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Bill talks with Joel Farkas about the media’s war with Pres. Trump and why Trump should not back off. Then he discusses the breaking news of North Korea’s successful intercontinental ballistic missile test with Gordon Chang. Finally, Seth Leibsohn and Chris Buskirk join Bill to discuss their new book American Greatness and why so many “experts” underestimated Donald Trump and got the 2016 election wrong.
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Published in: Foreign Policy
Nope its Never Trump!
Hoo-boy! What is the old saying: It is he who is so blind that cannot see!! Or something like that. My book of old sayings is fraying. Anyway, the way we are aiding and abetting the Democrats is by refusing to comment on the fact that this man is putting his ego above the needs of our beloved land. Who can deny that the country has gone through a coarsening of our culture in recent years? We have indeed Defined Deficiency Down, by accepting what was once unacceptable: The constant belittling of people of who do not see things our way; who dare to stand in the way of Trump getting what he wants; or who dare to report legitimate news that he deem unfair to him! If we lose the House in 2018, and the Senate two later, it won’t be the fault of a Trump-Skeptic. Better to look to those who saw the civilization burning, and failed to pick up a pail of water!
Keep calm and MAGA on. ?
https://youtu.be/_k1zJV0DSvc
That is not what Trump supporters are doing. And I see perfectly clearly. Unlike some people. And to say that Trump is “putting his ego above the needs of our beloved land” is straight out of the DNC Talking Points. Baloney.
The Donald will never come down. ?
We very well know what you are saying, NeverTrumper. You don’t have to keep repeating it.
Silly? Look in a mirror, George.
I will stop this, because some people are just too arrogant to be persuaded through common sense. I am just sorry that there are so many out-of-control egos around that thinking of what is the right thing for our country is not uppermost in their minds. At the risk of being accused of being less than modest, I must say that when I look in the mirror I see a real patriot, not someone who is so consumed with himself that he can’t see that fanaticism is a dead-end, leading to cynicism and bitterness for the sufferer.
It is very clear there are many on the Right who do not want Trump to succeed. They cheer and jump on everything they think is wrong.
So, you mic drop because you are a real patriot, and anyone who disagrees with you is “consumed with himself that he can’t see that fanaticism is a dead-end, leading to cynicism and bitterness for the sufferer” by which you mean your fellow Ricochetti. Nice.
I thought this was a great Podcast. Bill did not come across as frothing or crazy, as he seems to be portrayed. I liked it a good deal.
I don’t see what the axe to grind against Bill is, other than people disagree with him. It is funny that the term “sell out” seems to be one for people who support Trump. I guess standing on what you think is right only works if one is Never Ever Trump, and if you support the man, you are a sell out.
Isn’t this the flip side of “If you don’t support him, you are a traitor”? that James complains about? The funny thing is, it seems the sellout accusation (even if those words are not used) is far more common on these pages than the traitor one (even if that word is not used) on Ricochet. I cannot speak for James’s twitter feed or email, of course.
The observation that Bennett’s brand has lost a great amount of credibility amongst many social conservatives stands because of the very specific ideas/rhetoric on which that brand was built.
There is little anyone can say here that would change the fact that many people who have followed Bennett’s work–read thousands and thousands of his words–since the 1980s, now think the evidence shows he didn’t really mean a lot of what he said about discourse.
In my mind, that is mostly about Bill Bennett. Not Donald Trump.
Even so, it’s great people are happy about another podcast on Ricochet! At the least, Bill has always led interesting conversations. Even when I disagree with him, I learn something from his show.
Here, the podcast most appeals to me when focused on North Korea. I definitely got new information from his guest.
This may be true, but I feel justified in castigating those people. It would be as if I decided everything Jonah said that I liked in the past is somehow null and void because he said we would survive 4 years of Clinton better than 4 years of Trump. People can mean what they said then, and mean what they say now. It does not matter than I think those things are in conflict, it makes sense to the person.
To decide the Bennett’s previous work is now BS, and that he did not mean it, because of the tactical/strategic decision he made in politics is not about Trump. It is about the person making that choice, and how he or she views Trump. It is saying “Anyone who supports Trump cannot be a moral person, therefore, Bennett cannot be a moral person”. There is no other way to spin it.
This has been the problem of the Never Trump/Anti-Trump whatever they care called crowd from day one. Anyone supporting Trump is cast as immoral, stupid, or enthralled to a demagogue.
Here is the great joke (and this Podcast nailed it): Intellectual conservatives look down on ordinary folks. I find it sad that the very people who point to Reagan as better than Trump (and he was), appear to have an utter disdain for ordinary thinking people.
It has come to reinforce how much I do not trust and do not like highly intelligent intellectual people to have any significant power over me or my family. And I am one.
First, Bryan, it breaks my heart that you have been made to feel this way. Let me say I understand completely why many on the right feel “talked down to” as I have never escaped the sting of such stones, which have been hurled every bit as often at my head as they have been at yours because I’ve been conservative and religious for decades.
I consider myself a “regular” person with many intellectual interests, which is probably what you are, too, right?
So let me make a few things really clear.
I don’t think that people who support/supported Donald Trump are “immoral, stupid, or enthralled by a demagogue.” Many people in my family voted for Trump for many reasons, and I not only respect those people, I love them.
I am totally with you when you talk about not wanting “highly intelligent intellectuals” having any power over your life. Those guys end up being Woodrow Wilson or Barack Obama, and… No thank you.
But let’s talk about Bennett. I was aware of him when I first started listening to Rush Limbaugh when I was just a teenager. Bennett made a media splash after leaving government… in the 90s?
Well, he wrote about how Bill Clinton’s actions as president had eroded the moral culture of the United States. That was his gig. Now, Rush said that, too, but there was a difference. The “good example from public figures” thing was the foundation for everything else Bennett said. He even wrote The Book of Virtues!
Does this mean that I expected Bennett to be wholly virtuous? Nope. He had a gambling addiction that almost blew up his career at some point, and I didn’t hold that against him.
So what’s my problem now?
I don’t mind at all that Bennett supported Trump. You are right. Politics are politics. I do mind that he glosses over the things that he would have written whole tomes about in the past if they had come from any other president.
Call the good, Bryan. Call out the bad.
If someone like Bennett doesn’t, I don’t trust him to tell the truth.
Does that make sense?
Also, Bennett has a Phd and a JD. He’s pretty intellectual. ;)
It is the official stance of The Weekly Standard and National Review. NR let Derb go because of something he published someplace else. Kevin Williamson, calling half the GOP rubes and other names is still working there. Conservatism, Inc. clearly thinks I am stupid, no matter what you personally think. They will never again have my support, and the GOP will never again get a penny from me. If Conservatism, Inc. and the GOP think that it is worth it to purge me, I guess that is the way it is.
If there was another serious option to support, I’d take it in a moment.
I think too many on the right suffer from a lack of practical vision. Politics is dirty. Period. In order to get things done, you have to use tools who are not Steve Rodgers. Trump is what we have, and saying we are stuck with the package is not a refutation of previous statements on morals.
Dude, you just completely described Ricochet! I nominate that for Ricochet’s new motto:
“Ricochet: There Are So Many Out-of-control Egos Around!”
We are proud right-wingers and we stand up for our beliefs! And the Left can suck eggs!
The irony here is that many people like me feel as if a “purge” of us is what we are facing. I suppose that’s all about perspective? Where you’re standing?
I am part of the crowd of people you think assess you in a certain way. For whatever it’s worth, I think it’s important to say that your perception of what people think about Trump supporters is not accurate from where I am standing.
I don’t think that the NR should have fired someone because of something a writer wrote elsewhere, though I’m not familiar with the specifics.
I don’t think that the NR or The Weekly Standard are monolithic in beliefs, though there are definitely writers there who align more with my views on Trump than your views on Trump. (See my first sentence again.)
Trump, btw, is part of the GOP, so I don’t understand no longer giving to the GOP if you support Trump? He’s the party’s leader. The magazines you mentioned are not the GOP. It would make more sense to me to hear that–say–Bill Kristol was no longer giving $ to the GOP, so you canceled your subscription to TWS. (Not trying to be a GOP ad. Just don’t understand.)
I totally get this. I do. But I also have ways of assessing whether certain commentators’ opinions still hold water for me or not. Rush Limbaugh’s Trump boosterism did not change my opinion about Rush Limbaugh’s ability to give me certain types of feedback on the world. He’s Rush. I know where he’s coming from, and that’s that.
Bill Bennett’s schtick was different.
I mean, I guess it was politically practical for him to move from being a Democrat to becoming a Republican, but the reasons he offered for that evolution made more sense to me than his embrace now of all discourse….
Again, my issue is not that Bill Bennett decided to support Donald Trump’s candidacy or is now supporting his presidency. It’s that he doesn’t call both good and bad when his whole career was built on doing just this.
This doesn’t mean I think Bill Bennett is a bad person, a stupid person, or a person enthralled by a demagogue.
I simply think he is inconsistent in his analysis in a way that makes his analysis mean less to me.
That’s a different thing, yes?
It’s like… you no longer find The Weekly Standard to be a good judge of politics?
Okay. We’re in the same boat about how we now assess different camps of people.
I just had to get back into this. Miss Lane makes a great point. I don’t agree with everything she wrote, but the above statement is the nub of what we Trump-Skeptics are saying, I believe.
People like Bennett and Prager made their livings pointing out the best way to growth and happiness. Now they seem to have thrown that away. Prager’s excuse is that there is a “Civil War”. Not only will he not back down from such silliness, he won’t even debate it. He said a few times that he was gonna have Jonah on. He never has. What is he afraid of? To me, this is cowardly, and, i’m sorry, but I can’t forgive it.
Trump has gotten good people fighting amongst ourselves, and that is very sad. Intellectual people do not look down on people who do not work with ideas. Quite to the contrary. I’ve heard the supporters of Trump putting down the people who question Trump’s behavior. Prager began his essay, weeks ago, by saying that he forgives trumps Skeptics because they have “Moral Bank Accounts”. Condescension anyone? He demands respect for himself, but, or so it seems to me, refuses to give it to people who dare to disagree with him.
Why can’t we try to understand each other, instead of putting a wounded ego on the line? I try not to call names. But the Trump supporters – no matter what – insist I hate them. I don’t. I just pine for civility. And it should start at the top.
You are simply wrong. This is a self-evident truth, that I have seen again and again.
It is not an “excuse”. Your call for civility and then castigate the true belief of others because you do not agree. I think there is a war, and you, right here, are implying that me saying it is just an excuse because I believe with these talk show hosts. By God, what a dupe I must be. If you want to make a call for civility, how about granting that I might see the same facts differently than you do, and that does not mean I am making an excuse to throw away my morals.
Lois might we willing to engage in a discussion, but you, sir are not.
One of the things we Trump supporters hate is the implication that we just don’t see him as clearly as NTs do, and that if only they point out his shortcomings clearly enough so that even we, the Great Unwashed, can understand them as our betters do, we’ll come around. As I commented elsewhere, I’m a college graduate. I speak four languages and my IQ is greater than my weight. I’ve traveled all over the world including a short stint in a French boarding school, and I know my way around art and classical music.
And I’m not unique. There are millions of educated, cultured people out there who voted for Donald Trump in the general election because we are the ones who see clearly. For one thing, we see his flaws just as clearly as you do. But we also see that he’s our chance of a lifetime to turn the ship of state back in the right direction. Many of you thought the election wasn’t a binary choice, and you call that “seeing clearly”? We did see it as a binary choice: a choice between Right and Left, Right and Wrong, Good and Evil.
Four???? Holy cow. I’m trying to learn Latin because… well… I’m a weirdo, but I also think it’s because no one will ever ask me to speak it. I feel like people think I’m making fun of Spanish every time I say anything in Spanish when I’m really just struggling to trill my tongue and remember the right words.
I know that there are millions of educated, cultured people who voted for Donald Trump. There would have to be for him to win.
I get this. My problem with Bill Bennett is not that I don’t think he doesn’t see Trump as he is. It’s that he made such a big deal of castigating certain personal behaviors from other presidents he doesn’t like, so now he doesn’t seem pragmatic to me now but hypocritical when he doesn’t still point out some of those shortcomings in the midst of any praise (when warranted).
See the difference between that and disliking Bennett simply because he voted for Trump? Or thinking Bennett is too dense to see shortcomings? (I know he’s not.)
I wouldn’t have a problem with this approach from him: “This is why I’m supporting this thing Trump is doing, but I still wish he wouldn’t do that thing because I still believe these things matter in civil discourse & culture.”
Why do I harp on this at this point?
It’s simple.
Quite frankly, there are also millions of educated, cultured people who may have voted for Trump–or who may have passed in 2016 but who didn’t vote for the other guy–who are, indeed, skeptical about his ultimate abilities and must be persuaded his course is correct.
If you feel that we are literally in a war with fellow citizens–a war in which people must mobilize no matter what–then you probably want to bang your head and say, “But it’s obvious we need to act this way!!!”
This is not because you’re stupid or immoral. It has to do with how you’ve assessed the situation.
However, you can’t forget there are literally millions of people who may desert you just as you’re making your advance to “win.”
As I don’t persuade anyone here by saying you just don’t “see” Trump’s a donkey because you must be dense, Bill Bennett does not persuade me by saying I’m on a high horse and don’t understand the dirty business of politics….
Must go to work! Peace to all. :)
I do see what you’re saying. And I get it that we as Americans have the right to criticize our own government etc. I think the reason we get so upset at the criticisms from our own side of this particular president is that this whole situation is so weirdly unprecedented, and that this time around, criticizing him makes our victory feel even more tenuous than it already is thanks to the machinations of the left. It seems to me that this is what’s in Bill Bennett’s mind. I don’t see his support of Trump as a negation of his past writings.
The problem is, those people on “our side” don’t see themselves as on “our side”. They reject the very notion we are on the same side in any sort of fight. They don’t believe in sides. They believe in being true to their own notions.
At least the libertarians are honest that they are not out the side of conservatives, in any but the most passing way.
Fair enough. I’ll put my sword back into my palazzo pants, and we can order champagne at the fashion show. I absolutely promise I’ll make fun of all the ugly clothes, and you and I can become friends instead of people who persist in dueling.
This is the thing.
I have never once said Donald Trump’s presidency is illegitimate.
I’m not sure what this even means. I don’t view myself on a “team” even though I’d call myself a conservative. God knows I didn’t even like playing doubles tennis!
My biggest loyalties are to Christ, family and country (in that order), but that doesn’t mean I’m on the “other” side of even politics… I’m more of a free agent???? ;)
Assume positive intent, @bryangstephens . We simply assess the situation differently. That doesn’t make us rivals.
It is you who are wrong. Give me a name. It sounds to me you just can’t deal with people who see things differently from you.
Miss Lane – a truly fine lady – is right. Trump-Skeptics never said he was illegitimate. he was rightly elected. We simply do not believe he is really up to the job. Why can’t we say that without the extreme Trump supporters getting in a tizzy, and calling us names? And stop saying we are never-Trumpers. The election is over.
Finally, this is slanderous. Which proves that it is not we who engage in the name calling. It is not me but Dennis Prager who won’t debate anyone who disagrees with him. I didn’t condescend to people, the way Prager did, by “forgiving” so-called Never-Trumpers. And when is the last time Bennett had anyone on who disagrees with him? If there is a civil war, let’s debate it, instead of calling people names. As I told a friend today, who I visited a few hours ago, we would not tolerate Trump’s behavior in our children. And yet, because he is our President, it is all right. And those of us who don’t think so are called fake-conservatives. It is truly 1984 and Alice in Wonderland rolled into one. Up is down; down is up; and Trump is another Reagan!
Wow. Given all your other comments, and the rejoinders to them, this is amazing.
I forgot to say that knowing Latin (which I don’t) instantly doubles your English vocabulary and makes spelling easy. I have a feeling you don’t need that though.
I love learning new words. An article on drinking that appeared recently on the main thread had me when the writer said he was a “scofflaw.” That is a totally cool word. I mean… I just want to work it into at least three conversations this week, which I’ve discovered isn’t all that easy. That word sounds more like the name of a garage band than a real thing. It’s not a natural word. But… yeah. I’m gonna use it. ;)