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Advice to Trump Critics: Breathe
My latest column for USA Today explores the beltway class’s hysterical outrage every time Donald Trump gives a speech, takes a meeting, or tweets, well, anything.
His detractors were outraged by how long it took Trump to make Cabinet nominations, then a few days later switched their outrage to his actual choices.
They were outraged that a tiny meeting of “alt-right” racists praised him. When Trump condemned the wannabe Nazis, the press blamed his supporters for falling for “fake news” and something called “Pizzagate.”
Can you believe what Trump said to Pakistan’s prime minister — or that he accepted a congratulatory call from Taiwan’s president? What will the totalitarians in China think?
But none of that pearl-clutching compared with the outrage over Trump’s tweets about flag burning or recounts or China or Hamilton or “Saturday Night Live.” Sad!
But let me offer a little friendly advice: Breathe.
Some commenters replied, “Oh yeah, what about Republicans responding to Obama?!” While Republicans didn’t burn down our own cities and attack cops, a few cooked up conspiracy theories and compared him to Hitler (as has happened to every president of the past 50 years). But Obama used those people to define his entire opposition, which played into his hands. Meanwhile, his level-headed critics blocked any major legislative accomplishment for his last six years, introduced poison pills for Obamacare, and won electoral wipe-outs for both midterms.
If Trump critics’ primary goal is emotional venting, by all means perform a week-long St. Vitus dance every time the President-elect makes a grammatical error on Twitter. But if they want to prevent Trump from exceeding his constitutional authority, they might want to keep their powder dry until he does something that matters.
Published in Politics
Jon, there you go ruining all our fun. Giving sound advice to the other side.
I actually believe the silliness is accelerating rebirth of the Democrat party as a more worthy opposition. Their lack of bench means a takeover by new blood will be that much easier. I expect to confront a combination of working class progressivism coupled with kill the rich statism.
It will be imperative for the GOP to prove itself to the working class and extend that to working class of all colors and genders or they will lose an opportunity to move the country to the right.
I don’t think the Dems have hit bottom yet, TKC1101.
All the breathless angst and swooning is hilarious, and is furthering their distance from reality. Reality is what has taken them out of the game. Let them continue to bleat! We’ll see in a couple of years if they have regrouped at all. With the media Trojan Horse having been made into soap, they’ll have to get serious if they want to re-attract the the working class silent (sometimes) majority.
I’m still in HDAHA mode!
Simple test, similar to a remark by Charles CW Cooke (a fellow NeverTrump/Trump skeptic:
If this move could have been done by Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio, then quiet down and consider it the price of a Republican president.
If it is unique to the indignity and arrogance of The Donald, then go ahead and criticize.
So far, there are some actions to reasonably criticize and some that are standard conservatism. Overall I’m pleasantly surprised by the latter, and the left is going nuts by the former.
Their already slim credibility is slipping away. But it really cleans up my Facebook feed!
I find myself in an odd position. Well, maybe it isn’t odd, judge for yourself.
When I read the news about Rex Tillerson the first thing I said was “Ok, who is Rex Tillerson?” Then I went and I looked up who he is. And then I said “Wait, this guy for State? That makes sense, how?” Then I said to myself “Well, what do you want in a Secretary of State?” So I went and did a little reading on the Secretary of State. And then I said to myself. “Well, anyone with reasonable intelligence, and understanding of the world, and good people skills could do that job. It doesn’t have to be a politician. And anyone who’s run a company that does business in a bunch of foreign countries should do all right. Then I went again and read about his political views and found the guy to be pretty much the typical big business, establishment Republican. And I don’t use the word establishment in a negative way. So I came to the conclusion: let’s just see how he does. Anything this side of lying about entering a country under sniper fire, lying about a video, or using a personal email server for State business, should be an improvement over Obama’s first Secretary of State.
Here is what is odd. When Obama became president my knee jerk response to everything was just what the liberals are doing now: everything is wrong. I didn’t need to do any reading, whatever he does is of course wrong. Go back eight years before that to the transition between Clinton and Bush, it was the same but opposite. I was at that time just past my thirtieth birthday.
Now I’m 47, a little bit smarter, a little bit wiser. Now I sort of feel that, with each thing Trump does I need to do some reading, some thinking, and come to a conclusion. I guess that isn’t odd. It’s the way it should be. But, hey, I’m not as smart as the rest of you, so it takes me longer.
Can we keep the James Taylor songfests, though?
Only if he sticks to material from his first album.
The sides are drawn and while not everyone has to choose a side it’s important to know what each side stands for. One stands for evil and has no moral constraints. Most of the media are aligned with them. I’m still figuring the Trump administration out. Time will tell.
I like to separate my music and my politics.
I’m dazzled and loving it all. Good advice to the opposition Jon, but they won’t be listening. Still, you are on record, which is worth something.
Just today, we had Kanye West and Bill Gates saying nice things (diversity much?). It’s going to be spectacular. The common thread I see with the picks is; basic competence, outside-the-box thinking, a refreshing lack of academics, only a smattering of political favors – no Christie (yea!) no Romney at State (yippie-kai-yea!) and a nice dose of irreverence.
For everything that Trump does that you don’t like, just ask yourself: “Would Hillary have done something I would like better?” If the answer is “no”, just relax — the Trump election was still better than the alternative. If, the answer is “yes”, then ask yourself: “Are you sure?”
Sorry, this doesn’t apply. It’s no longer a question of Trump versus Hillary. We’ve decided that. Now it is question of Trump and the job. I’ll assess his performance against what I think is required of him, not against what Hillary might have done.
Fair enough. I would never assume otherwise. We dodged a bullet, celebrated, now is time to move forward after a decade stuck in the trenches.
I will judge by movement in the right general direction.
My expectations are low. On some issues my hopes are high though and I want him to do a good job. It was always about the supreme court for me.
Hillary would have done worse on every issue at every moment and in every way possible. We are lucky beyond compare to be rid of her.
We can measure Trump over time and in a variety of ways. We will never see a more criticized person in America than Donald Trump and those making their living doing it are frequently making themselves look foolish. We should laugh at them as much as possible when they are foolish.
I took this as a lighthearted, fun comment, and it made me smile… “Are you sure?”
Well, it does apply any time commentary is accompanied by “I didn’t vote for him” virtue signalling. Conservatives who can’t admit to being wrong not to vote for him (in the general), and insist on announcing that, are telling their readers “my judgement was and still is flawed, but you should trust what I think of …”.
Not to mention his current Secretary of State consorted with the enemy during a time of war. Anything is better than those two.
That’s what I keep saying. The state of policy, as implemented, is not “right.” Success will see it move to the right. It won’t move as far right as I want it to move. But if it moves in a meaningful way, the I will be happy.
Volunteering to be the poster boy? Announcing one’s pride in not voting for Trump (in the general) is a neon sign on one’s forehead saying “My judgement can’t be trusted”. I don’t see why this is surprise to NTs.
And it doesn’t much matter whether the NT stance was party politics, rejection of the Republican party specifically, heightened sensitivity to racism or misogyny or whatever the outrage of the day was in the media, ignorance or confirmation bias, or the supposed freedom of being in a non-battleground state. The net result of whatever thought processes were employed was that acceptance of Hillary as CinC was more important than the “dishonor” of voting for Trump. Until NTs figure out that their judgement was flawed, or at least quit reminding us of their flawed judgement, the rest of us will trust their opinions less.
What DocJay said.
And….we’re back to that.
I didn’t vote for him. I don’t give a damn what you think about that. I’m not going to rehash it. It’s time to move on.
It seems to me that you are the only one who is making a big deal out of it. And every time someone dares to criticize Trump you toss them in the same bin with the left. Again, time to get over it.
This is so completely wrong it’s hardly worth replying to. Stop submitting your own ideas of motivations for others. They have always been and always will be wrong. Beating Clinton is only one part of the process. If Trump fails at the rest he’s still a failure, regardless of the electoral win. So far so good, but only time will tell. Conservatism is the measure, not democrats.
It’s just the same old argument, isn’t it, KP? “You are doing what? Why, that can only be because you eat crackers in bed!” Sheesh…
Yup, we’re back to that. Because NTs aren’t moving on. They insist on announcing their vote, with the implication they don’t regret it. That really is virtue signalling, and the rest of us reject it. @exjon included a paragraph in his article signalling his virtue. He hasn’t moved on, either.
That’s not at all what I’m doing, and I think you know that.
I’m there. Many NTs aren’t.
You realize that in a bar the term “virtue signaling” might get you punched in the face, right? It’s no less acceptable in this format.
In the context, stating that one did not vote for Trump signals not virtue but states that one has no personal attachment to the outcome of Trump’s actions. A person who did vote for Trump owns part of Trump’s behavior and might be expected to cheer just about anything. A person who has no part of Trump and yet lauds worthy decisions is doing so without personal bias for the decision.
It’s an accurate description of behavior that uses no vulgar terms. It’s not in the Ricochet CoC. I reject your authority to declare it’s use unacceptable. While this isn’t a bar, I also reject your opinion that these are fighting words.
Oh, Puh-leeze. I don’t own Trump’s behavior because I voted for him, no more that I own GWB’s good and bad policy decisions because I voted for him. When anyone lauds or criticizes a politician, describing one’s own political background and/or voting behavior is part of the persuasion on offer, and the reader/listener will roll that tidbit into their evaluation of the argument. For us simple-minded party types in the general population, it’s a tribal declaration that turns off outsiders. In this specific case, it places the NTer in the amorphous blob of fringe third parties, and therefore wise to ignore.
If it describes any behavior it is your own. You cannot know the motives of others. It’s called projection.
My comment hearkened back to the word in the title to the OP: “breathe”. No one is expecting any conservative to accept Trump’s policies uncritically. But there should be a recognition that our mental health in 20017 should be better than it was in 2013. An Obama-Hillary 12-year reign would have been an absolute nightmare, with unremitting despair for our republic.
All I am saying is give yourself a break. I know I was really getting down anticipating a Hillary victory. So this is all about our mental state, not about how much progress we will make in recovering our republic. Whatever progress we make will be miles better than it would have been (IMO). That makes me happy. So when Trump does something that is less than optimal — and he will (even Reagan did) — I will have less despair knowing that it could have been worse.