Posted on 07/17/2024 3:27:58 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
At the outset of Christopher Marlowe’s late 16th-century play “The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus,” the scholar at the center of the tale abandons all the learning he has mastered. Law, philosophy, medicine — none of these have fulfilled his boundless ambition. Instead, he turns to magic, making the fateful decision to sell his soul to the demon Mephistopheles, for what he “most desires” — “a world of profit and delight, /Of power, of honor.”
That brand of striving, so strong that it compels Faustus to sell what is most essential to him, must lie somewhere in the makeup of Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, who on Monday was offered and accepted the invitation to be Donald Trump’s running mate. What he has renounced in the process is in the public record for all to see.
Eight years ago, during the heated days of the 2016 Republican primary, Mr. Vance wrote that Mr. Trump’s policy proposals “range from immoral to absurd.” A few months later, he referred to Mr. Trump as “cultural heroin,” and called him “unfit for our nation’s highest office.” And memorably, in a text conversation with a former roommate, the future senator worried that Mr. Trump might be “America’s Hitler.”
After Monday’s announcement, of course, Mr. Vance distanced himself from those comments. Mr. Trump’s White House tenure, he said, had changed his mind, but it’s hard to take the senator entirely at his word.
Certainly, all politicians are ambitious — and many of them are cynical. But there is something particularly noxious about Mr. Vance’s posturing, which exceeds the run-of-the-mill Machiavellian self-interestedness that characterizes politics. The Faustian contract seems to have already been drawn up and signed.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
When I get up every morning, I begin by hating our lying garbage American Media [not in a health-threatening way, just a general "oh, here it comes again" way].
When I realized in late 2015 that future President Trump was going to take it to those Media scumbags, folding their lying teeth back every day, I was on board for good.
That's the only thing I need him to do for me. 
So his book is a hit and extolled until...he goes Republican. The NY are soulles pos/
They just can’t stop themselves. 🙄
Great post!
In 2016 I was a Ted Cruz supporter. Battling with the Trump crew here got me banned. It actually turned out to be a long suspension... I was pissed enough that I wasn’t about to *ask* to come back... then one day maybe a year later I just discovered that I had posting privileges again. I guess JimRob gave “blanket amnesty” and I’m glad I was included.
In 2016 I held my nose and voted Trump, hoping (as you say) he would actually be conservative and not a Rat-leaning opportunist. Like you, withdrawing from Paris Accords got my attention. Then I began to notice how, in spite of his raw edges, he just DID THE RIGHT THING. (Jerusalem embassy was indeed another example.) He had all the right enemies too; people I considered enemies of America.
My point is this: like J. D. Vance, I *repented* of my Trump doubts. That’s what repentence is: a profound realization that I WAS WRONG, coupled with a CHANGE IN THINKING AND BEHAVIOR. So I understand Vance’s change of heart and it does not concern me.
I am quite happy that President Trump picked J. D. Vance — smart, articulate, young, future-looking — to be his Vice President.
And of course I am HUNDRED PERCENT ALL IN on President Trump now. I see a very strong spiritual force at work in his life. He has been anointed by GOD “for a time such as this”. And if God be for you, who can be against you?
FRegards and Blessings
I’ll bet that unlike Kamala, JD never swallowed.
Excellent post, FRiend...we came in around the same time and have lots of great discourse here!
I was astonished at how well the Republicans did all this tonight. All of it.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the Leftists shot their bolt with Biden and their radical ideas were killed by the test of time, and Trump, in taking control of this party from the likes of Mich McConnel and Lindsey Graham, was able to bring back American values in the way Reagan did.
He can borrow a few spares from his Hindu wife.
It more than okay to sell your soul to God and country. It’s the highest calling anyone can answer.
I think if people researched past VP selections you might find a few who had some how disparaged their running mate before being appointed their VP.
In Hillbilly Elegy he recalls that when he was 8 or 9 years old he thought he was gay because he didn't like girls. A short conversation with his grandmother disabused him of that notion.
Kamala Harris, for example.
He definitely has the right enemies. I consider their attacks endorsements.
I was a dirtball at that age, and I remember grousing to a friend, I can even remember exactly where we were walking (though, oddly, I cannot remember the friend) about how I hated that I had to wash up and wear clean clothes, and my mother told me girls wouldn't like me if I didn't, and I was all bent out of shape and said something like "Pah! Who cares. Why should I care if girls like me or not?"
I continued to think girls were the enemy up until I was in 4th grade and I went to see the movie "Fantastic Voyage" on the Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan...and when I saw Raquel Welch in that skin-tight neoprene suit, I remember thinking maybe girls weren't the enemy after all!
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