Posted on 03/02/2016 5:20:51 AM PST by Kaslin
Is Joe Scarborough having his Colonel Nicholson moment?
That's what I wondered Monday morning as I watched the host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" insist that Donald Trump's inability and unwillingness to simply and plainly denounce the Ku Klux Klan in a Sunday CNN interview was "disqualifying."
For those who might not have seen "The Bridge on the River Kwai," it's partly the story of British Lt. Col. Nicholson, played by Alec Guinness. Nicholson, a prisoner of war held by the Japanese, convinces himself that he and his men should help his captors build a strategically invaluable bridge over the Kwai River. Nicholson thinks that if he shows the Japanese what good British discipline is all about, he will win some kind of moral victory. Of course, if they finish the railway bridge, the Japanese military will win an actual victory.
Only at the last minute -- spoiler alert -- does Nicholson realize the error of his ways. "My God, what have I done?" he says with his last breaths as he falls on the TNT plunger, destroying the very bridge he built just seconds before a Japanese train goes over it.
Nothing so dramatic transpired on "Morning Joe," where Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski have been among Trump's most valuable boosters for nearly a year. And will likely remain that way. Indeed, it may be too late to stop the Trump train anyway.
But it would be nice to hear "My God, what have I done?" from a lot of people. A rich mixture of resentment (both misplaced and well-earned), incompetence, wishful thinking, greed and celebrity worship has led us to where we are: An intellectually and ideologically unqualified, and often unhinged, demagogue is poised to become the Republican nominee for president.
For months, GOP pooh-bahs, cable personalities (including some friends and colleagues of mine at Fox News), talk radio hosts and politicians stood by and watched -- or cheered -- as Trump built his populist cult of personality almost unopposed. Now that Trump has a personal relationship, as it were, with his followers, he can do no wrong.
Trump famously joked that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose his support. That remains to be seen, but he can play rhetorical footsie with the KKK, reveal that he thinks judges "sign bills," subscribe to vile "truther" explanations of 9/11 and the Iraq War, embrace the health-care mandate, traffic in reprehensible sectarian tribalism and vow to weaken the First Amendment so he can exact vengeance on journalists who don't kowtow to his Brobdingnagian ego -- yet not shake loose his fans.
That "success" has bred more success, as politicians jump on board the train. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie set a torch to his integrity by endorsing a man who stands against nearly everything Christie once claimed to believe, Christie has confirmed all the darker aspects of his reputation as a cynical, self-interested, spiteful bully.
Many decent and sincere Republicans, in and out of the Republican leadership, have been operating on the assumption that Trump will fade and that the gravest threat is a third-party run by the dean of Trump University. There was a time when that concern was defensible. But once it became clear that he was favored to win the nomination outright, Republicans should have realized that a third-party run was more like a best-case scenario.
Better the GOP do battle with a know-nothing bigot (and lose the presidency) than become the party of know-nothing bigots (and still lose the presidency).
That's why I embrace the Twitter hashtag #NeverTrump, initiated by conservative talk show host Erick Erickson. For too long, Trump has benefited from the assumption that the non-Trump faction of the party will be "reasonable" and support the nominee. Such thinking paves the road to power for demagogues.
Trump says he gets along with everybody and will unify the country, even as he suggests that an inconvenient judge is biased because he's Latino, vows to ban all Muslims from the country, insists his Central Intelligence Agency will torture people, and boasts that he will declare war on disloyal journalists.
When your opponent is that unreasonable, the reasonable response is not surrender.
I don't know whether Trump will win the nomination or the presidency. But I am fairly certain that if he does, a great many people will one day say, "My God, what have I done?"
It’s rough out there for old Jonah these says. He’s been denigrating and insulting Trump and his supporters for months and nobody gives a damn what he has to say. But he just keeps butting his head against the wall.
Oh, never mind. I forgot. It is.....
There are a lot of Republicans who just flat out do not like Trump. They’re not even lukewarm, so-so, about him. They have a visceral dislike for him and he is doing nothing to court them or assuage their doubts. He’s more or less giving them the bird.
I guess he figures he can win without their support and maybe he CAN win with a bunch of Indies and Rat crossovers - but then what kind of a mandate does he have to propose and push conservative solutions when he has a coalition that is centrist or even left centrist?
I’m baffled with the support Trump is gaining from evangelicals. A Freeper claiming to be an evangelical pastor responded to me that he supported Trump - single issue - immigration.
They pretend to moan about the DC pantomime when they are active participants.
When 95% of DC carries on unchanged and unchanging their method is stake out a position and spend the next 20 years or more writing columns about how bad they think it all is. Then they gladly have lunch, dinner and cocktails with the so-called enemy and do it all again tomorrow.
These people are worried sick that their sources and leaks will disappear, that their place on the GOP power ladders (elective, bureaucratic and media) will be affected and that they may have to start over again.
Trump is the prime example of how to handle a hostile press. He refuses to kiss their rear ends.
Look at the arrogance of this little fag bastard, he wouldn't be pimple on Trump's ass, and wouldn't even be on TV if it weren't for his mother.
Intellectually unqualified is what he is calling Trump's supporters, the dumb assed, gun toten', Bible carrying, tobaccy chewen', corn liker swillen', incest loven', red neck ridge runnen' Pennsylvania and West Virginia cabin liven' and all of their "cousins" in Alabamy, Georgia, Kantuck, Tennessee yourn' mama, Arkansas, and all of the other shit kicken' dirty fingernail, greasey pants kitchen worken' loosers.
This little pansy is 30 years younger than me but if I ever ran into him, I'd kick his taint so hard he'd split open like a dropped watermelon.
Alert to Jonah, it was the do nothing feckless inaction of the GOPE that has gotten Trump to this point.
#getoverit
as Jonah is to whale.
The hate will be strong with this one.
How did he expose the media? Did you not know that they were crooked and bias before he came along. They play huge portions of his rallied every day and bend to his every whim and allow themselves to be manipulated by him. He gets more coverage than any other candidate. By FAR. Free coverage. I mean, it’s not his fault that he brings great ratings, but sheesh, at least be honest. If it weren’t for the MSM, Donald would have had to have spent a lot more money to get that same coverage. So “he exposed the media” is a bunch of hogwash. REAL conservatives and most of the unbraindead public KNEE all about the biased media WAY before Trump started complaining about them.
Cruz and Rubio seem to be slow learners. Guess you just have to keep clubbing them like a baby seal.
Another noobie chimes in. What will you do in the General election, going back to the rat party so Hillary can win the election?
...and the hit piece factory rolls on.
You remind me of the guy who drives through my neighborhood hooking a bag of marketing slicks to my mailbox that go straight to my trash.
Who’s paying you?
Maybe if the Conservative media candidates dropped these sort emotional personal attack drama queen posting and tried to make a fact based rational argument FOR their candidate, their candidate might have better success at the voting booth
I can see your thought related to anyone who has remained in the Dem party, but it hardly applies to independents in general. I know many independents who left the GOP over the last few years because there was no difference in the uniparty. Most are in open primary states where they can still primary.
I know them as some are family, most are gun owners and all are prolife who stand with me in front of abortion clinics. They are just tried of being treated by the GOP like blacks are by the Dems. They won’t be owned every 2-4 years any longer.
There is plenty there to not like about Trump and I think there will be disappointment if and when his immigration plan plays out. It is theoretically the “gang of eight bill” dumbed down to mislead. I listened to him last night and found myself thinking I could vote for him. THEN he starts in on how nasty Rubio is......that did it. Not because I am all in on Rubio but how can a person as blatantly obnoxious and viscous to others as Trump has been call someone else nasty? What, was everyone supposed to stand there and take Trumps crap?
The next thing.........Clinton and the machine will destroy him with his past comments and there are plenty. When she is done with him, I think (hope I’m wrong) he will get fewer women’s votes than any candidate ever and that will be just the beginning.
Yep witness the behavior of the Cruz supporters. They are so busy bowing to the screen every time he shows up they have yet to actually LISTEN to anything he says.
Just a really really bad candidate with a really bad stump style. His style indicates he thinks he is running for President of the Ted Cruz fan club rather then President of the WHOLE USA.
There are a lot of people who just flat out do not like Foghorn Leghorn Cruz. They can’t stand his interminable, pedantic preaching and his bald-face lying. He has a grating, nasally voice and anyone with an IQ higher than room temperature knows Cruz has less than a snowball’s chance of ever winning the Presidency.
I’m baffled that Cruz has ANY support among conservatives that, umm, to quote a well-known windbag: “Live in Realville.”
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