Man The Barricades

I don't have a problem with Jonah or David French's positions of "Trump deserved an investigation because he played footsy with bad people" while also being skeptical there was collusion.

What I want is the equal and opposite conclusion that those who had questions about how this investigation started or how Mueller staffed his team also were valid so long as they weren't yelling about illegitimacy, because there seems to be peacocking that "boy those Mueller critics look really crazy now" in the same vein of the criticism French and Goldberg bristle at about Russia.

I believe the problem Jonah has run into is his full embrace of this 'character as destiny' argument regarding Trump. And we know from Jonah's previous writings he didn't always believe this. Character was not destiny for Mark Sanford as Jonah defended his advocacy for that adulterer. And for the moment put aside the moral consequences of this fatalist 'character as destiny' argument, you see this is Jonah's coloring of how he sees Trump.

And this is why Jonah cannot be outraged that an entire political party try to undo an election using false allegations. It's why Jonah says it is the 'smart move' for Trump to move on. I believe Jonah thinks Trump deserves this injustice because of the past injustices he has committed.

And that is the irony here; Jonah, this articulate and nuanced defender of Western Civilization, doesn't really care if the rule of law is subverted to go after Trump because somehow Trump deserves it because 'character is destiny.' Rule of law used to mean that even people who have done immoral things are entitled a defense and fair treatment. But if 'character is destiny' then Trump is actually deserved mistreatment for his past misdeeds. That is something but it is not a principle of Western Civilization.

I still wish that Jonah would take a page out of Kevin Williamson's book and get off Twitter. Jonah's arguments that come from his books are masterpieces but his arguments derived from Twitter spats are public bathroom stall drivel. He is so much better.

@BlueYeti the promos really should be GLoP, not Ricochet.

How could Trump basically saying to Putin (not directly, via the media) “Please keep helping us find out what Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are trying to cover up regarding their misconduct in office and in the campaign” amount to illegal collusion? That’s just trying to attain the transparency and accountability that Clinton and Obama claim to favor already.

I’m reminded of the joke about the Soviet dissident who claimed publicly that the politburo was full of incompetents and idiots, and was imprisoned for revealing state secrets.

And it doesn't seem like the Hillary corruption and maybe the Obama corruption too, would have come out any other way. Certainly not as quickly and as timely as it did.

If either Trump or anyone in his campaign was asking for interference with voting machines etc, that would be different. But that’s not what anyone has shown happened, or even seriously alleged.