Posted on 08/10/2016 8:12:35 AM PDT by bimboeruption
Trump fans have spent the last few months assuring conservatives that even if they don’t like Trump, they must vote for him: after all, they say, the West even sided with Stalin to stop Hitler. Why then can’t conservatives consolidate around Trump to stop Hillary?
This historic analogy doesn’t work. It doesn’t work not only because Hillary isn’t Hitler. It doesn’t work because the Allies didn’t make Stalin president and grant him leadership of the West. They formed a temporary alliance, which ended the moment that Hitler had been defeated. Donald Trump will not become the object of some sort of Republican Cold War after becoming president.
There’s another historic analogy that may work better: Dunkirk. (For the historically ignorant who want to wait until the new Christopher Nolan film comes out to find out what happened at Dunkirk, here’s your spoiler alert.) After the Nazis ran roughshod through France, pushing the British Army all the way back to the English Channel, the British had two choices: they could fight to the last man and be annihilated, or they could evacuate across the Channel back to Britain. The British mobilized, down to the smallest fisherman, to smuggle the soldiers back across to Britain, preserving the Army.
But didn’t they understand the cost of leaving France to the Nazis? Didn’t they have an obligation to fight to the last man?
Of course not. They had an obligation to preserve the British military - the only actual hope of winning the greater war. Churchill spoke in the House of Commons, where he called “what has happened in France and Belgium…a colossal military disaster.” He then added:
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…
In the end, the British Army’s flight from France preserved Britain itself, and perhaps the entirety of Europe.
That’s the choice Republicans face now: annihilation or strategic withdrawal.
Of course a Hillary presidency will be an utter disaster. Like the loss of France, it will be an unprecedented defeat that will cost us dearly. But at least we will live to fight another day. If we chose this moment for our last stand, we will truly lose the greater war.
That’s for two reasons.
First, there is no victory for conservatives here. Trump is not going to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices outside of a pipe dream; he’s not going to govern in a small government fashion; he’s not going to restore constitutional boundaries to government itself. Trump is a typical union Democrat, and he will govern that way.
If you believe that conservatism is the only philosophy that can save the country, the army must be preserved, not perverted or marginalized. Right now, polls show that young Americans prefer not only Hillary, but Gary Johnson and Jill Stein to Trump, who earns approximately 9 percent of those under age 30. He’s running at 1 percent among black voters. His numbers are negligible among Latino voters. He’s not even running on par with Mitt Romney among white voters. Not even close. If conservatives convert to Trumpism, they lose a generation of voters. Better to disassociate and live to fight another day, conservatism still intact.
Second, Trump is not going to win. That’s not because of disaffected conservatives. That’s because he’s a joke of candidate. Right now, he’s down more than seven percent in the latest RealClearPolitics poll average. He’s losing in Georgia. He’s running even in Arizona. He’s putting South Carolina and Utah in play. If polls hold even close to where they are now (a big if, but a plausible one), he’s not just going to lose, he’ll be destroyed on a historic level. And Republicans in the Senate – people like Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin -- will pay the price for having to answer questions about him day after day. So will Republicans in the House. All to defend a guy who has no loyalty to conservative principles or legislators, and who says he doesn’t care if the Republicans lose the Senate.
And even if Hillary does somehow snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and Trump somehow becomes president, many of his own policies – to the extent he has articulated any – are themselves far to the left of any modern Republican president.
In other words, the battle is already lost.
This is Dunkirk.
Save your army.
You’ll need it later.
Or you could simply look at how bad Hillary will be and decide that it’s worthwhile to burn all your ammo and destroy your men on the cannon shells of the enemy, all the while bragging that you're doing the right thing because hey, somebody has to stop the bad guys right now. That, after, all, would be the dedicated play, wouldn’t it?
Your point is more valid than any of mine.
These power hungry elitists know the PARTY is over (in more ways than one) when Trump’s in charge.
Maybe Jim keeps him around for comic relief.
Shapiro is our Lord Haw-Haw.
The problem many conservatives won’t address is that the current incarnation of conservatism has been a loser for almost thirty years.
The Bush-Dole-Bush-McCain-Romney-(Bush-Rubio-etc) model won’t be winning anytime soon, and even if it does win (like Bush II), no conservative goals will be accomplished.
What difference, at this point, does it make? We may be in the wilderness for a long time, but when we find our way out, let’s not have our secret weapon someone named Bush, Romney, or another character cut from that mold.
Ben is a silly little man
“Of course a Hillary presidency will be an utter disaster.”
So why do you want her to win?
“Trump is not going to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices...”
We don’t know that. We DO know that Hillary won’t.
“Second, Trump is not going to win.”
Then what is the harm in supporting him?
As much as I detest Shapiro's neoconservative/GOP establishment politics, what I really hate about the little punk is the condescending arrogance, smug sense of superiority, and self-righteousness that just drips and oozes from everything he writes.
They ALL apply.
The uniparty and its hangers on are running scared and desperate.
Plus the Socialists are trying hard to spin every word Trump utters....making a huge fuss over even joking, Trump can be amusing at times...even joking from time to time....this brings on the "did you hear that??? Just a horrible remark from someone hoping to be POTUS....."
“...because Hillary isn’t Hitler.”
And this assertion is based upon - what?
“Crony capitalism” was the vehicle that Hitler used to establish the Third Reich - the joining of the financial and industrial power of corporate operations with the “guiding hand” of government cooperation, in selecting linners and wosers.
But it is socialism created to benefit certain “protected” classes, while finding a scapegoat and fall guy to a) pay all the bills, and b) take all the blame, which is then deflected from the big bosses.
He's a dirt bag. All his talking points are wrong. The most wrong point is that "conservatives will live to fight another day". Wrong if Hillary is elected the country is finished, done, over. First Hillary will appoint activist Marxist judges, good bye Constitution. Second Hillary will grant amnesty to the tens of millions of illegals and continue Obama's open borders policy giving democrats a super majority forever. So Ben Shapiro is FOS. As are all the other #NeverTrump "conservatives" including Ted Cruz.
Everyone of these #NeverTrupers should be thrown out of the GOP. Told to never again attend any GOP function, and never again allowed to run as a Republican.
Shapiro’s is overstating the importance of Dunkirk AND preserving the GOPe.
With all due respect to GB they didn’t determine the outcome of WW2. It was the combined INDUSTRIAL/MILITARY strength of the US and Russia that made the difference.
Thus Ben’s analogy is pretty weak. What exactly is being preserved anyway? An ineffectual and perpetually overmatched group of so-called Republicans.
I’ll take my chances with Trump. Hillary is PURE EVIL.
IF she wins and appoints SC Justices it DOESN’T MATTER who is in the Senate or House. The SC will write the laws they want and kill any law passed by Congress(Could be 400 CONSERVATIVES it doesn’t like. It won’t matter! The Constitution will be ignored) that they don’t like.
If Ben put on a pink tutu and danced around a fire
he would get more attention. Obviously, his poor
little heart is breaking because no one is
listening anymore.
Precisely.
True words well said
Ben Shapiro is obviously a well fed Beltway pundit who is an appendage of the blood sucking political establishment.
He’s actually recommending that conservatives withhold their votes in this election to maintain some sort of mystical quasi-religious purity.
Never mind that doing so, will turn this country over to a criminal cabal that will usher in an era of disaster that will be the death of America.
Ben ought to be tarred and feathered for promoting national suicide. By default, he’s asking us to support the leftist destruction of our country.
He's a GOPee cuck, and a cryptoDemocrat.
Here is my response to Ben and his pack of deceivers:
There is another analogy for the Ben and the other #NeverTrump people - Quislings. For the historically challenged, Vidkun Quisling was the Norwegian military officer and politician who collaborated with the Nazis in WWII. The term has become associated with ANYONE who collaborates with an enemy. Go ahead and collaborate; it will get you as much as it did Quisling.
This argument is ridiculous. Trump would have become liberal by now if he was faking it in the primaries. Shapiro is a light-weight.
If this is Dunkirk, who is sending ships to rescue the nevertrumpers? and to what shores are they going?
Interesting they think if Hilary wins, they “live to fight another day”. As if.
But if Trump (a wise, patriotic superbly successful American businessman) wins - civilization is over
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