Despite Donald Trump’s surprising list of real accomplishments, which I am obliged to admit distinctly exceed those of several recent legitimate and respectable Republican presidents, there are still a lot of carping, sneering professional conservative commentators out there, clinging to now pointless #NeverTrump irredentism.
Roger L. Simon argues that these people ought to start admitting they’ve been wrong, give the devil Trump his due, and close ranks with fellow conservatives. Winning major political battles and the culture war is a lot more important than Donald Trump’s aesthetics or continued proof of the superiority of certain people’s souls.
[I]t is time for the remaining NeverTrumpers to apologize for a reason far more important than self-castigation or merely to make things “right.” Donald Trump — whose initial victory was a shock, even, ironically, to those of us who predicted it — has compounded that shock by being astoundingly successful in his first year, especially at the conclusion. (He’s a quick study, evidently.) More conservative goals have been achieved or put in motion in eleven months than in any time in recent, or even distant, memory. It’s an astonishing reversal for our country accompanied by the beginnings of an economic boom.
But that same success is causing, it’s becoming increasingly clear, an equally determined, even virulent, reaction from the left. At first they too thought Trump was an ineffectual blowhard who would shoot himself in the foot, ultimately redounding to their advantage. Now that they have found that not to be the case, they are in a state of panic, fearing a defeat for their ideals that would set them back years, even decades. They cannot let this stand and are marshaling all their forces from the media to Hollywood to the academy, not to mention at least some of the investigative units of the FBI.
NeverTrumpers Ignore Trump’s Accomplishments
The next year seems poised to be an ideological duel as close to the death as we have seen in a long time. If the right does not win, the gains of 2017 will be stymied by the election of 2018 and completely washed away in 2020.
It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation and we need the NeverTrumpers’ help. We need — to borrow a hoary leftist term — a united front.
Seattle Sam
I don’t need Trump to be a behavioral role model. I need him to lead us in reversing the deluge of government control over our lives.
Would you hire someone distasteful to manage your investment portfolio if he could grow it 10% a year? Or would you insist on someone who was much more likable that would continue to deplete your savings?
Dick the Butcher
Cowards and traitors: It’s too late to say you’re sorry.
[Expletive deleted] #NeverTrumpers.
Make the World a better place. Shoot a #NeverTrumper in the face.
Steve Gregg
I don’t like Trump. I don’t like his values nor his style. I don’t like his petty bickering with everyone. I don’t like the way he says “China.†I don’t like the way he waves his arms when he talks.
But I like some of the stuff he’s done. Building a border wall and waging a tariff war against the world is nuts, but dumping the Paris Climate Accords was great. Building up the military is needed after Obama trashed it. Undoing the thousand insane things Obama did is useful, like stopping the Air Force from paying $150 per gallon for “green†jet fuel made from algae.
Of all the decisions made, the call for NASA to return to the Moon and then Mars may be the one most significant for humankind. We have to learn to live in space before the Sun consumes the Earth in half a billion years. The Earth may get smacked by a meteorite before then or the Sun may burp a jet of plasma that incinerates it.
The transition from Earth to deep space will be as big a jump as when the first fish crawled out of the sea onto land. We need to boldly go.
Ted Clayton
I dunno. Maybe, but probably not. Let ’em rave-on … who among us has not by now noticed, time & again, that Trump plays the ranks of the Upset & Distressed – all up & down the spectrum – like a fiddle? Heck – a whole orchestra.
Yeah, they should reconsider, but mainly for their own sake. They’re probably more valuable to the overall effort, serving as foils for Trump’s drama, stock figures for his scripts & stage-craft.
But like any experienced actor, Trump knows the audience can get bored with it. He said so himself, back in the Campaign. You gotta keep one eye on ’em, out there in Public Seating. You always gotta be ready to wrap up the act & walk off … *before* they do.
If the gig lasts through next Fall, if 2018 continues like 2017 … there is simply not going to be much left of the Resistance, or the #NeverTrumpers.
The “imagery”, if he stays on his game in the New Year … a morph-job of a monster nitro-fuelie dragster dropping off the stands into a 2-second 400mph quarter-mile … merged with the most-ghastly of shell-churned World War One battlefields (the losers, staggering in listless shock). If this holds, and it is looking good, even Trump’s most disinhibited boasts will pale.
I’ll say it here quickly, and amplify in future comments … I thought Ross Perot looked a lot like Donald Trump, way back in 1992. We were already fed-up & ready, that_long_ago.
There was just AN AWFUL LOT of pent-up opportunity, just waiting for Trump to tap.
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