Some of the worst monsters of the 20th Century practiced civility, were extraordinarily courteous, and were well-respected by all the important people.
It seems Americans would rather have someone who will defend the Constitution over the courteous fellow who lacks a fighting spirit. This preference for a fighter goes a long way in explaining why Donald Trump is the president and why candidates like Brian Kemp cruised to victory in Georgia’s gubernatorial primary last night.
It might also explain why Never-Trumpers like Max Boot have become so unraveled.
Boot’s latest folly is to team up with the most militant nuts of the institutional Left — Rob Reiner and Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper — to launch a seedy get-Trump effort called “Investigate Russia.”
Think about that. Someone who climbed through the ranks claiming to be a conservative has now teamed up with Rob Reiner to hound a Republican president. Meathead and Max, together chasing Vladimir.
“Investigate Russia” is a one-stop shop for Trump-hatred:
All relevant information is aggregated in one place to provide context and allow users to see the full picture of what Russia has done and will continue to do unless we start paying closer attention. For generations, people have fought to protect democracy. Now it is our turn.
Now it’s “their turn.” Useful idiots can be quite useful, especially conservative useful idiots.
Oh, but Boot “didn’t leave conservatism, conservatives left conservatism,” Never-Trumpers like Boot will howl. Boot’s forthcoming — and likely barely read — book sanctimoniously pushes this narrative of conservative betrayal. People who disagree with Boot are “bottom feeders”; those in Boot’s camp are of course thoughtful and measured. Boot reflexively rolls out William F. Buckley to vouch for himself: it’s William F. Buckley who would be outraged! It’s William F. Buckley who would say Boot’s pathologies aren’t pathologies! It’s the Gospel according to Buckley, according to Boot, that makes Boot’s obsession about Donald Trump okay. From beyond the grave, Buckley says so.
Really? Let’s check that premise.
Donald Trump may be the best friend of Israel that has ever occupied the White House. Trump gave permanent legitimacy to the Jewish state in a way that no prior president had the courage to do in moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. Trump is a genuine friend of Israel, and took intelligence obtained by the Mossad to cancel Obama’s shameful Iranian nuclear agreement — an agreement that threatened the existence of Israel while simultaneously pumping planeloads of hard currency into Iran.
Trump has appointed extraordinary judges to the federal bench, including Justice Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy. Comparing the record of appointments under George W. Bush with Trump is an exercise for another day, but Trump’s appointments have shown an exceptional zeal to defend the Constitution.
Trump has raised the debate on defending our electoral system from the real threat of foreign influence — non-citizen voting. Each week, we learn more about the extent of the problem, from aliens on the rolls in Virginia, to the first indictment in nine years from the Sessions-run Justice Department for alien voting, to a systematic failure in Pennsylvania that has led to decades of aliens getting on the voter rolls.
When it comes to regulations, no Republican president has taken a buzzsaw to the CFR like Trump has. The Trump administration’s fury against the regulatory state has unleashed an economic uptick we hadn’t enjoyed for well over a decade.
Trump has been the most pro-life president since Roe v. Wade.
Trump has defended religious freedom. Most of all, he has been unafraid of taking on the domestic enemies of the Constitution.
So why do the Never-Trumpers persist? Why does Max Boot align with Hollywood leftists like Rob Reiner to undermine the most conservative president in at least three decades? It can’t be over policy. As Emmett Tyrell writes today at the Washington Times:
I could understand if the Never Trumpers were six weeks into the Trump administration. They had never been confronted by an energetic administration such as Mr. Trump’s, and they could not imagine that such an administration would be so successful and so conservative.
No, the Never-Trumpers seem to be driven by something deeper, by some psychological tick. Perhaps it is a bad memory from childhood, a playground ruffian who laughed at the adolescent intellectuals-to-be.
For some of the Never-Trumpers, they are angry their Washington gravy-train ended when Jeb(!) was reduced to political rubble by Trump’s sharp blows. Some Never-Trumpers are upset they don’t have jobs and influence anymore. They want to manage and manipulate the federal leviathan just like liberals do, just better. They wish it was 2003 forever. Again, Tyrell:
The self-styled conservatives who reflexively oppose the Trump administration are increasingly in danger of becoming political curiosities, museum pieces.
They are in danger of becoming museum pieces — and laughingstocks. Go peruse the Twitter stream of any one of them — Max Boot, Bill Kristol, Evan McMullin — and you think you’ve entered the world of people obsessed with fluoride in the water or alien abduction. It’s all Trump, all the time. The Trump bugs are crawling all over their skin, and they can’t stop scratching and screaming in the night.
Tucker Carlson obliterated Max Boot on his Fox News show a while back. The video is worth watching for lots of reasons, but particularly for the sanctimony oozing from Boot. The video makes it clear these folks are on a crusade, and it isn’t about policy.
They do this because they don’t like Trump personally. He triggers them.
That’s why they’ll team up with the most radical Hollywood leftists to undermine one of the most conservative, pro-Constitution presidents since Coolidge left office. Shame on you, Max.
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