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Trump. What Else?
I’ve been a Ricochet member for years (love the podcasts!) but this is my first post. Please be gentle. This article inspired a bit of political stream of consciousness in my head that I wanted to write down.
I’m not a Trump fan. I don’t think I’ve made that a secret to anyone who knows me–and thanks to social media, to several people who don’t know me. I don’t think that he’s evil incarnate, or that he is an existential threat to civilization; I don’t think he’s a racist (although he has–intentionally or unintentionally–played into some scary white nationalist stuff). I just think he’s an uncurious, philandering, serial-exaggerating (okay, lying), anti-intellectual, big government-supporting, insecure, hubristic, vainglorious buffoon. I mean, who gives himself a “10 out of 10” on anything? Humility is a virtue, Mr. President. Try it on for size some time. “I have the best hurricane response. It’s tremendous. No other president has ever responded to a hurricane, if you want to know the truth. It’s yuge.” Etc., etc.
Those of us on the center-right who haven’t embraced Trump find ourselves in a weird space. (My favorite is when a Trump fan accuses me of being a RINO, when Trump was a Republican for what, five minutes before he announced?) Occasionally he does something that I support without reservation (Neil Gorsuch, anyone?). Then he says things that make me cringe. Then he says things that make me think that he has never really had any serious thoughts about serious issues, that he has no under-riding, guiding philosophy of life. I could be wrong; I only report what I observe.
I’m a conservative, not a populist; a patriot, not a nationalist. Populism and nationalism are dangerous impulses.
I also sometimes think that my friends on the left have learned nothing from 2016, and that they may as well be actively working for the Trump 2020 campaign. The whole #takeaknee thing comes to mind. At first, I thought Mr. Trump was foolish to pick a fight with the NFL, but he seems to have won this battle in the culture wars.
I’d like to post more often, and be involved in more conversations. Thanks for reading.
Published in Politics
Jump in the water is fine. Good to hear your opinion. Mine aren’t much different.
Welcome Jeff! Now you should probably close the blast doors…
Sounds as if you are where many of us are. I’m probably slightly more “pro-Trump,” but only because the Progressives are exposing themselves by going crazy with every move he makes. He has been like a cataclysmic charge planted to blow up the Left.
No one has explained what is so dangerous about these.
So what is the difference between a patriot and a nationalist? There is no difference as far as I’m concerned. Buckley had it wrong and Reagan had it right.
Welcome to the fray. What makes you think he’s “vainglorious”?
OK, ignore that. I have my own issues with Trump, but hasn’t he gotten rid of the “big government-supporting” tag yet? I see signs of exaggeration, insecurity and hubris in his social media interactions, but some of the other assessments seem overly harsh for this Trump. I still wish he’d talk a lot less bombast, but, once one recognizes that “hubris” is the unfortunate order of the day among our political class, the judgment loses much of its sting. And I really don’t think that “buffoons” achieve his measure of success.
This would be a worthy topic for its own post. As it is, I’ll take a stab at it:
I understand “populism” as a belief in leading by the wishes of a simple majority of the people, of an unconstrained “direct” democracy with few (or no) safeguards against the passions of the crowd. Recognizing that I’m a “conservative” in the English Tory-Edmund Burke school, the prospect of a direct democracy tends to make me a bit squeamish.
I associate “nationalism” with a belief in leading through identity as members of a “nation,” a people connected by ties of common language, ancestry, shared history, and perhaps most significantly, shared struggle against authority. I understand “nationalism” to be distinct from “patriotism” in that it elevates membership in “the nation” to the level of being a requirement for inclusion in the community, as opposed to having an identity founded upon inclusion with the community based upon geographic identity.
It seems to me that nationalism need not be inherently dangerous. If fused with a healthy patriotism, what is the conflict? However, when nationalism comes into tension or cross-purposes with patriotism, trouble can ensue.
Welcome Aboard Jeff!
Welcome, @jeffdavis!
…Your full name isn’t Jefferson Davis, is it?
The reason is because people like ambiguity rather than clarity.
For example: National Socialism vs International Socialism — what’s the difference? The latter one kills more people — other than that there’s not much difference except for the type or class of people killed.
Well they haven’t stopped, I guess you can consider the decline in viewership to be a victory, but then again viewership was down last year too before the whole kneeling thing happened. So it ain’t that cut a dry why the viewership is down. Now it is clear Republicans now think less of the NFL and are less inclined to watch, but what is the victory here if in the end the NFL just goes belly up? Now you have no Football. This also goes with all of the late night stuff too. You turn off the TV but Jimmy Kimmel don’t care he seems willing to live with less just to make his point. If you take your ball and go home have you really showed anyone anything if they didn’t want you there anyway?
I some times wonder if anything can really be learned from the 2016 race. I’m still looking for some way to prove it wasn’t a fluke that he won. The contradiction of expectations makes it seem like it must mean something but the margin is small enough that it could just be noise. Someone had to win after all, and the real lesson is that it was in fact a coin toss. But if it was a coin toss than either could have won.
Welcome to Ricochet posting. I am glad you decided to jump in.
We aren’t in a direct democracy, so you still have nothing to really fear. Our Representative government still provides checks and balances on the president, whether the electoral college represents a check on direct democracy or not, right?
The way I see this used currently is to describe any position that is popular among the rubes that both parties have abandoned. Is that it? Is anything and all things that come from the common people to be rejected as illegitimate because of its “populist” roots? What kind of intellectual rigor is that?
I don’t like the idea of my “betters” dismissing popular ideas that arise from grass-roots because it didn’t come out of some obscure and isolated think tank.
Another delightful sobriquet: Trumpie. Please…
First question: Would you rather Hillary was president?
It was a stupid question. Any answer less than a 10 out of 10 open you up to criticism. I think he gave a stupid question the stupid answer it deserved.
Yep. The Left simply does not understand that they are more responsible for Trump’s presidency than any other group. Their collective hubris was Hillary – and she ran straight into the buzzsaw of her nemesis, Trump.
I probably enjoy way too much that Hillary lost to Trump, and that will be her political legacy for all time. Yeah, I’m definitely going to have to do more time in Purgatory for my glee. Hillary gets the last
laughcackle.Welcome to the stage, Jeff. Hope to see more of you.
Very well said – hear, hear!
Trump is a blunt instrument. He has no magnanimity, and he’s completely without political correctness. We take the bad with the good.
You missed “inarticulate.”
Great first post, Jeff.
As I have said before, the trick is to stop listening to what Trump says and only watch what Trump does. So far I have been pretty happy with the actions that the Trump administration has taken.
Totally agree!
All of these posts are pretty much the same: I am a member of the Hate Trump religion, preaching how much I hate his guts, 24/7. I do not care if America is a million times better today than it was a year ago, I hate him I hate him I hate him and nothing will ever change that. No matter how much my family and I benefit from the great changes we are seeing to this great country as a result of his Presidency, such as the coming tax cuts and the border wall going up, I will not change my tune because I hate him. Oh, and he put catsup on steak, so I hate him.
Well to be fair it’s a version of what people did with Obama, don’t you think?
As Nancy Pelosi reminded us several times early in the Obama administration, “Elections have consequences.”
Of course not. Obama was a Communist who was intent on doing all he could to destroy the Constitution. He wasn’t hated because of the way he talked or tweeted. He was trying to “transform” America into a terrible place. You think it was about personality? Really?