The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

A Balm For Conservatives In Trumpreich

Posted on | May 21, 2016 | 211 Comments

by Smitty

Given time constraints and general bewilderment at the Democrat takeover of the GOP, there just hasn’t been much to say. Hopefully Darleen will get Friday Fiction going again. On Twitter, it’s been an endless parade of horribles if I don’t join the Trumpenproletariat. Fortunately, the indispensable Jonah Goldberg offers a fine read to help with the can’t-get-motivated-to-vote-for-a-Democrat blues. Read the whole thing, including the blowback against the mighty James Taranto:

I may not be the philologist James is, but I do grok that Perry was speaking metaphorically when he said Trump was a cancer and leading us to Hell. But speaking figuratively and speaking seriously are not antipodes. One can use metaphors and still speak with sincerity. When Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved,” he was speaking metaphorically but not insincerely. I made the mistake of thinking Rick Perry was serious when he said these things. Perhaps Taranto’s the wiser man for cynically believing words never matter when uttered by politicians.

I guess I should thank Johnny B. Cryin’ and Mike Pence. The Duhnamic Duo, just ahead of the Indiana primary, broke whatever weak geas had me thinking that one should default to supporting the GOP nominee. The mask is off. I joke about our “1.1-party system. That “1.1” is like a stencil for an international gesture, pointed downward. For the last decade, the Vichy GOP has struggled between craving the bigger offices in DC afforded the majority party, and utter disgust for the Bitter Cling-On conservative base that would deliver that majority.
It’s sort of a Glorious Progressive Revolution, the way that conservatives have been thrown under the bus, in favor of Donald of Orange. (Donald is the extroverted sociopath from New York, controlled by the Tribble on his head. Donald is not to be confused with the introverted sociopath from New York holding the remote for the Tribble.) About the only shoe left to drop is the nominating convention. I’ll hold off joining the Libertarian party until I hear what Ted Cruz has to say. As the leading conservative remaining in the Republocrat Party, and a genius of Jonah Goldberg’s caliber, Ted is about the only person imaginable who could argue me into any GOP support. Promises to be some fine rhetoric. My guess is that he’ll come real, real close to returning Pence’s carefully calibrated flaccid support for a Trump/Busey ticket.

Comments

211 Responses to “A Balm For Conservatives In Trumpreich”

  1. Eric Ashley
    May 21st, 2016 @ 7:54 am

    You can take the Democrat out of the Democratic Party, but you can’t take the Democratic out of Ronald Reagan.

    When you’re following Ace of Spades, a social liberal, and Lindsay Grahamnesty over And Coulter and Eric Ashley, you really ought to reconsider.

    A lot of the NeverTrumpers seem to be RINOs who just don’t want to let go of the GOP. As I’ve said before, I think on this site, we were going to have to break their fingers in order to get their deathgrip off the steering wheel as they headed toward the cliff. The RINOs have gotten their way with Romney, McCain, Dole…. Time to try somone different than a RINO.

  2. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 8:04 am

    I have no idea what could exemplify “Republican in Name Only” than Drumphy the Malevolent Head Tribble and its bipedal host, Donald of Orange.

    At what point of degradation, when DJT has sold out Every. Single. Principle. that conservatives hold dear, will you begin to understand that perhaps you’ve been rooked?

  3. Rhino
    May 21st, 2016 @ 8:10 am

    Hillary thanks you for your support.

  4. Eric Ashley
    May 21st, 2016 @ 8:11 am

    Lindsay Graham, John Boehner, Mitt Romney, John McCain, and oh definitely Karl Rove.

    There was a SF book which had an AI in the hair controlling its host to do horrible things. You read it?

    Thing is, if Trump betrays us, then Reform goes to Plan C. Like a lot of Trump supporters I’m not a raving supporter, instead I’m taking a somewhat calculated dice roll. You, my friend, are the True Believer here. I’m the Gambler.

  5. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 8:25 am

    Read the Jonah link in full, please.

  6. Eric Ashley
    May 21st, 2016 @ 9:02 am

    I did. It was a bit embarrassing. When he said …I think Trump will do serious, even fatal damage to the Conservative Movement….that was about the only point where I thought he was being straight. The rest was being a half-clever sophist.

  7. David R
    May 21st, 2016 @ 9:16 am

    Trump is not a Republican at all, so he’s not a RINO. Calling him one is an insult to all the moderate Republicans who’ve been tagged as such for decades (except the ones that endorsed him before he clinched the nomination; those guys can rot with Trump).

  8. physicsnut
    May 21st, 2016 @ 9:19 am

    so Johah wants to write in Phil Gramm.
    that is all i need to know. They can both get stuffed.

  9. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 9:24 am

    “Thing is, if Trump betrays us. . .”

    What do you mean by “if”, Eric? He’s *already* demonstrating that betrayal, if anything, is the extent of his platform.

  10. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 9:25 am

    The “sophists” are those who betray principle to rationalize supporting Trump.

  11. Eric Ashley
    May 21st, 2016 @ 10:08 am

    Full Definition of sophistry

    1

    : subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation

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

    So you’re calling Trump supporters ‘subtle’?

    Reread Jonah’s article. Forex, consider the Perry argument. Do we really believe that Jonah was shocked, shocked I tell you, to have Perry adjust his position after Trump won? No, of course not. This is why Jonah is being a sophist, and not a very good one.

  12. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    May 21st, 2016 @ 10:36 am

    Trump is different than your typical RINO like Graham or McConnell. He is basically an unabashed nationalist (which is the secret to his appeal), beyond that it could be pretty much anything. You could call it Trumpian.

    I have given up worrying. He will be the nominee. Hillary is a given train wreck. Trump could be somewhat better than Hillary (I doubt he would be worse)–but chances are he would be ineffective and sort of like Arnold was in California. Whether I vote for Trump depends on what happens between now and then (but it were today I would be doing a write in candidate).
    https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AjLslJUXy-Y/V0CFNUglLtI/AAAAAAAA6Cw/1kHrrbwXerIKJwyWjETQMDu95rjxDNGrACLcB/s1600/Surving%2Bthe%2BSummer%2Bof%2B2016.png

  13. CrustyB
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:07 am

    The best we conservatives can hope for is that being a faux conservative continues to benefit Trump for the next 4 years. If being liberal polls well, though, you know damned well we can all kiss decency and liberty goodbye, which I’ve already done over the past 7 years.

  14. daialanye
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:17 am

    I fail to see the problem. When offered a choice between stale white bread and a cow patty I have no difficulty choosing which to eat. Why is this so puzzling to many of you?

    We’ve had this situation before: Nixon/McGovern, Ford/Carter, Mussolini/Hitler. A rational person always chooses the least worse, which in this case is Donnie Drumpf. After all, he might not completely ruin the nation, while Hillary surely will.

  15. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:30 am

    The simple case is the Constitutional one. The sophistry is all this “if you vote for A instead of B, you’re really voting for C” claptrap.

  16. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:32 am

    What if it’s all so much Progressive cow patty, and you can’t muster the abused spouse enthusiasm to tuck into another round?

  17. Robert What?
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:41 am

    Trumpenproletariat. Heh.

    I know that if the race is between Trump and Clinton, that it is effectively a choice between two New York Liberal Democrats. I figure that Obama has brought us so far down the road to ruin that it will take a larger than life character to either drag us back from the precipice, or push us over the edge. I say it could go either way with Trump, but when will we ever get another chance to have a non-career politician have at it?

  18. Eric Ashley
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:43 am

    But that’s not what Rhino is saying, or other Trumpkins are saying. Its true that your vote for Gary Johnson helps Hillary. We don’t say you’re really voting for Hillary.

    And since this is claptrap, I don’t see this as subtle, so its not sophistry. “Gutless, unprincipled, weak-kneed” would have been better word choices for you to use. As in ‘Jonah’s laughable arguments are exercises in half-clever sophistry, but his determination to stay the course is anything but gutless or weak-kneed unlike the unprincipled ‘so-called’ conservatives, fair-weather friends, who in a display of wussiness have jumped aboard the Trump Train.’

  19. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:46 am

    Democrat-Republican Adroitly Nattering On (DRANO)?

  20. Robert What?
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:48 am

    One thing that I have been wondering about is, why is Trump even running? The guy is almost 70, has plenty of money, has had many successful businesses and careers. He has a gorgeous wife and by all accounts a loving, adoring family. What the hell does he need this for? Nothing, nada, zip. So what makes Donnie run?

  21. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:50 am

    “Its true that your vote for Gary Johnson helps Hillary.”

    The vote is the vote is the vote. Whether or not it helps anyone for whom the vote was not cast is a broadening of the scope of the question.
    Which is fine–broaden it. Just please carry the analysis through and ask if this isn’t perhaps a question of the DC Cartel vs. everyone else.
    Meanwhile, a vote for A is a vote for A. Period. Full stop. Thanks for the discussion.

  22. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:50 am

    Well, one New York sociopath is an introvert. The other is an extrovert. So you’ve got *that* distinction to work with.

  23. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:52 am

    I figure that he’s got enough debt that, when those who control his debt went recruiting a personality to blow away the pesky conservative uprising on the Right, he couldn’t turn the deal down.

  24. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    May 21st, 2016 @ 11:53 am
  25. Eric Ashley
    May 21st, 2016 @ 12:01 pm

    I hear his Supreme Court choice list was pretty good. Carson’s VP list was about half good.

  26. Eric Ashley
    May 21st, 2016 @ 12:09 pm

    Rhino came out with what I said, in much shorter form, so I don’t see this as a broadening.

    I’m hoping that Trump is the form of the destructor that the DC Cartel has chosen for themselves. A fair number of Trumpkins supported Trump hoping he would murder the GOPelite.

    Your naked assertion is still naked, and wrong.

    I voted for Virgil Goode rather than Mitt Romney, and yes, that helped Obama. I thought making the point to the GOPe was more important than helping Mitt win. Now that is a reason. If I had rejected the fact that i was helping Obama that would have been rationalization or spin.

  27. Robert What?
    May 21st, 2016 @ 12:10 pm

    So you think that a year ago his handlers told him that he was just going to waltz his way into the Presidency and that was how he was going to pay off his supposed debts? Despite all the GOP nomination rules stacked against him? Rules specifically created post Reagan to help prevent any outsider from getting the nomination again. Seems like an awfully big stretch.

  28. Fail Burton
    May 21st, 2016 @ 12:10 pm

    Goldberg sounds like a Democrat because he is one. Like them, he has a faith in the never-seen and despises historic paradigms of success.

  29. Fail Burton
    May 21st, 2016 @ 12:13 pm

    What conservative movement is that? The one which is on board with unlimited population growth or unlimited population growth from failed nations?

  30. Finrod Felagund
    May 21st, 2016 @ 12:32 pm

    Evil thanks you for your support.

    https://stream.org/never-trump-third-commandment/

  31. Finrod Felagund
    May 21st, 2016 @ 12:35 pm

    The Supreme Court list that he’s already backed away from?

    That Supreme Court list?

  32. Finrod Felagund
    May 21st, 2016 @ 12:36 pm

    Stop this bullshit of trying to compare Trump to Reagan. Trump is the anti-Reagan.

    https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/05/trump-is-the-anti-reagan

    We had a great candidate who most certainly was not a RINO. His name was Ted Cruz, and the Trumpbots threw him overboard for a New York liberal.

  33. Finrod Felagund
    May 21st, 2016 @ 12:41 pm

    Trump’s candidacy was a protest. All he wanted was to come in second and get to double digits in the polls.

    http://www.xojane.com/issues/stephanie-cegielski-donald-trump-campaign-defector

  34. Finrod Felagund
    May 21st, 2016 @ 12:43 pm

    Thank you for keeping the faith, Smitty. We’re going to have a lot of rebuilding to do to take back our party in 2018 and 2020.

  35. Sparafucile
    May 21st, 2016 @ 12:44 pm

    Trump is more like TR. In many ways.

  36. thesickmanofeurope_com
    May 21st, 2016 @ 1:54 pm

    Maybe……just maybe…He is doing because he loves his country and is clever enough to see what the Cultural Marxists and Cuckservatives are doing in Europe and he does not want the same to happen at home….maybe.

  37. Art Deco
    May 21st, 2016 @ 2:57 pm

    Just to point out, The Village Voice wrote an article about his voting history ca. 1985 having pulled his buff card at the New York City Board of Elections. The Voice was twitting him about his spotty voting history. It was frequent enough, however, for him to remain continually registered (which, at the time, required voting at least quadrennially). He was a registered Republican the whole time. The Smoking Gun reports his buff card indicates he has been registered at his current address since 1987. It indicates he was a registered Democrat from 2001 to 2009, a non-partisan registrant for a year (2011-12), and in Thomas Golisano’s vehicle for two years (1999-2001). So, he’s been a registered Republican for 36 of the last 47 years. Melania Trump has been a registered Republican since she registered to vote in 2006 (after she was naturalized).

  38. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 3:27 pm

    Yes, the one that didn’t include @TedCruz.

  39. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 3:29 pm

    Teddy Roosevelt? The Bull Moose would rip the tribble off Donald of Orange’s sorry noggin.

  40. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 3:31 pm

    By the end of the CA primary, Tribble-head shall have crested the magic number. Which is why the Vichy GOP are in full kissy-face mode.

  41. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 3:32 pm

    I *knew* the high-velocity aerial primates exiting Trump’s backside meant something.

  42. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 3:33 pm

    @JonahNRO is the Democrat? Troll level: Intermediate. Thanks.

  43. smitty
    May 21st, 2016 @ 3:38 pm

    Thanks for the details. Tribble-head is still a dishonorable lout, AFAICT.

  44. Robert What?
    May 21st, 2016 @ 3:42 pm

    Yes, but I’m talking about a year ago. They hated his guts a year ago. They still do but they have no choice but to grin and bear it.

  45. Robert What?
    May 21st, 2016 @ 3:49 pm

    Ok, but a protest against what?

    In any case, you made me do something I swore I would never do again, and that is click on an XOJANE link. So Trump was just going to blow a few million bucks on trying to come in second? He wasn’t spending donor money, he was spending his own money. People who spend their own money don’t do so to come in second. Although I think they may partially be onto something. Several times in the past Trump has gotten into the race, made some noise and dropped out, mainly for publicity purposes. However, I think this time he got completely blindsided by his reception by the public and decided to go all the way.

  46. Robert What?
    May 21st, 2016 @ 3:50 pm

    That is certainly a plausible theory.

  47. Finrod Felagund
    May 21st, 2016 @ 3:55 pm

    A billionaire blowing a few million bucks on vanity isn’t any different than a millionaire blowing a few thousand bucks or a thousandaire blowing a few bucks. Her testimony speaks for itself.

  48. Mike
    May 21st, 2016 @ 4:15 pm

    Plus TR actually had a resume before running for president, unlike the Orangefarbenführer.

  49. Rhino
    May 21st, 2016 @ 4:31 pm

    I’m not Hillary’s de facto supporter. Look in the mirror for evil.

  50. Finrod Felagund
    May 21st, 2016 @ 4:34 pm

    You didn’t read the link, did you? Supporting Trump is supporting Evil.