Posted on 07/21/2016 3:11:40 PM PDT by oblomov
Moderators, I hope you'll permit the vanity.
I wanted to solicit opinion from FReepers on the remaining NeverTrumpers.
What amuses me is the degree to which the NeverTrumper disdain for Trump seems to be personal. It goes well beyond the superficial pettiness of a faculty lounge dispute, and seems bitter and vindictive.
With some evidence (not much of which I can post here), I'll posit three motives:
- Personal slight against one or more NeverTrumpers, perhaps an ancient slight
- Trump has not paid sufficient fealty to the Conservo-sphere of writers and political consultants
He has not hired Mike Murphy or Matthew Scully. He doesn't give a fig for what Michael Gerson thinks. Or Jonah Goldberg.
- It's a class thing.
Consider the tension, evident sometimes in neocon/paleocon debates, between the "high-bred" Catholic and Jewish NR and Weekly Standard writers,
and the "low-bred" Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Jewish writers at American Conservative, Taki's Mag, and Chronicles.
The sociology of conservatism is not often openly discussed, and may be a factor at work here.
I could care less.
Just plain...Screw them.
We have work to do.
I think it’s a mental disorder. They didn’t get their way so they are throwing a tantrum, much like a little child would do.
I think the motivation varies. I used to post on another site as well. Many of the more obnoxious nevertrumpers left FR and went there. I managed to get myself banned from that site because I just couldn’t take their bull. They took the stance that they were so superior, while spouting a completely illogical line of garbage.
Neocons are a scourge.
“I could care less.
Just plain...Screw them.
We have work to do.”
==
Ditto. We can analyze the socio-political implications after the election (if anyone really cares to then).
Worthless, wretched "people," every last one of 'em, sans exception. Pfah. [::spits::]
u right. all these twerps don’t amount to a hill of beans.
John Anderson of Illinois isn’t running this year. And neither is Ralph Nadar
The most personal thing to people is their pocketbook.
A lot of the NeverTrump is, in my opinion, based on a financial interest in illegal immigration and offshoring.
There are 20+ million illegals in this country. Many small business owners that are natural Republicans rely on illegal labor from construction to agriculture to restaurants and hotels. They use the cheap labor and let the cost of the unemployed and underemployed fall on taxpayers and the social problems fall on their neighbors. They don’t want to admit that this vested interest is why they oppose Trump, so they come up with some specious reason.
As to publications like National Review and The Weekly Standard, if we had a list of their major donors that would tell us a lot about why they support the massive trade deficits and de-industrialization of the US workforce.
Tell me what great moral principles guide Lindsey Graham, Bill Kristol, the Bushes, Mitt Romney, John Kasich, Ted Cruz and the rest.
None of them have ever taken a courageous or moral stand as far as I can tell. None of them have proven to be trustworthy.They are motivated by self interest.
it’s the same s#it they’ve been mouthing off about for a year “he’s not conservative!, he’s a NEW YORK LIBERAL!”.
As if ideology made anything happen...
You can tell them Reagan was a Democrat longer than he was Republican all day long and they don’t care. They worship at the altar of high-sounding words uttered by The Smart People and don’t really care about actually solving problems that will make America great again.
#4 They still watch Fox News and think it’s a conservative outlet.
Trump may not be a dyed in the wool conservative by many standards. But if elected, he will be one of the few people in the entire government that is not a professional politician.
He will be leading the country as the founders intended: an individual man who has felt a calling to leave his daily life and serve his country, putting America first, protecting its borders, the economy and putting Americans first. This should meet or exceed anyone’s conservative requirements!
I will be the first to say that “The Donald” was not my 1st or even 5th choice BUT I am sending him campaign money and have been for months! At one point I did root for Ted but I have stricken him from EVERYTHING after his unlovely screed!
I took a pledge in 1992, that any Republican is better than Clinton and watched too many be swayed by Perot. As bad as ‘W’ was, and that was pretty bad, he was infinitely better than Gore and Kerry! The same goes for McCain and Romney, they were GOPe all the way but not voting for them was the same as voting for Obama!
Many of the #NeverTrump seem to have forgotten Reagan’s repeat of the GOP 11th Commandment - “Thou shalt not speak ill of any Republican”, meaning no personal, below-the-belt attacks. Developed after the Goldwater-Rockefeller 1964 bloodbath, it is very appropriate to remember it now! If these purblind idiots continue and we get Hillary till 2020, hope they enjoy a complete leftist Supreme Court for a generation!
Gorged on Jeb Bush cash.
Good post.
Having been an NR, Human Events, American Spectator guy from way back in the early 80s, I would say #3, definitely.
Trump may be a billionaire, but he’s definitely a blue-collar billionaire. He offends these guy’s sense of style, which is the Buckley model (although I suspect that Bill Buckley would back Trump, especially at this point).
They want the cocktail-circuit type conservatives. They want to pontificate from their perches, but they don’t want to jeopardize their invitations to the DC dinner party circuit either which supporting Trump would do.
back when "serving your country" was really just that and not self serving like it is today.
#4: They are Republican Establishment, and Trump is opposed by the Establishment. The Establishment lives by corruption, by getting cash to “fix” problems, and they’re afraid Trump with derail the gravy train.
What we’ve seen in DC, is that RINO Repubs are allowed to participate in graft, have mistresses, etc, as long as they do not cross the Dems on anything major.
I asked my anti Trump conservative purist friend why he wasn’t anti-Romney in 2012. He didn’t have a good answer even after I explained that Romney governed as a far left wing democrat with a republican title. He appointed something like 70 democrat judges in his state, not a single republican judge! He created socialized medicine and supported the most radical gay issues in existence at the time.
The fact that Romney was universally supported by the GOP never trumpers, while these same people hang Trump out to dry because he simply did business and socialized with democrats at times, shows how full of shit they are!
I think it’s a tantrum and there could be no better example than Mark Levin. He can’t get off this.
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