Category Archives: Popular Culture

Political Commentary, Popular Culture

Never Trump

13 Comments

There’s now a web site. ~35,000 people have signed the pledge so far.

I’m very unlikely to vote for Trump, but I don’t want to take a pledge.

[Update a while later]

A righteous rant from Ace:

Sasse’s point is that much of America didn’t choose these two, and that part of America is not duty-bound to follow the folly of others. If there are still things permitted to be done — like run a third party challenge — why should they not be done?

The usual math on this is that a third party run would be disastrous and would deliver the election to Hillary. Many #NeverTrumpers, and I’m edging into that group myself, find this a weak objection in this case: Trump himself will inevitably be demolished, so there’s no threat of “throwing the election.” It already has been thrown.

Second, Trump represents an very stupid and dangerous form of authoritarianism. Everything with him is force and bullying. Riots at the convention if he doesn’t get his way. His online trolls actively threatening people’s physical safety.

I don’t get it — I’m supposed to be outraged by Lois Lerner, yet amused by this? Why? Because this will only be visited upon my enemies? First, that’s not principled, that’s just stupid tribalism,, and second, it’s not true — the gentle persuasions of authoritarian You Will Be Made to Buckle are already being visited on us, and by “us,” I mean non-Democrats.

I personally didn’t oppose the thuggishness of the left just to be bullied by a new thuggishness of the alt-right.

If Sasse was on the ballot, I’d likely vote for him.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

La Paglia

8 Comments

Thoughts from Camille on Trump, Hillary and the fall of the elites.

I too found this interesting:

Hillary’s anti-male subtext, to which so many women voters are plainly drawn, flared into view last week when she crowed to CNN’s Jake Tapper about her proven skills in sex war: “I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak….I’m not going to deal with their temper tantrums or their bullying or their efforts to try to provoke me.” The prestige media tried to suppress Hillary’s gaffes here (which breezily insulted both men and Native Americans) by simply not reporting them. Her campaign deflected initial criticism, but she made no personal response until the issue kept escalating. Five days later, she sat down with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell and incredibly claimed that she had been referring to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Rep. Rick Lazio and Vladimir Putin—none of whom have had perceptible “temper tantrums” about her.

My ears went up when I heard that phrase. I haven’t heard anyone in the media comment about it, but if a Republican had said “off the reservation,” you can bet they would have been lambasted as having slurred “native Americans.”

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

The Late Jumpers On The Trump Train

22 Comments

I agree with Jonah: I’m not going to abandon my principles just because he is “a winner”:

The “people have spoken” is not some abracadabra phrase that can change my opinions, never mind my convictions. If “the people” vote that I must hate dogs, I’m not going to start hating dogs. If a plurality of Republican primary voters tells me I have to like blue cheese, I’m not going to start liking blue cheese. And even if 99.99 percent of Americans tell me that I should shed my opinions of Donald Trump, I’m not going to do that either. New facts or some new argument — in theory — could make me change my mind. But crowds, mobs, twitter trolls, bullying hacks, eye-rolling apparatchiks – or even voters can’t just because they all shout at once. Why? Because I am not a politician.

[Update later morning]

Why #NeverTrump remains relevant. Yes, it wasn’t about denying him the nomination, per se. It’s about preserving what few limited-government principles the party had left.

[Late-morning update]

Five reasons Cruz shouldn’t have dropped out.

I was surprised. When I heard that late deciders had been going for Cruz, I saw it as a good sign going forward. I can only think that his CA donors told him to give it up.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Trump Versus Clinton

35 Comments

The latest Rasmussen. Put me with “someone else” (particularly given that I don’t vote in a swing state).

As I’ve been saying on Twitter for months, my concern with a Trump/Clinton match up isn’t that Clinton will win, but that one of them will, and both are terrible. I’d like to see a poll with some specific names (e.g., Cruz, Ryan, Mattis, Gary Johnson) as “other.”

Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, War Commentary

Why Trump Is Worse

60 Comments

…than any previous Republican nominee (discounting the fact that he’s not really a Republican):

We know, from his deeds, words, and even his pronouncements in this campaign, that Trump offers nothing to conservatives – worse than nothing, he would evict us from any position within our own party. He gets his foreign policy ideas from Michael Moore and Code Pink (or worse yet, from Vladimir Putin); his abortion views are grounded in his sympathy with Planned Parenthood; he supports socialized medicine in the form of single-payer healthcare, higher taxes, more government spending, and Herbert Hoover’s trade policy. He’s never met a bailout or a crony-capitalist deal he didn’t like, or a Democrat he wouldn’t donate to. He’s astonishingly ignorant, emotionally unstable, and wholly incapable of saying no to Democrats. Trump is a spoiled, entitled rich kid who shows not the slightest understanding of the American way of up-by-the booststraps striving to better yourself; in Trump’s world, the rich get richer by having the right friends, and everybody else is a serf who needs the government to protect them from foreign competition.

Let’s compare Trump to some of the prior Republican presidential losers, and I’ll throw in Rudy and Newt for good measure since I’ve written on this site in their defense before…

RTWT.

[Update a while later]

In short: yes, you can find an example of many of Trump’s flaws in prior Republican presidential candidates. But not one of those candidates combined the total package of Trump: the unfitness to be Commander-in-Chief; the total lack of accomplishments, sacrifices or even efforts over his lifetime for any cause we believe in, combined with repeated efforts to assist the other team; the manifest lack of political principle, personal character or demonstrated political character; the ignorance; the catnip for white supremacists; the toxic effect on the brand of both the party and its ideas.

A vote for Trump, even in the general election, is a suicide note for the Republican Party and the conservative movement. I will never vote for Hillary Clinton, but I cannot in good conscience ever give aid and comfort to Donald Trump and the poison he represents.

That’s my current attitude. I don’t know whom I’ll vote for — it will depend on what I see on the ballot.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture

A Cruz Surge In Indiana

42 Comments

I hope this poll is accurate, but if it is, I wonder what’s the cause? Carly? Pence’s (barely) endorsement? Boehner’s negative endorsement?

By the way, Boehner’s reaction to Cruz, and his talk about being buds with Trump should put paid to the notion of who the real “anti-establishment” candidate is.

[Update a few minutes later]

Allahpundit would like to believe it, too, but is skeptical.