I cut the cable about three years ago, so I have no idea how the expected public execution of Donald Trump is going – or if Mr. Trump, true to form, is ripping the arms off of Ben Carson and beating Carly Fiorina and Hugh Hewitt to death with them, rhetorically speaking of course. What is amazing to me is the absolute violent reaction people have to his candidacy. While he is, to be kind, not liked by the Democrats, the apoplexy he engenders in the GOP-establishment class is positively incandescent. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a reaction so virulently negative to any candidate especially by his/her own party in my lifetime.
Here are a few of the kinder things said about Mr. Trump over the past few weeks. First, we have John Podhoretz:
Trump is something different. He is not a politician whose success has turned him into a megalomaniac, but a megalomaniac who has decided to play politician for a while the way he played being a reality television star for a while. He’s free to do this, of course.
The problem is not with him. The problem has to do with his reception. He is garnering support that may actually be real, and may actually change the course of the 2016 election — and, therefore, American history — through nothing more than blowhardism.
I like how his ad hominem against Trump segues seamlessly into a blanket insult of those who support him, which as of this writing is still putting him out front by double digits in all the polls, even with a group that perpetually votes over 95% Democrat – black Americans.
Or how about this comment from respected “conservative” pundit Charles Krauthammer:
“That’s his entire campaign. All our problems are from Mexico, from China, from Saudi Arabia, and Japan, and he will make them pay,” Krauthammer told the host. “But that elevates him to a guy actually with ideas. These are eruptions, barstool eruptions.”
“And the pity is this: this is the strongest field of Republican candidates in 35 years,” Krauthammer declared. “You could pick a dozen of them at random and have the strongest cabinet America has had in our lifetime, and instead, all of our time is spent discussing this rodeo clown.”
You’d think Krauthammer was still working as a speechwriter for Walther Mondale. And of course, there’s this outburst from the incredible shrinking columnist George Will:
“There’s all this new talk that it’s something to it about the Republican brand — picture him on stage in Cleveland,” Will argued. “He says something hideously inflammatory which is all he knows how to say, and then what do the other nine people on stage do? Do they either become complicit in what he said by their silence or do they all seriatim have to attack him?”
“The debate gets hijacked. The process gets hijacked, and at the end of the day, he’s a one-man Todd Akin,” Will said. “He’s Todd Akin with 10 different facets. That’s the gentleman in the [2012] election, said unfortunate things about rape, and every Republican was asked about them from then on.”
Thing of it is, George old boy, if Todd Akin were Trump, Claire McCaskill would not be a senator from Missouri. But wait! There’s more! Will went on to say he hopes Trump gets shellacked in the primaries. Which leads me to this outburst from none other than Bill Kristol of “The Weekly Standard.”
“I doubt I’d support Donald. I doubt I’d support the Democrat,” Kristol told CNNMoney in an email. “I think I’d support getting someone good on the ballot as a third party candidate.”
The unmitigated chutzpah in this comment from Kristol is just jaw-dropping to me on so many levels. First, his party has always demanded and arrogantly expected us unwashed proles to just shut up, go to the polls and pull the lever down the ticket for whoever is the candidate. But rather than support the nominee – even if it’s Trump – you threaten the very thing that you have always railed against your entire career?
What Kristol and all the others fail to comprehend (or perhaps understand quite well) is that THEY CREATED TRUMP. That is, McConnell, Boehner, the donors and the Chamber of Commerce and the entire GOP establishment by now openly and gleefully ignoring the base and basically acting like a wing of the Democrat Party, issue after issue, election after election.
Hate Trump all you want, but he has tapped into this to the tune of a double-digit lead in the polls. They see a threat to the established order; to the ideological destruction of America by the left and the money to be made off of it by the GOP. We’ll see how things shake out after this debate and then of course when the primaries get into gear. But, I will say I support Trump because of his effect on the process, not necessarily as a candidate. And if he does get the nomination, I have no trouble pulling the lever for him at all. It’s better than staying home or voting for the Democrat to hasten the demise of the country.
I have a feeling that a Trump presidency has the potential to make a lot of heads explode – hopefully not mine.
“hideously inflammatory”
Aka, what a lot of other people also think, but haven’t had a voice to say.
“These are eruptions, barstool eruptions.”
Someone please get this man a fainting couch and a dictionary with the word irony bookmarked.
Well stated J. J.
So the GOPe kicks (repeatedly) a bunch of their core electorate to the curb, Trump strolls by and picks them up. “Hey! No fair!”, says the GOPe.
Nice post JJ
Just to reiterate, I’m not a special pleader/defender necessarily of Trump. I’m merely angry over a political party and commentariat that is having a tantrum because someone – in this case it’s Trump – is articulating the rage of the people who are now openly ignored and mocked by those that allegedly represent their interests in government.
Pardon my French, but fuck you, Bill Kristol and the rest of you. YOU created Trump, or the conditions that engendered the enthusiasm for his candidacy.
Yes, the so-called “conservatives” in the Chattering Class did indeed create a Petri dish in which a Trump would inevitably grow. After years of being fed a steady diet of Bushes, Romneys, Santorums and other well-spoken, moderate, accommodating wimps (most of whom get beaten like a rented mule by Democrats), they should have known the people they routinely offer their condescending views to would eventually demand a candidate with a spine and an in-your-face approach.
Which would you rather have: the gutless, perennial-loser choices of entrenched elites like Hugh Hewitt and the Corpulent “Captain” (and his devotees), or a candidate (no matter how flawed) with guts and drive?
I actually like Rick Santorum, except for the irredeemable sin of supporting Arlen Specter. He really is a solid guy on virtually every issue. But he’ll never go anywhere.
But your point is taken on everything else.
Your Podhoretz quotation is illustrative of the mindset of the inside-the-beltway pundits, who have a fundamental misunderstanding of what politicians are.
Anyone who aspires to be a political figure has the seeds of megalomania firmly planted in his psyche.
That Podhoretz does not understand that is reflective of his immersion in the DC life, and his desire to see these people not as what they are, craven, power hungry egotists, but as what he wishes them to be, grand figures on the political stage, wisely leading us to the promised land.
As for Trump’s “blowhardism?” Yes. Of course. So what? Perhaps he learned it from the current occupant of the White House.
My reason for supporting for Trump can be summed up by stealing a quote from Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in the movie “Full Metal Jacket”. “He’s silly and he’s ignorant. But he’s got guts, and guts is enough”
But is he going to teach us how to pee?
I am watching western civilization jumping off a cliff (in slow motion). My feet are still barely on the ground but I am feeling the suction to take me with them. At least the Donald is yelling “hell no”. For some reason that makes me feel a little better about what I am afraid is inevitable but pray is not.
Enjoy the site, wish Ace would upgrade his site to look like this.
Glad you like it.
Ace is quite the loner….I’m not sure he cares to be hip and cool and cutting edge like we are!