Found today, this bag of waterlogged bag of Conservative fortune cookies, floating in the wreckage of the Party of Personal Responsibility:
Do Trumpites have an answer to the charge that they have sold their conservative birthright for a mess of white-identity politics?...Donald Trump is vile. Can we admit now that Trumpism is also bad? Even its defenders implicitly acknowledged this when they rhapsodized about depressed rust-belt towns, withering cultural foundations, and fancy Manhattanites who use the term “redneck” without shame. Notice that these apologias, even if they inspire sympathy, are not justifications. They are excuses. Excuses are what we give for people we know are doing wrong....Trumpism is irresponsible and destructive. In their wrath, Trumpites blithely treated millions of ordinary working, family-rearing, flyover-dwelling Americans (who regard Trump as offensive and disturbing) as mere collateral damage in their private war with snooty Washington elites...For me, one of the more disturbing experiences of recent months was watching as Trump-sympathetic friends and associates slowly shifted away from rational argument to a different strategy: ousting “elitists” from the conversation. It’s not so important to be right anymore, so long as you’re not “out of touch.” No need to hash out policies, principles, or other such high-falutin’ frivolities. Your degrees are too fancy. I beat you on Charles Murray’s bubble quiz. You’re not as American as me...It’s stupefying. Before our very eyes, we have watched our associates morph from members of a movement into members of a tribe...
These and many, many other plaintive whines about "Whither Conservatism?" were found today in a front page article in the National Review -- America's snootiest and most elitist, Manhattan-based white supremacist journal of record.
The story was written by Rachel Lu, who is identified as a "Robert Novak Journalism Fellow".
The prosecution rests.
7 comments:
Another oxymoron or oxy moron or just moron.
I guess this is all about Rachel Lu in Rachel Lu's cloistered cozy world:
In their wrath, Trumpites blithely treated millions of ordinary working, family-rearing, flyover-dwelling Americans (who regard Trump as offensive and disturbing) as mere collateral damage in their private war with snooty Washington elites...
I find it highly unlikely that Rachel Lu gives a tinker's damn about anyone if fly-over country, but she's clearly "upset" over what might happen to her precious Acela Corridor elite entitlement. I seem to recall seeing dozens upon dozens of Trump rallies in all sorts of places in fly over country with citizens lined up and cheering for their new Lord of the Mammon, plus aren't they ones who voted for him?? Does Rachel Lu need a civics lesson on how the Primary process works? That it's not up to her associates to nominate Trump or something??
It’s stupefying. Before our very eyes, we have watched our associates morph from members of a movement into members of a tribe...
Ah yes. When one can refer to endlessly tossing red meat to the base and employing every dog whistle possible - yet stop just a tee-tee short of calling the current President a N****r - it's a movement but not, heaven forfend!!, something a louche as a - gasp! shriek! shudder! - TRIBE!!11!!
Maybe it's still a movement, darling Rachel... something like a bowel movement. Call it a Trump Dump!
Homo Sapiens evolved to live in tribes. The lack of tribal support is at the root of many of our societal problems today. It seems that none of our committees have been able to come up with anything that works as well as the product of millions of years of evolution. So I find it unsurprising that "tribe" has been elevated to the lowest of slams by clueless right wingers still bent upon making good and sure the systems we do have never actually work.
-Doug in Oakland
Your right!,
It is not just a river in Egypt.
It is a clogged sewage pipe that is backing up into a White House near you.
So, I just got done reading that article and..wow.
Even conservatism in the author's ideal world sounds pretty awful and useless. It's all morality and scolding. No thank you.
In WaPo's Outlook section today, a new book: The Fractured Republic by Yuval Levin is reviewed. It goes through the usual recent (post-war) history of the U.S. from when the US was strong and cohesive to where it is now fragmented and at war internally. His solution to practice more subsidiarity (the principle in which the level of government closest to the people is the best, i.e. the federal government should do less not more and that the community, churches and other non-governmental institutions should solve societal problems. All good in the abstract but this is the real world. We fought a Civil War more than 150 years ago because local "solutions" led to institutional violence, slavery and tyranny. And that war is still not resolved. Virtually the entire history of the Federal Government is one of incremental corrections to market and local institutional failures that caused terrible harm and social or economic dislocation for millions of people. Yes, the GOP wants to return to the "good old days" because they were good if you were a while male with property. Everyone else not so much. Of course, Yuval Levin is considered the thinking person's conservative, which is a pretty low bar, admittedly but thinking that all of the social institutions that have been perverted for hatred and oppression are not somehow going to continually be perverted in the interests of the oppressors if we remove the Federal Govt. is naive putting it mildly.
In WaPo's Outlook section today, a new book: The Fractured Republic by Yuval Levin is reviewed. It goes through the usual recent (post-war) history of the U.S. from when the US was strong and cohesive to where it is now fragmented and at war internally. His solution to practice more subsidiarity (the principle in which the level of government closest to the people is the best, i.e. the federal government should do less not more and that the community, churches and other non-governmental institutions should solve societal problems. All good in the abstract but this is the real world. We fought a Civil War more than 150 years ago because local "solutions" led to institutional violence, slavery and tyranny. And that war is still not resolved. Virtually the entire history of the Federal Government is one of incremental corrections to market and local institutional failures that caused terrible harm and social or economic dislocation for millions of people. Yes, the GOP wants to return to the "good old days" because they were good if you were a while male with property. Everyone else not so much. Of course, Yuval Levin is considered the thinking person's conservative, which is a pretty low bar, admittedly but thinking that all of the social institutions that have been perverted for hatred and oppression are not somehow going to continually be perverted in the interests of the oppressors if we remove the Federal Govt. is naive putting it mildly.
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