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?"
I think the caller to Rush yesterday was spot-on. There are a lot of working class whites in this country who have had jobs shipped overseas, are tired of the PC BS, and want us to be strong in our foreign policy. Both parties have sold out the middle class with trade deals over the past 30 years that have particularly hurt the middle class, and, combined with unlimited third-world immigration, have decimated this class. Trump resonates with this group of people, of which there are many. He speaks very plainly. He is not polished like a professional politician, and this is to his benefit.
I sympathize with the people I am talking about above. I travel a lot in small towns across Virginia. This segment of the population has been spit on for a long time.
I am not saying that he is my first choice, but in a contest with Hillary, there is no choice - Trump all the way.
Watching the butt hurt this morning is way too much fun. Go Trump!
Unfortunately, “Trump all the way” may end up being all the way to oblivion ... This is what happens when a political party and its adherents throw up third rate candidates and then fix them in a stare of hero worship, unable to discern the difference between a leader and a potential tyrant, when only words and arcane positions count while content of character passes on the wayside unrecognized ...
“My God, what have I done!!!” I’ve actually helped make America Great Again!
Trump 3rd rate? Looks more like 1st Class all the way if you ask me!
As some you know, since mid-2014,we’ve been doing a 30 minute weekly Wednesday radio show (aka “rant”) with Dr. Lori Wilson out of WLBB in Carrollton, Georgia.
We drill down into the Super Trump — er — TUESDAY RESULTS. I explain why we’re tired of LAWYERS RUNNING OUR LIVES!
If you have an interest in listening, go to this link
http://www.gradickcommunications.com
and the center “PODCASTS” Menu and click on “The Wednesday Show with Dick Bachert” for this week’s program.
That’s because you are not able, like many Americans, to recognize anything other than second or third rate since you either are not well educated (in the classical sense) or have been trained by the media to follow the herd eschewing character for personality, and words for deeds. And so you fall in line with a cult that blindly defends itself no matter the damage it causes in the process; its all about ‘me.’
And you are not able to recognize anything! I came from nothing and put myself in the military, got educated in IT (38 years so far and going strong), married for 38 years, two self reliant kids and a Reagan-Democrat turned Republican. I don’t have disdain for you but you obviously have for me and anyone like me, yes a Trump-Republican! And one more thing Cruz has always been my 2nd choice but he can’t Close the Deal with most AmeriCANS!-)
This is NOT for the millionth time the cult of personality!!!! This is PAYBACK for the betrayal of the GOPe and they and YOU still DON’T GET IT!!!!!
Jonah is a nobody who only got a gig writing because of his mamma Lucianne. Go home and cry to mommy, Jonah.
Pay back never works and will not this time either. One does not govern a country on pay backs - the trouble with Trumpeters is the seeming to lack a fundamental education in civics and even less education in political history.
Trumpeter do not understand the magnitude of their mistake, blinded by hero worship - it is worship when a simple comment results in virulent attacks with out one fact.
This is the problem with you Cruz supporters you ATTACK us on our education level, I happen to be a college educated VERY successful business owner and I just DON’T LIKE Teddy!!!! I am a Christian and I absolutely HATE his phony preaching to everyone!!! Your guy to me is a complete PHONY !!!!! That is my opinion and I have every right to it without being told by Cruz elitists that I am uneducated!!! Stick a sock in it!
The party serves its members or the party dies.
Payback does work, it’s how the party bosses are kept in check by the public.
I can certainly understand the anger and disappointment with the GOP over the past couple of decades. Other than success in the WOT, GWB was a big disappointment - too many deals with the Rats.
The revolution of 2010 was supposed to usher in a whole lot of Republicans who made a lot of promises - repeal Obamacare, lower taxes, secure the border, reform SS and Medicare, no more too big to fail, no more crony capitalism. They met a brick wall and many back pedaled. The mini-revolution of 2014 was supposed to be a shot in the arm - another chance. We’re still waiting.
We’ve been saying conservatism works every time it’s tried and pining for a true conservative - no more Dole, McCain, Romney.
Yet we’re set to go down that moderate path again with Trump. There are conservatives in this primary who score in the high 90’s to 100 on the ACU rating scale - yet they’re being rejected, told they can’t win, that despite the ACU rating, they’re “RINO’s” or GOPe.
What in the heck do we really want, anyhow?
Personally, I want a test of REAL conservatism against the likes of Shrillary or Bernie - not another faux conservative/moderate against a liberal/moderate. There’s no difference between them-they’re the “uniparty”.
We claim we want a difference, yet when one is presented, it’s rejected in favor of a moderate populist. I’m starting to believe that the real thing most people want is to gripe and complain. They don’t want solutions - they want the problems to continue to they can continue to gripe and complain.
We’ll get what we deserve.
I don’t disagree. Trump is a mixed bag.
HOWEVER
I still back Trump.
That is because the GOP-E MUST DIE.
We must have an opposition party.
Some people say we barely survived an Obama presidency.
I assert that we DID NOT SURVIVE IT.
America looks NOTHING like it did 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. We embrace pure evil (abortion), we embrace pure madness (transgenderism and gay superiority), we embrace pure racism (black lives matter but white ones don’t), we embrace pure tyranny (attacks on every BoR Amendment).
So people who tell me we need to vote (whatever) to save America are on a fools errand. There is no America to save.
What we CAN do, is BUILD A NEW AMERICA. That will require the complete removal of the GOP Elitists. Trump will ensure that, whether or not he is ultimately elected. Then, armed with a TRUE opposition party, perhaps in a cycle or two we can elect a President that will begin the arduous task of recreating America.
Dear Kit the cat,
You make assumption about me and therefore you make like assumptions about your beloved DJT. I do not support Cruz; and no I do not support any of the candidates - all of them are 3rd rate losers as far as Presidential material goes.
Yes, you went through some sort of education, but its really not your fault that US educational institutions pretty much stopped educating after 1965 - concentration instead on important things like Library science 101, Underwater basket Weaving 130 and so on.
Basic Civics, US History (in detail), World History, Political Philosophy, Philosophy, Latin, Classical Greek, and so on (if taught) may have existed for a while (although I’m pretty sure Classical Greek stopped in 1936). But after ‘65 the liberals pretty much took over the textbook industry and began the process of dumbing down of which you obviously are a product. It would behoove you to go back and pick up all the stuff you missed.
And there are all your anger lies ...
The river is the Kwaa, not the Kwai.
The bridge was originally a wooden truss bridge. It was built by POWs from what was then the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. The POWs were worked to death. There is a huge cemetery at the site. I visited it in 1962.
The original bridge was replaced by a steel bridge, which was the one I saw on the occasion of my visit. So far as I know, that steel bridge is still there.
Enjoy the movie, but realize it's all fiction.
But it fails when the public no longer understands good governance and is no longer able to throw up 1st rate candidates, choosing instead well-dressed and popular mealy-mouthed con artists, criminals, murderers, fraudsters, and the like ilk, while discarding anyone who might be 1st rate because of some picayune & arcane assumption based on someone else’s lie.
The payback you refer to is not logical, but emotionally based and when you go up against a stiff opponent filled with emotion you will lose every time. The rest of us prefer to vote people in based on their character and deeds, not just throw someone out - a negative approach, reaping only negative results.
Ok, how about this: Trump challenges D.Duke to a duel at high noon on 5th Ave, and shoots him dead.
Just FYI I graduated from college in 1974 long before our education system was taken over by liberal propagandists!!!! Nice try WRONG AGAIN!!!
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