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.
Inside the Mind of a Once Never-Trumper
A Monica Crowley article linked at RealClearPolitics Friday captures well my so far inarticulate thoughts toward Trump right now.
I was horrified when he became the Republican nominee. How could our party have pinned its hopes on someone so disreputable, so manifestly unprincipled, so low and gross? Why would anyone believe his promises? What in the world makes pro-lifers imagine he will follow through on anything? What has his whole life been about but self-aggrandizement at the expense of anyone who stands in his way?
Friends and others would point out that we weren’t electing just a president, but an entire administration; there would be good people keeping him in check. All I could think was A) he can’t possibly win, and B) he will ruin them all because that’s what narcissists do. Give them power, and they reward anyone who flatters them; they destroy anyone who won’t. Increasingly, they are surrounded by sleazy yes-men.
I sincerely believed that Trump would wreck what’s left of the Republican Party, the only viable political alternative (lame as it’s been lately) to galloping leftism. So, I couldn’t vote for him. I couldn’t vote for him any more than I could vote for Hilary Clinton. I stopped listening to Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin; I stopped going to the Drudge Report and Ricochet. It was too depressing to see so many former guiding lights defending the indefensible and touting the intolerable. The only commentators I could bear to read were people like David French and Jonah Goldberg, who saw it as I did.
Then, when he won, I was unexpectedly elated. Americans had risen up! Clinton, the Democrats, and their media sycophants had gone down! Hurrah! Happy day!
In the weeks and months following, I was glad to be in the position I was — surprised and delighted over every good bit of news and undismayed by the chaos, which is, of course, what you get when you elect someone like Trump. I liked being able to tell distraught friends and neighbors in my upscale part of Pennsylvania that I hadn’t voted for him. I thought their extreme distress was over the top and a bit ridiculous (it’s as if they took the word of his worst media detractors as literally true — as if he really were a white supremacist and a would-be fascist.) But I was glad to be able to offer at least that reassurance, so we could stay friends.
Two major streams of impressions in the time since have composed my current view.
1) Trump has been a far, far better president than I’d thought possible. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh! The embassy in Jerusalem! Roaring economy, actual border enforcement, goodbye to the egregious Iran deal and the asinine Paris accords, hello beefed-up military, movement in North Korea, calling Europe’s bluff — Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, General Mattis, John Bolton, Larry Kudlow — It’s all been much better than expected. There’s hope for American again.
I’ve had to revise practically all my opinions. Maybe the outward civility and personal rectitude of people like George W., Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Marco Rubio actually were a liability. Maybe “principled politicians” like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz really are insufferable and out of touch. Maybe we needed a crude, narcissistic president to make headway in a crude, narcissistic culture. And maybe Trump’s not as bad a person as I’d thought. Maybe he does have some core principles and values down there somewhere, under all the bluster and mess. In any case, he’s getting stuff done, and his media-baiting has served the good purpose of exposing their extreme bias, thank God.
2) His enemies have proven to be far worse than I’d imagined. I knew Obama was a covert narcissist and a leftist ideologue, a Marxist even. I knew he was governed by an evil worldview that saw America as needing to be taken down some pegs, while peoples marginalized by colonialism were given a leg up. I knew he’d set out to be the great un-Reagan and un-Churchill. He had a Saul Alinskite political MO: ends justify whatever means; isolate a target (like marriage) and destroy it. Pose as high-minded, even-keeled, and above the fray, while really being deeply nasty and harboring contempt for American institutions and the rule of law. And oppose all things Judeo-Christian and conservative, except insofar as they provide a handy cover for a leftist social justice agenda. I knew his appointees were bad guys — either ideologues like him, corrupt opportunists, or both.
But even I couldn’t have believed it was this bad — that the Justice Department and the FBI would shamelessly deploy the awesome tools of their trade to destroy Trump and elect Clinton, that the mainstream media would openly abandon even the pretense of objectivity to become flagrant propagandists while demanding the deference due to true reporters, that it would become almost impossible to have a conversation with an anti-Trumper (since to defend him is to be instantly shunned as a racist and a fascist), that so many of our institutions would be so decimated so fast.
Before the election, I thought the best-case scenario was that Trump would be elected and impeached so that we’d have a President Pence. I don’t think that anymore. Now nothing seems more important, more absolutely necessary, than keeping the House, preventing impeachment, and strengthening Trump’s hand. America seems to me on the brink of complete destruction, overwrought as that may sound. Allow the Democrats and the media to get away with this corruption, with Mueller’s search-and-destroy mission, and we’ll be lost for good. It’s weird and ironic, but true: our best hope for national salvation lies in rallying round Trump.
I’m back with Rush and Drudge and Ricochet. I’m practically stalking Mark Steyn and Victor Davis Hansen. Now it’s David French and Jonah Goldberg I can hardly stand to read. Forget about Commentary and The Weekly Standard. How can they not see what’s really going on here? Who cares how sleazy and corrupt Trump and his inner circle have been over the years? It’s nothing, just nothing in comparison with the depth and extent of the corrosion at the heart of things in Washington DC. If we care about our country, we’ll make electing Republicans this November our top priority.
That’s how I see it now. I bet I’m not alone.
Published in General
Very nice post, and one with which I largely agree. I perhaps have a higher opinion of Cruz and Rubio et al than you do, and a lower opinion of Trump-the-man, and probably see the Trump 2016 win as more a fluke of celebrity and a manipulative leftist press than of any intrinsic rightness of Trump, but we agree almost entirely about both our initial impressions and his performance in office. I remain pleasantly surprised — though not at all confident that things will continue in this vein.
But you very nicely summarized my position leading up to November 2016, my frustration with the GOP for letting a man like Trump dominate it and thus squander an opportunity to defeat a deeply mediocre Democratic candidate and put a man of sound conservative thinking in the White House.
I voted for McCain in 2008, holding my nose as I did so. I thought that was rough… until I voted for Trump in 2016. That was rough.
I like Cruz and Rubio. I was a Cruz supporter throughout the primary campaign. But I’ve come to doubt that they would have been able to win. I think I had underestimated the gut-level mistrust of politicians among especially blue color Reagan Democrat types. They seemed to have liked that Trump is a fighter, willing to stick it to the media and the elites.
Great post and comments.
I never had the horror of Trump that katiev and others have expressed, though I think I understand it. I voted for Trump in November without hesitation, though I didn’t vote for him in our state’s primary. I voted for Kasich because I liked him so much when he was in Congress. I had a sense that we are heading for some kind of ‘irrepressible conflict’ and I saw Kasich as a kind of middle-of-the-road compromise candidate. But, I must say, I like Trump’s bluster and in-your-face-style. I like that he says what he means. I think the behavior of his opponents tells us a great deal about who they really are and what they really think. Their plans for our country are absolutely horrifying. The Republican establishment and the conservative pundits who are so offended by Trump either don’t understand what we’re up against or they don’t care or they’re content to see the country wrecked. I like Trump because ‘he fights.’
I look at Trump as a Tribune who protects the interests of a constituency. I agree with katiev that he is all that stands between us and a great deal of trouble.
This is 3/4 my story, but I’m nowhere near 100% sold on Trump as a positive figure in U.S. politics. I still think that, as the least bad alternative to the nightmare that is the progressive-led Democratic Party, he’s a corrosive figure that is leading in one wrong direction away from another wrong direction, and that’s not a cause worth cheering for.
Here’s the challenge that prevents conservatives from unifying — both those who like and don’t like the President, but share a common revulsion toward leftism — to what extent should we corrupt ourselves in the fight against a relentlessly corrupt opponent, and at what point does our own corruption outweigh “winning?”
I don’t doubt that Trump was exactly who was needed in 2016 to wake up the GOP to new political realities and a more effective method of confronting the depth of entrenched lunacy on the other side, but if he’s also the “best” version of what we need, we may have already lost. If smarter, more ethical and more cunning GOP leaders can emerge from Trump’s shadow and carry on his battling spirit in more effective ways, great. But he’s not a savior, he’s a warning sign.
I don’t see how Cruz and Rubio run the table in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania: then or ever.
One wonders what arguments and challenges would have been presented to Mrs. Clinton had another candidate run against her, and how the voters might have responded. Counterfactuals are fascinating, but largely a waste of time.
He’s a voice in the wilderness.
Gary, it is crazy talk. Without question, the Russians preferred a Democrat become President, and Hillary in particular. Heck, the Democrat party has a history of sucking up to the USSR. Think of Ted “the red” Kennedy’s letter to the Soviet leadership about Reagan:
https://www.forbes.com/2009/08/27/ted-kennedy-soviet-union-ronald-reagan-opinions-columnists-peter-robinson.html#54ab810c359a
I see your point but it is the media itself that acts as if he is the first. Or the worst. Reaction to Trump has made stars of some of them.
Yes!
Conspiracy theories like @garyrobbins believe require no evidence. In fact, the less evidence there is, the more true it is.
You’re right, but both will run again. That’s a fact, not a counterfactual. One or both will probably be on the ballot in 2024. I’m curious about their path to victory in those states. What is it?
The rest of the sentence is as follows:
“While this sounds like crazy talk, it certainly is more likely than the Birthers and Truthers. (Does this make me a ‘Russier,’ a ‘Russierer,’ or a ‘Putiner’?) This is why it is critical for the Mueller Probe to continue, not just to protect the Rule of Law, but literally to determine if Trump lacks free will. I hope that this isn’t true, but he is the first President where this is, in my mind, an actual possibility.
So that you know, there is a legion of Dems who wholly believe that Trump is a Manchurian President.
I am voicing my suspicions and concerns. I hope that I am wrong. But to quote The Greatest President of the Twentieth Century, “Trust by Verify.”
You should compare the number of votes Ron Johnson got in his Wisconsin US Senate race to the number of votes Trump received in Wisconsin.
Ron Johnson received more votes than Trump.
Similarly in Florida, Rubio received more votes in his US Senate race than Trump did in his presidential race in Florida.
Same in Arizona. McCain got more votes in his US Senate race than Trump got in his presidential race in Arizona against Hillary.
So, this indicates that a Scott Walker or a Ted Cruz or a Marco Rubio or almost any other Republican would have won more votes than Trump.
Think about how many conservative voters would rather not vote for someone who says that a judge can’t be fair because “he’s a Mexican.”
There are a non-trivial number of regular Republican voters who don’t like to think that because they support a strong national defense and the free enterprise system that they have to vote for someone who traffics in anti-Mexican rhetoric.
The whole “We’re going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it” applause line at Trump’s rallies might have persuaded many conservative Republicans that Trump was whipping up anti-Mexican attitudes and decided to vote for Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, Marco Rubio in Florida and John McCain in Arizona but leave the presidential ballot blank.
Still, I agree that Trump has behaved as more of a conservative in office than his 2009 endorsement of Obama’s economic stimulus plan and his 2015 endorsement of single payer socialized medicine would indicate.
I don’t think that’s the stated or unstated purpose of the Mueller probe.
Moderator Note:
Answer: The CoC does not exist to enforce a viewpoint. Gary is being civil, and while he's getting close to fruitcake territory, this comment is no worse than other members' speculations. Ignore him or rebut him; moderators do not exist to silence people you don't like.If Ricochet can’t flag this crap under the CoC, then what’s the point of having one?
I’ll be happy to tell you — after you convince me that you know who will win in 2020.
Regarding the argument that neither Cruz nor Rubio nor Scott Walker could have won Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania . . . . .
Ron Johnson won reelection to the US Senate in Wisconsin. Pat Toomey won reelection to the US Senate in Pennsylvania.
So, these GOPe candidates were able to win in the rust belt, in both 2010 and in 2016.
The idea that there is a significant block of voters in America who will only vote for a Republican if he says that he can grab women by the genitals and get away with it because he’s a reality TV star doesn’t pass the laugh test.
I was careful to not assert that this is true, but that I have an articulable suspicion and concern.
The subject of this OP was “Inside the Mind of a Once NeverTrumper.” I was a NeverTrumper in 2016. I now vary between being a NeverTrumper and a severe Trump Skeptic, and I take pains to praise Trump for judges, regulations and taxes.
Specifically, as the OP was “Inside the Mind of” I was saying merely that my concern about Trump goes beyond personality, and even past character. to a concern over kompromat. This is a widely held view on the left, and I would suggest that more than a few conservatives wonder if Putin has kompromat on Trump. This is more than a wild conspiracy theory like Birtherism or Trutherism. Given that Trump was a Brither and Roy Moore still is a Birther, I think that concern over kompromat is legitimate. Are all of us who are concerned about kompromat to be banned under the CoC? I think not.
I lke Victor Davis Hansen’s analogy: Trump is like chemo therapy. He’s toxic, but necessary for ridding the body politic of a deadly cancer.
I’m with you there. I’m hoping Trump will win re-election, and then that he’ll be followed by a Pence/Haley ticket or something like that—a team that can genuinely express admiration for Trump’s real achievements, while raising the general political tone.
Jesse Ventura feels the way. Trump promised Ventura the VP spot and then let Jesse find out he wouldn’t get it through the media, rather than a phone call. A lot of people pay attention to Jesse, so it was not only a shame that Trump failed to mind his manners, and make that phone call — it was stupid.
It was also a betrayal. Ventura offered Trump a lot of decent campaign advice, including his explaining that it was smarter to use your own money rather than attending $ 15K per plate dinners for donors. He explained to Trump how he won his governorship of MN by holding rallies.
Hillary did the $ 15K on up dinners and held few rallies. Trump followed Ventura’s advice and won. I’d say he should have at least made a phone call.
I have a random factoid that this reminded me of. My brother is a medical doctor. He said that there appears a correlation that people who have had chemotherapy are less likely to get Alzheimer’s Disease, and that a doctor was cited for giving a patient chemo in an attempt to ward off Alzheimer’s Disease. Having had the joy of chemo, I don’t know if it is worth it. But you brought up the question of Trump was chemo. (Hopefully I won’t be chided for a violation of the CoC.)
Very well said.
I wouldn’t want chemo if I were healthy either. Nobody would. You only take it if the alternative is death.
What would you offer up as an example of “press.”? Or of journalism?
Just take the example of Brennan losing his security clearances for example. The “press” that most people who oppose Trump would cite is all very Main$tream journalism. All of them at NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN frothed at the mouth over poor lil itty bitty Brennan losing his security clearance. None of them even mentioned that he was the guy who approved of at least a dozen of visas of the hijackers active on Nine Eleven. So those of us who follow intelligent commentators like Bill Binney are more than aware that Brennan should have lost his clearance on September 15th 2001, at the latest.
As much as I support the Republican Party, I could not have voted for Trump with Jesse Ventura on the ticket although you are right that he should have at least called him to tell him. How do you know he actually offered the VP spot to Ventura? I don’t recall hearing this during the campaign, and I followed it closely.
Having had chemo, I wouldn’t ever want to do that again. (I stopped eating meat, which I enjoyed, when I was told that that would help prevent a reoccurrence of cancer.)
Moderator Note:
The change from "who" to "what" was all that was necessary to keep this comment from being a personal attack.Know
who[what] else doesn’t?Personally, I’d love it if Trump made an announcement tomorrow that he’s so sick of politics that he’s resigning so that he can get back to running his businesses full time. Mike Pence would become president and the GOP congress could place Nikki Haley in the Vice President spot.
Then we could have the positive aspects of the Trump presidency, the lower taxes, the conservative judges and the lower regulatory burden, while not having to deal with Trump’s compulsive stupidity.
Instead of having a President who sleeps with porn stars while his wife is carrying his baby, we’d have a President who does not have dinner with women other than his wife unless other people are around.
We’d have a pro-free trade president and a pro-NATO president. We’d have a president who is willing to say openly that Putin is a dictator and that there is no moral equivalence between the United States of America and Russia.
So, while I applaud many of the things that Trump has done, I have no loyalty to him as a person or as a President. I’d like to see him get out of politics and back to reality TV.
Moderator Note:
Ha ha.I have an articulable suspicion and concern
that you are a troll. But I’m being careful to not assert that this is true.