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.
If Trump Is So Incompetent, Why Do Democrats Fear Him So Much?
Democrats portray President Trump as an incompetent fool and an evil genius and a political ignoramus who doesn’t understand Washington and a political powerhouse who must be impeached because he’s unbeatable in an election. All at the same time. This seems odd. But not as odd as their apoplectic reaction to his election.
Hillary was not that popular, even among the Democrats that she had not cheated to get the nomination. Why were Democrats openly planning his impeachment even before he was inaugurated? He was a lifelong Democrat from New York City, for Pete’s sake. Did they really expect him to govern as a conservative? So much of this has been beyond my grasp from the beginning.
Clarice Feldman attempts to explain this in a fascinating article on American Thinker called “Trump is Toto.” Please read her well-thought-out article rather than my hurried summary, but she thinks Trump’s approach to the Middle East is emblematic of what Democratic leadership understood about him from day one:
The actual problem that the left sees more clearly than the right is Trump’s complex idiosyncrasies and style conceal a simple truth; declare the left’s shibboleths so much bull$#!% masquerading as fairy dust and their mystique and, more importantly, their political advantage goes poof!
She uses Trump’s recent approach to diplomacy with Iran to illustrate her point, comparing the way President Trump handled Iranian General Soleimani to the way President Carter handled the Iranians taking over our embassy and holding 52 hostages for 444 days in 1979 (Ms. Feldman’s comments are in italics, with extensive quotes from a piece by Caroline Glick):
If President Jimmy Carter acknowledged that the “students” weren’t students, but soldiers of Iran’s dictator Ayatollah Khomeini, the US would be compelled to fight back. And Carter and his advisers didn’t want to do that.
So rather than admit the truth, Carter accepted the absurd fiction spun by the regime that Khomeini was an innocent bystander who, try as he might, couldn’t get a bunch of “students” in central Tehran to free the hostages.
Hoping that Iran would be satisfied, they left Khomeini alone.
Khomeini and his “Death to America” shouting followers got the message. They understood that Washington had given them a green light to attack Americans in moderate and, as Smith put it, “plausibly deniable” doses. it. For the next 40 years, Iran maintained its aggression against America. And from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama, every president since Carter accepted and kept faith with Carter’s decision not to hold the Iranian regime responsible for the acts of aggression and war it carried out against America through proxies.
Trump’s decision to kill Soleimani along with Muhandis destroyed the Carter administration’s Iran narrative.
By killing Soleimani, Trump made clear that the blank check for aggression the previous six presidents gave Tehran is now canceled. From now on, the regime will be held responsible for its actions. From now on US policy towards Iran will be based on reality and not on escapism.
* End quote *
I view Donald Trump as our first independent president. He wasn’t developed in the party system of either party, so he had no friends in the system, and no one knew or trusted him. I blamed his isolation and independence for Washington’s rejection of him from the day he showed up.
But I think Ms. Feldman’s theory makes more sense. So much of the Democrat message is based on baloney, and they know it. They say they can show strength in foreign policy by projecting weakness. They say we can tax our way into prosperity. They say that capital punishment is unconstitutional but abortion is a constitutionally protected civil right. They call Republicans childish and they worship Greta Thunburg. I could go on and on, and so could you.
The only way such nonsense can withstand scrutiny is by avoiding scrutiny. With academia and the media on their side, they face very little scrutiny.
But then Donald Trump shows up and simply disregards their policies as complete baloney.
Democrats: “But Mr. Trump, that’s just not how things are done in Washington.”
Trump: “I don’t care.”
This an existential threat to leftism in general, and the Democrat party in particular. And they know it.
Ms. Feldman quotes the article from Ms. Glick, in which she compares Donald Trump to Dorothy’s dog in The Wizard of Oz. The dog destroyed the wizard, not with forceful debate or escalating violence – it just pulled back the curtain, and exposed the wizard as a fraud, whose only strength was deception. As Ms. Glick said,
Trump isn’t Mussolini or Hitler. Neither is he Abe Lincoln or Daniel come to judgment. Donald Trump is Toto.
The Democrats may wish Trump was Hitler. But Toto is worse.
And they know it.
Published in General
Another demonstration that our employees have ears of cloth.
Correct me if I am wrong, but they do not portray him that way, do they? I mean, they may think that, but that isn’t how they portray him.
Ok,but in the main that isn’t how they are portraying impeachment. It may be the actual reason for impeachment. Maybe I’m splitting hairs…
That would probably not be the best way for them to make their case to the American people for impeachment: “We’re impeaching this president because we disagree with your choice in the last election, and we don’t think we can win in a fair election. Thanks for understanding.”
So of course they will express concern about his high crimes and misdemeanors, even if they don’t say what they are, exactly.
But I think a neutral observer would suspect that they decided to impeach him and went looking for a crime, instead of finding a crime and deciding to impeach him.
I could be wrong, but that’s my perspective.
Don’t misunderstand me: I for sure think that is why they are impeaching him. Because they don’t think they can beat him.
I’m just saying that, in the main, they are portraying impeachment as an issue of taking someone to task for having done some heinous thing. And they certainly don’t portray Trump as someone they don’t think they can beat.
See my comment #19 where I enumerate why they don’t fear him. But you put your finger on it, they hate him.
George Washington was our first independent president, by your definition of independent.
He did have friends in the system and he was trusted, but he was an independent, at least at first. His policies were essentially Federalist (as in Federalist Party) in nature.
because the Democrats know they can’t beat Trump
it’s a party in disarray
it’s a party without coherence
it’s a party that looks down on most of america
they know they can’t beat Trump which is why they have to resort to pandering and ballot fraud
Yes, I agree with this. In addition to not fearing Trump, they have moved with the impeachments because they are (1) divided and (2) the core of their agenda is socialist and so would be roundly rejected. They are just covering up their deficiencies and internal fights.
the ‘moderate’ democrats are pretending to be moderate but will govern like a progressive
I think that he plays at being a rude boorish man. Just like a “dumb blonde” finally realizes she can learn a lot from people who think she is blonde and dumb, so she next embarks on a career as an industrial spy, laughing all the way to the bank, so does Trump play at boorish-ness.
Keith Olbermann has remarked that he would constantly run into Trump before the election, and a nicer person you couldn’t imagine meeting.
And it is known that both Trump and Rosie O’Donnell played at being mad at each other, as all publicity is good publicity and both individuals got lots of free press over their mud slinging.
@caroljoy , You might enjoy this: https://thefederalist.com/2018/11/05/pro-wrestling-explains-trump-wins-every-battle-media/
There are moderate Democrats? I haven’t seen any in a while.
Hmmm… JFK died in 1963.
Let me think…
One characteristic of insanity is the absence of fear when it is appropriate.
Yeah, but one can’t assume insanity, though it certainly looks like mentally deranged people over there in the House. :)