The New York Times and the Washington Post have always tried to provide weak cover for their egregious leftist bias by hiring columnists whom they call conservatives. They're not real conservatives, of course — none of them would be caught dead getting their hands dirty with grassroots hoi polloi. These are people who met a lot of wealthy Coastal Media Bubble™ Republicans early on and have reaped the benefits of being well-connected with those I like to call the "Harumph" Republicans. They go cravat shopping with David Brooks, have massive oil portraits of Nelson Rockefeller in their Great Rooms, and secretly collect Bill Kristol bobblehead dolls.
As long as Wikipedia can throw in the word "conservative," the Times and WaPo feel they are providing sufficient balance.
Bret Stephens at the New York Times is one such "conservative." Born in New York City, boarding school in Massachusetts, master's degree from the London School of Economics — trust me, this guy's never been to Waffle House. That doesn't prevent him from truly believing that he knows what's best for Republicans out in the yucky hinterlands.
Over the weekend, the Times published an Op-Ed by Stephens titled, "Republicans Will Regret a Second Trump Term."
Sure, Sparky.
I immediately read any concern trolling for Republicans that's published in the Times because it's the closest I will ever get to doing hallucinogenic drugs again.
In short, Republicans have good reason to think they’ll be back in the White House next January. Only then will the regrets set in.
Three in particular: First, Trump won’t slay the left; instead, he will re-energize and radicalize it. Second, Trump will be a down-ballot loser, leading to divided and paralyzed government. Third, Trump’s second-term personnel won’t be like the ones in his first. Instead, he will appoint his Trumpiest people and pursue his Trumpiest instincts. The results won’t be ones old-school Republicans want or expect.
That's a veritable cornucopia of concussed hypothesizing there.
That first bit about a Trump victory re-energizing and radicalizing the Left is really out there, and is where the perspective from inside the Bubble comes into play. Stephens contends that it's Trump's fault that the lunatic Left went crazy during the George Floyd Summer of Mostly Peaceful Rioting, Looting, and Murder.
It gets more insane. He says, "With the ugly exception of the campus anti-Israel protests, the Biden years have been mostly free of this."
With the ugly exception of the exit wound at the back of the skull, the head was mostly free of damage from the bullet.
I'm beginning to wonder if Stephens has ever been outside. Even entertaining the notion that the American Left has been relatively well-behaved during the Biden years is absurd. There was a pogrom in Los Angeles last month as a result of the sustained antisemitic riots and protests around the country. That's not an exception that can be overlooked; it's a cancer that Biden and his people have helped to metastasize.
As to a Trump victory "leading to divided and paralyzed government," somebody in the Bubble should tell Stephens that we're already there.
His third point about the "Trumpiest people" is just so much crazed leftist diaper-filling.
Stephens's column was published on Saturday, the morning before the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. That makes it rather prescient. Since then, we've seen the unhinged leftists in the media run with the "Everything is Trump's fault anyway," a**-covering. Bret Stephens was just a few hours ahead of the mad rush to incorrectly assign blame.
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