Kevin Drum doubts whether #NeverTrump supporters will stick with their pledge. Fair enough, I guess, but in my view, those organizing against Trump deserve appreciation, not ridicule, even if they eventually wind up retreating if Trump is nominated. At least, for those who believe Trump is unusually unsuited for the Oval Office. The truth is that the logic of a two-party, first-past-the-post system makes for impossible choices when one’s party nominates a terrible candidate. The time to act, then, is before the nomination is settled, and the #NeverTrump gang, whatever they do down the road, at least isn’t guilty of just letting it happen.
I get the point here, but I have to differ. I really do think the NeverTrumpers deserve ridicule. Most of them, anyway, and plenty of it. And I also think it actually matters whether they mean it, and no I am not inclined to be sympathetic that they face “impossible choices” when their party nominates “a terrible candidate.”
They deserve ridicule for two main reasons. The first is that they’re basically responsible for Trump. I don’t need to go into all the reasons, but it falls into the Powell Doctrine of “you break it, you own it.”
The second is that there aren’t any palatable alternatives to Trump. So, if you’re telling me that you’ll never ever vote for Trump but Ted Cruz is acceptable to you, then I’m not giving you any credit whatsoever.
Finally, if after all their railing on about how they’ll never vote for Trump, they actually vote for Trump, then they’ve got a different definition of “impossible situation” than I do. It’s possible to not vote, or to vote third party, or to just vote for the downticket races, or to decide that the country is in safer hands with Hillary Clinton and actually cross over to vote for her. It’s ludicrous to say that anyone has to vote for Trump because they have no other choice.
And I’m assuming here that they’ll limit themselves to voting for Trump, but given their careers as party operatives and opinion leaders, it’s more likely that they’ll begin making the case for Trump to the public. I assume that wouldn’t get a pass, right?
Now, do they deserve credit for opposing Trump now?
Maybe a little, but if their main objection isn’t that he’s an incompetent narcissistic bankruptcy expert who panders to the racists and bigots, but that he’s not sufficiently and consistently conservative enough?
Sorry, in those cases, I’m not giving them any credit, either.
They will vote for Trump. Or Cruz.
.
that they will.
the whole sorry lot of them will go to great lengths to avoid any responsibility or knowledge of who and what really created this fiasco.
being good party apparatchiks, they’ll do whatever it takes to ignore the truth, but at the end of the day they’re going to vote for trump…the prize is too sweet to walk away.
STILL no Prince post?
Wow.
LGM has several good Prince threads up right now. Erik especially does a good job of posting interesting music items, and he is doing the same with regards to Prince.
CG said if you write it she’ll get it promoted to the front page. on you now.
I’ve always believed that this whole #NeverTrump gang would simply melt like a snowman in the late winter sun, and shortly thereafter no visible sign that it ever existed.
What would the Founders have said about the New Look in D.C.? Or maybe there’s something a constitutional lawyer could tell us (like Ann Coulter). Last summer she said that the repugnant worst nightmare is a Bernie Sanders presidential election campaign whereas Secretary Clinton would be a pushover. Right Arthur, she really does have a whole repertory of grimaces for different occasions. Does she go to acting school or does she just practice in from of the mirror or even her immediate family? I’m gay and just marvel at all the ‘gays’ who swoon over her: you know, a strong woman kind of fetisch.
Actually I’m homosexual, all about sex, I don’t have the gay mommy and daddy hangup.
Ridiculous, tiresome, and unreasonable.
Damn it, when you set up a political party — an enormous, sophisticated social/financial/political/cultural instrument for enacting the will and promoting the ideology of your constituency — you have to understand that this is exactly what it will do, in so many words; the system works. You can’t step in at the last minute and say, “Wait, this didn’t turn out right…we have to edit the results.” It doesn’t just ignore or overlook the system that’s been set up; it makes a mockery of it. If you end up with (as Digby puts it) “fascistic sociopathology,” well, that’s where you ended up; deal with it. That’s Republicanism today: that’s what it is and what it means.
Yastreblyansky has been making this point very well, specifically with regard to David Brooks and the others who have been wringing their hands on the editorial pages. Like, Oh, dear…it wasn’t supposed to turn out this way, was it? There must be some subtle systemic error, something we missed… But no, the system worked perfectly! This is your GOP; deal with it! Stop whining!
Has anyone told Trump that the National Park Service owns the WH and the historic character of it be preserved? And the Committee for the Preservation of the White must approve any modification to the State rooms? Malania Trump can select new china and furnishings if non-taxpayer funds are raised to cover the cost and the White House Historical Association approves of the selections.
Committee for the Preservation of the White
If one appends “Race” to the end of that, do we have an ironic nickname for the Donald Trump presidential campaign? Or perhaps for the Republican Party?
Oops — was a typo (really), but considering the history of the White House (who built it and who occupied it until 2009), can see how some might view it as a Freudian slip.
Personally, I don’t really appreciate the #NeverHillaryites.
I agree. they deserve ridicule; They were perfectly happy cultivating the base that’s nominating Trump so long as it worked for their benefit.
Reap what you sow, baby, reap what you sow.
of course Serious Journalists ™ must never waver from the true belief that Conservatives have no past, the shambling wreckage they’ve left in their wake in no way has anything to do with their own ideology, it’s always the Dirty Hippies fault and besides BothSides!
Ridicule? I see no reason to have such an emotion. Not one of the Never Trump have ever done anything but mumble like Jeb when they talk about The Donald. Peter King who has know The Donald forever could only come up with taking poison….another mumble. 911 Rudy has rejoined the clown car where Christi is still holding up the rear. Where is the whisper/rumor campaigns the GOP is so good at? Never Trump seems like just another grift.