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The GOP primary is basically dunzo. Time to look ahead towards the general election, the future of the Republican Party, even on to the generations that will take it over one day. To do so our merry Ricochet gang is joined by Governor Scott Walker, now the president of Young America’s Foundation.
Peter, James and the Reverend Dr. Long also cut into the razor wire debate.
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Nice that Gov. Walker joined the podcast. He was crushing in in WI for so long. I still think he would have made a great president.
“Republicans” voting for Biden is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. The next dumbest thing is Republicans not voting for Trump because they don’t like him.
Yep. Some of them did it in 2020 also, including some former members.
I’ll toss this in again, from a different post a few days ago:
Rob needs a reminder from the Obama administration, “When you realize that he’s on the other side, it all makes sense.” The current Democrat Party does not like America as founded. What Biden is doing on the border is on purpose.
Who decided that GOP voters should vote based on offensive Tweets instead of effectiveness? I am pretty sure that is a Leftist idea and is pushed by Leftists everywhere and some people who claim to be on the Right. Are you really on the Right, if your vote can be changed by a little name-calling by Leftists??
Are you really on the right if calls to “terminate” the Constitution don’t bother you? Are you really on the right if you embrace over $7 trillion in new debt?
43 years ago we embraced a president who thought it was “disrespectful” to be in the Oval Office without a tie on. 26 years ago we were appalled at Bill Clinton’s actions in the Oval Office. We’ve argued for decades for using Dr. King’s measurement on “the content of their character.” Now, it’s all character be damned and “grab them by the [genitals].”
Are you really on the Right?
@EJHill:
I understand what you are saying and don’t disagree. I do not prefer Donald Trump either and think he is going to destroy the Republican Party while he gets beat in the general. However none of that changes the fact that the majority of the Republican Party want Donald Trump; it is what it is.
That said what I am getting frustrated about with this is why nobody asks the question why….why do so many Republicans want Donald Trump. I have yet to hear you…Jonah Goldberg…Matt Cont…Noah Rothman…John Pod….et al ever ask that question…I mean sincerely ask that question. The et al controlled the party for decades….how did it get lost to Donald Trump. You can put some to cults of personality but that doesn’t equate 70 million votes in a general election. Instead of asking that question all that is heard is that Trump Supporters are idiots and part of a cult…..that they are easily lead by a demagogue…if not said outright it is insinuated with every conversation…talk about being pretentious. You can bemoan the loss of the party to Donald Trump…but until you sincerely ask the question of why and really listen to the responses we will continue with this dance. As to those voting for Donald Trump calling everyone NT etc…well…if you want to be honest about it they are tired of being looked down upon so have decided to fight.
Finally I will end with this…the ball is in our (those who do not want Donald Trump to be the leader of the Republican Party) court to ask this question…and to listen to the response….that may not seem fair but the fact is we lost the party to Donald Trump…we either work to get it back by listening and finding common ground or form a new party.
One last postscript…all this said…we have a record of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden in office…if it does come down to those two…all else aside…you have to make the choice of who will actually do more damage to the Constitutional order….imho…Joe Biden has done so much more damage…from the border…to student debt…the use of executive power to crush political enemies both Democrats and Republicans….the list goes on and on….Donald Trump loves himself and the Wilsonian Presidency for sure and will use it but man…his record while in office is not as bad as Joe Biden if you are being honest.
I am sure it bothers most people and most people understand that Trump says some ignorant things.
I don’t think so and we have done it 4 times over this century. Heck, I thought Reagan was a reckless spendthrift, but I am more frugal than most.
You can’t control spending if you are constantly creating inflation. Having unfunded liabilities also makes this impossible.
The only time we could’ve done this was right after the Soviet Union fell. Nobody has any foresight. All we do is steal from each other with government.
The administration keeps using the weasel words ‘let the Border Patrol do its job’ without saying that job is to let everyone in.
Actually I have a long history of defending Trump and his supporters. (Here. Here. And especially here – this one got 200 responses.) Donald Trump may well have kept and counted me as a supporter.
But then came the post election period and his call to “terminate” the Constitution in his bid to remain in power. Even some of the most disreputable of politicians, such as Richard Nixon and Albert Gore, Jr, knew when to take one for the good of the country. But that’s not in Trump’s nature. The good of the country only coincides with whatever praise and love it returns to Donald Trump.
And I must confess that the primary season has disillusioned me with my fellow Republicans. They had a chance to ditch the disreputable, to take all the baggage and throw it out, and start anew and with a candidate with a proven track record of accomplishing things they said were important to them. But they showed the baggage and avenging Trump was more important. Never mind the grooming and mutilating of children. Never mind the debt-fueled inflation. Pay no attention to the state of our military. Fani Willis hired her boyfriend!
They took every indictment as a sign to embrace him further. They embraced every poll that showed him sprinting past Joe Biden. And then, after the candidate the Left really feared dropped out the pollsters could reveal the obvious: All the Democrats need is one conviction and Trump’s support collapses like a cheap lawn chair. And in the jurisdictions Trump has been indicted in I do believe they’ll get at least one.
For all the talk about the common man, they forget the world the common man operates in. These people are not immersed in politics. They catch the headlines and that’s about it. They want to work hard, love their spouse, play with their kids, tuck them in at night and watch a little TV. And they don’t particularly like Donald Trump. And you can blame the media, and you can blame The Deep State™ or you can just think the electorate as a whole is stupid. But it’s the only one you’ve got and you can’t force them to care about injustices for billionaires.
Good to see that Rob has not lost his touch for comedic genius. I fell off my chair laughing when he described himself as a Conservative.
I’m still convinced that Rob and Peter and whoever else were and remain seriously chagrined at having founded a conservative-leaning website whose membership turned out to be overall much more conservative than they are.
You use the word “they” several times. I think you mean different groups, but suspect there is just one group.
I, like you, and like most others, wish that everyone would choose our preferred candidate. Alas, we are destined to be in the minority and to be disappointed repeatedly.
That’s especially a problem for people whose preferred candidate isn’t running, or may not exist (a theoretical perfect candidate) or may no longer be alive (Reagan), etc.
Not really.
Rob’s always had a sense of humor about being dubbed a RINO in these circles. He’s aware that there are people to his right and has no problem with them. He knows a bit about states, counties and districts where compromises have to be made in order to move the needle to the right and points it out when Republicans want to win statewide races in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or Virginia or local elections in California or New York.
Peter’s very conservative—I’m not sure how much farther one can go. But he’s been around politics for a long time and has met a lot of representatives who’ve received innumerable calls and letters that go like this: “Hi, [Governor/Senator/Rep. Whomever]. I’m a rock-ribbed conservative! I generally like what you’re up to, but I see you want to cut funding to [program that, I, concerned constituent, enjoy the benefits of]… Don’t do that! It would be bad for America and you’ll lose my vote.” Alternatively, it goes: “Hi, [Governor/Senator/Rep. Whomever]. I’m a rock-ribbed conservative! The subsidies for [X]/the tariffs on [Y]/the tax credits for [Z] are essential to keeping America competitive in the global market… Don’t touch them! If you do, you’ll lose my vote.” Apparently those pressures overwhelmingly outweigh the outspoken support for sticking to constitutionally conservative principles, so Senator Whomever relents sometimes.
I’ve seen some tradeoffs in recent years but hardly a unilateral change that would tell me that the Robinson or Long-types in the Republican Party are standing in the way of something special .
The game is what it is. They and James are interested enough that, even if it’s not played the way they’d like—and setting aside a few disagreements about the oughts— they enjoy it and discuss. Unfortunately they take flak as commentators that would make more sense if aimed at the players or referees… That’s the part that kinda bothers them.
Rob’s critiques of Trump in this podcast were from someone more conservative than Trump (building less wall than Obama, empowering the Deep State during the lockdowns, blowing out the national debt by adding $7T), not less.
I’ll stop laughing at Rob calling himself conservative when he comes out unequivocally for the repeal of the 16th and 17th amendments, the elimination of a national police force (the execrable FBI), the privatization of Medicare and social security, elimination of the EPA, the department of energy, HEW, the NIH, the CDC, the department of Education, most federal departments, federalization of college loans, all tariffs, subsidies, ex-im bank, regulatory agencies, departments of Interior, reclamation. SEC, FEC, FAA, Dept of Agriculture., that notorious star chamber the CFPB, the ATF, etc, etc. and fundamentally transform the DOJ, end the dept of commerce, legislatively eliminate Wickard v Filburn, turn over to the States all the federally owned lands (in Western states the Feds own the majority of land, making those states quasi states).
Rob is a realist with a few conservative proclivities who, like most today swallows whole the fishy federal leviathan. I will accept him as a conservative when he repeats the mantra incessantly: Progressive policies pave the road to serfdom.
Does anyone, except you, qualify as a conservative under your definition?
Would Trump even qualify as a conservative under your definition? He didn’t do (or even attempt) a single one of the things on your list.
This is my favorite podcast. I don’t care how long it goes. I’m always interested in everything everybody has to say, here.
No one that I know. Sort of in the opposite camp of Pauline Kale. I hardly qualify myself, finding myself equivocating at times. But I still aspire to Constitutional freedom, and I think that list would almost do it. But certainly I am not a realist. I say, “rage, rage, against the dying of the light” of Liberty. Progressives (same as Socialists and Communists, as Eric Vogelin has noted) have been trying to kill it for well over a Century, if not much longer. I see most Conservatives today as soft Progressives. The fundamental difference, in my mind, between Progressives and Conservatives, is that Progressives absolutely deny that humans are transcendent beings; Conservatives insist above all that humans are transcendent beings. Perhaps Rob accepts transcendence, but if so, it is not particularly evident to me. And one gets the very strong feeling that Rob possesses all the proclivities of the Epicurean Elite, in particular, a strong sense of condescension toward us Deplorables. He can’t figure out why we all don’t just eat cake and enjoy ourselves. Nice life if you can achieve it. But most can’t.
I would call myself a “Liberservative” as opposed to a “Conservatarian” like Charles C.W Cooke. I still remember the thrill I had as a 14 year old when I heard Barry Goldwater’s acceptance speech and he delivered that disastrous line: Moderation in the pursuit of Liberty is no virtue; Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice.
I have been a Harry Jaffa fan ever since, and a sort of West Coast Straussian, best represented now perhaps by Charles Kessler. Christine Todd Whitmer (same age as I am) was appalled, of course, as a Rockefeller Republican on hearing Goldwater’s proclamation, then and now. Rockefeller represented the Progressive wing of the Republican Party. (Holding my arms above my head, making the V signal with both hands, shaking my jowls and intoning stentoriously) I AM NOT A PROGRESSIVE.
In particular, I resent the Rockefeller Foundation bankrolling the Eugenics agenda (under the rubric of the “Science of Man” derived from David Hume’s philosophy, which is one of the most vile philosophical efforts of all time–whose origin is best described by Alexander Pope in his Essay on Man: ‘…and from sloth, philosophy!”) of the first half of the 20th Century, and working to continue to advance Progressive causes ever since (Nelson Rockefeller, as Governor of New York, hired Alan F. Guttmacher, a one time official of the American Eugenics Society, then an avid exponent of abortion and official of Planned Parenthood, and the founder of the Guttmacher Institute to promote abortion, to attempt to craft an abortion law law in New York (sort of like a forced sterilization law was passed in Virginia in 1924, as abortion became the new Eugenics in the 60s and early 70s leading up to Roe v Wade. Note that Reagan at the same time [1967] signed an abortion law in California that allowed abortion up to the 20th week of pregnancy, in the case of rape or incest, or statutory rape, or to promote the physical or mental health of the mother).
{Life of course is essential to Liberty}.
I could go on, and on, and on. But I’ll stop.
Public goods only. Look up the Kahn Academy definition.
Artificially created (which is the only way it’s created) inflation, retards human flourishing except it’s the only way to be militaristic and we keep the trade routes open.
Medicare and Social Security are great in theory. In reality they are disasters.
Government Is How We Steal From Each Other™
Right you are. Trump doesn’t qualify as a Conservative in my book. Ron DeSantis comes much closer and he was my preferred candidate. So I’ll vote for Trump if the nominee (I see Nicky Haley as very much a centrist Republican, more a realist like Rob; I like her, but don’t think she will prevail; she leans toward the Bush/Rockefeller/McConnell wing of the Republican party, although not as severe.
I use a different definition of “conservative” and not many qualify. My definition is a person that prefers a form a government that is most likely to ensure long-term prosperity and least likely to result in loss of natural freedoms. We don’t know the exact form, but research has shown that it means a government with subsidiarity, representatives, checks on power, and an explicit list of individual freedoms. It is not about preserving the status quo. Thus, the Founding Fathers were extremely conservative, when the voted to throw off the existing government and form a new one, because they based the new government on a 1000’s of years of research. Sen. Mike Lee ranks high on my list.