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Mr. Trump: Speaking of Grace…
I’m a conservative. I don’t like chaos, I’m not attracted to nihilism and social destruction. I like things to proceed in an orderly manner, following sensible rules, and leading to understandable results that inspire confidence. Having said that…
For four years I’ve watched the Democrats and their cohorts in the media (which is to say, pretty much everyone in the media) make a farce out of politics. It started with Hillary Clinton paying for Russian-made dirt on candidate Trump. It continued with Hillary Clinton making up a Russian collusion narrative in order to save face after her unexpected defeat in 2016.
It continued with leading Democrats and, again, their pet news media (CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NYT, etc.) spending three years (!) pretending to have evidence to justify their absurd Russian conspiracy. It continued with endless speculation of scandal, of “beginning of the end,” of “walls closing in,” of “another bombshell.”
For all his flaws, President Trump was never, unlike his critics, comprehensively wrong. He spent four years presiding over an astonishingly robust economy, restoring Constitutional integrity to the nation’s courts, slowing illegal immigration to a crawl, getting the US out of pointless (Paris) and dangerous (Iran) international agreements. He was right about law enforcement, right about keeping the nation open, right about dealing with foreign powers.
Unlike the last guy, Trump was right about America.
Finally, in the midst of an absurd impeachment by petty men who had exhausted every other cockamamie scheme for his removal, and largely thanks to the President’s boldness, he presided over the dawning of an historical peace in the Middle East, as Arab states established relationships with Israel and became unified in their opposition to a still-dangerous Iran.
Now, after being defeated by a once-in-a-lifetime epidemic, the censorship and mendacity of a malicious press and tech sector, and an election riddled with fraud and misconduct, the President is not acknowledging defeat quite as quickly as his critics would like.
That’s tough. He’s been cheated out of the credit he deserves for an extraordinarily successful four years by a leftist elite that thinks he and every one of the 70+ million Americans who voted for him are snaggle-toothed illiterate racist haters huddling in flyover country.
He’s been attacked by graceless harpies for four years. I won’t demand a lot of grace from him now.
I’m just thankful for the enormous good he did while in office.
Published in General
I’m not so sure about Israel. Israel will continue to improve its relationships with the Arab countries in the region, but I suspect Kamala and the Squad will push for re-instating funds for the Palestinians and trying to force Israel to comply with a new peace process.
I wouldn’t be surprised.
But I hope people, Israelis and Arabs alike, will be smart enough to grasp that we’re going to have four years of weak Democratic rule, and then — G-d willing and common sense maintaining even a toe-hold among the American people — a new Republican administration.
Strange things are happening when you highlight a section of text and then hit “reply.” I did it earlier today, and the poster’s name that appeared on the text in my reply was not the one I was quoting. I had to quickly edit the comment to remove the name.
A preview of coming attractions was announced on BBC news tonight – so far, he’s pulling from all the old Obama-Biden years or people he’s known and been close to. For example – are you ready – he’s tapping John Kerry as “Climate Czar”. Ugh……”You’ve got a friend…..da da da…”. Secretary of State is some guy that he’s known for decades who say he’s Biden’s alter ego – they’re that close. He said they’re going to re-establish more friendly ties within foreign policy once again i.e. Paris Climate Accords, Iran Nuclear Deal…..”you’ve got a friend…da.da.da….” This is shaping up to be Obama 2.0.
I have little faith that anything Trump has wrought will be allowed to stand; I’ve heard talk of challenging the judicial appointments en masse, the left remains anti-Israel, and the reason the press is not trusted is that Trump opposed it – Biden won’t have any need t as their interests and narratives align.
That’s why you can probably expect to see dramatic steps from Netanyahu over the next two months – the window is closing.
Henry, Love all the sentiment.
I just rejoined Ricochet after your comment. Thought I’d like to get back in the mix and figure out how we’re going to defeat Biden.
Hope this gets to Rob (lol) but I left Ricochet the first time due to his head strong determination to lose no matter what, and even in the short listen I did on the podcast a couple of weeks ago he still seems to be the same old Rob.
I only have 4 presidents in my political memory (I remember GHWB but too young to have any opinion) and I believe I can sum up each administration in a few words.
Clinton – Please love me
Bush – War is the answer
Obama – I love myself
Trump – I love America
Now we have Biden, which will be closer to
Biden -zzzzzzzzz
but Trump was always correct to say the media was the enemy of the American people. I’ve been interviewed many times by the New York media for a comment as a passer by. They’ve always been nasty, angry, and hateful to the American experiment. Trump carried on hard into that battle and few (Lindsey Graham, amazingly) wanted to do battle with him.
I hope we can continue the fight or else we’ll be living in Rob’s America. Where the descent to hard tyranny is only a matter of time.
I used to be on a sports site where one commenter’s moniker was “The Sleeping Midget.” His only comment was always “zzzzzzzz.”
Can you please give me more examples.
Even the non-Iranian Arab states have been concerned about the possibility of a return to Democrat rule in the US, after the mess they made of things under Obama/Biden. That was another impetus for the agreements now rolling out – to try to lock in a more united front, with Israel, against the Iranian push for hegemony in the region. Ironic that fear of Democrat perfidy is helping to bring long-sought peace to the Middle East!
The thing is, there are two sides in this conflict, and the other side already chose to do away with one of the greatest accomplishments ever achieved by the human race. Several in fact. The Constitution. The rule of law. Natural rights (to life, liberty, property. . .).
The other thing is, nothing is being done away with, as long as the law is upheld. I expect the law to be upheld.
I believe even the Iranians will not be interested in reentering the Iran Nuclear Deal — unless Biden comes up with more pallets of cash.
Expecting doesn’t make it so, sadly. Even left-sympathetic people I know who’ve worked in the defense industry and held clearances agree Hillary should be in jail. Would be in jail if the law was upheld. We obviously have unequal application of the law these days, in violation of our most basic natural rights.
My comment was in reference to Henry’s, which I assumed was a bit of hand-wringing about Trump somehow disrupting our long tradition of the peaceful transfer of power.
I am hand-wringing indeed. The law is upheld by our morality and our tradition. If Trump pulls a Hillary and pretends that he was cheated when he was not. We have seriously lost something. I am totally wringing my hands on that ;)
Because Mr. Trump is the model of probity and self-restraint, and his grace, or lack thereof, in response to being abused for four years and then defeated in a questionable election is going to somehow define our Republic?
I’m sorry, Henry, but the whole point of the post is that the least appalling thing about the last four years is the way Trump handles the end of it.
Amen to that!
Additionally, he’ll be accused of sore-loserism no matter what he does. The Left always projects its own sins onto others. Always.
I think your hand-wringing is premature. And once hands have been wrung they can’t be un-wrung.
Or something like that.
It is estimated that as much as fifteen percent of all internet and newspaper posts over the past four years contain some variation of, “what if Trump decides to…”. He generally doesn’t.
[De-typofied]
Hank,
Much of what you say about Trump is true. To the degree that he followed conservative principles, the nation prospered. However, there are major issues of character which disqualify Trump for me. Despite the positive policies he followed, his character will be remembered far longer.
It’s worth remembering this: Donald Trump began the year with his impeachment and trial for abusing his power; he badly bungled a pandemic that has infected more than 9.5 million Americans and killed 234,000 so far. His failures and corruption will have a long tail, lingering for years over our culture, economy, and lives.
None of it will look better in retrospect.
He coarsened our discourse, trafficked in racism and poisonous conspiracy theories, and winked at voter intimidation and violent vigilantism. He will undoubtedly continue to do so.
His failed campaign devolved into a series of reckless super-spreader events. All the while he continued to abuse his office for personal gain, lied incessantly, and tried to weaponize the Department of Justice against his enemies. He called men and women who served their country “suckers and losers,” and his financial house of cards was exposed when we got a look at his taxes.
If Trump’s history is any guide, he has saved the worst for last, as he launches his post-presidential grievance movement.
Donald Trump’s final days in office will be like so much of his presidency; chaotic, bitter, corrupt, and shambolic. He will undermine the institutions of our democracy, scatter pardons like skittles, and he will embarrass his friends. He will be petulant and vengeful. He might not even show up for the Inauguration.
https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/america-to-trump-youre-fired
I fear that Trump will plague the Republican Party for a long time, and that he will be unwilling to leave the stage, resulting in us not being able to return to our conservative roots for several cycles. I celebrate when each Republican Senator and leaders stepped forward to say that Trump had lost, and as the public has come to realize that Trump’s claims of election fraud were an incredible hoax. Trump was an existential danger to the Republic and the Republican Party. We have been delivered from him.
Gary
Nothing is a bigger lie, and there were plenty of them about him from the left for the last 4 years.
There were plenty of them in the previous comment.
Gary,
I think you and your cohorts have been comprehensively wrong about Trump.
But more, I think the rudeness and arrogance you folks have shown is astounding. I don’t think I’ve ever heard one of the hard-core Never-Trumpers — and I put you in that category — approach the matter in a balanced way that shows respect for those of us who recognize Trump’s flaws, have considered the situation, and have decided that the exigencies of politics and government demand that we compromise now in order to achieve something of value.
Instead, what I hear is condemnation of his character, condemnation so harsh and relentless and total, that a Trump supporters such as myself can draw only one of two possible conclusions: either you people think I’m a fool, or you people think I’m a moral midget.
But I’m neither a fool nor a moral midget. And I have no use for hard-core never-Trumpers and their arrogance and implicit condemnation.
H.
If I may add… against a backdrop of utter indifference to the indecencies of his opponents.
Henry,
I do not believe that you are a fool or a moral midget. I simply feel that you are wrong in your judgment of Trump’s character, and how he threatened the continuation of the Republic when he lost the election. If the results of the election had been closer, he may well have pulled off the “election fraud hoax.” Luckily his choice of lawyers was devastatingly poor. However, when he try to use the judicial system to overturn an election, he was forced to play by the Rule of Law, and the rules of evidence, including cross-examination, and the need to provide theories by hard evidence, which he could not do.
Sometimes when I consider Trump, I sense echoes of 1933, but with the “election fraud hoax” I sense the echoes of the 1860, and the potential dissolution of the union.
This all goes to the nature of Truth, and how someone who is not devoted to honesty and humility cannot lead his people.
My father hated Obama. After Obama’s election in 2008, my father was delighted to hear of the silver bullet of Birtherism, that Obama’s election could be overturned by this magic trick. It didn’t take long, but birtherism was found to be fatally flawed and was discarded by almost every public figure, except Trump who kept promoting it.
The election three weeks ago was a devastating loss for many people. But when I heard them clinging to the rantings of Rudy Giuliani, and Sydney Powell, I sensed again how delighted that many were to have discovered a new silver bullet of claimed election fraud so that the election could be overturned. However, there is no hard evidence of election fraud that was ever proven in Court.
I believe with every cell in my body, that when Trump announced at the 2016 Convention that “Only I can fix it” he was displaying an incredible arrogance that his perceived strength could overcome his environment. This is not right. Trump is not a super human person who has earned our fealty. He is a fallen mortal, just as you and I. It is his policy principles that he followed which were right, not Trump himself. Otherwise, the Republican Party is enmeshed in a Cult of Personality that we have seen in authoritarian states in the past, and now see in today’s Viktor Orban’s Hungary for example.
Our founding fathers feared that a Donald Trump would someday arise. They tried to set up a set of Constitutional checks and balances to stop this. They included the emoluments clause, given that past English Kings would accept bribes from foreign countries. They included the Power of Impeachment to deal with a President who would try to bribe a foreign leader, but that depended upon having a Congress which would do its duty. Finally, we had an election. One thing that I heard over and over again from Reagan was that he was only a temporary resident of the White House, and that he would be returning to the polity, just as Cincinatus had returned to his fields. When King George III heard that President George Washington would be leaving office, King George said that if that was so, then Washington was the greatest man who had ever lived. By contrast, in the last couple of weeks before the election, Trump called on his Attorney General to arrest not only Hillary but Biden himself.
So, I am here. Ricochet is my home. The Republican Party is my home. The United States Constitution is based on the principles of the Declaration of Independence and it is likewise my home. We do not pledge allegiance to our blood and soil, and we certainly do not pledge allegiance to a particular leader. We pledge allegiance to the Constitution.
When I read your post, I waited for a day to respond out of respect. It is good that people appreciate the strengths of several of Trump’s policies. However, in the end, I was compelled to say that this Emperor’s new clothes are lacking, that he is lacking and that providence has saved us from his continuation as president. It is my guess that as Trump’s corruption is revealed once that he does not have the Presidency to protect him, many people will see him far differently. Nixon still commanded the loyalty of half of all Republicans the day that he resigned. But as the Watergate trials proceeded, support for Nixon evaporated. I think that the same will happen here, between the defamation lawsuits and the New York State cases. And I think that there will be a new birth of a desire for an American President who can rule consistent with conservative principles but also with the humility that I have never seen or heard from Trump.
Gary
That load of utter crap from the Bulwark shows that they are without honor, and worthy of contempt from all those interested in truth. Anyone who has paid the least amount of attention over the last four years, and has a decent understanding of history for perspective, would know that the dishonesty displayed in the above quote goes beyond mere ignorance, and into evil. The author has sullied himself beyond redemption. Oddly, many of the charges included were true of Obama/Biden, but don’t expect to see that level of clarity from a Bulwark piece. Despicable, and unworthy of you Gary to even copy/paste that garbage here at Ricochet. Opinions vary, but this is not that. Disgraceful.
You speak of truth, after posting that bit from the Bulwark? That’s rich…
I note that you do not address the statements made, but instead attack the person speaking.
I beg my fellow loyal Ricoteers to not respond to Gary. We’ve done this goat and pony show too many times and it never changes anything. He’s pulled the victim card again. Responding just reinforces his delusion about who suffers heroically the consequences of the Never Trump position. Hint: it isn’t Gary.