Posted on 01/29/2016 7:54:30 AM PST by ghost of stonewall jackson
Trump is in part a reaction to the intellectual corruption of the Republican Party. That ought to be obvious to his critics, yet somehow it isn't. Consider the conservative nonprofit establishment. Over the past 40 years, how much donated money have all those foundations consumed? Billions, certainly. Has America become more conservative over that same period? Come on. Most of that cash went to self-perpetuation: Salaries, bonuses, retirement funds, medical, dental, car services, leases on high-end office space, retreats in Mexico, more fundraising. Unless you were the direct beneficiary of any of that, you'd have to consider it wasted.
Pretty embarrassing. And yet they're not embarrassed. Many of those same overpaid, underperforming tax-exempt sinecure-holders are now demanding that Trump be stopped.
And by the way, the people doing the scolding? They're the ones who've been advocating for open borders, and nation-building in countries whose populations hate us, and trade deals that eliminated jobs while enriching their donors, all while implicitly mocking the base for its worries about abortion and gay marriage and the pace of demographic change.
On immigration policy, party elders were caught completely by surprise. Even canny operators like Ted Cruz didn't appreciate the depth of voter anger on the subject. And why would they? If you live in an affluent ZIP code, it's hard to see a downside to mass low-wage immigration. Your kids don't go to public school. You don't take the bus or use the emergency room for health care. No immigrant is competing for your job. (The day Hondurans start getting hired as green energy lobbyists is the day my neighbors become nativists.) Plus, you get cheap servants, and get to feel welcoming and virtuous while paying them less per hour than your kids make at a summer job on Nantucket. It's all good.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
I’m not a big fan of Tucker Carlson, but on this one, he is showing signs of getting it.
Read the whole thing, it is very insightful.
he nails it, and I’m no fan of trump’s, either. incisive
“Consider the conservative nonprofit establishment. Over the past 40 years, how much donated money have all those foundations consumed? Billions, certainly. Has America become more conservative over that same period? Come on. Most of that cash went to self-perpetuation: Salaries, bonuses, retirement funds, medical, dental, car services, leases on high-end office space, retreats in Mexico, more fundraising. Unless you were the direct beneficiary of any of that, you’d have to consider it wasted.”
Now substitute “federal government agencies” for “conservative nonprofit establishment” and “foundations” and he’s really onto something...
THAT'S THE MONEY SHOT RIGHT IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH!!!
From the article:
“On my street in Northwest Washington, D.C., there’s never been anyone as unpopular as Trump.”
No schiiite!
THAT is exactly why Trump resonates.
If Trump is leading a populist movement, many of his Republican critics have joined an elitist one. Deriding Trump is an act of class solidarity, visible evidence of refinement and proof that you live nowhere near a Wal-Mart. Early last summer, in a piece that greeted Trump when he entered the race, National Review described the candidate as “a ridiculous buffoon with the worst taste since Caligula.†Virtually every other critique of Trump from the right has voiced similar aesthetic concerns.
Why is the Party of Ideas suddenly so fixated on fashion and hair? Maybe all dying institutions devolve this way, from an insistence on intellectual rigor to a flabby preoccupation with appearances. It happened in the Episcopal Church, once renowned for its liturgy, now a stop on architectural and garden tours. Only tourists go there anymore.
Trump haters won’t like this part of the article:
“Trump could teach Republicans in Washington a lot if only they stopped posturing long enough to watch carefully. Here’s some of what they might learn:
He Exists Because You Failed”
Oh man! If he is able to bite off a chunk of the Black vote just think of how the Black Caucus will react.
This is interesting - from the article:
“I doubt there are many Christian voters who think Trump could recite the Nicene Creed, or even identify it. Evangelicals have given up trying to elect one of their own. What they’re looking for is a bodyguard, someone to shield them from mounting (and real) threats to their freedom of speech and worship. Trump fits that role nicely, better in fact than many church-going Republicans. For eight years, there was a born-again in the White House. How’d that work out for Christians, here and in Iraq?
His support from the Black community is growing every day.
My observation is that Trump is a sign that American Conservatives have given up on working within the system. For over 100 years the Democrat Party has had one populist after another, using fear and graft to roll-up voting blocks, unfettered by any adherence to the Constitution, the rule of law, or the concept of individual liberty.
The last Republican populist president was Teddy Roosevelt, and despite the rose colored rearview mirror of history, Teddy took many an extra-Constitutional actions. Trump is not a Constitutionalist. If taken at his word (which has recently changed on many issues), Trump is indeed looking to be the anti-Obama. For those Obama has so often used as a political pinata, payback is more attractive than ideology.
For years I have had the same discussion with quasi fascist Leftists. I point out that their actions are un-Constitutional, they quibble about it, but eventually they settle on the assertion that they simply don't care. They want what they want, the Constitution be damned. To this I have always ended the conversation with, "The Constitution exists to prevent civil war, but if living in a civil society with you isn't possible, then I plan on being in charge."
What we have always seen from the Left is anti-Constitutional populism. It is the reason that Democrats are called Democrats. They ram through what they want, abuse their political enemies via the bureaucracies, and laugh at the laws they break. What I think we are now seeing with the popularity of Trump is that a large number of Republicans would rather have their own populist than the Leftists populist, and if we cannot have the Constitution and the rule of law, this only makes sense.
I'm still backing Senator Ted Cruz, and I don't trust populists to be faithful to any vow, but I'm not at all shocked by the popularity of Trump. Being unfettered by ideological limitations, such as "all men are created equal" which prevents Republicans from such pandering as affirmative action, Trump can and will scoop up voting blocks in the same method as Democrats. What we are witnessing is a large block of Republicans giving up on trying to fight Federal control of everyone's daily lives, and beginning the fight to be the ones in charge of dictating our daily minutia.
Constitutional adherents, and I count myself as one, may have just become a small 3rd party.
Agreed.
Hard to argue with anything in this article ... unless you live in D.C. or other elite strongholds. Hold on to your yoga pants!
Glad you posted this as I had just finished reading it at HotGas. This is Tucker Carlson’s finest essay not because I am a Trump supporter but because Carlson’s points about the Washington elites rings true.
Donald Trump is a mortal threat to their gravy train, their elite thinking, their distance from the land, the farm, the fields and the people that make their lifestyle inside the Beltway possible.
Yeah, Donald is vulgar at times and he may not have John 3:16 on the tip of his tongue but he is exposing the elite cesspool of back-stabbing buzzards in the halls of power and I find that as refreshing as an ice cold beer after an afternoon of shopping at a Walmart full of bra-less sweaty broads in woefully undersized shorts.
Yeah, I’m a vulgarian, now whatta wanna do about it?
Americans want an American, and not some pink fingered manicured wimpy politically correct politician looking to appeal to their inner pseudointellectual.
You are missing the main reason why Trump is leading the race..
NOT IN THE POCKETS of Goldman Sachs and Robert Mercer types....
I'm not sold on that one yet. Yes, he funds his own campaign, and I'm not missing that he owes no one on that. But will he do favors? Yea, I think he will.
It was a pretty good discussion on the thread until you decided to go full sycophant. So I figure I might has well give you the meme, that gives me pause concerning Trump.
Anyone who thinks Trump is committed to them is being foolish. Trump is committed to Trump, and you are just along for the ride.
I may hop on and see how far I can get, but I'm not going to be falling asleep in the back, or I might just wake up in Juarez.
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