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It’s the middle of the month and that means it’s time for Jonah Goldberg, Rob Long, and John Podhoretz to take another tour through politics and pop culture. In this episode, they cover why the Trump campaign is like Grey Gardens, dissect the big battle scene on this week’s “Game of Thrones,” ask if sequels are killing Hollywood, and share thoughts on the dump Trump movement gathering steam before next month’s Republican convention.
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Define “large portion”.
According to the recent poll here, about 50% of Ricochet members are planning on voting for Trump.
That’s obviously a very crude number – not all of them are actual Trump fans, and Ricochet members (specifically, the ones who participated in the poll) are presumably a minority of overall GLoP listeners.
But even if the figure is only half of that – 25% – that’s still a large portion from a marketing perspective.
I applaud the GloP team for bringing a smile to my face amidst the gloomy prospect of a sound electoral defeat in November.
I am in the Peter Robinson camp. If I had to vote today, I would vote for Donald Trump. However, I prefer to face facts, even unpleasant ones. Donald Trump is running an inept general election campaign.
The pre-convention political goal for a presumptive nominee is to lock in the base after a fractious primary and prepare to appeal to the vast middle in American politics. Instead, Trump has spurned suggestions that he mend fences with his defeated rivals in favor of reaching out to Sanders supporters yearning for a thirty-plus percent hike in the cost of imported goods. Along the way, after trashing candidates who fail to self-fund, he is now failing to self-fund.
Let’s be honest: you’re going to hear a lot of Trump ridicule out of the left and especially out of Hillary Clinton between now and election day. If you don’t like it, you’re probably not going to be able to turn on a radio or a TV without discovering that you’re immersed in it. I’m not thrilled about that, incidentally.
The issue with finding somebody to get behind and put our rally caps on for is this: let’s say that were to happen, and we boot Trump to the curb at the convention. Pioneers get the arrows, and the person who came out of such a process as the actual nominee is going to look like a hedgehog from the arrows they take from our side – particularly from the rather nasty contingent of Trump supporters, not to mention Trump himself.
Why would somebody want to invite that trouble into their life for what appears to be a no-win proposition? So, we have to find somebody who is generally agreeable to most of the people in the party who also has a chance to win and the desire to possibly send their career down the tubes in a losing bid.
I nominate Kasich.
None of the guys who’ve already lost.
I said Kasich because out of all of them he basically has nothing to lose and was actually running ahead of Clinton in a number of battleground states. I don’t think he’d be a great President, but I think he’d be running a slightly more credible campaign than Trump is currently.
I don’t think he can win, but I wouldn’t lose my cool if he did. He’s not a great guy, but he’s a mediocrity with which America could live.
But I do not believe there would be any support for him. Or any of the other losers of the primaries. It’s gotta be somebody else–somebody with unimpeachable dignity or large populist support…
Clearly, you have somebody in mind?
Even if you are a Trump fan, or part of the 50%, if you can’t find dark humor in Trumps recent FEC debacle then you’re less a rational human being than you are a brainwashed automaton.
Among the many criticisms and dislikes I have of Trump, my ultimate reason for not wanting Trump as the Republican Presidential Nominee, is unfortunately I believe Trump will lose, and lose badly, to a terrible candidate, and truly awful human being in the general election this November.
Lets hope I’m wrong.
Way to promote comity and respect.
While I indeed was somewhat bemused when the FEC filing was reported, I could understand others being non-plussed. Trump has managed to overturn nearly every piece of American electoral conventional wisdom, so I think not getting a chuckle out of the report is a respectable reaction.
And not getting a chuckle from the non-humorous ranting on the podcast about Trump’s campaign finances seemed like the natural reaction to me. I certainly didn’t laugh – even though I tend to agree with the hosts in their opinion of Trump.
See I was attempting humor which you didn’t seem to appreciate – maybe you calling the podcast non-humorous ranting is just another example of different people finding different things funny?
The humor in the FEC filing lies in it being counter to every single thing we have been told about Trump to date. That he would self fund. That he is a great deal maker. That he represents a massive portion of Americans. On and on.
I agree with Mr. Lockett so far as the character of the situation–it’s humorous as such, like the man or hate him. But I despise the language he uses utterly. Only pity–only contempt–are fit for this kind of talk–so intent on giving insult, so lacking in any grace or humanity…
Honestly, Titus, unclench.
No, I’m with the other people–I do not take insult like they do, but I have no sense of humor about your inclination to humiliate fellow members so needlessly, so unprovoked, & so fruitlessly.
At best, your humor is irresponsible, short-sighted-
It’s fine if we have different senses of humor.
It’s not fine – in my opinion – to call your fellow Ricochet members “less a rational human being than you are a brainwashed automaton“, since you were responding to the fact that many here did not see the humor in the FEC filing.
Edited to add: I’m not personally insulted in the least. Like I said, I was also quite bemused at the FEC filing. But I think your jab violates the spirit of good faith this site is based on, and it’s incumbent on us as members to police ourselves – including those we generally agree with on the issues.
I apologize if my attempt at humor rankled.
It’s not for me to accept your apology or reject it–but I thank you for it. What I think was untoward in your humor is not even near the worst I’ve read today; but I know at least one other member who apologized–in this case, circumstance fits with the tit-for-tat sense of justice natural to man, as he was an anti-never-Trumper, so to speak.
I’m not sure if I should be berating people or if the apologies help at all–but do not all of us see how much rancor there is on display just about anywhere on Ricochet outside a few places like the PIT, the Prayer threat, &c.? Few of the people who so easily give offense seem aware that there are more than a few people who are deeply offended; or if they’re aware, they do not care; & that is leaving aside the people who take offense quietly, not that they are any likelier to forget the humiliation or forgive it.
If we’re trying to prove that we can offend each other until nobody finds it worthwhile to talk to anyone without shouting–is that really in need of proving or worth proving?
Is no one interested in proving they can get along with people with whom they disagree?
Afternoon Titus.
Well said Titus, thanks. This, ideally, is the place where we can disagree, and yet acknowledge that other thoughtful folks think differently, and that those folks generally agree with us on most of the basic stuff. Our Glop folks could think on this instead of acting liked scorned lovers mocking the guy who has their girl, “what a loser”.
Hello, Mr. Beck. Thanks for the kind words. I also believe they speak the way they do not from any desire to harm–I think any insult they give is the child of thoughtlessness not malice–but simply because they are so chagrined that things have come to such a sorry pass. It is helplessness that leads them, it seems to me, to make their situation hopeless.
Our fellow who keeps asking: Ok, with whom shall we replace Mr. Trump & how–he is far the wiser man. He understands that it does no good to keep complaining. Had these men considered their situation as dire as they sometimes suggest, they would work tirelessly to produce another one of those sort-of-open conspiracies that sometimes marks partisan politics in America.
For descendants & admirers of a race who wrote their constitution as illegally as possible in the circumstances of 1787, we do not see among conservatives much effort to seize the party convention. If it were me, I’d make my fame or infamy trying.
The thing that irritates me most right now about Ricochet is all the damn whining. I mean, really. It’s like listening to my kids.
Stop standing on the graves of dead printers!
My printer ran out of paper today and I cursed the fact that it didn’t have a bigger magazine.
Yeah, this was a quick listen…
Frothing at the mouth about Trump – skip ahead a few minutes.
More frothing – skip ahead.
Game of Thrones – don’t care, get enough of this from Dellingpole – skip ahead.
More GoT – skip ahead.
Listen to a few minutes.
Back to Trump – skip to the end.
Done!
“Harry’s Shoes! I’ve been in this business 47 years!”
CRYING. I must have re-listened to that five times. :) :) :)
I love the “The Cat Food Is Pâté” analogy for this annus horribilis. Those who claim they value “tell-it-like-it-is” talk are brittle when they hear it like it is. That sword swings in all directions. Yea, I have zero interest in Game of Thrones as well, but so it goes with an ad-lib podcast. If the Party of Zod must find more accommodating alt-right communities for their safe space, have at it.
If I may…I think a larger portion of those here on Ricochet are begrudgingly committed to voting for Mr. Trump despite the deficiencies of his character. They realize he is a narcissist, a lout, not too bright on international politics or statecraft but they’re willing to go with him because the alternative is, in their judgement, even more horrific. And that is a credible and somewhat tenable position despite the possible problems that a Trump presidency portends given his erratic and groundless pronouncements. So be it.
But I would much rather listen to commentators who aren’t sensitive to the presumed feelings of their listeners. Feelings be damned. Each of these gentlemen are very bright, articulate, well read and keen observers of politics and the culture. I listen to them precisely because they say what’s on their minds and I know that they’re up-to-speed on what’s happening because they actively engage with other prominent folks in politics and the culture.
Can you imagine his reaction if some stagehand in a theater approached Mark Twain before he was about to entertain folks with his unique commentary about American life or the European culture and said, “Now, remember Mr. Twain, there may be a large portion of your audience that may be sensitive if you say something negative about Senator or Governor So-and-So.” –? Give me a break.
I don’t want Podhoretz, Long or Goldberg to walk on eggshells about anyone or anything. I want them to feel free to rant, rave and ridicule and laugh about and at anything. If certain Trumpsters can’t deal with that, then skip ahead or leave. Some of us won’t cry that they’ve left. Heck, in some cases, we didn’t even know they were there in the first place.
As Trump is such an unfounded disaster of a campaigner — not even having been nominated yet and an obvious and utter failure because of an unacceptable FEC filing — I suppose I need to compare him to our successful candidates, all of whom had hundreds of millions of dollars behind them: Bush 41, Dole, McCain, Romney and Jeb!
Winners all.
But oh so noble in defeat as they brought us Clinton and Obama.
So I’ll just “grit my teeth” (per Obama dinner host George Will) and watch Hillary’s Supreme Court redact the Constitution to oblivion, then nominate another loser in four years.
But at least the loser’s FEC filing will look good. That’s the important part.
The salient point isn’t about the specific amount of money. It is that, just like Hillary, Trump has no problem lying to the American people in this case about his net worth or his commitment to self fund and the filing indicates that he may indeed have been conning his supporters for several months now.
I realize for his most ardent supporters this is a bitter pill to swallow and is embarrassing. But it’s not as though this shouldn’t have been expected given his other exaggerations, deceptions or outright lies. But I’m sure once elected, Mr. Trump will fundamentally transform and be a much better president than any of your aforementioned losers because after all it’s about winning not really about who you’re winning with and what kind of character they have or what they really believe, to the extent that they believe in much of anything beyond how great they are compared to other losers. Good luck with that.
It’s funny. I had logged on to Ricochet in order to say something about how frustrated I felt, listening to Jonah (especially) talking about Trump trolls, etc. But it’s not the trolls that concern me as much as the prominent media figures (Ann Coulter mainly) who can be just as obnoxious in their (her) support of Trump. She’s one of you–she’s your equal. You can’t take her on? You won’t take her on? She’s supposedly so brilliant. Somebody, anybody, take her to task on this program. Forget the trolls.
So that’s what I was going to say when I logged on.
But then I started reading all these comments, and apparently, I’m not alone. With only a few exceptions, there does seem to be consensus: Gentlemen: it’s time to stop woe-is-me-ing and start doing something. You guys are the movers. The shakers. The writers. The thinkers. The shapers of opinion. The influencers. What are you waiting for? INFLUENCE, for heaven’s sake.