Posted on 09/04/2018 6:32:53 PM PDT by Rummyfan
The 2016 Republican primaries were one big "f you" to the establishment. We all know that Trump won the nomination, but it's easy to forget that the second-place candidate, Ted Cruz, was also anathema to the establishment. Indeed, one reason Trump won the nomination was because most of the Republican establishment refused to rally around Cruz; he was considered by some worse than Trump, and other were sufficiently hostile to Cruz they thought it was better to lose (as they expected) with Trump than potentially win with Cruz.
Of course, Trump went on to win the presidency, even though virtually the entire establishment--and here I mean prominent, powerful or influential individuals from mainstream liberal Democrats to neoconservatives, from the "usual suspects" to conservative Wall Street Journal columnists, lined up against him.
Ever since, the establishment has been aghast, and rightly so. Someone with Trump's temperament, history of lies, casual prejudiced statements, and so on, should never have gotten near the presidency. Yet, despite the establishment's warnings of disaster, enough voters were willing to vote for him to make him president.
abandoned him. A major reason, I think, is that the establishment that once served as a gatekeeper against the likes of Trump has lost its credibility among large portions of the population, and their attacks on Trump are simply discounted or ignored.
Why? Well consider how the establishment would react if George W. Bush were seated two seats down from David Duke at Willie Nelson's funeral, with Duke given a place of honor. Now consider that Bill Clinton sat two seats away from an equally odious hatemonger, Louis Farrakhan, at Aretha Franklin's funeral. Some Jewish groups expressed dismay, but Clinton acted as if nothing was amiss, as did the rest of the establishment. Former attorney general Eric Holder took a picture next to Farrakhan, and it sure looks posed. But wait, you will say, Farrakhan is black, and because of historical differences in power, black racism and anti-Semitism simply isn't as problematic as white racism as anti-Semitism. That's a fine argument to have in university seminar room. What your average person sees, however, is hypocrisy and double standards. So when the establishment says, "reject Trump, he associates with some dubious characters with dubious connections on the 'alt-right," the establishment makes a fair, if sometimes exaggerated, point. But to the average Trump fan, it sure looks like the establishment is much more concerned with bigotry when it can be connect to conservatives and Trump than when it involves figures who are aligned with left-wing Democratic constituencies.
What about the fact that Trump shows little interest in truth, and his supporters are too quick to dismiss expert and scientific opinion, that they try to bend the truth to their political agenda? As Gail Heriot has recounted on this blog, a psychology professor at Brown (and you can't get more establishment than the Ivy League) published a peer-reviewed article suggesting that at least some teens who claim transgender identity do so as a matter of social contagion rather than because they were "born that way." After complaints from transgender activists, Brown apologized for issuing a press release touting the study, and the journal that published the study announced it would review it further. Establishment voices that are usually raised very quickly at any hint of the politicization of science from right-wing political sources were notably silent. But can you imagine the reaction if the study had been one favorable to, say, same-sex marriage, and the same thing had happened after conservative evangelical Christian activists complained?
charitable assessments of someone's legacy. In McCain's case, however, the praise heaped on him made him out to be someone so far from the actual John McCain that he was virtually unrecognizable. Someone who always treated his political opponents with respect? Not really, but a useful way to implicitly attack Trump. More important, the politically aware recall that McCain was a hero when he took on George W. Bush in 2000, and again when he became an implicit member of the "Resistance" to Trump until his death. But in 2008, when he ran against the establishment's favorite, Barack Obama, the establishment turned on him with a vengeance. Sort of seems like the esteem in which they hold a prominent individual has less to do with his character, and more to do with whether he is serving a useful political purpose at the moment. So attacks on Trump's character, however well-founded, are considered in that light.
I should emphasize that I agree that Trump has at times promoted bigotry, is a congenital liar, and engages in demeaning and belittling behavior toward his political opponents. Indeed, I think these things are obvious. But much of the country isn't listening when the traditional gatekeepers point this out, and that is, at least in part, the gatekeepers' own fault.
Blah blah blah garbage post. Not worth it.
Shut up, David.
Seriously.
L
What a bunch of horse manure.
I’ll bet he is sipping a orange caramel pumpkin spice latte with one little finger in the air. As he adjusts his metro-sexual bow-tie.
I bet he’s POed that nobody wants to go on one of his “cruises”.
Wish I had those 30 seconds back. Idiot talking about how the establishment are idiots.
It’s very simple.
Both parties were hell bent on making America into North Mexico and the citizens wanted it stopped.
The citizens have wanted it stopped since the establishment started their bipartisan policy of non-enforcement right after the last amnesty.
That bill promised border and interior enforcement for a one-time amnesty.
The establishment had no intention of ever securing the border or enforcing the laws.
The illegal alien inundation was intentional and bipartisan.
They had US in a box voting for amnesty candidate D or amnesty candidate R with no hope of keeping our country.
Trump promised US he would stop the invasion of our country by fraudulently documented foreigners.
That is why he won.
The writer is correct that the establishment has no credibility.
The writer is dead wrong when he calls Trump a liar. In the most important way, Trump is the most truthful politician of my lifetime. Though his command of facts figures when speaking extemporaneously may be imperfect, I cannot think of a single campaign promise that Trump has broken. He has aggressively pursued every policy he campaigned on.
The establishment hates him for this very reason.
This SOB calls Trump a liar and compares him to David Duke? He can GFH.
They hate him because he has disrupted a 30 year bipartisan plan to fundamentally transform the USA.
Our freedoms and sovereignty are in the way of the New World Order.
They invited those 30 million people here to dilute US.
We would not vote to subsume the USA to the UN so they are importing people who will.
Leftist commie morons always claim Trump lies but they can never provide any actual examples.
People who work at journalism full time ought to be able to do a better job of it than people for whom it is a hobby. But that's not going to happen as long as we "professional" journalists ignore stories we don't like and try to hide our mistakes. We think of ourselves as "gatekeepers." But there is not much future in being a gatekeeper when the walls are down. - Jack KellyThe “gatekeepers” - journalists - all “meet together," virtually, over the AP newswire. That “meeting” has been ongoing since the Civil War.People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776)To recognize the “conspiracy against the public” it is necessary to consider what motivates all journalists:The man whom we believe is necessarily, in the things concerning which we believe him, our leader and director, and we look up to him with a certain degree of esteem and respect. But as from admiring other people we come to wish to be admired ourselves; so from being led and directed by other people we learn to wish to become ourselves leaders and directors . . .We-the-people have freedom of speech, and freedom of the press - but no one has to listen to us or to read our printed writings. I put it to you that the journalists who meet together so continually, also continually promote the conceit that journalists are objective - and that we have to pay attention to them and believe them. And that that is the "conspiracy against the public" which the AP wire produces.The desire of being believed, the desire of persuading, of leading and directing other people, seems to be one of the strongest of all our natural desires. - Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
The fact that journalists know that they systematically promote bad news implies that their claim is actually that “negativity is objectivity” - and that is a nice definition of cynicism. Journalism is cynical about society and - the other side of the same coin - naive about government. The combination - that “coin” - produces the systematic promotion of socialism for which “the MSM” is notorious.
In response, Washington D.C. institutions and the media will use every tool, every day to delegitimize a Trump presidency.
Not a word about policies, actions and results, just ad hominem attacks.
Phfft.
I totally disagree with your assessment of Ted Cruz. Most Texans are satisfied with his service in the Senate and will turn out to keep him there on November 6. You can bet on it.
More drivel from the dummies at Unreason Gagazine.
You can’t lose what you didn’t have.
Bears repeating:
They hate Trump because he has disrupted a 30 year bipartisan plan to fundamentally transform the USA.
Our freedoms and sovereignty are in the way of the New World Order.
They invited those 30 million people here to dilute US.
We would not vote to subsume the USA to the UN so they are importing people who will.
I trust no Senator. Cruz, Paul, Lee, Sessions: sound and fury signifying very little.
I was guardedly optimistic about Sessions until the day after he was confirmed.
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