Sunday, May 8, 2016

It's Time to Face the Music


I can hardly bring myself to blog about Donald Trump, as you may have noticed.  I agree with practically everything Kevin Williamson wrote about him last week:

He is unfit for any office, morally and intellectually.  
A man who could suggest, simply because it is convenient, that his opponent’s father had something to do with the assassination of President Kennedy is unfit for any position of public responsibility.  
His long litany of lies — which include fabrications about everything from his wealth to self-funding his campaign — is disqualifying.  
His low character is disqualifying.  
His personal history is disqualifying.  
His complete, utter, total, and lifelong lack of honor is disqualifying.  
The fact that he is going to have to take time out of the convention to appear in court to hear a pretty convincing fraud case against him is disqualifying.

There's more.

Truth is, there are quite a lot of things about Hillary Clinton that should disqualify her as well, but they don't.

I loathe Trump.  He's boorish and crude.  He's as far from the Ronald Reagan archetype as any candidate can be.

That being said, he is going to be the Republican nominee and any attempt to derail that through a third-party run or a brokered convention will be doomed to failure and will only ensure to elect Hillary, in my opinion.

Despite George Will's conviction that Trump can't possibly win, and Josh Gelernter's third-party scenarios, I think that at this point, Republicans must unify behind Trump. Certainly nobody wants to, but reality bites.

All the talk about Mitt Romney coming in to save the day is simply garbage. He ran and didn't win, he didn't want to run this time, and he's not going to save you now. And he's the only one with a ghost of a shot.

If America wanted a successful businessman to save the day, we should have elected Romney when we had the chance, but we didn't, and we aren't going to do it now.

I had dinner with friends recently who tried to make the case that as offensive and boorish as Trump is, as president Trump will likely surround himself with people smart enough to do the job that Trump himself can't do.  Trump may be ignorant of the responsibilities of presidential office, but maybe they're right.  Maybe he'll appoint the right people.  It's the only hope we've got.

We are in for a long, miserable campaign and God only knows what after that.  I long for the days when we had class and grace in the White House but those are so far behind us now I don't think we can redeem ourselves.

Perhaps I will unplug from the internet for a few more months...

5 comments:

Mike Thiac said...

Pat

I’ve been a Cruz supporter since the beginning and it was a kick in the gut last Tuesday to hear he was calling it a night. I can’t blame he, he did everything possible and he came up short.

Now I’ve been in discussions, some heated, with friends of mine who are Trump supporters. Not that he’s the last man standing and we need to rally to the flag, but the preferred him to all the others. And I’m talking about retired officers I would jump on a grenade for, who’s judgement I’ve never questioned, some with graduate degrees. And they have swallowed the Trump Kool-Aid.

One said, “Mike, soon enough you will be signing his praises…” I answered, “I hope our right, I have my doubts.” His negatives are worse the Clinton’s, and her’s are legendary.

When one of them tried to convince me of the need to vote for Trump, I responded:

Please, don’t waste your breath, I will never vote “for” Trump. No, I will not abstain, yes, I will vote “against” Mrs Bill Clinton. I could not look my children in the face if I didn’t do what I could to stop her. I never though the choice could be worse than 2008. I was wrong. I’ll probably ask for a main in ballot. The though of standing in line for him makes me ill and I can throw up in private. But more likely I will walk in, pull the lever next to his name, throw up, drove home, get drunk until I throw up, get drunk again, throw up again, continue the process until I pass out or am out of alcohol.

I’m reminded of the bumper sticker from the 1991 LA governor’s election, “Vote for the crook, it’s important!” I may make one up, “Vote for the fraud, it’s important!”

God help us all.

Jayhawk said...

@MikeAT, "Vote for the fraud" doesn't do it, since they are both frauds on a massive scale. Hold a fraud contest and they would tie. No, you need to come up with a different perjorative.

GruntOfMonteCristo said...

I'm sorry, but I have to vigorously disagree. After many years of following the NR, I'm quite sure that it is they who are guilty of disqualifying dishonor. Williamson, Kristol, Cooke, French and the rest have all disgraced themselves and the conservative movement, not to mention the memory of WFB, Jr. They have left sanity behind, and I urge you to seek your view of reality from other sources and leave your melancholy behind. Things are NEVER as they seem, and now, it seems, reality is better hidden than I have ever seen. Take heart.

Anonymous said...

Hillary Clinton will have no problem beating Donald Trump and it really scares me that Hillary will be appointing justices to the federal courts (especially the Supreme Court). Does Trump mean irreparable damage to the future of the Republican Party or will someone like Ted Cruz or Paul Ryan be able to revive the party in 2020?

david7134 said...

At first, I could not believe that Trump was running for president. But then I thought about the situation and he is the only individual that has a chance against the corrupt Democratic machine. That is because he will pull from many camps. He is vile and disgusting, but we have gone do far over the edge that we need that. We need a Machiavellian. Romney is showing more energy against Trump than he ever did against the worst president in our history. He should shut up and help. A third party individual only gives the office to the Dems, unless it is Sanders. So, tell Trump to do his worse to Hillary and let there be blood in the streets (figuratively). As to Trump's ability to govern, it is not any better or worse than what we have had in the past.