Posted on 03/21/2016 7:38:46 AM PDT by xzins
While movement conservatives would like to blame the Republican establishment for the rise of Donald Trump and the attendant political problems he has created for the national Republican Party, as our friend Rick Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government, pointed out in a recent article for Breitbart, those whom we call “establishment conservatives” bear just as much responsibility for Trump’s rise.
And there is no better example of how DC’s snide elitist “conservatives” have helped create Trump than a recent cover article in National Review by one Kevin D. Williamson.
Mr. Williamson, who has apparently never done anything in conservative politics except pontificate for various elite journals, took to the pages of National Review, the foundational publication of the conservative movement, to explain in Malthusian terms why the “benighted white working class” that is powering the Trump movement should just blow away and die.
In Williamson’s formulation Trumpism is not just a bad set of ideas, it is “immoral.”
It is immoral because it perpetuates a lie: that the white working class that finds itself attracted to Trump has been victimized by outside forces. It hasn’t. The white middle class may like the idea of Trump as a giant pulsing humanoid middle finger held up in the face of the Cathedral, they may sing hymns to Trump the destroyer and whisper darkly about “globalists” and — odious, stupid term — “the Establishment,” but nobody did this to them. They failed themselves.
White workers who have lost their jobs and had their quality of life devastated by thirty years of liberal folly and establishment Republican cronyism with Big Business are immoral for wanting a government that will actually serve the interests of its citizens?
I will let Rick Manning take it from here:
Williamson claims a moral high ground because in the D.C. ivory tower complaints about failing economic policies like the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact are “immoral because it perpetuates a lie: that the white working class that finds itself attracted to [Republican presidential candidate Donald] Trump has been victimized by outside forces.”
It gets better. “It wasn’t Beijing. It wasn’t even Washington, as bad as Washington can be. It wasn’t immigrants from Mexico, excessive and problematic as our current immigration levels are. It wasn’t any of that,” adds Williamson.
“The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible,” he writes.
Williamson blames the very people who are undeniably the victims of a combination of big government regulation and disastrous trade policies that have traded manufacturing jobs for lower costs for those products.
In spite of his claim that “On the trade front, American manufacturing continues to expand and thrive,” the reality is that since the year 2000 when Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China went into effect, five million manufacturing jobs have been lost, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What’s more, the nation’s Gross Domestic Product growth has not exceeded 4 percent since that same year. In fact, GDP growth hasn’t exceeded 3 percent since 2005 making the past decade the worst for economic growth since the Great Depression.
This is not the fault of those who lived in those towns that depended upon local manufacturing that was shipped overseas, it is the fault of the government policy that put into place the environment where closing local mills in North Carolina made more economic sense than keeping them open.
It is the fault of government policies that dictated that incandescent light bulbs could not be sold in the United States, so General Electric (which lobbied for the ban) could close the Virginia plant that made those bulbs and replace it with one in China that makes the federal government mandated ones.
It is the fault of environmental regulatory policies that turned timber mill towns in the Northwest into ghost towns, and are currently in the process of shutting down coal mines and industries related to the coal business shuttering the life blood of towns all over Appalachia.
And it is the fault of a corporate tax system that makes it undesirable to invest in building things here in America.
The ugly truth that the self-righteous Williamson misses is that government policy has stranded millions of Americans economically, and pretending that if they just play Jed Clampett and load up their trucks and move to California all will be well is either deliberately disingenuous or downright cruel.
As we pointed out in our article “Is Donald Trump Samson Or Delilah?” the fellows at National Review, The Weekly Standard, Fox and other outlets that have been banging away at Trump’s lack of conservative intellectual bona fides haven’t borne the impact of Washington’s complete rejection of limited government constitutional conservativism.
None of them have been put out of work by an illegal alien.
None of them have had to train their H1-B foreign guest worker replacements.
Few have their children in public school rooms swamped with non-English speakers.
And few are subjected to the daily humiliations at the hands of politically correct bureaucrats, school administrators, and corporate managers that make them feel like strangers in their own country.
So little wonder that Trump’s message that he is going tear down the Washington establishment and the idea of an outsider candidate who is going to make America great again and is beholden to no one is a powerful attractant to the forgotten men and women of America’s country class.
As Rick Manning put it so well, those who would crucify blue collar workers on the corporate crony trade altar are no better than those who would sacrifice the same group to their green gods — they are both despicable.
With thinking like National Review’s, is there any wonder why the blue collar silent majority is revolting against the elites of both political parties?
So true. You can't yell about sacrificing American jobs to the EPA's stupid rules, and then turn around and act all self-righteous while ignoring American jobs being lost to pure cronyism.
So many great articles like this being posted, it’s clear that the Trump movement is a revolution happening before our eyes.
I don’t know why people are suddenly shocked that NR is elitist. It always has been. I still remember the shame I felt when Buckley had members of the Moral Majority on Firing Line and humiliated them because they were somewhat inarticulate. I remember my mother, Buckley’s biggest fan, being shocked and hurt by that.
It’s why I preferred American Spectator (although I don’t even read that much anymore). Intellectually stimulating but also wry and quirky and down to earth.
Excellent!
I strongly suggest that people read the Williamson’s article instead of relying upon those who are mis-characterizing what Williamson is saying. Williamson is not condemning working class. He is not condemning the blue collar worker. He’s not condemning the white middle class.
Williamson is condemning those who live in poor white ghettos who rely upon welfare for their living. He is condemning the same kind of culture that has led to the destruction of the black family.
Williamson is saying that Trump’s pro-tariff programs won’t solve the problems of drug abuse, out of wedlock births, and welfare dependency.
Here’s some home work: (warning, is’s a troubling read)
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/367903/white-ghetto-kevin-d-williamson
It’s a wonder to me that in today’s economy that hacks like Williamson can actually find some fool to fund their drivel.
Horse hockey. Not even worth discussing.
The falling away of print propagandists, talk propagandists and video propagandist is continuing apace. Turning our attention to political parasites will set the republic on its intended course.
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Did you read the article?
He’s not even Republican. or so he says on Twitter about a half hour ago.. yawn..
First off, the article you cited was published more than two years ago. The article quoted here (and which I read in its whole, vile entirety) was published earlier this month.
The problem with WIlliamson’s article from a couple of weeks ago was his conflating white working class and lower middle class with the Caucasian underclass, which my grandma would have identified as “white trash”. Yes, the drug abuse, illegitimacy, welfare dependence, and the rest that go along with the “white trash” lifestyle indicates a degree of self-failure in a manner similar to those of the inner cities with darker complexions.
But that is not the major support group for Donnie-Boy. And Williamson’s attempt to lump in the folks that may not have a degree beyond trade school and apprenticeship with the welfare drawing meth abusers in Appalachia is just wrong on so many levels, I can’t even take it apart point by point. This boy grew up poor in Lubbock and got himself a degree. As we Texans say, “good on him”. Now he has progressed to the point of probably fitting in really well with the progressives in San Francisco, blaming the victim for what has gone on in the victim’s life. That the victim is in this case is the last acceptable scapegoat in our society, the non-progressive white male does not seem to register with him at all. I will offer this up in Williamson’s defense; he does also ruthlessly take apart people of color that the progressives normally argue are victims of the rich and powerful just as viciously as he attacks the failings of the caucasian underclass.
Aw Jeeze, this crap again? Williamson was referring to a subset of white Americans who once worked for a decent living but have now been displaced by outsourcing and the collapse of multigenerational job sources. Instead of moving on to places where there is some employment. They wait where they were born for the jobs to come back all the while collecting government assistance.
And instead of directing people to the two year old article that does not mention Trump at all, here is the article in question:
“Williamson is condemning those who live in poor white ghettos who rely upon welfare for their living. He is condemning the same kind of culture that has led to the destruction of the black family.”
Are you serious? Did he say that the corresponding black ghettos should just die off? Why didn’t he?
“Williamson is saying that Trump’s pro-tariff programs won’t solve the problems of drug abuse, out of wedlock births, and welfare dependency.”
Trump has said that jobs would certainly help out the situation.
And Trump’s pro-tariff programs are above the comprehension of Kevin Williamson.
I’m going to disagree. He’s blaming a breakdown in family for economic ills. Obviously, the economic ills could be blamed for a breakdown in family. Some will argue that families do just fine in much poorer cultures. That’s true. However, they live in an economy that matches their income. Americans are being driven downward economically, and they are trained to view that as failure. That doesn’t take into account the real impact of living in a $60,000 economic zone while now making only $20,000.
The bottom line is that he makes a bit of a dumb claim that they are to blame for not following the jobs, the reality is that those jobs STILL exist. They just exist elsewhere.
And it would be better to have them here than it would be to have them overseas.
“And instead of directing people to the two year old article that does not mention Trump at all, here is the article in question:”
I’ve read both articles. I directed people to the older article as it is a more comprehensive explanation of Williamson’s work. The only reason Williamson’s later article is so inflammatory here on free republic is his criticism of the Divine Donald. Both articles, taken together, explain why tariffs won’t solve the problem of the white lower class any more than they will solve the problems of the inner city ghetto.
Buckley was frequently spot on regarding policy but annoying in presentation.
“The problem with WIlliamson’s article from a couple of weeks ago was his conflating white working class and lower middle class with the Caucasian underclass, which my grandma would have identified as “white trash”. Yes, the drug abuse, illegitimacy, welfare dependence, and the rest that go along with the “white trash” lifestyle indicates a degree of self-failure in a manner similar to those of the inner cities with darker complexions.”
I disagree. I believe it was the Trump pumpers who conflated his statements on the white lower class with the white middle class. Several posters here on free republic made the claim that Williamson wanted the white middle class do “die out” because Williamson said tariffs weren’t the cure for all our ills.
“The bottom line is that he makes a bit of a dumb claim that they are to blame for not following the jobs, the reality is that those jobs STILL exist. They just exist elsewhere.”
The mining of coal has left Appalachia and is not coming back it exists nowhere else in the USA. These folks have to move elsewhere to find employment of any type.
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