Category: Politics

A repost from 5 November 2016, just three days before the historic Trump victory that still has lefties fuming and flailing.  And I did have to eat my words. We sane conservatives who voted for Trump have been vindicated in spades and the quisling, never-trumping, pseudo-cons are sliding deeper into irrelevance with every passing day, bow ties and all.

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In January, in Trump's Traction and Conservative Inaction, I wrote:

. . . there is no way Trump can beat Hillary.  He has alienated too many groups, women and Hispanics to name two.  Add to that the fact that large numbers of conservatives will stay home, and Hillary is in like Flynn.  Mark my words.

A bold asseveration somewhat justified by what had transpired up to that point.  Things look differently now.  I may have to eat my words.  And I hope I do.  I also wrote:

Let's hope that Trump does not get the Republican nomination.  But if he gets it, you must vote for him.  For the alternative is far worse.  Politics is a practical business.  It is not about maintaining your ideological purity, but about getting something accomplished in murky and complex circumstances.  It is always about the lesser or least of evils.  Trump would be bad, but Hillary worse. 

That's right except that I no longer use the misleading phrase 'lesser of evils.'  It seduces people into asking, 'Why vote for either if both are evil?' when in the vast majority of political contests like these none of the contenders is evil in a way that would justify voting for neither.

Not 'lesser of evils' but 'better and worse.'  Trump is better than Hillary policy-wise even if not much better character-wise.

The state is not about to wither away.  She shall abide, to oppress, but also to guide and provide.  It obviously matters who has his hands on the levers of power.  It matters who sets the tone and influences the culture in Washington and beyond.    

Some are tempted to withdraw and have nothing to do with politics.  That would make sense if one could expect politics to reciprocate by having nothing to do with one.  A highly unreasonable expectation, especially when the Dems are in power.  Never forget that the Left is totalitarian to the core and will lie brazenly to achieve its ends. A good example is the pack of brazen lies put forth by Obama and Co. to ram through ObamaCare, the unaffordable Affordable Care Act.

Hillary too lies brazenly as should be evident to all by now when it is helpful unto her personal ambition and the leftist agenda (in that order). 

You know what you have to do come Tuesday.

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In hindsight, I was wrong to hope that Trump not get the nomination. For now I see that none of the others could  have beaten Hillary. Surely the pathetic Jeb! Bush could not have.

Memo to self: should you really be using 'surely' in affirmation of a counterfactual conditional?

A good explanation, but not particularly Marxist.

Disgusting but true: Bush 41 (George H. W. Bush) voted for Hillary and his son Bush 43 (George W. Bush) for none of the above. Call them Cozy Little Club firsters.  These 'conservatives' seem to think that conserving their cozy cocoon trumps tackling real problems.  What these bow-tie boys value are their privileges and perquisites and their exclusive  little soirees in wood-paneled Beltway clubs.

Among Trump's many accomplishments, the three most significant so far are that he put paid to the Bush dynasty, brought about the fall of the corrupt House of Clinton, and nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court to succeed Antonin Scalia.

And that is just the start of the list. Illegal immigration is way down; the economy is way up; religious liberty has been defended . . . .

Trump is a rude and bracing blast of fresh air in American politics. He is not a lawyer in a profession lousy with lawyers. He is not a career politician. He doesn't need the job.  No one owns him. He is ready, willing, and able to fight. He doesn't give a rat's ass about being politically correct. He presents a new and healthy direction for the country: enlightened nationalism.

For the record, I did not support his nomination. But when he got the nod, I came around, like every sane conservative.

"You didn't build that!"

We should never allow ourselves to forget all the stupid things Obama said, Obama, a man hailed as brilliant by that arbiter of intellect, the illustrious Chris Mathews.  Does the latter still get a thrill up his leg when he thinks of the man? Or maybe the thrill is gone.

Rejoice I say unto you, rejoice that Obama in a pant suit, "Felonia von Pant Suit" (Kurt Schlichter) was handed her walking papers by Donald J. Trump.

Related: Who Built the Internet? Obama's Straw Man Fallacy

My title is the first instance of my using the expression 'Crooked Hillary.' I now feel fully justified in using it. 

I now hand off to Donna Brazile, Inside Hillary Clinton's Secret Takeover of the DNC.

I am having a hard time resisting another slug at the NeverTrumpers. But resist temptation I will. I just deleted a couple of sentences of invective laced with obscenity. It is hard to watch the destruction of our great Republic and not get especially angry at the bow-tied do-nothings. Parlano molto, ma fanno poco.

I preach self-control, so I'd better set a good example.

Via Power Line (emphasis added):

I remain absolutely a supporter and a sympathizer of Trump. And you know, no president checks every box. I think his virtues far outweigh his faults. I do wish he would take the office and the history of the office more seriously than he does . . .

Just the fact of getting elected was an extraordinary accomplishment. I mean, you could say it was the most culturally democratic moment in the history of the world. Never before has a great power spurned everything the elite — the intellectual and the social elite — knows, left and right, about who should be running the country. Never before has a great power said to hell with that. The dignity of the country is important and has a lot to do with the power of the country, but this is an emergency and we’re going to make use of the best candidate who’s out there. And the implications are enormous. The left believes that, since it refuses to report on the right, the right doesn’t really exist, that it’s just a bunch of uncollected morons with no serious thought.

We all know this. We’ve reached a point where the left’s blindness is aiding the collapse of the intellectual structure built up since the rise of Marxism . . . The left is too arrogant, too complacent, too self-satisfied to notice it or do anything about it — I hope.

This is indeed an emergency and I would go so far as to say that the so-called conservatives who refused to support Trump displayed a morally censurable degree of willful stupidity. And they are paying the price for it. The 'stock' of Bill Kristol and George Will et al. has plummeted.

Hoist by her own Russian petard.

The more we know about her, the better Trump looks by comparison.

Those of us who rolled the dice and voted for him have been vindicated in spades.

'Pap and smear' is part of the explanation why Hillary lost.  If you listen to her speak you soon realize that she has nothing concrete to offer. It is all empty rhetoric, or pap. But she really sealed her fate when she smeared as 'deplorables' the decent Americans who do not subscribe to her (well-hidden) agenda.

Pap and smear.

It is becoming increasingly clear how unfit for the presidency she is. Her complicity in the Uranium One scandal for starters.

Now there is a real Russia story.

My man Hanson has too much class to be so blunt. Here is part of what he has to say in a very astute article from which you can infer my title:

In sum, the NeverTrump lament seems to be that whatever good Trump has done is more than outweighed by his “character is destiny” flaws. Neil Gorsuch and scores of conservative circuit court judges; Nikki Haley at the United Nations, James Mattis at Defense, H.R. McMaster at the National Security Council, Mike Pompeo at the CIA, and Rex Tillerson at the State Department, all restoring deterrence; rollbacks of Obama-era executive orders; green-lighting pipeline construction and increased fossil fuel production; protections of Second Amendment rights; restoring national borders; and genuine efforts to reform Obamacare and the tax code—all of that for them is not worth the spectacle of Trump on the national stage. 

A Note to VDH

Dear Professor Hanson,

When I see you on Tucker Carlson you look all beat to hell. You're working too hard. Please take care of yourself. Get plenty of rest, exercise, and eat well. Write less. We need you for decades to come.

Your loyal reader,

BV

UPDATE (5:50 AM)

Mark Anderson writes,

Buongiorno, Bill,

Hanson worked with me on my Classics M.A. thesis, which I wrote under the supervision of Robert Drews, a well known historian of the Bronze Age whose work Hanson admires. My article "Socrates as Hoplite" is a distillation of that work. It is also, by the way, relevant to the relation between philosophy, ethics, and self-defense (even aggression). In any case, I share your dismay about Hanson's appearance (and speaking style/tone, and slovenly oversized suits) on Tucker Carlson (one of the very few serious, knowledgeable, and intellectually honest journalist-commentators on TV). He (Hanson) really does seem beat. But I suspect that's just his style. 

Buona giornata,

Mark

Mark Anderson
Chair, Department of Philosophy
Director of Classics
Belmont University
Nashville, TN 37212

Ciao Marco,

I share your high opinion of Tucker Carlson. But I wish he would stop inviting lefties. He probably thinks he needs to do this to be "fair and balanced," but what typically happens is that Carlson asks some reasonable question of the leftist guest, which the latter evades in order let loose with his reliably incoherent canned spiel, about,  say, all those thousands of people roaming around without photo ID who are 'disenfranchised' — sneer quotes! — by reasonable ID requirements at polling places. Tucker tries without success to bring the knucklehead back to the topic, voices are raised, they talk over each other, and I surf away to a Seinfeld re-run.  These shouting matches are totally unproductive. Besides, they elevate my blood pressure. But when I return from Seinfeld to hear the brilliant and consummately witty analysis of Mark Steyn, or the less brilliant, but solid, contribution of my favorite gun-totin' lesbian, the charming Tammy Bruce, then it is all worthwhile and the old B.P. returns to 'within range.'

Of course, there are people who like to watch unproductive shouting matches. They like to see people fight.  So it may well be that ratings would decline if my suggestion were followed. 

Tucker needs to realize that the age of productive dialog with political opponents is over in American politics.  Destructive leftists don't need talk, they need defeat. Let's hope it can be achieved politically without resort to, God forbid, the 2A solution. But as every patriot knows, the 2A ain't about hunting.

Tante belle cose,

Guglielmo