THE FULL ARTICLE
George, I am one of the guys at the end of the bar nursing a beer.
You know, the guys you in your elitist Washington ivory tower look down upon and mock because we are willing to listen to what Donald Trump has to say.
You should listen, too, instead of ridiculing us. If you did you might hear the sound of millions of people yearning for the United States to return to its greatness, instead of watching their country slide into a socialist third-world Greece that cannot even protect its borders, let alone lead the world or stand up to the terrorists in Iran.
You say in your Aug. 13 syndicated column that Trump, and the rest of us at the bar — the “local” Donald Trumps, you call us — are “unprecedentedly and incorrigibly vulgar,” although you condescend to admit that we do have the right to be so, given that we live in a free country. That is big of you.
Well, George, one of the reasons the United States is still a free country is because many of the men drinking at the end of the bar that you mock are the very men who fought in the last half dozen or so wars we have fought to keep the country free.
Not all of them were as fortunate as you to be able to go to Princeton and Oxford instead of into the military.
Many of the men at the bar do indeed support Donald Trump and they don’t care that he is, as you say, “a counterfeit Republican.”
They have seen the “real” Republicans in Washington — the leaders you hang out with — like House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and all the others, and they have concluded that they are no different from the Democrats.
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So why not something new?
Trump is something new, even though he has been around for a while. He is resonating because he is unabashedly talking about the things that the guys at the end of the bar — and elsewhere — are talking about: jobs, anchor babies, illegal immigration, building a wall, out of control welfare, a strong military, caving in to Iran, defeating ISIS and “making America great again.” What’s not to like?
Trump has totally upset the Washington political establishment. His meteoric rise has shown how out of touch with the country you and your fellow national opinion makers are, and you resent it.
You also resent Trump because, unlike all the other presidential candidates, he will not kiss your ring, flatter you, or seek your approval. As a matter of fact he detests you, does not trust you, does not need you, and tells you off. He thinks you and your colleagues are dishonest and is not afraid to say so.
And why should he trust you when you use your column to attack him while your wife admittedly is a top campaign aide to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who you praise, and who is also running for the GOP nomination for president?
In addition, sin of all sins, Trump is paying his own way. How revolutionary is that?
In an age when politicians are bought and sold by special interests, and are out begging for money every day, Trump is using his own money to pay for his own campaign. That is enough to drive any establishment politician, or Washington columnist, into the nearest bar.
I am a newspaperman who has spent a lot of time in bars, sometimes alone, other times with people from various walks of life.
Some of the men at the end of the bar I met worked at the post office, or in construction, or were cops and firemen, the types of men who would rush into a burning building to save a life, like they did at the World Trade Center in New York.
In my younger days I met men in bars who fought at Iwo Jima and the Battle of the Bulge. Later I drank with Korean War veterans who fought at the Chosen Reservoir.
Later I shared bar stools with veterans of Vietnam, and I would today gladly buy a round for any veteran who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, or anywhere else, if only to thank them for their service.
I have found that there is a lot of talk in bars, much of it foolish. I have also found that there is wisdom there as well, wisdom that comes from men drinking at the end of the bar who have seen something of life.
Maybe you should visit one sometime and talk to the men at the end of the bar.
George Will is bow tied bum kisser who was at home sitting in the Green Room for 45 minutes waiting to be brought out for Four on One Liberal fun. How long did he spend coming up with the zinger in last week’s Boston Herald about Sen. Blaine losing the presidency in NY because some Protestant called the Democrats the party of “Romanism and Rum”? Gee whiz Professur Will you sure has got some fancy book learnin’. Never mind that Blaine lost three other swing states.
elitists all to often dont recognize the difference between governance and leadership. Everyday Americans do......
I’d like to think that George Will admires the writings of teh great G.K. Chesterton.
Chesterton spent a lot of time in Pubs,a nd did much of his best writing there.
Great article