The Republican Party Has a Split-Personality Problem

The New York Times ^ | July 20, 2024, 7:00 a.m. ET | David French

[E. Pluribus Unum]

There is a paradox at the heart of Donald Trump’s campaign, a potentially irreconcilable divide that could damage his potential new presidency right from the start.

The people who would make Trump president want different things from him, and those differences present political perils for Trump and also make it difficult to predict the contours of his second term. It could be just as extreme as millions of Americans rightly fear or it could be more moderate — with the deciding factor being Trump’s own sense of self-interest and personal grievance. And when Trump’s emotions ultimately dictate policy, it’s fair for Americans to be concerned about worst-case outcomes.

As we have all learned, Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters have become deeply radicalized, convinced that the nation is on the verge of extinction, in need of revolution. Even worse, they feel personally persecuted by a “uniparty” or “regime” that supposedly despises them and rejects their values. They want disruptive change, and if violence is necessary, so be it. As the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, put it recently, our country is “in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

The Heritage Foundation is arguably America’s most powerful and influential right-wing think tank, and Roberts said those words on “War Room,” the podcast hosted by a former Trump adviser, Stephen K. Bannon. Bannon, however, didn’t host the interview. He’d reported to prison the day before to serve a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress. Before he entered the prison, he hosted a circuslike news conference that featured a who’s who of MAGA cranks and ideologues.

Bannon sounded the same themes as Roberts. “Victory or death,” he declared. “We either win or we’re going to have the death...”

[Republican Wildcat]

I believe we heard this before...and it was a concern that may have been legitimate in 2016. We have since had a Trump administration...and he handled it well.

[Bookshelf]

06/01/2016

Unlike Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, David French is not a household name.
But there is no doubt about where the staff writer for National Review, whose name is being floated this week by Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol as a white-knight independent presidential challenger, stands on a host of issues central to the heart of the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
An Iraq War veteran, constitutional lawyer and staunch opponent to Trump as the GOP nominee, French is on the record with a decade’s worth of conservative, at times provocative, essays ranging from a recap of the latest “Game of Thrones” saga tostates’ fight against the White House’ transgender bathroom guidance to the death of Prince to making the case for a third-party challenger to Trump. And that was just in the past two months.

[ifinnegan]

“ They want disruptive change, and if violence is necessary, so be it.”

These people overlook actual violent political rhetoric and action by the left, blm, Antifa etc…

Riots, arson, murders, blockades.

Doesn’t even register with them despite happening in real life.

[Leep]

It’s always been leftard commie progressives vs moderate to liberal democrats within the dimwit party.

And conservatives vs. the moderate pubs, elRINOs and neocons is the pub party.

More or less.

[DMD13]

Reading soy boy David French lecture us about what Republicans should be like is annoying.

[AndyJackson]

whose name is being floated this week by Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol

Which cesspool is Bill Kristol floating the name of this Dreckspass in?

[Yardstick]

And of course Trump isn’t a blank slate. We’ve already seen how he governs as president.

Trump’s first term didn’t demonstrate the radicalism of Trump. It demonstrated the radicalism of the Democrat party with their spying operations and Russia Russia Russia megahoax.

I’d like to see David French prove his point about Trump’s unpredictable emotion-driven worst case policies by citing one such policy from Trump’s first term. He probably couldn’t name a single one of substance.

[Truthsearcher]

Isn’t it expected for a major political party in a country with the population of the US to encompass different groups each with different priorities?

[Steve_Seattle]

David French is a POS.

[Steve_Seattle]

"As we have all learned, Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters have become deeply radicalized, convinced that the nation is on the verge of extinction, in need of revolution."

Huh? It's the LEFT who is saying that a Trump presidency will be the "end of democracy". It is the left that has been condemning our system and calling for destroying and replacing it for more than 50 years! David French is either a moron, a psychopath, or a liar.

[carcraft]

Irony isn’t s that as I read the article I am listening to Frank Senator I did it my way

[Kenny Bania]

The people who would make Trump president want different things from him, and those differences present political perils

What crap. This is not unique to Trump. Every single constituency/voting bloc that votes for any presidential candidate wants different things from the candidate. Ultimately, some end up more satisfied, some not.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

All they have is straw men about imaginary conservative boogeymen.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The people who would make Trump president want different things from him, and those differences present political perils

I believe the word for this is...

...give me a second, I'll come up with it...

..."politics."

[Zathras]

David French.
One of the original infiltrators.
No one cares about David French anymore.