Victor Davis Hanson: The Metaphysics of Trump

NRO ^ | Victor Davis Hanson

[KC Burke]

see my #20

[kenmcg]

McMasters, a retired general? Believe he is still active duty. Anyway McMsters position that ISIS is not Islamic is disturbing, especially after Trump proclaimed that it was in fact Islamist terrorism. With all the generals and admirals that Obama purged, one wonders how McMasters survived.....

[Meet the New Boss]

In column after column VDH has exposed the NeverTrump position as an irrational position for conservatives to hold.

Now, these NeverTrump “conservatives” we are dealing with are not stupid people. They are not normally irrational.

When smart people continue to adhere to an irrational position in the face of constant, withering, logical arguments demolishing their position, why is that?

Some possibilities:

1. The apparent political agenda of the NeverTrumpers is not their true agenda, and for some reason they cannot be honest about their true agenda. For purposes of furthering their true agenda, opposition to Trump is rational.

2. The reasoning of the NeverTrumpers is clouded by a strong emotional bias. Even smart people can be gripped by irrational thinking resulting from, for example, an emotional attachment to an ethnic identity or some unrelated personal experience. If, say, nerds were bullied in high school by a person who by some bizarre coincidence was the spitting image of Donald Trump, then no matter if Donald Trump is doing something for them fantastically in their favor, they may irrationally resist him.

VDH is a smart and observant guy. I would love to sit down with him and have a cup of coffee and hear his honest assessment of what is going on here. But then again, he may be smart enough to know better than to openly share his honest assessment of what’s happening here.

[floozy22]

How a brutal Manhattan developer, who thrived on self-centered controversy and even scandal, proved singularly empathetic to millions of the forgotten is apparently still not fully understood.

Donald Trump is a genuinely compassionate, big-hearted guy. He relates to everyday folks because that's who he really is. Look at his family, friends, people who remain loyal through the years. When you treat people with respect and kindness, when you genuinely like people, it shows. His ability to connect with people can only come from one place: his heart.

[djone]

Thanks RR good one.

"I thought that both Bush presidents were fine and good men and their agendas far preferable to the alternative. But was either in a political position to effect (or perhaps even willing to embrace) the sort of conservative change that the supposedly “not a conservative” Trump might well attempt?"..... Yeah we all wonder.

"I’m not sure that John McCain or Mitt Romney would have enforced immigration law, frozen government hiring, or embraced Reagan-like tax and regulatory reform"....Ha no no, they never would.

[GOPJ]

... in the last 40 years, despite three different Republican administrations,...universities have eroded, the borders have evaporated, the government has grown, the debt has soared, the red–blue divide has intensified, identity politics have become surreal, the nation’s infrastructure has crumbled, the undeniable benefits from globalism have increasingly blessed mostly an entrenched elite,... purchasing power and quality of life either stagnate or decline.

What's 'odd' to those of us in flyover is how the supposedly elite Republicans never saw what was happening to the country...never saw the list above... UNTIL we realized their 'blindness' was caused by the fact they personally were benefiting from the same forces that were destroying the country. They CHOOSE not to see... they choose NOT to act.

Trump ran against corrupt elites... of both parties... he saw their greed - the greed many of us sensed, but mistakenly thought was only on the dem side.

[tumblindice]

” ... he may be smart enough to know better than to openly share his honest assessment of what’s happening here.”

Unless he wants to walk the John Derbyshire plank. National Review is still seriously cucked.
I predict this time next year Hanson will be less sub rosa and more candid in his opinions. He’s a good guy.
In four years, Rich Lowery will go over to TWS (if it is still around, because it will never change) and by that time NR will have uncucked itself.

[Garth Tater]

No, he was not a Never Trumper, in fact he has been critical of that stance referring to them as “Never Trumpers.”

Yes, VDH is a smart man and by three weeks before the election VDH had realized he had burned a lot of bridges with his readership and was in full "save-my-butt" mode. The idea that he was in any way a Trump supporter or even provided fair and even handed analysis of Trump during the primaries is completely false.

Obama and Trump: Two of a Kind - July 21, 2015

More importantly, like Trump, Obama does not worry over inconsistency or bombast, and has no hesitation about insisting on things that not only are not, but perhaps could not be, true.

The Trump Catharsis - August 13, 2015

Trump preps little. He has no real agenda. And he makes stuff up as he goes along. For such a New York brawler, he has thin skin, smearing his critics, often in creepy fashion.

The Origins of Trump Nihilism - March 8, 2016

During the most recent Detroit debate, even a reformed “inclusive” and “presidential” Donald Trump still was crass and vulgar...

His entire moral universe is predicated on a preteen morality of liking those who praise him, and hating those who criticize him.

Hillary Vs. Trump: Godzilla Vs. King Kong? - March 20, 2016

I agree that each day Trump says something not only stupid, but gross... If you think political discourse is debased, then Trump is a good run-of-the-mill example

Do you need more examples of VDH's animosity towards President Trump back before he finally saw the Trump Train bearing down on his apple cart and decided to jump on board before he lost his source of income for good - because there are plenty more examples of VDH's true feelings about President Trump out there?

[KC Burke]

VDH was not a Trump supporter in the primary, I never said he was and he does not claim to be. He outlines that in his October article I quoted. As our daily survey here showed 40% to 30% of FR did not want him as the candidate during the period you pick some article from in the first half of 2016.

He has no radio show or media presence to try and be in “Save-my-butt” mode for as you put it. He has a lifetime Senior Fellowship at the Hoover Institute and is a best selling historian and essayist.

I never said he supported Trump with his analysis in the primaries but I did say he was not a Never Trumper in the general election and gave a October example in the NR issue raised where he said we all need to support this guy because he figured it out.

[Albion Wilde]

bump

[Garth Tater]

Doesn't change the fact that he despised Trump during the primaries and only changed his opinion when he saw his readership deserting him.

He has no radio show or media presence to try and be in “Save-my-butt” mode for as you put it.

Totally false. He is a well paid and prolific author in the main stream media.

He has a lifetime Senior Fellowship at the Hoover Institute and is a best selling historian and essayist.

Yes, and completely beside the point. His paycheck was going to take a major hit if he kept on his anti-Trump crusade and he knew it. Read the comments by many of his readers in some of those articles I linked - there was an overwhelming revolt against his opinions.

I never said he supported Trump with his analysis in the primaries but I did say he was not a Never Trumper in the general election and gave a October example in the NR issue raised where he said we all need to support this guy because he figured it out.

He gave lukewarm to Trump in the general election after smearing him viciously in the primaries. Overall VDH did much more harm to Trump than he did benefit. As I said, VDH is a smart man and finally jumped on the Trump Train in order to save his paycheck. Do you really think this is a quote of a Trump supporter?

I agree that each day Trump says something not only stupid, but gross... If you think political discourse is debased, then Trump is a good run-of-the-mill example

[RedWulf]

> He gave lukewarm to Trump in the general election after smearing him viciously in the primaries. Overall VDH did much more harm to Trump than he did benefit. As I said, VDH is a smart man and finally jumped on the Trump Train in order to save his paycheck. Do you really think this is a quote of a Trump supporter?

I knew that VDH was a fool looking for a pay check after I read Carnage and Culture. I couldn’t believe that a guy who was touted as a classic culturist and historian knew so little about military history and then wrote a book to prove his ignorance.

[Garth Tater]

I’ve marked him down as another example of a person blinded by his own brilliance. Too damn smart to see what’s staring him right in the face if it would require him to change his previous, oh so intelligent, opinion.

[RedWulf]

>I’ve marked him down as another example of a person blinded by his own brilliance. Too damn smart to see what’s staring him right in the face if it would require him to change his previous, oh so intelligent, opinion.

That’s a very adapt description.

[Albion Wilde]

Indeed, removal chic is now widespread, as even conservatives ponder impeachment, invoking the 25th Amendment for mental unfitness, while the more radical (here and abroad and both Right and Left) either abstractly or concretely ponder a coup or some other road to his demise.

Biographer Catherine Drinker Bowen wrote The Most Dangerous Man in America about Benjamin Franklin; in it, she blamed human nature for the many outcries at the time against Franklin, arguably one of the most significant figures in recorded history. She opined that people are always suspicious and condemnatory towards people of extremely high intelligence, and try to stop or thwart the progress of visionary thinkers.

[RoosterRedux]

On an even more important note AW, is it true that you are a woman?

If so, brava.

[Albion Wilde]

VDH wasn’t one of the writers on that execrable issue. They were:
Glenn Beck
David Boaz
L. Brent Bozell
Mona Charen
Ben Domenech
Erick Erickson
Steven Hayward
Mark Helprin
William Kristol
Yuval Levin
Dana Loesch
Andrew C. McCarthy
David M. McIntosh
Michael Medved
Edwin Meese III
Russell Moore
Michael Mukasey
Katie Pavlich
John Podhoretz
R.R. Reno
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas

Rot in hell, all o’ ya.

[Albion Wilde]

No, he was more “wait and see.” Check post 37 above.

[Albion Wilde]

See post 37.

[Albion Wilde]

Why yes, yes I am. (takes bow) Why do you ask?