VDH: The Origins of Progressive Agony (This is really good)

nationalreview.com ^ | Victor Davis Hanson

[RoosterRedux]

Pre-election, a smug Hillary Clinton pontificated that Trump had to grow up and accept the impending verdict of the voters that would shortly demolish his candidacy and humiliate his person. She would add insult to Trump’s injury by sweeping Georgia and Arizona and by a landslide that would reinvigorate the Obama dream.

*snip*

Hillary’s defeat caused unimaginable shock. It almost immediately prompted a collective psychological meltdown. The tragedy was not just that an inept Clinton had squandered the gifts of a $1 billion war chest, the deep-state collusion of the Obama administration, and a completely captive and obsequious media. But she had lost to Trump, the reality-TV-show host, the controversial raconteur, the first serious presidential candidate with neither military nor political experience.

*snip*

Progressives soon woke up to the reality that without power they were unable to stop Trump, and so they embraced any desperate means necessary to trap the ogre. The effort proved as frenzied as it was impotent: boycotting the inauguration, suing over state voting machines, using the courts to stymie Trump appointments and executive orders, appealing to the emoluments clause and the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, and winking and nodding at the assassination chic of celebrities and politicos such as Johnny Depp, Peter Fonda, Kathy Griffith, Madonna, Robert de Niro, Snoop Dogg, and a host of others. The many methods to subvert Trump’s presidency or fantasize about his gory death were as varied as the number of faux-accusers who would come out of the woodwork to smear Brett Kavanaugh. And the result was eerily the same: the more the impotent frenzy, the more it discredited its source

[SakoL61R]

Enjoyable read!
Sako contemplates sending to his prog in-laws...
after the mid-terms.

[relictele]

An observation, not a criticism on VDH and similarly-aged pundits:

Those who grew and matured during the Reagan years are now a significant portion of the upper tiers of business and government. It is not only their default position to be conservative but to question the existential roles of government in all things. Does this make them libertarians? Not necessarily. But political observers who rely on scope-of-history surveys seem to downplay or ignore altogether than today’s 45-55 year olds are often more conservative than, say, Pat Buchanan.

Many (most?) of us are not as interested in what EPA or DEA policy should be; rather, we question or oppose the existence of the EPA and DEA in whole or in part. In Trump we have an occasional kindred spirit.

[Mase]

For later.....

[Signalman]

VDH points out the following video in the article:
Trump bodyslams McMahon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKFIHRpe7I

[GOPJ]

... Clinton had blown a huge lead by foolishly seeking an electoral mandate while Trump, the supposed dunce, outsmarted her analytics and young techies by battering down the blue wall...

Nothing is more humiliating than to be already doling out White House patronage jobs on Election Day at noon, and by evening suffering a shipwrecked candidacy and the certainty of eight more years of progressive rule incinerated.

Pure Gold - thanks for posting.

[bkopto]

Is that his daughter who died?

[Liz]

..... Trump, the supposed dunce, outsmarted Hillary bigtime......

Hillary figured she was a shoo-in......she bragged about foreign leaders wanting her as president not Trump.....
and had hundreds of millions of dollars, the entire US inel apparat at her disposal thanks to Obama, AND the media.

But Hillary's biggest mistake was listening to all the campaign team suck-ups telling her she was g-r-e-a-t.
They wanted no-show bailiwicks and sinecures......and as many US govt checks they could get their hands on.

They convinced her she had no equal.....why even bother campaigning in PA, WI and Michigan?

[phormer phrog phlyer]

Well worth your time reading, VDH is an amazing guy, I understand he is still a farmer.

[Sir Napsalot]

The fundamental error(s) of the Left is hubris. They are the smartest ones without humanity nor humility.

With Obama’s god-like intelligence plus the smartest set he gathered around himself (> 300 advisors, remember? plus “tsars”, etc.), how can reality not bend and accommodate them?

Thus the non-ending “Recovery Summer” lies that only benefited Obama toadies as just one example. Which is why I am furious about the Dem advertisement of something like “>86% of the tax cuts goes to the top 1%”.

Another is the ramming down our throat Obamacare, again which is not providing healthcare benefits nor saving us money. However, so far as I can see, no RNC nor Republicans fight back against Dems’ claim that the repeal health bill Republican congress sided with big insurance companies and took away people’s pre-existing condition protection. That one alone is going to cost some house seats.

I don’t see Ryan or anybody else came out and defend what they’ve done with the reform bill. Just as I thought nobody could be worse than the Crying John Boehner.

/rant off

[gaijin]

Sadly yes, she has passed away. :(

[Liz]

Hillary's direst problems have not yet begun. Some of her financiers----Third World dictators, international
war lords, despots, terrorist groups, child sex slave-traders ------will not be getting the payback they expected.

The greedy Clintons have been playing in some rough neighborhoods.
The Clinton Foundation do-good shakedowns hit these people up for big bucks.

EXCERPTED FROM TRUMP E/O NAMING HUMAN TRAFFICKERS: Yahya Jammeh, was the Gambian dictator who was friends with the administration of President Obama and Hillary Clinton. Jammeh was essentially installed as dictator in Gambia and human rights abuses were overlooked as Jammeh contributed to the Clinton Foundation. (LINK)

Jammeh, owns a $3.5 million mansion in Potomac, Maryland, was warmly greeted by President Barack Obama at the 2014 and 2015 U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summits in Washington. Jammeh’s Moroccan-born wife, Zineb Jammeh, ran up huge totals at the Washington area’s fashionable shopping malls. She also settled on Sam’s Club, a wholesale discount store, to buy massive amounts of household goods. (LINK)

Dan Gertler from Congolese diamond mining fame and a major financier of the Clinton Foundation. His main customer and business partner? The company Glencore, one of the world’s largest mining commodity trading firms. Founded by Marc Rich, who was on the FBI’s most wanted list for 10 years for violating sanctions on Iran and other such corruption, for which he fled the US. Rich fled the US in 1983, indicted on charges of sanctions-busting, fraud and tax evasion, and accused of arms dealing. After years on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list, he was pardoned by Bill Clinton –after his wife gave $450,000 to newly formed Clinton Library foundation- in the final hours of his presidency. Bought out of the company in 1994, Rich died in Switzerland in 2013 (LINK). But his business partners, lawyers, advisers and friends have showered millions of dollars on the Clintons in the decade and a half following the scandal. (LINK)

Hillary and Bol Mel---listed by the US govt.

Benjamin Bol Mel, principal advisor to the president of South Sudan, one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Hillary Clinton spent years vowing to defend the rights of children worldwide — in 2012, she railed against “modern-day slavery” in the introduction to a State Department report on human trafficking that took aim at the “unlawful recruitment or use of children” by armed forces. Yet she does not appear to have publicly explained her role in allowing South Sudan and other countries to receive military support despite using children as combatants. In fact, the State Department played a central role in issuing the controversial waivers, according to two sources, including a former State Department official. With strong U.S. support, South Sudan became an independent country while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state — and soon spiraled into a disastrous civil war that involved large numbers of child soldiers. (BREITBART LINK)

====================================

REFERENCE---An Associated Press report found that more than half of State Dept Secy Hillary Clinton’s meetings or phone calls with government outsiders were conducted with donors for the Clinton Foundation.

Clinton’s ties with Lebanese-Nigerian donor Gilbert Chagoury deserved heightened scrutiny.

“The fact that a major Clinton Foundation donor was denied entry into the U.S. over ties to the terrorist group Hezbollah is deeply troubling, especially when this individual had access to top aides at Hillary Clintons State Department.”

"Several of the documents showed that the Department of State considered buying land for a U.S. Embassy in Nigeria from Chagoury after Clinton’s tenure ended. Clinton’s ties to Chagoury, who donated more than $1 million to the Clinton Foundation, raised several red flags after it came to light that Chagoury had been denied entry into the U.S. last year because of a suspected affiliation with Hezbollah through Lebanese politics."

MONTAGE---hat tip NY post

[Billthedrill]

What an enjoyable read! Actually, three of them, because this one was worth re-reading a couple of times. In retrospect it's a lot easier to see Democrat certainties fraying, but I clearly remember that not to be the case on election eve and that long slide from anxiety to ecstasy that followed.

Nothing is more humiliating than to be already doling out White House patronage jobs on Election Day at noon, and by evening suffering a shipwrecked candidacy and the certainty of eight more years of progressive rule incinerated.

And nothing is more amusing than watching the arrogant take a well-deserved fall, and I don't just mean the candidate. They had the spectacle all planned out, the fireworks, the shattered fake glass ceiling, the adoring Newsweek covers, it was a done deal, they had a lock! All gone in the wink of an eye. We, the voters, denied them their entitled triumph and it is we, the voters, who will pay.

Hence a temper tantrum going on two years' duration at the moment, an explosion of racism, hatred, bigotry and violence from those who consider themselves entitled to all four through their sheer moral superiority. "November is coming" read the sign in the picture. Yes, it is, indeed, it's almost here.

[a little elbow grease]

"Nothing is more humiliating than to be already doling out White House patronage jobs on Election Day at noon, and by evening suffering a shipwrecked candidacy and the certainty of eight more years of progressive rule incinerated."

---

Pure Gold - thanks for posting.

___________________________

Beautiful. Thanks for passing it along.

PS --- May I add that it was pretty funny when Trump was said to have offered 'The Beast' five cents on the dollar for all her elaborate fireworks she didn't need to use!

lol

[1Old Pro]

I keep saying this, he needs to be paid to be a significant presence on FOX.

[bert]

——maenadism-—

Those maenads. They’ll get you every single time

[dead]

Great article! And VDH linked to my Donald Trump Wrestling video! I just edited out all the non-Trump parts. I'm about to go over 7,000,000 hits on my YouTube channel.

[GOPJ]

They wanted no-show bailiwicks and sinecures......and as many US govt checks they could get their hands on. They convinced her she had no equal.....why even bother campaigning in PA, WI and Michigan?

One of the reasons we win against democrats is they have their noses so high in the air they can't see what they're going to trip over.