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VDH on DJT
For those of us who are not followers of National Review, NRO currently has a fascinating article titled “The Endless Ironies of Donald J. Trump” by Victor Davis Hanson, as sensible a commentator as can be found anywhere. I don’t recall whether he was a never, or a reluctant Trumper, but his current observations are really a must-read. His concluding paragraphs:
Never have so many bright people proved so dense. Never have polls and politics proved so unreliable or partisan. Never have unintended consequences so replaced predictable results.
Yes, we are in chaos, but we sense also that the pandemonium is purgative of the worse that prompted it — and it is unpleasant mostly because it has so long been overdue.
Read the whole thing.
Published in Politics
The National Review article is excellent and I will re-read when I get home. Thank you for linking it. My husband, when I said maybe Trump wasn’t a good idea – everyone hates him and the country is in turmoil, said that Trump is an experiment. He’s a non-politician and thinks like a business man. He is results oriented, something Washington is not, and is implementing what the voters asked him to. It will be ugly. It will take time.
I agree. And the author of the NR story was a good reminder.
My favorite thing about VDH is that he always seems completely grounded and sees things clearly. For a hyper intellectual, he has never lost his connection to his farming roots.
I’m not trying to stir the ‘never Trump’ debate, his words not mine:
the Never Trump position has now receded to a simpler proposition: The uncouth character of Donald J. Trump is not worth the conservative agenda that he may well enact, as we all will eventually and inevitably learn. Or how can conservative moralists stomach such a supposedly immoral incarnation of their own views?
Also was pleased with his phrasing in using the term “Always Trump”. I think it captures the extremes of both sides, never/always.
VDH: “Despite prognostications that Trump was a liberal wolf hiding in conservative fleece, Trump’s appointments, his executive orders, his legislation pending before the Congress, his abrupt withdrawal from the Paris global-warming accords, his fierce support for vouchers, his pro-life advocacy, and his immigration normality were so far orthodoxly conservative.”
Many people prognoticated that Trump was a liberal wolf – I was one of them. Also, while the actions VDH describes are orthodoxly conservative, I would argue that there is no one in the Republican primaries who could have accomplished this much. Those are conservative priorities. Not typically Republican ones.
VDH: “The large minority of conservative Trump supporters who did not join him in the primary are thus confused now.”
Yes. I am. Cautiously optimistic, but confused.
VDH: “Never have so many bright people proved so dense. Never have polls and politics proved so unreliable or partisan. Never have unintended consequences so replaced predictable results.”
As one of the dense people he describes, I completely agree. I thought the election of Trump was a missed opportunity for conservatives. I voted for him because I viewed him as a better risk than Hillary, but I thought that nearly anyone else in the Republican party would have been preferable. VDH suggests that I may have been mistaken. I’m beginning to agree with him.
Trump is a hard guy to like. For me, at least. But perhaps he is exactly what we need right now. I hope VDH turns out to be correct. We’ll see…
As a Reluctant Trump, I found VDH to be dead on. Yes, many of Trump’s morning tweets make me cringe, but I have to cut him slack considering how many times in the past year DJT was proven right, and I was wrong. And he is certainly driving the MSM insane while charting a new way of communications.
Still too early to tell.
Dr. Victor Davis Hanson is a national treasure. He has been spot on throughout this silly season as a voice of reason from the punditocracy of the right, where “so many bright people proved so dense”.
I find it highly accurate (and gratifying) that VDH breaks out those who prefer to give our President the benefit of the doubt into two groups … Always Trump and Trump Far Better than the Alternative. These are two very different segments of GOP voting blocs. Conversely, the Orphaned Never Trump are homogeneous and unified around detesting “such a supposedly immoral incarnation of their own views”. And such orphans insist on not recognizing the above two segments. Rather they wish to lump the “Trump Far Betters” in with the Always and insist that we are all zombies that 1) say Trump has never made a mistake; 2) are mindless sycophants; 3) have adopted a messianic approach to this presidency and 4) we demand loyalty and silence from fellow Republicans.
None of these strawmen are accurate. And it is why VDH feels compelled to keep pointing it out.
Hear, hear!
I think the reason for this disconnect for conservatives with regard to Trump is that they think that this is all a debate about ideas. It’s not about ideas — ideas are pushed forward as needed to communicate to the regular voters but that’s not where things get worked out.
The left knows this better than the right and that’s why they won’t debate things — the battle ground determines too much of the result, they don’t have sufficient control. They have, instead, spent all their efforts getting control of the media and other organs so that they don’t have to debate ideas but can just jam things down our throats.
This is certainly true and you’ve provided ample evidence. However, it is always the case that people tend to simplify and pigeon-hole the opposition. The Nevers (or ex-Nevers or whatever they are calling themselves these days) are also not a monolithic bloc and take umbrage at being reduced to a caricature. Prof. Hanson interacts with these folks on a regular basis and counts some as his friends so he has a more clear-eyed view of them.
But make no mistake, they are the opposition. That’s one feature they do have in common.
Amen.
Yes.
VDH is indeed a national treasure, even willing to beard the lion in his den…. I about keeled over in delight at:
{ giggle snort chuckle }
I think this is a really important point. I realized I didn’t have much in common when they said they were content to “let the chips fall where they may.” I definitely want the chips to fall in such as was that my kids and theirs enjoy the blessings of liberty and prosperity I’ve had.
For my POV, there are certain God-dictated principles that must never be violated. Because they’re literally dictated by God!
But on many others, I’m a bit more flexible. I certainly believe in the benefits of a free market, but I’m willing to fudge a bit in the service of some other benefit I perceive the country as needing. Same for matters of GDP and sundry other economic guesses.
As I was trying to say:
when you hear people say, Was Gorsuch worth it? or, was a ninety three percent drop in illegal borgder crossings worth it? Or was the decreased regulatory burden worth it?
What, may I ask, is IT?
Uncouth character? Vulgarity? I’m afraid he’s now been far outdone in those areas by Dems like Perez and Gillebrand.
VDH is right. Trump is the cure. He’s major surgery.
I kind of liked
the unpleasant castor oil that was long ago needed to break up and pass on a constipated, corrupt, and incestuous elite.
Guess what my next NeverTrump joke is going to be!
Please don’t use that over-extended metaphor as an excuse to make a s%#$y joke.
Yes, they have friends in the left in this. How much sharing of tactics goes on, I wonder. (Notice I didn’t say sharing ideas.)
Yes, I think I started to understand a great movement was underway when Trump won South Carolina and did better than Cruz with the evangelicals. That astounded me — it shows that these people are not prudes and not doctrinaire purists but people with their feet on the ground and also determined to make a change in this country. God bless them all for helping me understand what was going on and feeling the ground shift beneath my feet.
The best. Finest, most reasoned mind one is likely to encounter. We went to Hillsdale to meet and hear him. Took this photo as he prepared to address us.
Thanks for the pic. “The Thinker” — eh?
Afternoon Larry,
I can understand the Never Trumpers, but I do not understand what appealed or changed the minds of the evangelicals or other folks who were early supporters. Do you think that folks were so disappointed with Republican politicians that they went to Trump as the only completely non-politician. I did not imagine Trump would win but I am delighted by many of the things he has said, and done. Trump’s cringe-worthy behavior, or just as likely his low brow status causes his opponents to expose the true nature of their ugly, irrational hearts, for this he is not just a dose of Miralax but he is the colonoscopy which lights up the cancerous polyps which have been hidden from normal view, and if for no other reason he has been irreplaceable. What did some of the early supporters see which I did not? VDH has often compared Trump to a Sampson, not laser surgery but more like a hacksaw and cauterize. When did you choose Trump, I chose Trump after Walker, Rubio, and Cruz ran out of gas.
Seconded.
Lucky you. Great picture.
I just had a flash of a scene from the movie Helen Keller. When the teacher tries to work with Helen and a tumult to end all tumults ensues.
Our current day tumult applies to the Left’s unwillingness to let go.
And also possibly to DJT, and his unwillingness to reign in his mouth and his twitter account.
Seatbelt? Check.
Yes, me too. I stayed with Cruz to the very end.
But, I was already a begrudging admirer of Trump because of who his enemies were (are). So, it was easy to support him.
I’m with Rush Limbaugh: I got into this to defeat the commies on the left. The GOP leaders were getting out of that business fast and were busy creating little dark age caves to last through the famine. They make me sick. Trump just came out of nowhere. God bless him.
Our son had a wonderful exchange with VDH and expressed his gratitude for the wisdom and insight that Hanson’s essays and books have afforded him through the years and how profoundly it’s affected his attitudes toward life and world events.
My 2 cents
The evangelicals (I am one) I think realized that we live in a post Christian nation. Ted Cruz was my guy too, however a secular culture wasn’t going to have a fundamentalist lead them. Also the media has pigeon holed and demonized Christians successfully. In my opinion Cruz could not have won.
Another thing. Evangelicals have hitched there wagon to Conservative Inc. for as long as I can remember. What has it got them ? Nothin . I think a lot of them woke the hell up.
Donald Trunp is the gladiator who will fight to win. Other candidates were fervent, but maybe didn’t have the necessary blood lust.
Woe to him if he quits while the going gets tough.