Wait a minute! Andrew is admitting it, openly, that Trump, Trump the Abominable and Despised, Trump is winning.
And, look for it! Andrew the traitor, Andrew-who-sold-out-to-the-Left, admits that even he feels the pull.
[T]here comes a point at which laughter begins to falter, under the simple, steady weight of events. As I’ve noted before, Trump’s record as a force of destruction is profound, whether it be the sabotage of Obamacare, the devastation of democratic norms, or the rattling of NATO. But as the months tick by, there’s a decent case that Trump’s proactive accomplishments are beginning to add up as well: a huge tax cut, two Supreme Court justices, wholesale deregulation, renegotiation of NAFTA, isolation of Iran, and a broader reboot of bilateral nationalism on the world stage. But I’m not talking merely about policy — he has also shifted the entire polity more decisively toward the authoritarian style of government. In this respect, yes, the Trump administration has indeed accomplished much more than many of us want to believe.
The addition of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is the latest “win.†The successful nomination — however tortuous, however unpopular, however saturated in drama — achieved several things at once. First, it justified the evangelical and pro-business right’s Faustian bargain with Trump. Along with Gorsuch, Kavanaugh cemented a 5-4 majority for the right on the court for the indefinite future — more quickly and decisively than any Republican had hoped for. If Hillary Clinton had won the presidency, in stark contrast, we’d be looking at a 6-3 liberal tilt by now. That’s a huge, huge payoff for what looked at one point like a major gamble for establishment and religious Republicans — and there could be more vacancies ahead. …
The over-the-top tactics of the Democrats and the mainstream media in turning a Supreme Court hearing into an epic battle in a newly energized gender war may have riveted Democratic women and galvanized a younger generation … but it also brought moderate Republicans and Trumpers together again. When confronted with the rhetoric and ideology of the social justice left, NeverTrump conservatives came temporarily back to the fold. I felt it happening to myself [Emphasis added. –JDZ].
RTWT
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For Andrew:
Schill McGuffin
That piece is a fairly astute assessment of a lot of things — the global rise of populism, the many facets of the Left’s lack of self-awareness, Trump’s ability to maintain momentum in spite of facing more broad and intense media opposition than any President in history — but Sullivan’s hardly on board the train now. At best he’s shaking his head and lamenting its inexorability. I loved the bit where he essentially says “No, Trump isn’t Hitler, it’s he’s merely a sign of the death of Liberal Democracy”.
And there are still a couple of glaring signs of blindness in there — particularly that bit about how “he has also shifted the entire polity more decisively toward the authoritarian style of government”. His is supposed to be more “authoritarian” than the administration that gave us the Title IX letter? More authoritarian than the guy who said “I have a phone, and I have a pen?” More authoritarian than the guy who militarily entangled us in Libya and Syria without a hint of public support? I don’t buy that Trump has significantly amplified, much less created, the Cult of the Imperial Presidency. His most “authoritarian” acts have been dismantlings of what preceded him, with the possible exception of attempting to crack down on illegal immigration (using for the most part, it should be noted, regulations already in place). If he ever manages to ramrod the likes of Obamacare through Congress, then Sullivan will have room to lament Trump’s authoritarianism.
d griffin
Well said, Shill.
Ol’ Power Glutes is not settin’ his inflamed rump aboard the Trump bandwagon just yet.
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