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.
Jonah Goldberg is a leading conservative critic of Trump and Trumpism. Therefore, there is a big target on his back, and front, and everywhere else. And yet he stands and delivers.
With Jay, he talks about Assange. Putin. The American Right. National Review. The National Enquirer. Hillary. The Trump Train. Anti-Semitism. The GOP future. Etc. He and Jay talk it all out, or most of it out, or a great deal of it out.
At the end of the podcast, Jay says that Jonah’s stance against Trump, and for conservatism, has been a comfort to him, personally. Many others can sing that tune. Listen to Jonah sing on this lengthy, though fast-moving, heart-to-heart podcast.
Subscribe to Q & A, Hosted by Jay Nordlinger in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
Pulllleeeease
‘Pull-lease’? This sounds as though it could have been something else tRUMP has used to screw people over.
Joe– there is no point in continuing this. We are poles apart. Please remember that you Nevers, if successful in preventing the Republican Party from winning this election, , will turn our Supreme Court over to the Democrat left wing for a lifetime; and that will be a true tragedy.
goldwaterwoman,
As a trump supporter with “Goldwater” in your alias, what do you make of these quotes?
As I said before, there is no point in continuing our conversation.
Okay. I’ll layoff from this point forward and not quote your posts or mention you in any other comments relating to Trump’s candidacy.
I think Jay & Jonah are being paid to be Never-Trumpers by the Koch Brothers and this is why they are now faking principles that they’ve not held before in order to get on Koch payroll. And this is obvious because of their lack of historical signaling of their Conservative bonafides. Now they’re just actively supporting HRC! <|sarcasm>
I should add that their disdain for Hillary predates Trump’s by over a decade.
@lowcountryjoe, I find it sad that you feel it necessary to add the aside <sarcasm> to this last post, as if what you said was too subtle and might be misinterpreted as an attack on men rather than a defense of them. ;)
In my mind, if these writers you laud would just shut up and get out the way, no one would need such clarifications about their careers anyway!!!
To clarify, when I say *shut up and get out the way* I mean write glowing words about Donald Trump and comply in public with the will of Sean Hannity.
At the absolute least, they–and you, buddy, because I’ve got my eyes on you–should stop sharing their opinions where they might hurt the cause.
Don’t they know about safe zones???
Plus the Right invented the lock step, don’t’cha know, even if that traitor Jonah wrote a whole book about fascism emanating from the Left. (Idiot!)
The only principle that matters is toppling the queen who has bad principles with the new knight gallant who has no principles because that’s the only thing principled Republicans can do.
Geez.
Do I need an emoticon to establish the tone of this post?
<Just in case, I’m really saying we could be friends, except I suspect you’re going to go to a re-education camp in November… whoever wins.> :D
I truly believe that you, Trump supporters, did that when you nominated the one candidate in the entire field of 17 who could not defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election. Keep in mind that you did so with far less than 50% of the Republican electorate, a plurality, not a majority. You got what you wanted, now live with the consequences. A favorite quote: “I know of no way of discounting the doctrine that when you take something you want, and damn the consequences, you had better be ready to accept what consequences ensue.” Wallace Stegner
Snap! Boom! Drop the mike….
I honestly don’t think the majority of his supporters feel the need to defend every word he utters, I certainly don’t. You’re right in that it’s all about never Hillary.
I can’t bear to listen to any more Never Trumps preening about how principled they are and how terrible Trump is, thus I don’t listen to Mike Murphy. I was also vocal in my disappointment that Ricochet brought his podcast on board. What did they say to reaffirm your decision?
My considered advice to conservatives (I consider myself a conservative) is to work for the election of Donald Trump, for the election of a Republican House and for the election of a Republican Senate. Donald Trump is the lesser of two evils in the presidential race. Once he is elected, it may be necessary to oppose him as often (or maybe more often) as to support him. As far anything that has to come through Congress, there is much hope conservatism can have some victories, and that liberalism will experience total legislative defeat, recognizing that Trump may be on the side of the liberals as often as he is on the side of conservatives. The biggest dangers are those areas where his personality and lack of sound principals are unopposed by Congress. This would be in the area of foreign policy and executive orders. The cabinet choices would be critical. John Bolton as Secretary of State instead of his current campaign manager (can’t think of his name right now), for instance.
Conservatives have always been in the minority. They are still in the minority. The had to fight to push George Bush and George W. Bush toward conservative policies. They had to fight to push John McCain and Mitt Romney toward conservatism. It will be much harder, and there may be more failures with Donald Trump.
Conservatives have had some success at riding well broken-in political ponies. I propose that we “Ride the Tiger”. Yee Haw!
This is the lodestar of principle speaking.
It’s too bad you weren’t a prominent part of either of the two Bush administrations or the Dole, McCain or Romney campaigns.
I am inclined to discount anything Laura Ingraham says because of her early support for Trump during the primaries (when there were 16 better choices), but this is pretty good, and more clearly stated than any of the emotional outpourings I’ve heard recently from Jay (a man I respect – but on Trump/Clinton, he’s in fantasyland) on the subject:
“I believe that a lot of conservatives . . . are troubled with the notion that by voting for Trump, they would be personally endorsing everything he says and does. But that is simply not true. We are talking about a temporary political alliance to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House. No one seriously believes that John Adams supported slavery because he worked with slaveholders to throw the British out of Massachusetts. No one seriously believes that Churchill supported communism because he worked with Stalin to defeat Hitler. No one seriously believes that Hamilton and Madison agreed on everything because they cooperated on the Federalist Papers. There’s a reason we say that “politics makes strange bedfellows” — because political crises sometimes force people to form alliances with people they would otherwise oppose. For some conservatives, the 2016 election is plainly one of those times.”
I recommend the whole article (though not the whole Laura). Taking Ted Cruz Seriously
You just made the case for voting Republican about as well as anyone on here. Thank you for this comment.
I caught a segment of Limbaugh’s program today where he spent part of a monologue stating how irresponsible it is to be a Republican and not vote for Trump. He then took a call from someone who wanted to talk about how Gary Johnson wasn’t a bonafide libertarian and that the caller wouldn’t vote for Johnson and is supporting Trump. After a few minutes into the call the caller stated the he sat out when McCain ran in 2008 because he couldn’t bring himself to vote McCain. Rush didn’t say one damned word about it…nothing about being irresponsible; nothing, zilch, nada.
We have someone on this very thread writing that, “I pretty much agree with everything he says yesterday, today and tomorrow. If he changes to get more votes, I’ll change too. I want to defeat Hillary Clinton and the dirty Democrats. Period.” But what if Trump were to start supporting single-payer heath care, removing the earnings cap for FICA taxes, and wanting to broker deals with North Korea?
He does support single payer health care, @lowcountryjoe. At least if I believe what he’s said in the past. And he has said some weird things about North Korea. He has just said… weird things.
I simply cannot fathom how NeverTrumpers rationalize to themselves that a Clinton presidency will not fundamentally shift the nature of our Republic forever. If you believe all the things the Jay Nordlingers and the Jonah Goldbergs always have to say about the Left/Progressives and the size of government, how can you possibly be OK with four more years of Progressive governance?
How, exactly, do you plan to legislate reforms when the stacked SCOTUS declares everything unconstitutional? How will you win over a critical mass of American voters who have spent pre-K through 12th grade being indoctrinated in cultural Marxism, Zinn, and Chomsky? The NeverTrumpers failed to convince the Republican primary voters they were right – how to they expect to do the same with the general public? Do you think Hillary’s commitment to abolish the Hyde Amendment is an empty campaign promise? Do you think the IRS won’t be weaponized? Do you think the ~1,500 appointments Hillary Clinton will make won’t have a lasting effect? Do you think the fascist free speech crackdowns on campuses across the country will stay there? Do you think the persecution of Christian business owners will just go away?
Seriously, I’m interested to hear a NeverTrumper explain why they believe this is just another election; do you believe President Cruz is coming to save the day in 2020/2024? Do you think 12-16 years of aggressive Progressive expansion into the bureaucracy and courts is so easily overturned?
That is exactly what I said and stand by it. http://ricochet.com/the-flight-93-election-publius-decius-mus/
What if Clinton appoints three or four more Ginzbergs or Sotomayors? Think Constitution, think Constitution. Listen to Hugh Hewitt. He gets it.
Who is saying that we’re okay with an HRC presidency? And that we’re not aware that her presidency wouldn’t be a disaster? Speaking for myself, I readily acknowledge these things. Unfortunately, Trump has not made the case to me that he would be any better. In some ways I think he’s an improvement. In other ways I think he would be even more harmful than HRC.
Anything can be done legislatively as long as it has the will of the people and the people are prepared to clamor for it (and elect representatives whom will follow suit). Unfortunately what the people seem to really want is populism. Populism from the Right and from the Left. Most people want free stuff; want to prohibit behaviors that their neighbors engage in; and don’t want anything to do with foreigners.
It’s not just another election. But most people are in the unprincipled frame of mind at the moment and will make bad choices regardless.
Think Constitution and the significance of three or four Clinton appointments. It’s a no brainer.
@goldwaterwoman
Have you had a change of heart since #33 & #35? I don’t want to start-up on you by asking tough questions or employing sarcasm, and then have you request that I stop engaging you.
Everyone needs to read this, Thank you.
They didn’t say that Trump is so unstable, so beyond the Pale, just that they both suck, which is almost an upgrade from my original impression of Trump; I can take it from there and conclude that the Progressive/Leftist Borg Collective to which Clinton belongs is the far worse choice.
Ah, sorry Joe. I forgot that we aren’t supposed to be talking–at my suggestion.
If, and I’m not saying he will, but if Trump reshapes the Republican Party into something radically different than conservative, that would be worse than losing the election. If both parties embrace the idea that a big, strong, wise leader is the source of our prosperity, that would be a massive surrender to the Democrats.
I’m not a Republican. I stopped being a Republican when Trump became the nominee. There’s no way I’ll vote for Clinton. Trump has acted conservative recently. It very likely is an act, but that could be okay. If he can be pressured into acting conservative even though he doesn’t want to, that would be better than Hillary. However, I can easily imagine a Trump presidency being worse for conservatism in the long run. It’s not an easy decision.