Trumpism—A Look Backward and Forward to November
About the juxtaposition of Trump’s policies and personality, or the President we love to hate. Poetrooper sends.
Between the abyss and what goes on in Portland and the Magnificent Mile, there is for the moment nothing else but Trump standing in the breach.
By Victor Davis Hanson
Perhaps 70 percent of Trumpism remains a hodgepodge of Reaganism: strong defense, realist foreign policy, deregulation, smaller government, big deficits, tax cuts, energy growth, and stars-and-stripes traditionalism.
But it is the other unorthodox 30 percent that excited his base, terrified conservative apostates, and won Trump the 2016 election by energizing between 4 million and 6 million voters in swing states who had either given up on Republicans, or on elections altogether. NeverTrumpers talk of Trump’s demise and their own resurrection as Phoenixes to rebirth the GOP. They have no idea that those who despise them had ensured their Beltway-preferred candidates could rarely win; nothing has changed since.
Trumpist conservatism is usually defined as not free, but fair trade, strict enforcement of immigration laws, an end to optional interventions that will not likely, in a cost-to-benefit analysis, result in U.S. interests or strategic calm for a purported troubled region, and a belief that industry and manufacturing are not brick-and-mortar anachronisms, but the creators of what we cook on, sit on, live in, drive, and work in; our non-virtual world that everyone relies on and yet takes for granted as so passé.
If Trump left his agenda at that, NeverTrumpers likely would be disgruntled but mostly quiet. The Left, as is its wont with Republican presidents, would have remained serially hysterical as in the Reagan and Bush years, but not completely unhinged as it has been since 2017.
What distinguished Trump then was not just his substance, but also his style. Translated it could be envisioned as chemotherapy, toxic enough to kill the status-quo cancer, but not quite lethal enough to kill the host. Or maybe Trump derangement arose from class disdain over the orange skin, the combed over dyed hair, the mile-long ties, the Queens accent, the oddly agile bulkiness, the raucous Manhattan career—the antithesis to all that appears on the Sunday morning talk shows.
Or maybe Trump’s don’t-tread-on-me brand could be defined as a remedy, a promise no longer to lose nobly rather than to win ugly (the last Republican to do so had been George H. W. Bush in 1988).
Read the rest of the article here: American Greatness
Thanks, Poe.
Category: Donald Trump, Guest Link, Media
MAGA 2020!! (Beats Joe & Ho 2020.)
Maybe The Donald should just run on Biden’s lack of accomplishments in Biden’s 50 years of service err, err slurping at the trough, v running on what he wants to get done or has done. It is obvious to any intelligent person that many people in this country would rather destroy the Country than to keep winning as we were until the Chinesecommunist Originated Virus Infecting Disease of 2019 showed up.
I want to be able to play with my dogs and cats in 2021, not have to eat them.
From the article that Poetrooper and AW1Ed provided (Thank You both for the article):
https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/16/trumpism-a-look-backward-and-forward-to-november/
“No president in the history of the Republic has ever been targeted for removal by the opposition party, the permanent bureaucracy, and members of his own party, and in such an illegal and unethical manner.”
“There was the first impeachment effort, the Beltway punditry in early 2017 calling for his removal by coup if necessary, the voting machine suits, the Clinton-Obama-Steele subversion of the Trump campaign and transition, the Hollywood assassination chic, the effort to take out former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, the farce of the 25th Amendment that included the bathos of high federal officials contemplating wearing wires in private conservations with the president to the psychodrama of Professor Bandy Lee testifying before Congress about Trump’s mental state, the silly Emolument Clause gambit (Trump has lost over $1 billion while in office and taking no salary), the subversion of the FISA courts, the Russian hoax, Robert Mueller’s two-year long and $35 million witch hunt, the fabricated Steele dossier implanted in the bowels of the Obama government and media, the one-phone-call impeachment circus, the revolt of the retired generals, and what has rightly lately been called “coup porn,” the hysteria over Ukraine and the caricaturing of Trump in 2020 as Typhoid Mary, Herbert Hoover, and Bull Connor as the Left weaponized the contagion, quarantine, and rioting.”
“The Left, the media, and the NeverTrump Right rarely now any more argue all of the above was warranted or based on verifiable wrongdoing, but see the mish-mash instead as a righteous “any means necessary” tactic to achieve the noble end of destroying a president that they detest.”
“That Trump is still standing is an unrecognized tribute to his resilience, stamina, and willpower to fight it out to the bitter end.”
“That Trump withstood such illegal, unconstitutional, and unethical venom also says something about those who dished it out—and, in the end, did so viciously and yet so impotently.”
Sometimes, I think it is too bad he isn’t the totalitarian dictator they love to portray him. If Trump had been as they characterize him, then all these progs and crypto-commies wouldn’t be around to continue to yap endlessly with their lies and pursue their schemes.
I hope the lack of comments is not an indication that no one is reading Dr. Hanson’s excellent essay. It is one of his very best and this PhD farmer has a long history of exceptionally incisive common-sense writing.
As I have stated here countless times going back to 2016, Trump the man drives me up the wall–but Trump the president has my full support–and Dr. Hanson explains why I have a lot of company across this great country.
I read it. There is literally nothing I can add to it.
This is a wait-and-see what happens episode, Poe.
I may not like Trump as a person, but he knows how to get things done. We must be watchful and patient. Take nothing for granted.
Poe:
The ninja family always enjoy listening to Dr. Hanson when he is featured on Carlson’s, Hannity’s or Ingraham’s shows.
A very wise scholar.
Thank You for sharing that article with us.
Dr. Hanson mentioned “coup porn” in the essay that Poe provided. This came out about 4 days ago reference the two retired US Army Officers: “Byron York’s Daily Memo: Coup Porn Backlash” https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-yorks-daily-memo-coup-porn-backlash “The two retired Army officers who wanted to see the 82nd Airborne remove President Trump from office are facing some pretty strong blowback.” “On Thursday, the Pentagon called the proposal a violation of the country’s most valued principles.” “We have a Constitution, and our Constitution, which all members of the military have sworn an oath to, provides no role for the U.S. military as an arbiter of political or election disputes,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said. “The issue appears to be borne of unserious thought reflecting a fundamental lack of appreciation for the history of our democracy and the civilian-military relationship established under our Constitution.” “Earlier this week, the two retired officers, Paul Yingling and John Nagl, wrote an open letter to Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Mark Milley asking him to prepare to send troops to remove Trump at gunpoint from the White House on inauguration day.” “They assumed, of course, that Joe Biden would win, and then further assumed that Trump would not leave office.” “Then they theorized that Trump, desperate to avoid jail after his presidential term, would deploy a “private army” from the Department of Homeland Security to violently resist any efforts to get him to leave.” “At this moment of constitutional crisis, only two options remain,” Yingling and Nagl wrote. “Under the first, U.S. military forces escort the former president from the White House grounds. Trump’s little green men, so intimidating to lightly armed federal law enforcement agents, step aside and fade away, realizing they would not constitute a good morning’s work for a brigade of the 82nd Airborne. Under the second, the U.S. military remains inert while the Constitution dies. The succession of government is determined by extralegal violence between Trump’s private army and street protesters; Black Lives Matter Plaza becomes Tahrir Square.” ” In addition to a slam from the Pentagon, Yingling and Nagl also took a hit from… Read more »
They should be recalled to AD and court martialed for conduct unbecoming.
For sedition…
Treason in time off (undeclared) war?
At least fine the bejesus out of their retired pay.
The original “coup porn” article published about 5 days ago:
“Coup Porn: Resistance Sees Military Removing Trump From Office”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/coup-porn-resistance-sees-military-removing-trump-from-office
“With 80 days left before the presidential election, a new and dangerous rhetoric has emerged from some corners of the Resistance. A number of President Trump’s most implacable critics are fantasizing about deploying the U.S. military to remove him from the White House on Jan. 20, 2021, based on their assumption that a.) he will lose the election, and b.) he will refuse to leave office on his own.”
“Recently, two retired Army officers speculated about deploying a brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division to overpower Trump’s “private army” that they believe the defeated president will use to try to cling to office.”
“Another retired officer, a former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, imagined the military in battle with armed Trump supporters, the result being that “all bets are off as to how much blood might flow.”
In addition, a group of former government officials, political operatives, and journalists concocted a scenario in which Trump actually won reelection but Democrat Joe Biden refused to accept the result in hopes that the military would side with him against the president.”
Some people just never grow up, ninja.
Really, if they want a coup to happen, then they could go down to Caracas and oust Maduro, and subsequently install Guaido, the legitimate president who was sworn in months ago.
That would make some sense. What a pair of maroons!
Donald Trump screwed up today. We all know he can be a troll at times. Today, he had the chance to moved from a Master Troll Level to Grand Master Troll but he chickened out by pardoning Susan B. Anthony for voting illegally 100 years ago. He could have gone to the Grand Master level or even the Ultimate Troll level had he done one of the following things:
(1) Pardon Hitlary Clinton for conducting official government business on a private server to avoid the record retention laws under the Freedom of Information Act; allowing various foreign intelligence agencies to hack it for an unknown length of time. Apparently she was operating under the principle of “one set of laws for you, none for me, etc.”.
(2) Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell for being an enabler for Jeffery Epstein in return for her cooperation with the government investigation of Epstein’s criminal conduct. And then move her into Federal Witness Protection program immediately to prevent her untimely suicide….
Now, if Donald Trump really, really want to get to the Ultimate Troll Level, he would pardon:
Barrack Obama – (1) for abusing the FISA courts in conducting a spying operation on Trump’s 2016 campaign using the various intelligence and counter intelligence agencies of the US Government – as long as he admits to the crimes, names who’s involve and sells out his underlings; (2) Using the IRS to suppress the Tea Parties’ tax exempt filings to negate their efforts prior to the 2012 elections; (3) Fast and Furious operation – funneling guns and ammo from the US to the Mexican drug cartels to enact gun control laws in the US; (4) Lying about Benghazi being a spontaneous uprising against a Coptic Egyptian filmmaker, putting him in jail for “hate” crimes and destroying his life (filmmaker is now homeless and living in a shelter in LA, unable to get a job as he’s now a convicted felon.)….
I really wish he had gone to the Ultimate Troll Level.