Surrender Without a Fight?

Posted on | May 31, 2016 | 94 Comments

“Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. . . . Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. . . . Because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.”
— Gen. George S. Patton, 1944

Today, there is encouraging news for Republicans. The latest NBC tracking poll shows Donald Trump closing in on Hillary Clinton:

While Clinton is looking to wrap up the Democratic nomination with a strong performance in the final group of states on June 7, her advantage in a hypothetical matchup against the Republican nominee has dwindled by the week. Over the last seven days, Clinton led Trump 47 percent to 45 percent, with the Manhattan businessman drawing 2 points closer since the last weekly survey.

This is mirrored in the Real Clear Politics poll average, where Clinton led by 10 points six weeks ago in mid-April, but is now just a single point ahead of Trump. This is encouraging news, I say, if you are a Republican who considers it imperative to defeat the Democrats. On the other hand, if you are a disgruntled intellectual like David Frum, Trump’s impressive success is a threat to all that is good and holy:

The television networks that promoted Trump; the primary voters who elevated him; the politicians who eventually surrendered to him; the intellectuals who argued for him, and the donors who, however grudgingly, wrote checks to him—all of them knew, by the time they made their decisions, that Trump lied all the time, about everything. They knew that Trump was ignorant, and coarse, and boastful, and cruel. They knew he habitually sympathized with dictators and kleptocrats—and that his instinct when confronted with criticism of himself was to attack, vilify, and suppress. They knew his disrespect for women, the disabled, and ethnic and religious minorities. They knew that he wished to unravel NATO and other U.S.-led alliances, and that he speculated aloud about partial default on American financial obligations. None of that dissuaded or deterred them. . . .

You can read the whole thing, if you’re into that kind of totally demoralizing Voice-of-Doom trip. David Frum hates Donald Trump about as much as does former Hillary adviser Alec Ross, who called Trump “a vulgar, demented, pig demon.” There is a bipartisan consensus against Trump among the decadent intellectual elite, while among the electorate — you know, the actual citizens of America who elect presidents — there is a bipartisan consensus that we need to stop listening to the intellectual elite. It seems a substantial segment of the electorate have decided that the “experts” got us into this mess, and so to hell with the experts.

Is it my job to tell the America people they’re wrong? No, because I actually agree with this anti-elite consensus and the fact that the chosen messenger, Donald Trump, is far from ideal in many ways does not alter the basic politica goal, i.e., defeat the Democrat Party.

We must fight the war we are actually in with the army we actually have.

Now is not the time — scarcely five months before Election Day — to sit around bemoaning the accumulated problems of the GOP political apparatus that made it impossible for conservatives to nominate some other candidate that they might have preferred over Trump.

Honestly, a year ago, it seemed to me that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was the man to beat, but he didn’t catch fire in the early debates and was the first candidate to quit the primary race. So much for my own “expert” opinion, I suppose. When he quit the campaign, Walker urged others in the crowded primary field to emulate his example, in order to unite behind a non-Trump candidate. Yet 11 candidates went all the way to the Iowa caucus in February, with eight candidates (Ben Carson, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie and Rick Santorum) divvying up about 25% of the vote, which might otherwise have gone to either Ted Cruz (who narrowly won Iowa) or Marco Rubio, who placed third in the caucuses. How different might the outcome of the primary campaign have been, if Cruz had won Iowa more decisively and Rubio had finished second, with Trump third? I don’t know, but nearly three weeks later, when Trump decisively won the Feb. 20 South Carolina, only five other candidates (Rubio, Cruz, Bush, Kasich and Carson) were still running, and defeat in South Carolina ended the campaigns of Bush and Carson.

Could this winnowing of the GOP field have been done much earlier? Yes, but do you think any of the consultants and campaign operatives on the payrolls of Team Bush — which raised $162 million — were going to tell Jeb that his candidacy was a waste of time and money? Or what about the various political “experts” hired by the campaigns of Carson, Kasich, Christie, Fiorina, Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal who between them raised a combined total of more than $200 million? Wasted money, wasted time, and nothing meaningful to show for it. All in all, about $400 million was squandered on the ultimately futile campaigns of Republican candidates who didn’t make it past South Carolina, and did anyone seriously believe John Kasich’s extended candidacy could help stop Trump in the much-talked-about “brokered convention” scenario?

Well, all that is now decisively over, and Bill Kristol is now publicly fantasizing about a third-party candidate — an idea perhaps slightly less realistic than a teenage boy’s wet dreams about Kate Upton.

Simple question: Do we want to beat Hillary, or not?

It is evident from the polls that Donald Trump can beat Hillary, and if some of our conservative pundit friends can get over their hurt feelings over their failures in the GOP primary campaign, maybe Trump will beat Hillary. But if we wake up the morning after Election Day and find that Hillary Clinton has been elected president because some disgruntled Republican “strategist” types didn’t do all they could to help beat Hillary, there is going to be hell to pay. The very thought of losing is hateful to Americans, and a victory for Hillary is a defeat for America.

Let’s win this thing.

Category: Donald Trump, Election, Hillary Clinton, Polls

Comments

94 Responses to “Surrender Without a Fight?”

Tom
May 31st, 2016 @ 10:50 am

My opposition to Trump is not about “hurt feelings,” as if this election were just the senior year of high school. It’s that he is manifestly unfit to be president, has for years espoused positions scarcely different from Hillary’s, and is a danger to the republic in both his ignorance, arrogance, and pathological narcissism.
Peregrine John
May 31st, 2016 @ 11:15 am

I just keep looking at the picture of Patton and thinking, “Y’know, I bet Tom Hanks could do a credible job playing him.”
Mike G.
May 31st, 2016 @ 11:39 am

Trump is a wake-up call to the GOP. They didn’t listen and now we have what we have.

I’m just praying that Trump loves America more than he loves himself. But he will still be a damn sight better than the Hildabeast.
DavidD
May 31st, 2016 @ 11:43 am

“This is encouraging news, I say, if you are a Republican who considers it imperative to defeat the Democrats.”

Meanwhile, Trump is just another Democrat; if I’d wanted to choose between two Democrats I’d’ve voted in the Democrat primary.

The funny thing is that I could live with the Democrats electing Trump; I’m just not sure we can survive Trump winning as a Republican.

We’ve spent 70 years trying to refute the Left’s claims that Hitler was right-wing; now we get to look forward to 70 years of trying to refute their claims that Trump was.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 31st, 2016 @ 12:01 pm

I have to admit, I want to see Trump beat Hillary (I am #NeverHillary). But we are talking two candidates who are various levels of bad. Like really really bad. One is a corrupt criminal, the other a con man. So when I opt out on voting for Trump, it is more than just feeling bad my candidate did not prevail.

I do not want to contribute to either’s mandate.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 31st, 2016 @ 12:02 pm

Tom Hanks is a good actor, but I do not see him as Patton (hard to see anyone since George C. Scott nailed it so well back in the day).
Peregrine John
May 31st, 2016 @ 12:20 pm

There are difficult acts to follow, and that’s a good example. That said, the image at the top there could be Mr. Hanks’ brother (does he have one? not a clue) in a Patton costume.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 31st, 2016 @ 12:38 pm

I think Trump is better than Hillary, but that is marginally better (and that assumes Trump does not betray his supporters if he does win). Good luck with that. I am opting out.
Tom
May 31st, 2016 @ 12:39 pm

Trump loves no one and nothing else more than he loves himself. As I said, he is a pathological narcissist in the strictly clinical sense. We’re doomed.
Dana
May 31st, 2016 @ 12:42 pm

Back on the playground at Mt Sterling Elementary School, in the early sixties, the no-win question was posed: if you were standing up to your neck in [insert slang term for feces here] and someone threw a bucket of [insert slang term for urine here], would you duck?

That is how I view the choice between Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton. Here in the Keystone State, my vote won’t matter anyway, and I will be voting third party.
Dianna Deeley
May 31st, 2016 @ 1:01 pm

Very briefly – Trump has no principles, cannot tell the truth, and is selling snake oil. I am not some “offended intellectual”, I’m simply not going to vote for either another Clinton, nor her supporter.
Quartermaster
May 31st, 2016 @ 1:38 pm

IIRC, Ronald Reagan said he turned down the Patton role and later said that he couldn’t see anyone other than George C. Scott in that role.
I read part of the story of one of the Patton grandkids. Patton’s son had orders to Germany after Vietnam and took the family into New York to see the Patton move. GSP III said that his father worried about his slightly squeaky voice. having seen a few clips of GSP Jr. speaking, Scott’s voice was far too low and gravely.
Quartermaster
May 31st, 2016 @ 1:39 pm

I agree, and I deeply hope we are dead wrong about the man.
CrustyB
May 31st, 2016 @ 2:06 pm

It’s no longer Trump vs. Cruz. Leading up to Trump’s Republican nomination, the battle against Trump was a good one. Now, you’re saying you prefer Hillary. I wish Patterico would realize this and shut the hell up.
thesickmanofeurope_com
May 31st, 2016 @ 2:08 pm

” …he is manifestly unfit to be president”

Who in YOUR opinion was the last POTUS that was “fit” for the role?
IF you are a Republican at all…You MUST support Trump.
If you HATE Cultural Marxists/SJW/Feminists/Multiculturalists/
Cuckservatives…etc…You MUST support Trump.
it is irrelevant if he is a “true” Republican or not….he is SEEN as a Republican and this is what is important.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 31st, 2016 @ 2:09 pm

To put it in a WWII context (without going Godwin), who was worse Hitler or Stalin? On body counts, they are about equal (Stalin may have been higher). If you are Jewish, Hitler is worse–but Stalin was hardly great either.
JadedByPolitics
May 31st, 2016 @ 2:47 pm

Proud Trumpeteer, good show he gave and my candidate lost. It is with much joy actually cause that guy is the biggest baseball bat upside the head of the GOP that I asked for. Now I will GOTV for him as I did Romney (hate that guy) as I did McCain (thank you Ms Palin for making that more enjoyable). I will donate to his campaign as I did 5X for Cruz during the primary and I will put his sticker on my car (sorry Senator Cruz, its going where yours was).
Steve Skubinna
May 31st, 2016 @ 3:09 pm

I’d sooner see Sanders President than either Trump or Hillary.

Yes, really. That’s because Congress will block Sanders and prevent him doing as much damage as he wants to do. Hillary will get a blank check, even from many Republicans, because it would be sexist and misogynist to oppose her.

That being said, I am voting for Trump over HIllary. I know what Hillary wants to do and it will be disastrous. There’s a chance that Trump may not be as bad. In fact, as abrasive and egotistical as he is, he might goad the House and Senate into reflexively blocking everything he proposes.

While progressives look on separation of powers and partisan gridlock as a fatal flaw in our nation, I see it as our saving grace.

So that’s two hopes regarding Trump: one, that he may be better than Hillary (actually, he almost certainly would be), and two, that he may contribute to gridlock.
Eric Ashley
May 31st, 2016 @ 3:39 pm

NeverTrumpers are RINOs who hate that someone else might run ‘their’ party; upper class geeks who hate that the working class gets a vote; willfully blind people who can’t see a difference between Hillary and Trump; agent provacateurs for Hillary; McCainiacs; members of the useless consultant class that RSM has whaled on a number of times; Libertarians who tend to be the lapdogs of the Establishment; cranks who never met a popular idea they could not scorn; the supremely sensitive; those single issue voters who don’t find him sufficiently respectful of Israel (and I say this as a philo-semite) or of women (and I say that as a man who wants to take away women’s right to vote.)

I have hears many ernest proclamations of deeply principled revulsion. I’m skeptical. I don’t know your heart, but some of you are acting real strange.

But, in the end, it doesn’t matter. See, unlike the McCainiacs, I’m not going to call you all sorts of nasty names other than descriptive names. I’d like to see the breach healed, because I’m that sort of guy. I’ve tried to heal the breach with sweet reason, but many don’t want sweet reason. They want to SCREAM. Fine….scream all you want. Get up every morning, and tell us how awful Trump is.

But, it doesn’t matter. Trump is almost certain to win.
Eric Ashley
May 31st, 2016 @ 3:41 pm

And if you want, strengthen me with your hate. There is no real need to discuss this anymore, IMO. Those who are reachable by reason or rhetoric have been. The rest of ya’ll, enjoy your hate.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
May 31st, 2016 @ 3:53 pm

That is unfortunately not true. Sanders would be mostly blocked by congress, but he would cause considerable damage. The only plus I see is to show the youth just how much fun a socialist in power really is (A: Not fun at all).
Dana
May 31st, 2016 @ 4:17 pm

Mr Ashley wrote:

See, unlike the McCainiacs, I’m not going to call you all sorts of nasty names other than descriptive names.

Dude, seriously?

NeverTrumpers are RINOs who hate that someone else might run ‘their’ party; upper class geeks who hate that the working class gets a vote; willfully blind people who can’t see a difference between Hillary and Trump; agent provacateurs for Hillary; McCainiacs; members of the useless consultant class that RSM has whaled on a number of times; Libertarians who tend to be the lapdogs of the Establishment; cranks who never met a popular idea they could not scorn; the supremely sensitive; those single issue voters who don’t find him sufficiently respectful of Israel (and I say this as a philo-semite) or of women (and I say that as a man who wants to take away women’s right to vote.)

Well, thank goodness you aren’t going to be calling anyone names.
Dianna Deeley
May 31st, 2016 @ 4:19 pm

Not at all true.

I simply refuse to be even marginally responsible for the further and deeper corruption of the republic.
CPAguy
May 31st, 2016 @ 4:39 pm

Sorry…NeverTrump.

My head agrees with the article, but my gut, just can’t take it.
Quartermaster
May 31st, 2016 @ 4:40 pm

Really? If there is no need then why keep coming back? I’m guessing you draw strength from acting like the jackass you are.

Trump is not even a RINO, and you complain about those of us with principles other than just winning.
Robert What?
May 31st, 2016 @ 4:43 pm

To repurpose an old Broadway line”No one likes him except the voters”.
SouthOhioGipper
May 31st, 2016 @ 4:59 pm

What if I hate white nationalists who use that foul term cuckservative just as much as Marxist sjw feminists?
jolly green
May 31st, 2016 @ 5:26 pm

I hate Neo-Nazis, the KKK, other assorted alt-right Jew haters, and Red Pill lowlifes even more, and they’re all supporting Trump.
DavidD
May 31st, 2016 @ 5:30 pm

“[H]e is SEEN as a Republican….”

Exactly.

I won’t have Progressives trying to blame me for electing him.
Mike
May 31st, 2016 @ 5:33 pm

“Donald Trump is far from ideal in many ways”
No. Renting a beach house at Hiroshima on August 5th 1945 is far from ideal. I admire your sense of understatement.
Steve Skubinna
May 31st, 2016 @ 5:41 pm

Oh, I dunno… I can see Sanders being carried out of the Oval Office by the Rubber Room Squad.

“Take your hands off me! Report to the Reeducation Directorate at once, do you hear!”

Thing is, I can also see Trump in the same situation. Except that he’d be yelling “You’re fired!”
Phil_McG
May 31st, 2016 @ 5:59 pm

Looks like these neoconservative geniuses are fighting Trump harder than they ever did Obama. Interesting.

Trump may be the last chance of plausibly electing a Republican president. If Hillary wins, she’ll keep the borders wide open to finish the job of demographically transforming America into a colder version of Venezuela.

Not to mention stacking the Supreme Court so that whatever remains of the US Constitution is shredded.
robertstacymccain
May 31st, 2016 @ 6:00 pm

Well, Dianna, this is perhaps the first time you and I have ever disagreed about anything substantial, and I regret if my argument offended you. As you may have noticed, I decided to avoid taking sides in this year’s primary campaign, in large measure because I had come to believe nothing but hurt feelings were likely to be produced by taking sides. “Let the candidates fight it out,” I figured, “and then when the dust settles, we’ll focus on destroying Hillary.” That some of my friends do not share this attitude is surprising to me, but I dare hope that victory will be the balm that soothes all wounds.
robertstacymccain
May 31st, 2016 @ 6:03 pm

We are at a desperate pass indeed. It took a whole lot of blundering by a whole lot of Republicans to get us to this point, and even if Trump wins in November, I doubt it will be easy to restore anything like a semblance of constitutional order.
M. Thompson
May 31st, 2016 @ 7:46 pm

What Instapundit said at USA Today is persuasive. (here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/05/31/donald-trump-politically-correct-speech-codes-column/85163810/)

The problem that I have with Mr. Trump is largely what he’ll do to down ballot races. When the other side has a full time organization devoted to destroying any conservative or Republican candidate, Mr. Trump’s rhetoric may be used against conservatives running for state and local offices.
Finrod Felagund
May 31st, 2016 @ 8:06 pm

I refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton or her donor.

#NeverTrump
#NeverHillary
JeffWeimer
May 31st, 2016 @ 8:46 pm

Hitler was a distant second. Stalin killed about 20 Million *before* WWII started.
Dianna Deeley
May 31st, 2016 @ 9:03 pm

I understand your view, really, I do. My problem with Trump may have more to do with my inherent pessimism than anything else, but I cannot vote for a man who cannot hold a single consistent position – chopping and changing sometimes within the same paragraph! – and who most certainly has not displayed the slightest grasp of the governing prinicples of this nation.

Is Hillary worse?

She’s corrupt to the core, incompetent, and inept on top of it all. What principles does she adhere to, besides whatever benefits her and her family? None.

What truly apalls me is that we have come to this.

It would comfort me if I could convince myself that just defeating the Democrats would be enough.
Finrod Felagund
May 31st, 2016 @ 9:07 pm

Sorry, Stacy, but I cannot support an amoral lying con-man like Donald Trump. I’ll take my stand with Alexander Hamilton: “If we must have an enemy at the head of the Government, let it be one whom we can oppose & for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures.”
Finrod Felagund
May 31st, 2016 @ 9:14 pm

Amen to that. As soon as I see someone use that vile term ‘c*ckservative’ I know that they are a complete idiot and I don’t have to take seriously a damned thing that they say.
Finrod Felagund
May 31st, 2016 @ 9:17 pm

Trump is not a Republican. I refuse to “vote for laundry”, just because they’re wearing today the shirt with an R on it.
robertstacymccain
May 31st, 2016 @ 9:37 pm

We cannot predict what will happen over the next five months, or how voters will react It is unwise to fret over speculative problems, based on the yammering of pundits who have been so wrong so often before.
M. Thompson
May 31st, 2016 @ 9:47 pm

We got a billionaire funding attack ads that prevent even the most moderated voice Republicans from finding statewide office AND a dysfunctional state GOP. I’m just trying to call it as I see it.
Finrod Felagund
May 31st, 2016 @ 10:31 pm

Indeed. Months ago, McConnell gave permission to any GOP Senator running for re-election to run ads against Donald Trump– and usually only GOP Senators in deep blue states are given permission to do that. Not only is Trump going to lose the White House, he’s going to lose the Senate for us and maybe even put the House in jeopardy.
Finrod Felagund
May 31st, 2016 @ 10:34 pm

I agree with you one hundred thousand million percent, there.
Finrod Felagund
May 31st, 2016 @ 10:47 pm

Keeping a book of Hitler’s speeches beside your bed is enough on its own to disqualify you for high office:

http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trumps-ex-wife-once-said-he-kept-a-book-of-hitlers-speeches-by-his-bed-2015-8
SouthOhioGipper
May 31st, 2016 @ 11:08 pm

Unfortunately, such people have votes to be harvested and counted along with all the rest of the undesirables.
trangbang68
May 31st, 2016 @ 11:35 pm

Exactly
trangbang68
May 31st, 2016 @ 11:41 pm

Dude, now you’re using the lame, facile arguments of the left. We only oppose Trump because we’re “haters”. Haters gonna hate and all that. Pretty lame
Finrod Felagund
May 31st, 2016 @ 11:51 pm

William F. Buckley evicted the Birchers from the GOP sixty years ago. It’s high time we do the same to this crowd.