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This week, we bring you two very different views of the current state of the Republican Party courtesy of two of the smartest observers we could find. First, former RNC chair and Mississippi governor Haley Barbour stops by to remind us to be adults and remember that Donald Trump will be a better president than Hillary Clinton. But later, the great Charles Murray (read his incredible essay “Trump’s America” here) makes the opposite case: Trump will be an unmitigated disaster to be avoided at all costs. It’s a stark contrast in views and — take our word for it — required listening. Where do you fall? Let us know in the comments. Note: this podcast is quite a bit longer than usual, but we thought this conversation warranted it.
Music from this week’s episode:
When The Word Ends by Dave Matthews Band
The opening sequence for the Ricochet Podcast was composed and produced by James Lileks.
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Not sure Trump has ever said anything about the 80% rule but it has been commonly said about Trump for years by people that do business with him. On the other hand it is not that unusual of a practice for larger companies doing business with smaller companies. Just like it is not unusual for large companies to not pay their bills for 90 or more days to stretch their AP out and use their vendors credit instead of theirs. I was in some business classes in the 80s where techniques such of these were taught and recommended as smart business practices.
Peter Robinson hit the nail on the head when he said that Rubio failed because he ran a very “lazy” campaign. As I posted on the Member Feed this morning, Rubio and his surrogates crisscrossed south Florida many times in the weeks leading up to the Super Tuesday primary but nobody bothered to visit rural south central Florida. No other presidential campaign stopped in our region to ask for our votes either. With that lack of attention no wonder 49.97% of Republican votes in our county went to Trump!
Nobody’s mentioned Yakov Smirnov?
Charles Murray’s comment that at Belmont dinner parties it is socially acceptable to sneer at “rednecks” rang a bell with me. Nearly thirty years ago I took a two-year teaching job at a preppy liberal arts college. I had spent most of my undergraduate and graduate-school years in the United States and so thought I would easily adapt–in contrast to my children, for example, who did not speak English. I was in for a shock, for I was not at all fluent in lingua in rebus politicis recta. One day, having been chastised by a colleague on whom I had been on good terms, I was told: “Within ten years, people like you won’t be allowed to teach anywhere in the United States.” Why? I asked. “Because you have the views of a Southern redneck gas-station attendant!” “My goodness!” I exclaimed. “I am shocked and dismayed to hear you engaged in minority disparagement.” “Minority?” she asked, looking alarmed. “What minority are you talking about?” “Why, Southern redneck gas-station attendants, of course!” “Don’t be ridiculous!” she replied with a relieved laugh. “They’re not a legitimate minority!” I did not renew my contract but rather fled safely back home across the seas, together with my wife and children, who had managed to pick up quite a lot of English, along with the impression that America is a rather odd sort of country.
I stayed up past midnight listening to the latest podcast–and was most grateful for it. I particularly appreciated the honesty of Peter Robinson and Rob Long regarding the “pickle” that many Americans must find ourselves in. It’s strangely comforting to know that even those who know vastly more than at least I do about matters political are feeling uncertainty. I admire both of the guests who spoke and found their arguments worthy of careful consideration…I loathe and heartily distrust Donald Trump and grieve, albeit from afar, for the America we once knew and is no more. And yet the thought of Hillary Clinton in the White House fills me with even deeper gloom. Will the mainstream media have a twinge of conscience after they help to crush Trump and tell themselves, “well, yes, we got ‘our’ liberal in, but, uh, she really is just as corrupt and two-faced as they say she is…”? I somehow doubt it.
In the battle between Murraytown and Barbourmont, add my name to the residents of the former.
The Ricochet team did a great job (apparently inadvertently) in exposing Charles Murray’s lack of self-awareness. While he can wax poetic on, and empathize with, in the abstract, “working class” whites in Fishtown, he has a meltdown with the concrete flesh and blood candidate who appears to have tapped in to the issues of that same “class.” Perhaps Dr. Murray is just succumbing to a bit of professional jealousy that someone he considers so stupid as Mr. Trump can have gained such a following among those he seems to almost apotheosize, as Jefferson did the American yeoman farmer in his day. Those yeoman Americans aren’t behaving according to Dr. Murray’s learned preconceptions.
Murray’s book explicitly points out that Fishtown fails because of the way the people there live and the choices they make. Bad choices. I see no inconsistency.
His recommendation was that Belmont preach what they practice so that those in Fishtown see the better methods of living that lead to a better life.
If Fishtown had risen up and backed any number of other politicians I don’t admire so much–let’s say it was Sarah Palin, whom I regard as shallow–at some point I would join the bandwagon because Palin displays a basic integrity. More than anything else, the problem with Trump is the character issue. When Murray attacks Trump, these issues are what he mentions: marital infidelity and ripping off business partners.