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A Change in Trump Skepticism?
I propose that for all of Trump’s many faults, he isn’t the kind of threat to democracy and democratic norms that the left is. Trump is often vulgar and he has, at times, devalued the office of the Presidency. But he has never broken any serious democratic norms. The left did so when they abandoned the presumption of evidence with Justice Kavanaugh. What’s worse, is that the left did so as a whole. If it was merely Senator Feinstein denying Kavanaugh a proper chance to defend himself, that wouldn’t indicate pervasive corruption on the Left. But a good deal more of the left than I ever would have suspected has abandoned the presumption of innocence for partisan politics.
Trump has often said things that I find abhorrent but his rudeness has not infected the larger American right. Furthermore, as the Nathan Blake, writing at The Federalist so eloquently described, “Trump will say anything, but Democrats will do anything. They and their media allies smeared a universally respected judge with an impeccable record as a serial sexual predator on evidence that would not have justified an indictment.”
Speech has always mattered but actions always matter more.
Blake’s fantastic column uncannily mirrored my own thinking.
I know we all have confirmation bias but I recommend reading the whole thing and dedicating a few thoughts to its implications. I especially like the strong ending.
There is no refuge from this sort of totalizing, destructive politics. The Republican rejection of Merrick Garland was political hardball; the sliming of Kavanaugh was categorically different and much worse. The Democrats crossed the line from policy disagreement to personal destruction, and in doing so they nuked any middle ground between themselves and conservative Trump skeptics. And they put every conservative on notice: You could be next…
I wish this was not so. I would rather be arguing about the Enlightenment than jumping on the Trump train. As a writer and scholar I want to persuade, not to destroy. I do not want American politics to be like this.
But as a voter who recognizes the unfortunate realities of our politics, I believe supporting Trump has become the responsible choice. Things may change, but right now Trump’s policies are better than I expected, he is not the authoritarian some feared, and he does not want to destroy me and mine. It isn’t much, but since Trump stands between me and those who would ruin me, he will have to do.
This is about self-defense. And that is why I’ve gone from “Meh” to “MAGA!”
Has anyone else’s mind been changed by the whole Kavanaugh thing? Mine most certainly has.
Published in General
Ted Cruz’s pa is the one that comes to mind.
Overall, though, I agree that Trump’s insults and jibes are nothing like what happened to Kavanaugh. If Trump had directed the FBI to start combing through Rafael Cruz’s past, and caused a public outcry that threated to ruin his career and reputation, that might be comparable.
Ok, fair point. I had forgotten that incident.
Just one more point about the left’s “just words” claim. The single greatest action by the left that set into motion the entire Kav saga was the withholding of the Ford letter throughout the initial Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. The concealment of the Ford allegations, an action by Feinstein, would later demonstrate the left’s orchestration of the Kav character assassination. I cannot accept that this can all be distilled down to “mean words” by any honest rationalization.
I feared Trump because of his association with New York Democrats and some things that sounded progressive especially during the campaign, but I’ve feared the direction the Democrats have been going for years. I’ve seen the far left, dictatorships, and deep corruption from different sources up close over my long life and experience living in about a dozen very different countries.
The left wing of the Democratic party is the real thing, dangerously totalitarian and dangerously corrupt. People who weakly embrace the Democrats are passively influenced by the leftwing monopoly in Hollywood, the media and many of our schools, and while they are not fanatics, not particularly political and can change, they will join the mob if it appears safer to do so. It’s what marxists call the correlation of forces– when it looks like the radical minority has the upper hand and is likely to win, or has already won, the unconscious risk reward calculations lead people to stop resisting, to join or to get the he’ll out of town.
The Democratic party controlled by the far left unambiguously poses an existential threat to republic. My fear when candidate Trump appeared and was being dismissed by us was that he was a man on horseback and would show the Democrats how to be progressive in a post Soviet world. That is still my fear. We must dismantle the administrative state and the educational system and remove political correctness and multiculturalism from our military. It ain’t over, they don’t go away don’t change but they do adjust tactics
I believe this. People on the Left can be a mix of good and bad, just like people on the Right. But, leftism is all bad. It’s the ideas that are wicked and destructive to human flourishing. And one of the tactics it uses to seize power is to convince the credulous that non-leftists are evil people. Scapegoating is an ancient practice.
Yes. They’ve employed the psychology and tactics of mobs with increasing skill which is the way to enlist ordinarily decent people into one of their tactical assaults. Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is mob rule 101 and lifted pretty much directly from Mussolini.
Poppycock. You can count me with Mitch on this. Confirmation of lifetime appointments for federal judges is a much higher priority than confirmation of a couple of bureaucrats at the DOJ. Especially since the DOJ appointees are already able to serve as acting department heads. In fact, as far as I’m concerned they could shut down those DOJ departments entirely and it would probably be an improvement.
I agree somewhat, but I haven’t totally drunk Trump’s Kool-Aid yet. I was floored by the bad faith of all of the Dems, not only their worst actors. Not one Democrat Senator, not Coons or Scranton or one of the nice midwesterners, could do what McCain did when Obama was called a dangerous Muslim at a rally. This depresses me as much as the idea of the Birther supporting, race baiting, Roy Moore supporting, Sessions firing fellow in the White House. But I will never vote for Trump as leader of our country, his presence in the White House dishonors the sacrifice of everyone that has done anything good or noble for it’s ideals. I will support him on individual issues and pray he leaves the scene sooner rather than later.
“Kool-Aid”? Nice.
I agree it’s not a persuasive way to express myself and I will try to moderate my writing in the future. I came to this post after reading comments on Jonah’s Remnant podcast and was still in a sour mood about the uncompromising language of pro-Trump people to anyone who does not toe the party line, but I realize I’m just as guilty in the other direction.
I wish we could all find some kind of common ground. So many anti-Trump people seem to think that anyone who doesn’t hate him is some kind of mindless acolyte who won’t hear a word against him because of hero-worship. But that isn’t it, not for me anyway. He wasn’t my guy either. I thought he was a joke, and was shocked when he won the nomination.
But he did win it, and he won the whole election, and now we have seen the unbelievable filthy corruption that was rotting the FBI, and we realize that had Hillary won, they’d have been her personal Praetorian Guard and none of it would ever have even come out. It makes my blood run cold. The whole thing has made me see who the real enemy is, and it is not Trump.
To me, standing behind him right now is more important than worrying about his lower-class accent or his behavior. I don’t care about that anymore. To me, we’re at a moment in history where if you’re not with us you’re against us. The Left is a true force of evil, and they must be opposed with everything we have, and we can worry about the niceties of Trump’s etiquette later. He might be a boor, but he’s our boor.
My not wanting to hear a word against him comes, not from mindless loyalty to the man, but from loving my country more than I despise Trump.
And by the way, I have grown to love Donald Trump for not being a politician. Every time he says things like “Little Rocket Man,’ I smile because it reminds me that this guy is no politician. That is what the people wanted this time. It’s what the country needed after decades of mealy-mouthed non-producers in DC saying one thing and doing another. It’s so refreshing. I love it.
And Trump represents something important. Despite all Hillary’s machinations behind the scenes, despite having the FBI in her pocket and all her money, the voice of the people was heard, and it didn’t work. Only in America!
Nonsense on stilts. The courts have, for too long, deferred to the administrative state. These are not a couple of bureaucrats, they are the head attorneys, who shape what cases are presented in what posture before the courts. Since the Congress would have to eliminate DOJ departments, there is less than zero chance of your casual desire being realized. So, in the real world, these positions matter greatly. And McConnell was not facing either/or. Rather, he has chosen to facilitate Schumer’s agenda by failing to play hardball, when this election cycle makes holding Senators in session much more costly to Democrats, and so helpful to Republican odds of taking more Senate seats.
I am tired of being told, that if someone is the least bit anti-Trump, people like me jump all over them.