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Posted on 01/22/2016 8:39:33 PM PST by Amntn
National Review's publication of the collective anti-Donald Trump missives from 22 self-appointed conservative potentates has caused quite a stir in Republican circles.
The nationwide responses range from, "Wait, I thought National Review went out of business years ago," to "Ed Meese? Seriously?"
The Gang of 22 have officially become parodies of themselves. One would have to reach back to the days of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew to lift an adequate quote to describe them.
"Nattering nabobs of negativism," "vicars of vacillation," "pusillanimous pussyfooters," "the decadent few," "ideological eunuchs," "the effete corps of impudent snobs," or "the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history" - take your pick, because they all apply about equally well to each and every one of them.
So clueless is the Gang of 22 they can't even see how they've stumbled right into the narrative Trump's been communicating so successfully for months. Just like the elected officials from both parties, the Gang of 22 has been GREAT at complaining about stuff, year, after year, after year.
But getting anything accomplished? Not so much.
Many of the Gang of 22 have been hanging around and chattering for decades, and some are active cogs in the Conservative Entertainment Complex, deriving their income by pandering to conservative anger while offering no real solutions.
Donald Trump represents a threat to these ineffectual poohbahs in the same way he represents a threat to do-nothing public officials.
Jealousy is also seriously at work here. Trump is inspiring and exciting a broad spectrum of the country like no member of the Gang of 22 ever has, or ever will.
In just seven months of campaigning, Trump already has more Americans listening to a Republican message than the entire Gang of 22 could muster over decades. Trump understands that before you can advance the ball, you have to convince people to take time from their busy lives to listen. No one on the GOP side since Ronald Reagan has accomplished that like Trump.
No one else has come close, and certainly no one from that "effete corps of impudent snobs" to which the National Review thinks we should defer.
The Gang of 22 had their chance. They've done a lot of bitching over the years, and it paid well for some.
But Americans care about results. They can plainly see that all of the empty talk from the Gang of 22 got us eight years of Barack Obama, and a loss in pretty much every conservative battle there was to lose.
At the same time when Americans look at Donald Trump's life they get a lot of assurance that here is finally a man who shares their focus on actually getting results. And Trump returns the respect by recognizing regular hard-working Americans are a lot smarter than any of the "ideological eunuchs" in all of their pontificating glory.
The "pusillanimous pussyfooters" love to nitpick Trump's words, but what voters are looking for this year is competence and accomplishment. Donald Trump has an actual record of delivering both in spades.
The Gang of 22 is right to be terrified. A President who could get things done would expose them as the irrelevant creatures they truly are.
It can't happen fast enough.
A few of the people that are part of this coalition are strong conservative proponents who are very smart.
Even the most astute of Conservative Values people can be misled by an org like NR.
Hopefully these types will soon realize that the whole purpose of this gang of 22 is to knock out Trump, and then knock out their supposed favorite Cruz.
They are eGOP all the way, and would prefer Bush, or even The Rube (Rubio.)
In fact like most eGop’ers they would prefer that Clinton be President over either Trump or Cruz.
Rush pointed out the obvious the other day, same thing I and many other FR members have been saying for years.
That the eGOP don’t mind being the under-Party because it is less work and they still get their same perks-—and maybe on an elevated level as a reward for helping the dems push through their perverted leftist ruin-America-for-power and $ agenda.
If they manage to get Bush or Rubio as the republican nominee it will be made clear to which ever wins that they MUST make sure to fail so that Clinton can be elected.
Following in the footsteps of McCain and Romney who for the sake of the party and the wonderful reality that having a Black president is more important than the future of the USA and the freedoms of our citizens, they will do the same for Hillary.
Do you have anything original? Anything at all?
Hollywood, GOPe, eDems, Soc/Comms, NRO, CAIR all against Trump. Pissing off the right people IMO.
And viz the same expectations, Cruz loses Iowa, and Cruz is only a memory.
Instead of coming together to help Cruz, if that is whom they all want, they came together just to attack Trump in very similar fashion to the left and the RNC leadership. Thus, they have become establishment conservatives. Now instead of demanding that the Republican candidates moderate and reach across the aisle; they will demand conservatives uphold their standards and be just like they want them to. Appeasing them is a mess and part of me thinks that these “cats” have super high standards and they want only Cruz and are not open to anyone else. If that’s the case they are close minded and they also will not weight candidates fairly. They can support whomever they want and believe whatever they want. But so can others. But they won’t help their cause with there tactics.
Basically everyone at The NRO hates not only Trump but anyone standing in the way of Cruz. Now some may not be on board with Cruz either. But most sound like they prefer Cruz to Trump. They are the establishment conservatives since they will try to manipulate the election to get their guy across the line instead of playing fair.
Now I like Cruz, but he is no more saint than others. Having said that neither is Trump. But these people have lost it and are not thinking clearly. Some of them are just rabid Cruz supporters. They will go to great lengths to fight for Cruz and that’s honorable. But what is not honorable is besmirching those who are for Trump or those who have an open mind to hearing Trump out and consider him a good man and can vote for him.
They don’t get why Conservatives dislike The NRO because these 22 aligned themselves with a establishment publication dedicated for months to just stopping Trump and all those who want to vote for him. They would have been against Walker or Jindal as well if he had gone up against Cruz or whomever they want. I imagine some want Rubio now at the NRO. I do know the majority of the 22 want Cruz, but some at the NRO want Rubio and others Cruz. I guarantee you George Will is for Rubio since Walker dropped out.
These 22 are ruining themselves supporting the NRO.
Glenn Beck’s a mess and he is dragging Dana Loesch along so Dana is not the rouge maverick person she seemed. She was fired for the Saint Louis Tea Party. They strung along Kaite Pavlich and she is too naive and seems to be going off the deep end like S.E. Cupp. Pavlich was poisoned by hanging around Anti-Trump people, while her Outnumbered co-horts attacked The NRO on air.
Brent Bozell is just a rabid Cruz supporter. He endorsed Cruz early on. Bozell, Beck, Pavlich and others are probably forcing Cruz into his latest campaign strategy of attacking Trump in the same fashion Rand, Jindal, Fiorina and Perry did. Fine, but why did it take so long? Reeks of desperation and coordination.
Eric Erickson is a joke and his Red State is just NRO 2.0. Ben Domenech is just Ben Shapiro 2.0 who hates Trump at all cost for standing in the way of a Cruz presidency. Domenech runs some site, The Federalist, that I don’t read much. They aligned with freak Bill Kristol who is so moderate that he makes Jeb look conservative. Surprised Bill’s idiot right hand man Steven Hayes was not on the list.
List has a bag of persons nobody hears about. Who is Mona Charen? Mark Helprin? R.R. Reno? Yuval Levin? David M. McIntosh? So now we have a conservative establishment made of people who do nothing but work think thanks like Heriatge and think they are above everyone?
Muskasey, Sowell, McCarthy, Hayward can think whatever they want but it is cancelled out by those who support Trump like Schlafly, Arpaio, Palin, and Virgil Goode.
Well this was bound to happen because I quit the tea party went I saw all the infighting. They couldn’t agree on candidates, agenda or direction. Herding conservatives is like herding cats.
Instead of coming together to help Cruz, if that is whom they all want, they came together just to attack Trump in very similar fashion to the left and the RNC leadership. Thus, they have become establishment conservatives. Now instead of demanding that the Republican candidates moderate and reach across the aisle; they will demand conservatives uphold their standards and be just like they want them to. Appeasing them is a mess and part of me thinks that these “cats” have super high standards and they want only Cruz and are not open to anyone else. If that’s the case they are close minded and they also will not weight candidates fairly. They can support whomever they want and believe whatever they want. But so can others. But they won’t help their cause with there tactics.
Basically everyone at The NRO hates not only Trump but anyone standing in the way of Cruz. Now some may not be on board with Cruz either. But most sound like they prefer Cruz to Trump. They are the establishment conservatives since they will try to manipulate the election to get their guy across the line instead of playing fair.
Now I like Cruz, but he is no more saint than others. Having said that neither is Trump. But these people have lost it and are not thinking clearly. Some of them are just rabid Cruz supporters. They will go to great lengths to fight for Cruz and that’s honorable. But what is not honorable is besmirching those who are for Trump or those who have an open mind to hearing Trump out and consider him a good man and can vote for him.
They don’t get why Conservatives dislike The NRO because these 22 aligned themselves with a establishment publication dedicated for months to just stopping Trump and all those who want to vote for him. They would have been against Walker or Jindal as well if he had gone up against Cruz or whomever they want. I imagine some want Rubio now at the NRO. I do know the majority of the 22 want Cruz, but some at the NRO want Rubio and others Cruz. I guarantee you George Will is for Rubio since Walker dropped out.
These 22 are ruining themselves supporting the NRO.
Glenn Beck’s a mess and he is dragging Dana Loesch along so Dana is not the rouge maverick person she seemed. She was fired for the Saint Louis Tea Party. They strung along Kaite Pavlich and she is too naive and seems to be going off the deep end like S.E. Cupp. Pavlich was poisoned by hanging around Anti-Trump people, while her Outnumbered co-horts attacked The NRO on air.
Brent Bozell is just a rabid Cruz supporter. He endorsed Cruz early on. Bozell, Beck, Pavlich and others are probably forcing Cruz into his latest campaign strategy of attacking Trump in the same fashion Rand, Jindal, Fiorina and Perry did. Fine, but why did it take so long? Reeks of desperation and coordination.
Eric Erickson is a joke and his Red State is just NRO 2.0. Ben Domenech is just Ben Shapiro 2.0 who hates Trump at all cost for standing in the way of a Cruz presidency. Domenech runs some site, The Federalist, that I don’t read much. They aligned with freak Bill Kristol who is so moderate that he makes Jeb look conservative. Surprised Bill’s idiot right hand man Steven Hayes was not on the list.
List has a bag of persons nobody hears about. Who is Mona Charen? Mark Helprin? R.R. Reno? Yuval Levin? David M. McIntosh? So now we have a conservative establishment made of people who do nothing but work think thanks like Heriatge and think they are above everyone?
Muskasey, Sowell, McCarthy, Hayward can think whatever they want but it is cancelled out by those who support Trump like Schlafly, Arpaio, Palin, and Virgil Goode.
Well this was bound to happen because I quit the tea party when I saw all the infighting. They couldn’t agree on candidates, agenda or direction. Herding conservatives is like herding cats.
| hey with your new National Review subscription you get a free can of this (you're gonna need it) | |
<<< 22 self-appointed conservative potentates >>
I just called this out on another thread, considering two of the “conservative intellectuals” are Glenn Beck and his sidekick Dana Loesch, who until a few years ago was a self-admitted Democrat. When she was a Tea Party darling, she ran a site devoted to trashing Karl Rove! and just the other evening, confessed to MKelly that she is “not a Republican”.
Then, there’s Beck - an habitual hypochondriac who has claimed multiple times that he’s the target of secret agencies trying to take him down; and who was seeking organic healing advice from Don Imus’s liberal & idiotic wife.
These are two of the best NRO could convince to throw themselves under the bus.
One of my core complaints for years with the GOP, has been the attachment of all the flea marketers selling their wares by sucking onto the teat of conservatism.
How many have gotten rich, or enjoyed a great standard of living, by marketing themselves, books, appearances, blogs, appearances, books, appearances, programs, books — ? Many.
The cycle goes around and around, and I strongly believe this is much about their earnings potential being threatened, as anything else. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn their ratings & income have already dropped since Trump started posting high poll numbers.
At some point, even the most hardcore, must realize a guy like Glenn Beck, isn’t “conservative” (and in his case he swore off politics a few years ago, even!).
Viva Cruz!
Good post . The overarching factor to the anti-Trump unity is the desire for completely open borders , mass immigration, and very destructive trade deals . Trump has outed all of them and I have come to realize that both parties will stop at nothing to keep this going .
If Trump doesn’t win and stop it, we will become a third world hell hole .
My problem is that there is no single list than defines conservatism. Certainly not one weighted to how important one issue is over another. Is Cruz a conservative? My belief is yes. Is Trump a conservative? Enough for me. My real desire is to have someone in the White House who cares about this country, it’s well-being, the future for us and our children, will protect it from all enemies foreign and domestic and has the leadership skills to rally the people against those enemies.
I will support Cruz or Trump for President but I believe only one can be successful against those enemies and that is Trump.
There is a single principle which defines conservatism: do you believe in the supremacy of the individual, or the collective, in the guise of the state?
If you believe in personal rights and personal responsibility, you are a conservative. If, on the other hand, you are a populist blowhard who constantly tells us how he is going to “hire smart people” and make big government “terrific” you are NOT a conservative.
I genially believe in the individual supremacy but it is not absolute. I do not believe another individual has the right to take my goods, abuse my family nor tell me how to think. There is a need for collective defense and public work. I do not believe that absolute libertarianism is conservatism.
It is like we have two teams who want to push the ball across the left out of bounds lane or the right out of bounds lane. How about we move the ball down the field towards the goal. Border security, realism in international affairs and solvency are not bad places to start.
You see, it is that kind of attitude that undermines the true conservatives. There is no need for the government to be involved in public works. The private sector can do it just so well. I am sure you are happy to have Spanish corporations buying and converting major thoroughfares in Texas to private toll roads. What could possibly go wrong [anyone remember the Rhine barons?]
Yup...Andy did squat.
NR is dead.
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