How David Brooks Created Donald Trump

Cato At Liberty ^ | 2/11/2016 | MICHAEL F. CANNON

[Beave Meister]

If you give Obama a pass when he is dishonest or breaks the rules, because he seems like a good man, or is at least better than those guys; if you argue he had to change the law himself because Congress is dysfunctional and Republicans are unreasonable; if you lambast Bush for starting a war, but give Hillary a pass for both Iraq and Libya; then you are adopting one set of rules for your tribe and another set of rules for everyone else. That shows a lack of respect for people who disagree with you. They notice. They resent it.

And in swoops The Donald.

Trump is likewise riding the resentments conservatives have stoked of immigrants and Muslims. Millions of peaceful, hardworking immigrants are living in the United States in violation of America’s stupid and immoral immigration laws. There is definitely something wrong with this picture. But every time conservatives complain about those good people instead of those immoral laws, they turn immigrants into the “other” and encourage voters to blame immigrants for that and whatever other problems come to mind. When conservatives denounce as “amnesty” legislation that would free decent human beings from a greater threat to liberty than most conservatives will ever face from their government, they further stoke resentment of immigrants. In the process, conservatives encourage people who care about immigrants to turn a blind eye toward bad behavior by the other team, because at least that team seems to value the freedom and dignity of immigrants. And so conservatives stoke a vicious cycle of resentment.

[Beave Meister]

Very good article on liberal hypocrisy....

[20yearsofinternet]

It’s good on liberal hypocrisy, and the do nothing GOP.

But it’s also a pitch for the Cheap Labor Express.

[grey_whiskers]

Trump is likewise riding the resentments conservatives have stoked of immigrants and Muslims. Millions of peaceful, hardworking immigrants are living in the United States in violation of America’s stupid and immoral immigration laws. There is definitely something wrong with this picture. But every time conservatives complain about those good people instead of those immoral laws, they turn immigrants into the “other” and encourage voters to blame immigrants for that and whatever other problems come to mind. When conservatives denounce as “amnesty” legislation that would free decent human beings from a greater threat to liberty than most conservatives will ever face from their government, they further stoke resentment of immigrants. In the process, conservatives encourage people who care about immigrants to turn a blind eye toward bad behavior by the other team, because at least that team seems to value the freedom and dignity of immigrants. And so conservatives stoke a vicious cycle of resentment.

What a STUPID CUCKSERVATIVE.

I read the whole article.

At the cost of going "tut, tut" at liberals for hypocrisy which they never care about anyway, he fulfills every globalist stereotype about immigration and Muslim infiltration.

I guess this cretin never heard of Disney replacing employees with H1-Bs, or Carrier, or the San Bernardino shooter (the FBI wants Apple to hack his iPhone. Too bad they didn't bother to, you know, investigate his apartment before letting the press in).Or the illegal immigrant in California who killed the girl and tossed her body in the dumpster.

Or 9-11.

One does not win a dispute by allowing the enemy to define both the ground of the debate, and the terms used to describe things: one achieves EPIC FAIL when one starts off by conceding all of the opponents accusations, right off the bat.

[DannyTN]

Cato Institute - Trump must be their worst nightmare.

[Billthedrill]

Reading the Brooks quotations is like seeing an alternate universe where he actually is what the media present him as: a respected conservative authority. In fact, he is none of these things, and it is a continuing source of amazement to me that he is still placed in that niche by people who really ought to know better because it's their business to know better.

Trump is riding resentments Obama has stoked by ruling as an autocrat.

Yes, that, but far more than that. Trump is riding resentments stoked by the entire rotten, arrogant, self-satisfied conglomerate of media celebrities, fame seekers, power junkies, and incompetents that populate the high reaches of American political culture at the moment, and I swear if in some glorious afterlife I ever get to meet the likes of Washington and Madison I shall weep bitter tears of humiliation. Yes, guys, it has come to that. You gave me a gold coin and now I'm holding a dog turd. And it was probably my fault for not just shooting the bastards.

Well, it's too late - or maybe too early - for that remedy, and so we are stuck with what we see and read before us. The author is close: Brooks, et al, didn't create Trump, what they did was stink up the room so badly that even a small hint of fresh air seems like a hurricane of relief. That isn't anyone's fault but their own.

[lifeline]

Trump created his own rise by realizing what he needs to say in order to get the R nomination.

This realization likely occurred after his ‘consultation’ phone call with Bill Clinton prior to announcing.

[D-fendr]

Yours sounds like a nose/face argument.

[Mr. Mojo]

CATO: spot on about the liberal hypocrisy, but way off base on the subject of border security. Suicidally so.

The Institute's position: Let them in: the case for open borders