Very well put, Liz!
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Oh Doug 1943 - of your reply to Jeanne - that is so painfully the case!
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I will follow the links, read them all and come back to comment.
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In a day or two or three, I’m going to start a thread inviting everyone to submit the best, high-quality sites they know of.
I’ve started to collect conservative URLs – nearly 2500 so far! Many of them are just sites to get advertising, and their ‘news’ is rubbish click-bait sensationalism. Others are okay, but nothing you don’t know. But there are some really high-quality ones, which have essays which tell you things you didn’t know, and make you think.
And then there are forums, like this one, which is high-quality. But there are others which are not – where lefties and righties just exchange scatalogical insults.
I have a feeling of extreme frustration … the country is in a death-spiral (pulling the West along with it) … and there are many very dedicated people who see that, who want to something about it … and who clearly have above-average intellects. But … there doesn’t seem to be a focus into which we can direct our energies, to do something to fight the Left.
I’m very happy to have found this site, which I only found by accident.
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Yes, we’re in a death spiral - spiraling down the drain, thanks to the Left, which has pulled the plug by undermining us for decades.
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I’ve just been reading Ben Wattenberg’s Fighting Words – highly recommended
[ https://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Words-Liberals-Created-Neo-Conservatism/dp/0312382995 ] – which is a good look at the origins of the neo-cons (he is one) in American liberalism. They moved Right – relatively speaking – when, in the late 60s’-70s fellow liberals around them began to change from ‘America must live up to its ideals’ to ‘America is inherently evil’. There are a lot of quotes from that period which would not be out of place today.
But we came back. For one thing, as Wattenberg notes, whenever the Democrats nominated someone soft for President – Stevenson, McGovern, the second Carter – they lost, and when they nominated someone tough (or who could appear tough), they won. But at that time, the hard Left was just a fringe … the oldest were just graduate students.
Now they’ve been running the academy for decades, training the teachers and journalists and lawyers … and now they control a large part of the ‘cultural apparatus’ of the country. They’ve made the famous ‘long march through the institutions’. The police and the military – the core of state power – are the last targets, and they’re well on their way into taking over these institutions as well.
So we won’t come back, even if we win a national election or two in the future.
However, all is not lost. There is a way out, although at the moment it appears to be almost literally unthinkable. But we must start to think the unthinkable.
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I’m not sorry I read these articles, but I don’t think any of them are essential or enlightening.
Don’t let my reaction deter you from recommending articles whenever you want to, Doug1943.
My comments:
Why Trump Succeeded Where Others Failed. I totally disagree. Trump is not a child. He is a political genius. His skill in understanding and conducting foreign affairs alone is extraordinary – perhaps the strongest of any US president. A list of all his skills, and all that he got right, would be very long.
The Flight 93 Election, written before Trump won in November 2016, is a stew of over-chewed ruminations on what conservatism is, isn’t, and ought to be. At least the writer does, even if with reluctance, get round ponderously to supporting Trump’s bid for the presidency. And Trump himself is the answer to all his unresolved perplexities. In the real world Trump gets elected, makes America energy independent … kills Solomeini … brokers the Abraham Accords … compels Europe to pay for its defense … and more, so very much more. He made America happy again. He made those of us who can, laugh.
Present at the Creation, is, yes, interesting. A good read. Podhoretz is surely right about what America … was.
Are Fair Elections Possible? The man trusts the polls! So, no. Better to read the books he is reviewing: Mollie Hemingway’s Rigged and John Fund and Hans von Spakovsky’s Our Broken Elections: How the Left Changed the Way You Vote. For bringing these two books to our attention, this link was the most valuable.
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I agree with all you say here about our predicament.
What is “the way out”? Will I find it in Fighting Words? I’ll go there and see.
A little later: A long book about “neo-cons”. Daunting,
Tell us what is best about it? Give us a few of those quotes?
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“I was played big time…”
Thanks Jeanne, but I was addressing that question to Doug1943. Sometimes this Forum software does not correctly register the direction (the to whom) of address.
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Hmmm… perhaps my own interest in Wattenberg’s book is not likely to be shared here. I don’t really know people’s background on this forum yet.
I haven’t finsihed yet but I’m enjoying it – because (1) I lived through the 60s and it’s interesting (for me) to read about things like Tom Haydon’s submission of the Port Huron Statement to Commentary magazine … I don’t think of Commentary as having orginated as a New Leftist journal… and (2) I was a neo-con for a while, having, like them, come from the (far, hard) Left to the Right, and, like them, not having become a minarchist, but rather someone who supports a ‘conservative welfare state’.
Wattenberg is also a good writer, with a nice sense of humor.
I was even seduced – the Devil made me do it! – into supporting the invasion of Iraq, after initial misgivings (before the invasion I was quoting Robespierre, of all people, to the effect that ‘people do not love missionaries with bayonets’). I was simply ignorant of Iraqi reality – a quality I suspect I shared with our glorious leaders.
So it may not be for everyone!
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The American Thinker article in Cogito’s post was inspired by Tom Klingenstein’s speech, Trump’s Virtues. I thought the speech was so good (and about twice as long as his earlier March 2022 article of the same title in The American Mind) that I transcribed it in full, all 1700 words…
Many leading republicans and conservatives want someone other than Donald Trump to run for president in 2024. They say we need someone with Trump’s virtues but without his vices. Fair enough. But this formulation does not get us very far unless we have a proper accounting of his virtues.
Other Republicans say some version of “I like Trump’s policies but I don’t like the rest of him.” This gets it almost backwards. Although Trump advanced many important policies, it is the rest of him that contains the virtues that inspire the movement. Trump was born for the current crisis, the life and death struggle against a totalitarian enemy I call Woke Communism.
The WokeComms clenched the Democratic Party by the scruff of its neck. They tell us lies, and they silence those who challenge the lie. Like most totalitarian regimes, they have a scapegoat – white males. They have a narrative – America is systemically racist. And they have a utopian vision of society where all identity groups are equal in all areas of American life. The WokeComms control all the cultural and economic power in America, from where they ruthlessly push their agenda. That agenda rests on the conviction that America is bad. As Trump once said, their goal is not to make America better. Their goal is to end America.
Make no mistake – we are in the midst of a cold civil war. Trump awakened the public to this fact. You cannot win a war unless you know you are in one. Trump’s critics say he caused or exacerbated the divide in this country. No, he didn’t. He revealed, not caused, an existing divide. In war, you must make a stand. For that, we need strong men. Weak men do anything to avoid admitting the hardest truth, because they lack the resolve to do what truth demands of them. Trump is a manly man. In present times, when manhood is being stripped of its masculinity, traditional manhood, even when flawed, is absolutely essential.
Trump ripped apart people he thought were weak. Sometimes he went overboard. But his supporters excused his excesses because strength is in such short supply. Trump plays to win. When you’re in the right, you have a moral duty not just to fight, but to win. And sometimes that means doing distasteful things. There are no clean hands in a fist fight. If there is one thing people know about Donald Trump, it’s that he, unlike the WokeComms, loves America, and wants to preserve the American way of life. Trump is unreservedly, unquestionably pro-America. He makes no apologies for America’s past. Trump is a refreshing break from the guilt and self-loathing that marks our age.
The America Trump wants to recover is the America of his youth. Not out of nostalgia, but because this was an America guided by relentless optimism and supported by grit and determination; an America that had done great things in the past and was eager to do more; an America that was properly confident. Trump is still confident in America. In this time of national doubt, this too is just what the doctor ordered.
Trump thinks we can vanquish all comers if we just put our mind to it. And he’s right. Trump has the courage to defend his own people – a large and impressive political fact. And courage never demands perfection. Trump stood up for America every time he violated the strictures of political correctness. He said, over and over, exactly what political correctness prohibits one from saying. We have a culture, it’s exceptional, and that’s the way we want to keep it.
Trump has made it clear that we have no duty to allow anyone to come into this country, and no one has a right to come here. This is our country. And when we do allow foreigners the privilege to come here, they must, as Trump once said, support our values and love our people.
Trump said, “Haiti is a shithole”, and that representative Maxine Waters has a low IQ. These were not racist lies. These were uncouth, politically incorrect observations that most of us would agree with but would not dare say. Conservatives, no less than liberals, are reluctant to criticize Black Americans for fear of being called a racist. Trump, on the other hand, is an equal opportunity criticizer. We used to call that ‘colorblindness’.
From morning to night, we were told that Trump is a racist. But endless repetition does not make it true. It isn’t. Trump’s contempt for political correctness showed patriotic Americans that its ever-tightening grip could be loosened. As Trump and his supporters know, political correctness cripples our ability to think clearly and act decisively.
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of Trump’s fight against political correctness – a fight which most republicans are reluctant to engage. Only if Americans and their leaders stand up to political correctness and show it the contempt it deserves is there any chance of preserving the American way of life.
Trump treated the woke media with the same contempt he treated political correctness, provoking their outrage, and revealing their utter corruption. It seemed only Trump understands that the media can neither be negotiated with nor reformed. It must be defeated.
Unlike most politicians, when Trump sees a problem, he goes out and fixes it. He fixed our porous border. He moved our Israeli embassy to Jerusalem after decades of inaction. He eliminated ‘hate America’ Critical Race Theory in his administrative agencies. He developed a vaccine in record time. He achieved energy independence and much, much more.
Trump is guided by facts and common sense. He has no use for theory because he knows that slavish devotion to theory leads to nonsense. For instance, that children should be able to change their sex; that it is wise to defund the police; that biological boys should be able to compete with girls in athletics. I am certain that Trump finds it impossible to believe that a woman can be a he.
With Trump, what you see is what you get. Authenticity is something you have, or you don’t. But it takes courage and independence to live authentically. In politics, most find it almost impossible not to be phony. Not Trump.
Trump taught us crucial things. For starters, that China is a mortal enemy. Before Trump, the public did not realize this. Now, the public does. Likewise, ‘free trade’, accepted as a dogma by republicans and democrats, is now highly contested. These changes in public sentiment are big accomplishments made possible by qualities other than policies.
Trump smoked rats out of hiding places. Because of Trump, we know our intelligence agencies are corrupt. We know also that the mainstream media is not just biased, but it is the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.
A large part of Trump’s appeal was that he was a bona fide outsider. He distrusted the experts who believe they know better than the average American how to run the country. This distrust was appealing to Trump’s base who believe, and with good reason, that it is the ‘experts’ who have created the despotic mess in which we find ourselves.
Although his own administration sometimes made it difficult for him to get done everything he promised, his supporters knew he was on their side and was trying his damnedest not to let them down. Against the advice of most in his party, Trump has not let go of the claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. His base backs him, and well they should. They know that republicans will lose all future elections until they get to the bottom of the last one.
Trump connected to his audience as Reagan did because each spoke as a citizen to fellow citizens without a trace of condescension. It wasn’t an act, and Americans knew it. Trump may not have worked on a construction site, but he knew his way around one. One can imagine him trading bawdy jokes with his construction workers. Other presidents have represented the middle class, but none with Trump’s common touch.
Trump understands, as does the outsourced American worker, that a cheap smart phone is no replacement for a job and a life that it supports. Trump also understands that what Americans of all races and creeds desire are stable communities, and the opportunity to raise their families in a culture that values hard work, self-reliance, patriotism and freedom.
Some will say Trump is a bad man, and that disqualifies him. I do not think Trump is a bad man. But for those who do, I remind them that a bad man in some circumstances can be a good president. If you are dying of thirst and there is only one person offering you water, you accept the water gratefully, without much concern for the character of your rescuer.
This enumeration of Trump’s virtues does not fully capture his uncommon courage and firmness of purpose. Trump is the most towering political figure in living memory. He has, like it or not, defined the politics of our age. In 2016 and 2020, he was the political leader most fit to lead in our warlike circumstances.
Trump inspired a movement. If properly deployed, this movement might challenge the WokeComms and, God willing, save the country. Republicans however should not forget that it is his supporters and the spirit they embrace that have become the life force of the Republican Party. Among the talked-about alternatives to Trump, I have not yet seen anyone who possesses or even fully understands Trumps virtues. Nor have I seen anyone with his backbone and fortitude. One does not appreciate the strength of relentless gale-force winds until one is in the eye of the storm. I am not suggesting that it is time for everyone to make way for Trump. Rather, that it is much too early to throw him overboard. If republicans do choose another leader to lead the Trump movement they must do so in full confidence that he will embody Trump’s virtues. If not Trump himself, his virtues must be the standard by which we judge other candidates.
Thank you.
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Thanks! Great speech.
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DeSantis, absolutely! In fact, I think that his being on the ticker would ease the minds of those, who would like to see him run for President in 2024. He wants to get Florida fully settled…his work is there, now. But 2024 is a bit away from now.
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I could not tell you that I knew much about Brett Stephens, only that the name was familiar. He does indeed need to evolve a bit more.
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And yet, with hind-sight, I would take Trump over each of those men in a heartbeat. Horrible men every single one of them. They are the men that I was persuaded that Trump was. But he isn’t.
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Sorry about that. One can think of improvements to the system but implementing them is beyond my ability.
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A conservative welfare state?
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That’s exactly the way I see it: Trump - DeSantis 2024
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Thank you, Zerothruster. It is a very good speech. Needed, welcome, and timely.
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I admit I don’t understand Trump. I thought Twilight Patriot’s take was interesting. But it doesn’t matter a lot – you go to war with the army you’ve got.
What we need is a leader who has a deep understanding of what is going on – not just an emotional reaction to it (which we all have). To really understand what’s happening would be difficult for someone with twice Trump’s IQ, because we’re looking at several intersecting lines of development at the same time – not just the Left’s gutting of America, but the rise of China, the approaching end of cheap energy, possibly climate change (not sure about the latter).
So much to read! I’ll try to have a look at the books by Hemingway and Fund/Spakovsky. Like Podhoretz, I’m willing to believe that 2020 was rigged, or at least won by means not used in previous elections – the best evidence for this, that I have seen so far, is an article in Chronicles magazine a few months ago: Biden’s Inexplicable Victory - Chronicles
Here’s a thought: whatever Trump’s failings – even if he were ‘perfect’ – he faced, and any Republican president will face again – a serious problem: there is no national conservative organization which has a worked-out worldview, strategy, set of tactics, and cadres educated in these who could supply personnel for a pro-American administration. So Trump picked people from all over the political map – John Bolton! … and people who were business-as-usual Republicans, the Chamber-of-Commerce party Republicans.
It’s not that we haven’t got the talent! It’s just that it’s dispersed in dozens of publications, think tanks, single-issue organizations.
A newly-elected Republican president needs to be able to fire, or sideline, thousands and thousands of government bureaucrats – including in the military and national security agencies – and replace them, swiftly, with hardcore loyalists … not people who are personally loyal to him, but people who are loyal to America and who understand what has happened to her.
What needs to be done throughout government is well described here, with specific reference to the military:
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