We've had a four year test run on Trump and found him to be quite effective, all things considered. All things being the fact that the GOPe aligned with the Dems to hobble him and Covid appeared at an opportune time for the Dems and Big Government types. The Trump administration was insufficiently to thwart the power grab by the expert class; Trump had warned early, and rightly, about the cure being worse than the disease.
Whatever one might think of Trump as a person (would you like him to date your sister?), his presidency was exceptional:
1. The greatest success of American foreign policy in decades is the Abraham Accords, a Trump vision accomplished without help from State Department mediocrities.
2. Domestic economy delivered significant increases in real wages, compared to the steep decline of the Biden years and those increases were greater for lower income people:
"Appealing once more to his pride and vanity, they encouraged him in the belief that he and he alone stood between Donald Trump and the White House. Only he could save “our democracy” from MAGA fascism. And the inner circle intensified its efforts to keep the truth from the American people." But maybe also self-interest?
Thomas, I think you’re right about everything you say here but forgive me for pointing out that you’re stating the obvious. Pretty much every Republican of every stripe would agree with your analysis as would most independents. Even a majority of Democrats in their heart of hearts know what you’ve said is true though most would be loathe to admit it.
I’m curious about something else; maybe some of your other loyal readers are too. In the last month or two, have you heard anything at all from Trump, Vance (now with the Vice Presidential nomination) or other Trump surrogates that have made you even more marginally inclined to believe that he would be an acceptable President? Was there anything you heard at Republican Convention (assuming you watched any of it) that convinced you that perhaps Trump has genuinely moved in a more acceptable direction or that he has some ideas that might be somewhat better than you originally thought?
Should you eventually decide to vote for Trump will it only be because he’s the lesser of three evils and his opponents, Biden (or any conceivable Democratic replacement) or RFK, Jr. are worse?
Do you think it’s reasonably possible that Trump might actually be a good or at least decent President this time around or do you think he might only get a good grade if you grade him in the curve?
The answer to your first question is yes. I very much approve of the Trump GOP’s stalwart Zionism. It’s in the national interest, it’s morally correct, and it’s in sharp contrast to the creeping antisemitism of the Democratic Party.
For the rest, my disagreements with the Trump GOP are mostly limited to foreign policy. For instance, it would be a catastrophe if Putin won his war against Ukraine. Vance makes his position pretty clear on that point, but Trump, I’ve noticed, has been much more equivocal.
On economic policy I have no quarrel with the general principle of America First. But the details bother me, especially regarding tariffs, which are nothing more than a tax on American consumers. The United States can’t simply wall itself off from the global economy. But the Democrats are even worse on economics.
My support for Trump is based on a principle of relativity. I find myself asking who would be better: Trump or some Democrat? And I conclude that for a long list of reasons, Trump would be better, even though he’s not all that good.
The symmetry between the Biden Administration’s policies on Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Gaza are stunning but not much commented on. The Biden Administration has interfered in both conflicts in a similar way. In both cases the interference has been destructive.
In the case of Ukraine, Biden was slow to provide the needed weaponry and not just because Congress has been reticent to provide adequate resources. At the beginning of the war, when there was near-universal support for assisting Ukraine, Biden imposed numerous limits on the type of weapons it would provide as well as numerous limits on how and where those weapons could be used.
If news reports are to be believed not only did Biden and colleagues set the rules of engagement for Ukraine, they actually authored the strategy for last year’s Ukrainian offensive; that offensive was a spectacular failure.
In the Middle East conflict, the Biden Administration relentlessly criticized Israel’s strategy in Gaza and nary a day went by without Biden, Blinken or Sullivan bemoaning civilian casualties. The fact that these casualties resulted from Hamas hiding in civilian communities didn’t matter to Biden.
Not only did Biden constantly agitate for a permanent cease fire despite the fact that Hamas had not yet been defeated but for months he refused to sell certain weapons that Israel said it needed.
After two spectacular failures at nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Biden Administration thinks it is entitled to play the leading role in defining how Gaza will be governed after the war ends. The hubris is remarkable.
Put simply, Biden wants Ukraine and Israel to adopt the same rules of engagement that the United States adopted in all of the wars our country has fought since the end of World War II. Of course, the United States lost all of those wars.
Biden told us that Ukraine would win; it’s losing. Biden told us that our sanctions would destroy the Russian economy. Instead the Russian economy has deteriorated less than the economy of Germany. Biden told us that the Ukraine invasion would result in the isolation of Russia. Instead, ties between Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and even India are more robust than ever.
My point is that the time has come to ask whether a second Biden Administration is more likely to result in a partially acceptable outcome for Ukraine or whether Trump is more likely to assist Ukraine to get as good an outcome as is possible under the circumstances.
My guess is that Trump is more likely than Biden is to help Ukraine get the best outcome available whatever that is.
I believe that we are seeing a sea change in politics.
The Democrats have launched a series of near coups to keep power.
The 51 "intelligence experts" who discredited the Hunter laptop arguably swung the 2020 election.
The Steele Dossier eviscerated Trump's presidential powers for two years.
The lawfare propagated by the Justice Department and Dem prosecutors was intended to prevent Trump's 2024 candidacy. Worse, it introduced a strong element of banana republic into our system.
I try not to be a conspiracy theorist, but the cascade of incompetence in Butler strains credibility.
Now the Dem leadership (party grandees, media, and donors) is launching a coup against the candidate elected by 14 million Dems.
They are trying to force Biden out in favor of a "preferable" candidate.
Long argument, but many Americans are turning to Trump because he represents normalcy at a time when the Dems are destroying our republic.
> The 51 "intelligence experts" who discredited the Hunter laptop arguably swung the 2020 election.
No, no one who wasn't already far left listed to the "intelligence experts". What swung the 2020 election were the local poll workers stuffing ballot boxes and then manufacturing fraudulent votes.
I’ll reserve judgement on the sea change, though there’s no doubt in my mind that the Dems have badly damaged their brand. We’ll have to see how effectively the Trump and the GOP can capitalize on this opportunity.
We've had a four year test run on Trump and found him to be quite effective, all things considered. All things being the fact that the GOPe aligned with the Dems to hobble him and Covid appeared at an opportune time for the Dems and Big Government types. The Trump administration was insufficiently to thwart the power grab by the expert class; Trump had warned early, and rightly, about the cure being worse than the disease.
Whatever one might think of Trump as a person (would you like him to date your sister?), his presidency was exceptional:
1. The greatest success of American foreign policy in decades is the Abraham Accords, a Trump vision accomplished without help from State Department mediocrities.
2. Domestic economy delivered significant increases in real wages, compared to the steep decline of the Biden years and those increases were greater for lower income people:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N/
3. Illegal immigration: enough said
> It’s not that I don’t share their opinion to a certain extent—I do.
What is this referring to? It almost sounds like the generic class snobbishness, "I'm not one of *those people* who liked Trump back in 2016."
"Appealing once more to his pride and vanity, they encouraged him in the belief that he and he alone stood between Donald Trump and the White House. Only he could save “our democracy” from MAGA fascism. And the inner circle intensified its efforts to keep the truth from the American people." But maybe also self-interest?
Thomas, I think you’re right about everything you say here but forgive me for pointing out that you’re stating the obvious. Pretty much every Republican of every stripe would agree with your analysis as would most independents. Even a majority of Democrats in their heart of hearts know what you’ve said is true though most would be loathe to admit it.
I’m curious about something else; maybe some of your other loyal readers are too. In the last month or two, have you heard anything at all from Trump, Vance (now with the Vice Presidential nomination) or other Trump surrogates that have made you even more marginally inclined to believe that he would be an acceptable President? Was there anything you heard at Republican Convention (assuming you watched any of it) that convinced you that perhaps Trump has genuinely moved in a more acceptable direction or that he has some ideas that might be somewhat better than you originally thought?
Should you eventually decide to vote for Trump will it only be because he’s the lesser of three evils and his opponents, Biden (or any conceivable Democratic replacement) or RFK, Jr. are worse?
Do you think it’s reasonably possible that Trump might actually be a good or at least decent President this time around or do you think he might only get a good grade if you grade him in the curve?
I’m just curious.
The answer to your first question is yes. I very much approve of the Trump GOP’s stalwart Zionism. It’s in the national interest, it’s morally correct, and it’s in sharp contrast to the creeping antisemitism of the Democratic Party.
For the rest, my disagreements with the Trump GOP are mostly limited to foreign policy. For instance, it would be a catastrophe if Putin won his war against Ukraine. Vance makes his position pretty clear on that point, but Trump, I’ve noticed, has been much more equivocal.
On economic policy I have no quarrel with the general principle of America First. But the details bother me, especially regarding tariffs, which are nothing more than a tax on American consumers. The United States can’t simply wall itself off from the global economy. But the Democrats are even worse on economics.
My support for Trump is based on a principle of relativity. I find myself asking who would be better: Trump or some Democrat? And I conclude that for a long list of reasons, Trump would be better, even though he’s not all that good.
The symmetry between the Biden Administration’s policies on Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Gaza are stunning but not much commented on. The Biden Administration has interfered in both conflicts in a similar way. In both cases the interference has been destructive.
In the case of Ukraine, Biden was slow to provide the needed weaponry and not just because Congress has been reticent to provide adequate resources. At the beginning of the war, when there was near-universal support for assisting Ukraine, Biden imposed numerous limits on the type of weapons it would provide as well as numerous limits on how and where those weapons could be used.
If news reports are to be believed not only did Biden and colleagues set the rules of engagement for Ukraine, they actually authored the strategy for last year’s Ukrainian offensive; that offensive was a spectacular failure.
In the Middle East conflict, the Biden Administration relentlessly criticized Israel’s strategy in Gaza and nary a day went by without Biden, Blinken or Sullivan bemoaning civilian casualties. The fact that these casualties resulted from Hamas hiding in civilian communities didn’t matter to Biden.
Not only did Biden constantly agitate for a permanent cease fire despite the fact that Hamas had not yet been defeated but for months he refused to sell certain weapons that Israel said it needed.
After two spectacular failures at nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Biden Administration thinks it is entitled to play the leading role in defining how Gaza will be governed after the war ends. The hubris is remarkable.
Put simply, Biden wants Ukraine and Israel to adopt the same rules of engagement that the United States adopted in all of the wars our country has fought since the end of World War II. Of course, the United States lost all of those wars.
Biden told us that Ukraine would win; it’s losing. Biden told us that our sanctions would destroy the Russian economy. Instead the Russian economy has deteriorated less than the economy of Germany. Biden told us that the Ukraine invasion would result in the isolation of Russia. Instead, ties between Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and even India are more robust than ever.
My point is that the time has come to ask whether a second Biden Administration is more likely to result in a partially acceptable outcome for Ukraine or whether Trump is more likely to assist Ukraine to get as good an outcome as is possible under the circumstances.
My guess is that Trump is more likely than Biden is to help Ukraine get the best outcome available whatever that is.
I agree with you, but would go further.
I believe that we are seeing a sea change in politics.
The Democrats have launched a series of near coups to keep power.
The 51 "intelligence experts" who discredited the Hunter laptop arguably swung the 2020 election.
The Steele Dossier eviscerated Trump's presidential powers for two years.
The lawfare propagated by the Justice Department and Dem prosecutors was intended to prevent Trump's 2024 candidacy. Worse, it introduced a strong element of banana republic into our system.
I try not to be a conspiracy theorist, but the cascade of incompetence in Butler strains credibility.
Now the Dem leadership (party grandees, media, and donors) is launching a coup against the candidate elected by 14 million Dems.
They are trying to force Biden out in favor of a "preferable" candidate.
Long argument, but many Americans are turning to Trump because he represents normalcy at a time when the Dems are destroying our republic.
> The 51 "intelligence experts" who discredited the Hunter laptop arguably swung the 2020 election.
No, no one who wasn't already far left listed to the "intelligence experts". What swung the 2020 election were the local poll workers stuffing ballot boxes and then manufacturing fraudulent votes.
I’ll reserve judgement on the sea change, though there’s no doubt in my mind that the Dems have badly damaged their brand. We’ll have to see how effectively the Trump and the GOP can capitalize on this opportunity.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/msnbc-host-calls-jd-vance-wanting-to-be-buried-in-family-plot-an-easter-egg-of-white-nationalism/
How about this gem? Vance apparently missed the memo. He's supposed to hate family, community, and country — not love it. What a racist rube.