Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Donald and the Demagogues
Wall Street Journal ^ | 9/1/15 | Bret Stephens

Posted on 09/01/2015 10:52:46 AM PDT by Demiurge2

The Donald and the Demagogues

Democracies that trade substance for charisma don’t last. Trump is America’s answer to Hugo Chávez.

By Bret Stephens

Aug. 31, 2015 7:34 p.m. ET

If by now you don’t find Donald Trump appalling, you’re appalling.

If you have reached physical maturity and still chuckle at Mr. Trump’s pubescent jokes about Rosie O’Donnell or Heidi Klum, you will never reach mental maturity. If you watched Mr. Trump mock fellow candidate Lindsey Graham’s low poll numbers and didn’t cringe at the lack of class, you are incapable of class. If you think we need to build new airports in Queens the way they build them in Qatar, you should be sent to join the millions of forced laborers who do construction in the Persian Gulf. It would serve you right.....

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: invective; politics; trump; trump2016; trumparticle; trumpdemagogue; wsj
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last
Bret Stephens is the most honest of the WSJ's opinion writers - he comes right out and tells the Republican base he detests them. Bret usually only gets this riled up when talking up Israel.
1 posted on 09/01/2015 10:52:47 AM PDT by Demiurge2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2

Hillary — Are You Ignorant, Stupid or Just a Demagogue?

http://www.economicnoise.com/2014/10/25/ignorance/


2 posted on 09/01/2015 10:56:55 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2

Bret is just another puppet with monied interests having their arm up his backside controlling his ‘communication hole’.......


3 posted on 09/01/2015 10:59:55 AM PDT by yadent
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2
To a large degree the antipathy towards Trump on the part of establishment Republicans is, in my opinion, a class based antipathy.

He's loud, boorish, inelegant and crude. He reminds me of the Rodney Dangerfield character in the movie Caddyshack. I suspect Mr. Stephens, George Will, Krauthammer, etc. similarly are reminded of Rodney or someone like him.

Trump is unapologetically low-brow.

I do think Stephens did get in one good zinger though...

"a reality-TV star whose meretricious tastes in trophies, architectural and otherwise, mainly remind me of the aesthetics of Bob Guccione."

Wish I'd said that.

4 posted on 09/01/2015 11:05:21 AM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2
If by now you don’t find Donald Trump appalling, you’re appalling.

Bret, I'm appalled at your outrageous bigotry! You must be more tolerant! Dude!


5 posted on 09/01/2015 11:05:37 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2
Wow! Calling Trump a Demagogue is alright, but to not do so for ANY of the Democrats, particularly the Mulatto Mussolini Obama is really a stretch.
6 posted on 09/01/2015 11:06:37 AM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: billorites
To a large degree the antipathy towards Trump on the part of establishment Republicans is, in my opinion, a class based antipathy.

Correct, but incomplete.

There is self-loathing envy included in response to his undeniable success. That is the source of the ugly rage which seeps from their condemnations.
7 posted on 09/01/2015 11:16:23 AM PDT by Robert Teesdale (III% | 4GW)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2
If by now you don’t find Donald Trump appalling, you’re appalling.

I'm just appalling enough to vote for Trump.

Your world is coming to an end.

Trump/Cruz 2016

8 posted on 09/01/2015 11:17:59 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (It's beginning to look like "Morning in America" again. Comment on YouTube under Trump Free Ride.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: billorites
similarly are reminded of Rodney or someone like him.

Don Rickles.

9 posted on 09/01/2015 11:23:14 AM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2
Hey Bret...

Bite me!!!


How's that for class.
10 posted on 09/01/2015 11:24:14 AM PDT by phs3 (FUBO)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2
Although I tried, honest I did, I could not read past these two paragraphs:

Here is the first:

++++ It says that a party that carries on about the importance of e pluribus unum and rails against the identity politics of assortedR, minorities is increasingly tempted to indulge the paranoid (and losing) identity politics of a dwindling white majority.
++++

One From Many is what we should have. The Democrats have a different goal and are succeeding. Their goal is "e pluribus pluribus" which is almost certainly incorrect Latin but you get the idea. The result is a continuous dilution of our culture and its replacement by some sort of Politically Correct Socialist Nirvana envisioned by , the Leftist Elite and their MSM whipping boy.

No thanks.

Here is the second:

++++
It says that a sizable constituency in a party that is supposed to favor a plain reading of the Constitution objects to a plain reading of the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
++++

According to this WSJ Idiot we are to believe that a "plain reading of the Constitution" requires that we assume that the phrase "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" was added to fill space. His interpretation is the same if these few words are left in or taken out.

He is wrong. That man who wrote those words had no such intention and such a use would upset any honest (non-Democrat) English teacher.

11 posted on 09/01/2015 11:26:42 AM PDT by InterceptPoint
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2

Bret Stephens is the kind of elite who falls for liars like Hillary.


12 posted on 09/01/2015 11:29:55 AM PDT by GOPJ (Immigration, World Poverty and Gumballs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2
If by now you don’t find Donald Trump appalling, you’re appalling.

As Marie Antoinette said, the people are revolting.

13 posted on 09/01/2015 11:42:31 AM PDT by MUDDOG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2

Demigod vs demogogues


14 posted on 09/01/2015 11:50:03 AM PDT by GeronL (Cruz is for real, 100%)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Demiurge2

“you will never reach mental maturity.”

I am rubber and you are glue....:)


15 posted on 09/01/2015 11:51:50 AM PDT by Leep (Cut the crap!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPJ

I’ve never read a word by Stephens indicating anything but a loathing of either Clinton. Can you post any quotes by him that would show otherwise?


16 posted on 09/01/2015 12:10:35 PM PDT by Oklahoma
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: billorites

To see the real contempt for the base these RINO hacks have just read about Senator Flake the GOPs “John Kerry”. The arrogance is astounding.

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/this-senator-is-the-gops-anti-trump-128056697531.html


17 posted on 09/01/2015 12:44:27 PM PDT by headstamp 2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne

So, if the powers that be keep Trump off the ticket somehow, are we gonna mount a write-in campaign?


18 posted on 09/01/2015 12:45:24 PM PDT by Salamander ('Cause We're All Kinds Of Animals Coming Here. [Occasional Demons, Too])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Salamander

I am hoping the party is not stupid enough to screw with Trump to that point.

If it does, Trump will go third party, and I will go with him.

Tens of millions of people will do the same thing.

We are fed up with Washington. The very fact that this is even a possibility, shows us how low the Republican Party has sunk.

We may be witnessing the death of the Republican party here.

If the GOPe forces Trump out, I don’t see it ever recovering.

They have consistently refused to accept reality. I attribute that to Rove and other consultants who will move on and get paychecks somewhere else after destroying the Republican Party. And the party leadership is just too thick headed to get it.

Trump will be our next president. He would prefer to do it as a Republican. If they don’t want that, so be it.

I’m telling you right now, if the GOPe pushes this, he goes third party, wins the White House and they start playing games between him and Congress, he will mow them down one by one.

Elections in two years would see over a hundred Independent candidates elected to Congress, possible several.

The Republican party is mismanaging it’s way to oblivion.

If it’s leadership doesn’t wake up, it’s done.

It wouldn’t listen to it’s base. It allowed the worst of the worst to represent it. And now it’s trying to play hardball with the very guy that could hand them a majority that would last them decades.

Seldom in history has a small group of leaders been this destructive to their real mandate.

The real elephant in the room... what do the GOPe see as their mandate, if not opposition to Leftist tyranny?


19 posted on 09/01/2015 1:07:01 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (It's beginning to look like "Morning in America" again. Comment on YouTube under Trump Free Ride.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne

WSJ = Cheap Labor Express, and Hedge fund managers, both frequent Trump talking point villain’s


20 posted on 09/01/2015 1:38:57 PM PDT by Zenjitsuman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson