, but I have yet to see him apply this ability effectively on Democrats, and I don’t think I’m going to. With every bit of political oxygen he gets, he damages conservatives even more, and the best thing to do at this point is to deny him as much political oxygen as possible.
Have I missed a critical piece of data somehow? Our nation is still predominantly white, not that that is important to those of us who appreciate MLK’s wisdom, and I sort of like having our nation, and if supporting and admiring it is “nationalist”, well then I guess I’m a white nationalist. Bringing David Duke up in the same sentence is a slur that I’m not keen to endure. Watch your language.
I don’t believe people understand how close we were, to a conservative Congress, a conservative SC, and the right reclaiming the White House. Then 14 million GOP/Democrat/Indie voters threw that all away in the primaries because they felt “angry”.
Now we are going to lose the WH, the Courts, and possibly the Congress if this conman keeps crying about how Paul Ryan doesn’t love him enough.
Meanwhile Steve Bannon (a legend in his own mind) thinks if we can just yell about Bill Clinton enough we can replay the 1998 elections, but “get it right” this time, as if it almost worked back then. Of course the cargo shorts wearing moron seems to have forgotten that we lost seats in 1998 using this exact playbook! But this time Bannon’s going to rally the InfoWars crowd, and a couple of alt-right racist, and that’s going to make the difference. He’s ruined Andrew Breitbart’s name solely so he can pretend he’s the new Karl Rove.
In the end we lost this so a few middle aged, and elderly white men could relive their glory years of the 1990s, and “win” against Bill Clinton this time. It’s pathetic.
It’d help your cause Trinity if you understood what a “white nationalist” actually was. It’s someone who believes the United States was made solely for the benefit of white Americans, that all other races eventually must leave the country, and these alt right “white nationalist” are currently lead by men such as David Duke.
You want to use that label? Fine by me, but don’t then act shocked when people connect you with the people who actually are what you claim to be.
It’s like you are claiming to be a Stalinist, and then acting offended when someone says you like Joseph Stalin.
I’ll be back when I feel I can be fun again. Plenty of smart people here to sort the situation out and I don’t want to be part of the thought restructuring game with various factions discussing the values of their stances based on electoral votes and demographics. It will be a post mortem on Lady Liberty for some and general despair for others. Few will be in a good mood and I don’t feel like analyzing it all. I will study the HRC admin to see how she’s going to address medicine and firearms.
If Trump is beaten there will be an eternity of finger pointing that I can not be part of. When that dies down this place will be a happier one.
He deserves your vote. He deserves the vote of everyone who cannot face the fact that reality is ugly.
These strike me as wise words that speak directly to presidential election 2016. The fact that the GOP nominee is not heroic seems to be at the heart of your long lament. That was difficult for most of us to accept months ago but since then, many of us have come to believe that the greater threat to our nation than the chaos of a hapless Trump presidency would be a well-established, lawless Progressive to follow Obama’s eight years of thoroughly politicizing, mobilizing, and deputizing every agency of government. Clearly, you and Mona see it differently. But we must all accept the fact that Americans will not have a Conservative in the White House in 2017; nor will we have a heroic president.
BTW I have long admired and sincerely enjoyed your writing. I’m looking forward to your Hillarypalooza post!
Well reasoned and written Jay. Thank you for contributing to Ricochet. Really appreciate all the hard work you have done over the years for Conservatism. Never more so than right now when the Republicans and Democrats have picked such unfit and unworthy candidates.
A fine point if the world stops in January 2020. But with Trump’s hapless Presidency paving the way for a hard left progressive, more effective and empowered than Hillary ever would be. I don’t see how Trump changes the game for us. We put up a hapless man for four years that paves the way for a more complete Democrat victory? Where is the win in that?
Actually, this mess came about because the GOP didn’t throw all of their weight behind Jeb! at the start of the process, unlike Romney in 2012. If they did, there wouldn’t have been 15 people in addition to him and Trump on the debate stage. Somebody would have told the other “establishment-RINO wing” candidates like John Kasich to get out of his way.
I’m not saying they should have; that would probably still have ended badly.
The elephant in the room (no pun intended) is that if John Boehner really wanted to “shove” comprehensive immigration reform “down our throats” like the Trumplings insist, he could have done it. Between the squishes and the Democrats he had the votes. He chose not to pass it. Why? Because the people didn’t want it!
Oh, by the way, Mark Krikorian writes for NR. The smear that they are for open borders is simply ludicrous.
If the conspiracy theory were true – if Trump were a Clinton plant sent to destroy the Republican party – what would he be doing differently?
I can’t think of anything.
This has been the weirdest election cycle in my lifetime. I’ve seen so many people who I never would have expected to chuck their principles overboard do so. It’s like the zombie apocalypse started and took political form. “Oh, no, they got X!” or “Wow, always thought that Y could run faster than a pack of zombies. Shows what I know.”, but at least at the end of all of this I can still say that they never got @jaynordlinger.
There’s a reason I’ve periodically described myself over the years as a @jaynordlinger conservative. One of the things I appreciate most about Jay’s work has been shining the light of truth on everything that goes on in Cuba. I hope you live to see a free Cuba someday, Jay. You’ve certainly earned a trip to a free Cuba so you can see the fruits of your labor.
Not just you but all of NR, and every #NeverTrumper here. We’ve all been against Hillary Clinton far longer than Donald Trump has. My very first vote was to remove her husband from office in 1996.
My first presidential vote was to keep her husband out of that office in the first place. (Heavy Sigh)
This is the part I don’t get—the notion that Jay (et al?) are “giddy” over the prospect of a Trump loss, or are looking forward with pleasure to…well, to anything. I’ve listened/read to Mona and Jay and other #NeverTrumpers and to me they sound anything but happy or triumphant.
This. I understand being a reluctant Trump voter (well, not really, but people who arrive at this conclusion are weighting factors differently than I am, and I can understand that), but the usual suspects in my life who called me a RINO and questioned how I dare call myself a conservative before this year and are now all in for Trump. If they try to be the voice of conservatism after the election, well, they have lost all credibility with me.
I’m hoping that all the passionate argumentation we’ve been enduring here for the past six months or so will shorten up the mourning period after the election is over?
There’s more than a little projection going on there.
I’m unclear on what has changed. @jaynordlinger strikes me as being unwaveringly consistent in his views, and his reaction to Trump’s campaign is entirely consistent. Perhaps, now that “Trumpsters” are in the spotlight of Jay’s formidable gaze, you don’t like the challenge?
That’s not an accusation, but an honest question — who has changed?
Thanks, Jay. I agree with all you say. I voted absentee ballot and sent it in. I left the space blank for president. People can rant and rave all over me. But I’m sticking with principles. We can’t always have everything we want in terms of maintaining our principles, but I can’t give up as many as it would have required to vote for Trump. And I’ll live with the outcome. Thanks to you and Mona for speaking for me.
As a former fan of Derbyshire, I wonder how foretelling of this grand schizm we find ourselves in when NR kicked him out.
It’s like a slow, slow backslide into Bircherism.
I stand with you Jay. I greatly appreciate the fire you have weathered for this cause, and respect that you have stood your ground despite the real losses it has inflicted on your readership.
I for one hope that most of us can reconcile once this is over. The one exception is the Hannity’s, the people who for years, if not decades, told us character matters and conservatism matters, and then embarrassed themselves by falling all over Trump for ratings. I’m not talking people like VDH who is trying to make the best of a bad situation. I’m talking those who sold out their own beliefs to bow before a false God, and spent much of the past year defending the indefensible. They should never again be allowed influence over the conservative movement.
How disappointed I was to hear Derb on the Harvard Lunch Club podcast. @michaelstopa questions why so many on the right still reject Trump, and Derb just turned it into “Jews”.
I respect those who are voting and leaving the president slot blank. Although I think early voting is nuts. I only did it once for a state election as I was going to be out of the country.
I’ve asked this question several times and never gotten an answer from anyone. What would you do if you were me? Who would you vote for? My husband and I both work in highly regulated industries for business owners who are ready to walk away, we have two sons in the Marine Corps, a daughter with a baby and one on the way who is trying to navigate Obamacare without success.
Would you leave that line on your ballot blank knowing that HRC would therefore be your sons’ commander in chief?
You’ve seen the downward spiral Derb has been on since NR booted him? At first I gave him the benefit of the doubt even if I disagreed with him, but his new home on the white identity politics alt-right has corrupted him immensely.
One tiny orange finger… ;)