We decided to transcend the recent International Women’s Day by declaring our own American Women’s Day with Julie Ponzi and Julie Kelly, stalwarts of AmericanGreatness. Steve Hayward draws out their views on how to come to grips with Trump, why the culture wars are more important in the short run than the budget deficit, and who they hope the Democrats will be foolish enough to nominate in 2020. [Sponsored by Mancrates this week.]

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  1. Freesmith Member
    Freesmith
    @

    The funniest part of this show was when Steve Hayward admitted that the reason he contributed to the “Against Trump” issue of NR and opposed his nomination was because he didn’t think Trump would be bold enough in office.

    What does come through in the discussion loud and clear is confirmation of my almost 2-year-old conviction about the true source of Never Trumpism among its conservative advocates: it’s not his policies; he simply offends their sensibilities.

    From a practical political standpoint they knew they were wrong from the outset. Here’s Walter Olsen in NR in January, 2016:

    ”One might wonder whether meeting these [Trump] voters halfway is worth it. But there is no alternative: All other voter groups who might be open to voting for a Republican nominee are farther to the left and oppose conservative consensus on key matters of principle.” (Bold type added)

    As the two Julies maintain, every other GOP hopeful in 2016 was a guaranteed loser, a graceful concession speech about shattered glass ceilings waiting to happen.

    Which may have been part of the plan. Again Olsen in the same NR article:

    ”America’s self-appointed best and brightest uniformly view…Trump as the modern-day equivalent of a medieval peasants’ revolt. And, like their medieval forebears, they mean to crush it.

    “That effort is…a fool’s errand…Such a strategy requires a permanent informal coalition with the Left. Keeping blue-collar white Americans out of political power will result in exactly what Washington elites have wanted for years: a series of grand bargains that keep the status quo largely intact and the Democratic party in power.”

    And had one of them somehow squeaked past the worst candidate in history and become POTUS he or she would surely have rolled over and shown belly at just 25% of the concerted opposition and psychological intimidation which has been leveled at Trump. Watching Little Marco at the CNN “Town Hall Against the Second Amendment” made that clear.

    It will be nice when Hayward, whose 2-volume biography of Reagan I read, remembers these words: “The forgotten American — that simple soul who goes to work, bucks for a raise, takes out insurance, pays for his kids’ schooling, contributes to his church and charity and knows there just ‘ain’t no such thing as free lunch.’”

    Those were the people Reagan championed, both when he was a New Deal Democrat and when he re-made conservatism and the Republican Party.

    The soi disant best-and-brightest hated him too.

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