Before I get into today’s piece, I want to talk about Brian Stelter and Reliable Sources. Brian loves the media. When he was a student, he created a website called TVNewser that chronicled TV newscasts, focusing on cable news. It is where I’d go to find out all the gossip about the ups and downs of cable news. He might have loved it a bit too much.
1. The jury's still out on whether or not CNN's new management can in fact somehow poll that network back from the irrelevance it now has. The intentions may be honorable, but the pressure from the "reliable sources" on the left to maintain CNN as a more palatable version of the 24/7 hate fest which is MSDNC may be overwhelming.
2. Yes, Erick, they really DO hate us. Even more alarming, as amply evidenced by Sam Harris’s praise of the most undemocratic tactics possible, they hate America as it was intended by the Founders even more; we're merely the target of their wrath against the nation. And that's why, like it or not, the American left as it now exists must be comprehensively destroyed. It's just too sad that longtime members of the "go along to get along" club such as Mitch McConnel are too busy doing what the left wants in the name of "bipartisanship" to realize that they're actively participating in bring Barack Obama's "fundamental transformation". the reality of which Grandpa Dementia, in one of his few worthwhile accomplishments, has made abundantly clear to people who can see - if they open their eyes to do so.
As for Stetler, I can't bring myself to have any pity for him. He was a willing participant in the destruction of media integrity and has actually caused real and possibly irreparable damage to the country. And I'll bet my 401K that he will be unable and unwilling to consider that his canning was a result of his own actions. Hubris knows no bounds.
Trump cost the GOP the Senate by planting the seeds of a fraudulent and stolen election. GA Republicans stayed home rather than participate in the runoff elections there. And now he is going to cause the GOP to lose the Senate once again by promoting the extremely flawed candidate Herschel Walker. I voted for Trump twice but now I wish he would just go away. DeSantis in 2024!
Well, we have to do what we can to promote Walker, flawed or not, imo. I sure hope Erick is doing something backchannel to help him. I’ll take a flawed Walker over a flawed Warnock any day. How any conservative could possibly vote for Warnock is beyond my understanding.
Just to clarify, I will absolutely vote for Walker. It's just a shame that there were actually some really good GOP candidates that were actually qualified to run for Senate and likely would have had a better chance to win. The Rev is vulnerable and could be defeated.
And if it were Congress, I would have less qualms since there are so many of them and only a two year term. But since there are only 100 Senators and they get 6 years, this race is just too important to put all your eggs in a football star's basket and hoping name recognition carries you across the goal line. (see what I did there) A GOP Congress and Senate would severely curtail the Biden administration for the next 2 years. But it probably won't happen if Walker loses.
"The ends justifies the means" is a basic tenet of Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals," the left's playbook since 1971. I know I bring up "Rules" ad nauseum on this site, but that's because its contents and the actions of the left mirror each other so closely as to make it profoundly obvious the two are deeply intertwined. "Rules" is an instruction manual describing how to implement revolution through the overthrow of capitalism. Yet capitalism and this country gave the world a middle class where one didn't exist previously. In ONE GENERATION immigrants are able to elevate themselves out of poverty and send their kids to college in this country, yet I'm supposed to believe that capitalism takes advantage of the poor and downtrodden? Frankly, that tells me everything I need to know about the left.
I struggle to understand how any reasonable person could ever vote for these leftist idealists whose ideas have never worked. They own most of the media, academia, tech companies, and bureaucracies. How? It’s not a lack of their intelligence. It seems they are adverse to wisdom.
I listen, read, learn, and think about this stuff and it's hard to see how this plays out when subversion is fine on the other side, and as Erick often says, voters are stupid. We have to put a lot of faith that people will be interested enough to go beyond the sound bites, wailing, rending of clothes performance of the left and their media allies to see the real truth as opposed to the leftist's personal version of their truth.
Its a matter of faith. I do believe God is in charge, but there is such a thing as free will, and we cannot sit back and think He will save us from ourselves. Even when the false prophets are out misleading the gullible and weak minded.
We cannot rely on hope to solve this morass. Nietzsche said, "Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man." Hope is a passive activity. Rush Limbaugh brought this up a couple of times and it stuck in my mind. He quoted Nietzsche then went on, "Meaning, unhappy, dissatisfied, not content, miserable, whatever, depressed. And you hope. You sit around, you hope something is going to change. But your torment continues because hope isn’t going to change anything." The caller replied, "Hope is not sitting around doing nothing. Hope is you’ve done the possible. Now you wait for God to do the impossible." This was all referring to Obama proclaiming to be the messiah of hope and change.
Rush continued, "There’s no question that the Democrats have continually tried, in a number of ways, to depress the spirit of the American people as have their compatriots in the media. The economy is going to hell in a handbasket. We’re soup line America. People are losing their homes. Nobody has health care. ..."
"Hope is an excuse for people not to do anything. Hope is an excuse for not trying, in this context. These people are not feeling hopeful about themselves. They are investing hope that Obama will make them feel better, or that Obama will improve their lives. That’s why I keep referring to him as having a messianic appeal to people."
I'm "hoping" people will not sit back and passively wait for a governmental messiah to save them. The secular left is all in on the governmental technocracy bet. God willing, I trust that truth will prevail and come November we see a result like what happened in the UK to Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party. But I'm not going to sit idly by and hope that happens.
And the MAGA right really do hate them. I have a friend; he didn't attend the January 6 "rally", but he has friends in his church who did. Long before Trump came on the scene when he and I could discuss politics and largely agreed, he would routinely refer to the Left as "scum" and other such scurrilous language. This is purely anecdotal but relevant.
In response to a nudge from a friend, I recently subscribed to get behind the paywall curtain of Sam Harris’s podcast. Sam abhors Trump more than I do, and he especially dislikes the religious orthodoxy to which I (badly) adhere, but he is generally thoughtful and embraces nuance. He is not the prototypical nihilistic atheist, although he is an atheist.
Where has he said he thinks the ends justifies the means against Trump? I am not contending he hasn’t said that, I would just like to read or listen to his argument without having to sift through the haystack of his content to find the needle.
If you listen to this video (link below), Sam says he feels the conspiracy to censer the Biden laptop story before the election was "warranted" because he views Trump as a threat. He also states in the beginning that "Hunter could have the corpses of children in his basement" on his laptop and he still would have supported censoring it so that it would not help Trump. This guy has Terminal TDS. https://twitter.com/i/status/1560257247422189570
In no way am I trying to beat a dead horse or run to Sam Harris’ defense. But I did listen to his explanation/admission of poor word choice this afternoon on the way home from Erick’s hometown (the drive way just long enough!). To wit, Sam says he should have said “justifiable” instead of “warranted” about how the MSM ignored the Hunter Biden laptop story prior to the election.
While I certainly do not agree with Sam fully on his opinion of Trump, I now understand Sam’s point better.
I do agree that Trump’s personality (not necessarily his politics) is less than helpful, but I place the blame on the media for that. Any other lunatic running for office would have been ignored. Let’s hope we all—especially the Republicans!—can do that moving forward.
Thanks! I’ll try to find the entire conversation later. Prima facie and with minimal context, that is very concerning, to put it in the mildest, most favorable toward Sam term.
What is interesting is that when the hosts calls him out to clarify if he is actually saying the ends justify the means (i.e. conspiracy was the right thing to do) he doubles down. Then it is like he just realized: "Oh no, I have just shattered the image that I am thoughtful and fair". He then produces a jumbled word salad trying to clean it up. He is already getting pummeled from his fans on his own twitter feed. I no longer support Trump. But the fact that so many people that I used to read and listen to (George Will, Bill Kristol, etc.). are willing to support the "any means necessary" strategy is disheartening and scary. This type of action is what will ultimately destroy and sense of democracy in the U.S.
I was unaware that the likes of Kristol and Will had adopted such thinking. At one time I was a big fan of the neoconservatism that Bill Kristol’s father essentially founded, but geopolitical events and my own experience in the GWOT have changed my mind on that.
I continue to respect Will’s thoughts, but am disappointed to hear that he might be a political Machiavellian.
We are all human, and as such, we are all fallible. I hope Sam realizes he is wrong and issues a mea culpa.
Just as I hope our country —Left and Right—realizes we, too are wrong so that we can move forward toward the Good Society. (In the Aristotelian sense, not the Leninistic). To wit, I am not holding my breath.
Thank you for sharing the link and all your thoughts! Best wishes to you and yours.
I vote Republican because they the less dictatorial of the two main parties. If we had run off elections, I would vote for a conservative or libertarian candidate. Our freedoms are being removed and people cheer just as in Star Wars when the evil lord is given “temporary” dictatorial powers.
Erick, you have never written anything I disagree with more. Trump is not the embodiment of "the right," he is a narcissistic demagogue that saw a market that needed filling - like Joe McCarthy or like the Edward G Robinson character in The 10 Commandments movie. I believed in the major positions he champions long before he did, but I know he doesn't "represent" me. A real conservative would not drop kick a winnable election to a dazed and confused opponent by 7 million votes and then try to pour acid on the foundation pillars of our democracy to get it back. For you, of all people, to chug the Kool-Aide and think defending Trump is a conservative position depresses me. Reread what you wrote - do you honestly think criticism of Trump is worse than any of Trump's crimes?
Seems you may be missing a point or two. Are you saying that openly lying, creation of false conspiracies, and subversion of the national discourse are preferable to Trump's peccadillos? I agree he's a narcissistic opportunist, but aside from his personal character flaws, the country was moving in a much better direction than the current push toward insolvency, Marxism, and technocracy without a lick of common sense.
I do not believe Erick was absolving anyone of their responsibility to rein in excesses on all sides. He's been one of the loudest voices calling for holding your own side accountable.
You want to avoid a Trump redux? Fine. I agree. I'd rather have a DeSantis every day and twice on Sunday. But beat him at the ballot box not by subverting the people.
I believe more people were hurt by American anti-anti-communism, in places like Cuba and Nicaragua and around the world, than were ever hurt by pro-communists in the USA. Now Erick is following their lead with his anti-anti-Trumpism.
If your argument is that the Dems/media/deep state do not play beanbag during campaigns I think you're rehearsing the obvious. I can remember Saint John Lewis lambasting John McCain for being an inveterate racist.
But I do not believe the conspiracy concerning Hunter Biden's laptop would have played out the same way in any other media environment - one where the laptop wasn't "discovered" by Rudy Giuliani, after all his documented malfeasance and so close to the election. If we're willing to be as enthusiastically gullible as Erick is about Trump's motives, maybe a lot of these folks sincerely thought it was an October surprise dirty trick.
And if Trump had been reelected, would you have considered it another peccadillo if he sold out Zelensky and the Ukrainians to Putin the same way he sold out the Kurds to Erdogan?
We'll have to agree to disagree on vast majority of your points. I've seen the ravages of the communists and the poverty, misery, etc. they leave in their wake first hand across the globe in the military and global business since then.
The elites there are like their counterparts here. They do not suffer from the ravages of their edicts, policies, or regulations. Nor do the people supplying all the efforts keeping forever wars ongoing. Who were the inside men selling the influence to channel that largesse? Politicians, many Retired Flag officers and bureaucrats, their family members, etc. They made out like bandits and still are to this day.
Regarding Ukraine, I doubt their would have been a Russian invasion in the first place had Trump won the election, so him selling Zelensky out would likely not been an issue. However, who did sell weapons to the Ukrainians and who reneged on them, waffled in response, was insipidly unclear as to intentions, etc.?
Let me clarify my point on Erick's anti-anti-Trump posturing. I know communism was the worst poison of the 20th century, I was just saying in America anti-anti-communism hurt the fight against it worse than the sincere pro-communists did. Likewise I think anti-anti-Trumpism is likely to do more long term damage to conservative/Republican arguments than Trump's true believers are.
Its a sad state of affairs when people cannot have an open and honest discussion of their thoughts, ideas and beliefs. We are all worse off due to the virtue signallers on both sides. It is inordinately difficult to determine who is proclaiming orthodoxy that they do not believe in just to try and be on the winning side or at least part of the popular losing side in the case of establishment Republicans.
I'm not sure who you are speaking of when you refer to the anti-anti trump people. I am totally against the poseurs who don't believe the tripe and are actively enaged in humping Trump's leg, or those doing the polar opposite of whatever comes out of the Trump movement is obviously bad and must be obstructed. Is it bad to be against these people as well? (Notice I didn't say what comes out of Trump's mouth. This is bigger than him which his ego will not allow him to concede to)
I have a real problem when people like Liz Cheney denigrate people that they agree with on 95% of things, yet join in as a pet useful idiot with people that they agree with on one issue they have dug their heels in on and refuse to let go when disagree with all else they espouse. Is this anti-anti trump?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think these useful idiots out to grift the "Boomer Rube Demo" as defined by Lincoln Project principal Rick Wilson are those who you are speaking about? The people who blow with the whim of the popularity of a narrative? I know I have a huge problem with these people who betray their followers as a matter of course and are celebrated by the media as they do it.
I agree with your sentiments, but come to the opposite conclusion. I do not think, and I'm confident Erick does not think in his heart, that Trump's violation of democratic norms is a peccadillo. It reminds me of Mr LePen in France calling the holocaust "a minor detail of history."
I think Erick is the most ethical and honest pundit/radio host on the right, but I also think he's trying to thread a needle here because he knows his core audience does not want to hear unvarnished criticism of Trump. To say Liz Cheney should not say Kevin McCarthy is a moral weakling because they agree on 95% of the issues is like saying "except for that Ms. Lincoln, the play was very entertaining..."
Trump doesn't believe in the ballot box. He declared before the vote that if he lost it would be because of fraudulent voting. He then doubled down on that rhetoric after the election which led to January 6. Republicans need to do the right thing and keep him from the nomination. But it's becoming more and more clear the cult of personality has consumed the Republican Party.
I'm not in "the ends justify the means" camp. I do believe we should use every legal avenue possible to make it as difficult as possible for him to get the nomination and failing that defeat him in 2024.
I put my faith in God and not a man. Trump is as narcissistic as Obama only from a underlying philosophy of capitalism combined w/ populism vs centrally planned governmental failure from Obama.
My desire is to move on from Trump. Trump is the result of expert elites preaching to and punishing the people they deem beneath them. The people who the elite class has sold down the river for decades. By elites in both parties. Republican victory won't solve this. There is still a ridiculous amount of work to restore rule by the people for the people.
Spiritually, I'm more with the Eastern philosophies, Taoism, Buddhism, etc. having lost faith in the Abrahamic concept of God. I hear you but all those non-elites have brains, they can figure this out. That's the only way to restore rule "by the people."
I'm in total agreement w/ the "By the people" point. Nothing will substantially change without reverting the powers as dictated by the constitution: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Republicans won't be substantially better IMO. Just a little slower in heading toward the cliff vs the Democrats pedal to the metal.
I'm a little more pessimistic about faith in the people paying attention and figuring stuff out. People are focused on maintaining their existence and living their life. I watched this kill my church and the secular world is catching up fast. I'm not betting the farm on that.
I just WISH that everybody on the right, would get a copy of the constitution and the bill of rights, and READ them over, and over, and learn what they mean to us! Then teach your kids and grandkids what they have, JUST by being born in this nation!
The real difference between the so-called left and right boils down to this! We on the right believe in the one true God, try to follow the Biblical principles, and our constitution, and defend it!
The left? Their god is government and power! They hate the constitution because they believe that they are superior to everyone else, and they only like the constitution when they can use it to further their goals!
We have to pray for them because they are being used by Satan himself, but we are fighting, not them, but as the Word says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:12 KJV
in other words, the devil and his demons that possess and influence these people! Keep in mind that Jesus Himself said to them in His day on earth, "You are of your father, the devil!"
Well we inspect the fruit, and see exactly what He was talking about! Baby killers, teens beating up and killing old people in the streets, blatant liars in government that believe they are your masters, and cruel in their own hearts!
Will it come to war? Not if we honestly take back the "seat of power" and be prepared to protect the constitution and liberty when the devil's kids (think BLM, Antifa) attack patriots on the streets!
Someone in Congress has to declare that Antifa and other violent gangs as domestic terrorists, and when necessary, eliminate the threat to the constitution!
Watch how far they push between now and the election! They've already been caught saying that if the FBI's fraudulent raid on Trump doesn't work, and he still runs for president, then their (the left) next move, will be assassination!
Agree with your points on Hayden and his group of misfits. The left hates republicans until a R does their bidding - looking at you Liz, McCain and Romney. Trump was a reaction to the left. Unlike Bush, he pushed back. I liked it. The left HATED it and still do. I appreciate Trump’s presidency, and he was treated totally unfairly.
Regardless, I think it’s time to move past Trump. He had no discipline. DeSantis is the man - he’ll
be hated too. He pushes back without the sideshow craziness and he’s a proven man.
Now want to do about the feckless Mitch and Kevin?
Yes. We know they truly do hate us. And they truly will justify ANYTHING that stops, ends and destroys us. And it is also pretty clear to some of us that republicans of the McConnell ilk pretty much feel the same way about us. Which is why many suggestions people have as to what they may do is more than just conspiracy theory. There are real possibilities of very bad things.
You could see this problem with George W Bush's presidency. The hatred and anger he provoked was completely unhinged and unjustified. It showed that the more extreme left needed someone to focus an abundance of anger upon
1. The jury's still out on whether or not CNN's new management can in fact somehow poll that network back from the irrelevance it now has. The intentions may be honorable, but the pressure from the "reliable sources" on the left to maintain CNN as a more palatable version of the 24/7 hate fest which is MSDNC may be overwhelming.
2. Yes, Erick, they really DO hate us. Even more alarming, as amply evidenced by Sam Harris’s praise of the most undemocratic tactics possible, they hate America as it was intended by the Founders even more; we're merely the target of their wrath against the nation. And that's why, like it or not, the American left as it now exists must be comprehensively destroyed. It's just too sad that longtime members of the "go along to get along" club such as Mitch McConnel are too busy doing what the left wants in the name of "bipartisanship" to realize that they're actively participating in bring Barack Obama's "fundamental transformation". the reality of which Grandpa Dementia, in one of his few worthwhile accomplishments, has made abundantly clear to people who can see - if they open their eyes to do so.
Not my neighborhood. It's PERFECT (just ask them)
As for Stetler, I can't bring myself to have any pity for him. He was a willing participant in the destruction of media integrity and has actually caused real and possibly irreparable damage to the country. And I'll bet my 401K that he will be unable and unwilling to consider that his canning was a result of his own actions. Hubris knows no bounds.
Trump cost the GOP the Senate by planting the seeds of a fraudulent and stolen election. GA Republicans stayed home rather than participate in the runoff elections there. And now he is going to cause the GOP to lose the Senate once again by promoting the extremely flawed candidate Herschel Walker. I voted for Trump twice but now I wish he would just go away. DeSantis in 2024!
Well, we have to do what we can to promote Walker, flawed or not, imo. I sure hope Erick is doing something backchannel to help him. I’ll take a flawed Walker over a flawed Warnock any day. How any conservative could possibly vote for Warnock is beyond my understanding.
Just to clarify, I will absolutely vote for Walker. It's just a shame that there were actually some really good GOP candidates that were actually qualified to run for Senate and likely would have had a better chance to win. The Rev is vulnerable and could be defeated.
And if it were Congress, I would have less qualms since there are so many of them and only a two year term. But since there are only 100 Senators and they get 6 years, this race is just too important to put all your eggs in a football star's basket and hoping name recognition carries you across the goal line. (see what I did there) A GOP Congress and Senate would severely curtail the Biden administration for the next 2 years. But it probably won't happen if Walker loses.
"The ends justifies the means" is a basic tenet of Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals," the left's playbook since 1971. I know I bring up "Rules" ad nauseum on this site, but that's because its contents and the actions of the left mirror each other so closely as to make it profoundly obvious the two are deeply intertwined. "Rules" is an instruction manual describing how to implement revolution through the overthrow of capitalism. Yet capitalism and this country gave the world a middle class where one didn't exist previously. In ONE GENERATION immigrants are able to elevate themselves out of poverty and send their kids to college in this country, yet I'm supposed to believe that capitalism takes advantage of the poor and downtrodden? Frankly, that tells me everything I need to know about the left.
I struggle to understand how any reasonable person could ever vote for these leftist idealists whose ideas have never worked. They own most of the media, academia, tech companies, and bureaucracies. How? It’s not a lack of their intelligence. It seems they are adverse to wisdom.
I listen, read, learn, and think about this stuff and it's hard to see how this plays out when subversion is fine on the other side, and as Erick often says, voters are stupid. We have to put a lot of faith that people will be interested enough to go beyond the sound bites, wailing, rending of clothes performance of the left and their media allies to see the real truth as opposed to the leftist's personal version of their truth.
Its a matter of faith. I do believe God is in charge, but there is such a thing as free will, and we cannot sit back and think He will save us from ourselves. Even when the false prophets are out misleading the gullible and weak minded.
We cannot rely on hope to solve this morass. Nietzsche said, "Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man." Hope is a passive activity. Rush Limbaugh brought this up a couple of times and it stuck in my mind. He quoted Nietzsche then went on, "Meaning, unhappy, dissatisfied, not content, miserable, whatever, depressed. And you hope. You sit around, you hope something is going to change. But your torment continues because hope isn’t going to change anything." The caller replied, "Hope is not sitting around doing nothing. Hope is you’ve done the possible. Now you wait for God to do the impossible." This was all referring to Obama proclaiming to be the messiah of hope and change.
Rush continued, "There’s no question that the Democrats have continually tried, in a number of ways, to depress the spirit of the American people as have their compatriots in the media. The economy is going to hell in a handbasket. We’re soup line America. People are losing their homes. Nobody has health care. ..."
"Hope is an excuse for people not to do anything. Hope is an excuse for not trying, in this context. These people are not feeling hopeful about themselves. They are investing hope that Obama will make them feel better, or that Obama will improve their lives. That’s why I keep referring to him as having a messianic appeal to people."
I'm "hoping" people will not sit back and passively wait for a governmental messiah to save them. The secular left is all in on the governmental technocracy bet. God willing, I trust that truth will prevail and come November we see a result like what happened in the UK to Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party. But I'm not going to sit idly by and hope that happens.
You should go back a read the transcript of this discussion. Its amazing that it was from way back in 2008, but its as relevant today as it was then. https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2008/02/19/rush_limbaugh_defines_hope/
Its a shame the audio archives don't go that far back. I'd love to listen to it again. I remember listening to it driving to lunch one day.
And the MAGA right really do hate them. I have a friend; he didn't attend the January 6 "rally", but he has friends in his church who did. Long before Trump came on the scene when he and I could discuss politics and largely agreed, he would routinely refer to the Left as "scum" and other such scurrilous language. This is purely anecdotal but relevant.
In response to a nudge from a friend, I recently subscribed to get behind the paywall curtain of Sam Harris’s podcast. Sam abhors Trump more than I do, and he especially dislikes the religious orthodoxy to which I (badly) adhere, but he is generally thoughtful and embraces nuance. He is not the prototypical nihilistic atheist, although he is an atheist.
Where has he said he thinks the ends justifies the means against Trump? I am not contending he hasn’t said that, I would just like to read or listen to his argument without having to sift through the haystack of his content to find the needle.
If you listen to this video (link below), Sam says he feels the conspiracy to censer the Biden laptop story before the election was "warranted" because he views Trump as a threat. He also states in the beginning that "Hunter could have the corpses of children in his basement" on his laptop and he still would have supported censoring it so that it would not help Trump. This guy has Terminal TDS. https://twitter.com/i/status/1560257247422189570
In no way am I trying to beat a dead horse or run to Sam Harris’ defense. But I did listen to his explanation/admission of poor word choice this afternoon on the way home from Erick’s hometown (the drive way just long enough!). To wit, Sam says he should have said “justifiable” instead of “warranted” about how the MSM ignored the Hunter Biden laptop story prior to the election.
While I certainly do not agree with Sam fully on his opinion of Trump, I now understand Sam’s point better.
I do agree that Trump’s personality (not necessarily his politics) is less than helpful, but I place the blame on the media for that. Any other lunatic running for office would have been ignored. Let’s hope we all—especially the Republicans!—can do that moving forward.
Thanks! I’ll try to find the entire conversation later. Prima facie and with minimal context, that is very concerning, to put it in the mildest, most favorable toward Sam term.
What is interesting is that when the hosts calls him out to clarify if he is actually saying the ends justify the means (i.e. conspiracy was the right thing to do) he doubles down. Then it is like he just realized: "Oh no, I have just shattered the image that I am thoughtful and fair". He then produces a jumbled word salad trying to clean it up. He is already getting pummeled from his fans on his own twitter feed. I no longer support Trump. But the fact that so many people that I used to read and listen to (George Will, Bill Kristol, etc.). are willing to support the "any means necessary" strategy is disheartening and scary. This type of action is what will ultimately destroy and sense of democracy in the U.S.
I was unaware that the likes of Kristol and Will had adopted such thinking. At one time I was a big fan of the neoconservatism that Bill Kristol’s father essentially founded, but geopolitical events and my own experience in the GWOT have changed my mind on that.
I continue to respect Will’s thoughts, but am disappointed to hear that he might be a political Machiavellian.
We are all human, and as such, we are all fallible. I hope Sam realizes he is wrong and issues a mea culpa.
Just as I hope our country —Left and Right—realizes we, too are wrong so that we can move forward toward the Good Society. (In the Aristotelian sense, not the Leninistic). To wit, I am not holding my breath.
Thank you for sharing the link and all your thoughts! Best wishes to you and yours.
I vote Republican because they the less dictatorial of the two main parties. If we had run off elections, I would vote for a conservative or libertarian candidate. Our freedoms are being removed and people cheer just as in Star Wars when the evil lord is given “temporary” dictatorial powers.
On Luce and co - ya think?
Erick, you have never written anything I disagree with more. Trump is not the embodiment of "the right," he is a narcissistic demagogue that saw a market that needed filling - like Joe McCarthy or like the Edward G Robinson character in The 10 Commandments movie. I believed in the major positions he champions long before he did, but I know he doesn't "represent" me. A real conservative would not drop kick a winnable election to a dazed and confused opponent by 7 million votes and then try to pour acid on the foundation pillars of our democracy to get it back. For you, of all people, to chug the Kool-Aide and think defending Trump is a conservative position depresses me. Reread what you wrote - do you honestly think criticism of Trump is worse than any of Trump's crimes?
Seems you may be missing a point or two. Are you saying that openly lying, creation of false conspiracies, and subversion of the national discourse are preferable to Trump's peccadillos? I agree he's a narcissistic opportunist, but aside from his personal character flaws, the country was moving in a much better direction than the current push toward insolvency, Marxism, and technocracy without a lick of common sense.
I do not believe Erick was absolving anyone of their responsibility to rein in excesses on all sides. He's been one of the loudest voices calling for holding your own side accountable.
You want to avoid a Trump redux? Fine. I agree. I'd rather have a DeSantis every day and twice on Sunday. But beat him at the ballot box not by subverting the people.
I believe more people were hurt by American anti-anti-communism, in places like Cuba and Nicaragua and around the world, than were ever hurt by pro-communists in the USA. Now Erick is following their lead with his anti-anti-Trumpism.
If your argument is that the Dems/media/deep state do not play beanbag during campaigns I think you're rehearsing the obvious. I can remember Saint John Lewis lambasting John McCain for being an inveterate racist.
But I do not believe the conspiracy concerning Hunter Biden's laptop would have played out the same way in any other media environment - one where the laptop wasn't "discovered" by Rudy Giuliani, after all his documented malfeasance and so close to the election. If we're willing to be as enthusiastically gullible as Erick is about Trump's motives, maybe a lot of these folks sincerely thought it was an October surprise dirty trick.
And if Trump had been reelected, would you have considered it another peccadillo if he sold out Zelensky and the Ukrainians to Putin the same way he sold out the Kurds to Erdogan?
We'll have to agree to disagree on vast majority of your points. I've seen the ravages of the communists and the poverty, misery, etc. they leave in their wake first hand across the globe in the military and global business since then.
The elites there are like their counterparts here. They do not suffer from the ravages of their edicts, policies, or regulations. Nor do the people supplying all the efforts keeping forever wars ongoing. Who were the inside men selling the influence to channel that largesse? Politicians, many Retired Flag officers and bureaucrats, their family members, etc. They made out like bandits and still are to this day.
Regarding Ukraine, I doubt their would have been a Russian invasion in the first place had Trump won the election, so him selling Zelensky out would likely not been an issue. However, who did sell weapons to the Ukrainians and who reneged on them, waffled in response, was insipidly unclear as to intentions, etc.?
Your arguments ring very hollow to me.
Let me clarify my point on Erick's anti-anti-Trump posturing. I know communism was the worst poison of the 20th century, I was just saying in America anti-anti-communism hurt the fight against it worse than the sincere pro-communists did. Likewise I think anti-anti-Trumpism is likely to do more long term damage to conservative/Republican arguments than Trump's true believers are.
Its a sad state of affairs when people cannot have an open and honest discussion of their thoughts, ideas and beliefs. We are all worse off due to the virtue signallers on both sides. It is inordinately difficult to determine who is proclaiming orthodoxy that they do not believe in just to try and be on the winning side or at least part of the popular losing side in the case of establishment Republicans.
I'm not sure who you are speaking of when you refer to the anti-anti trump people. I am totally against the poseurs who don't believe the tripe and are actively enaged in humping Trump's leg, or those doing the polar opposite of whatever comes out of the Trump movement is obviously bad and must be obstructed. Is it bad to be against these people as well? (Notice I didn't say what comes out of Trump's mouth. This is bigger than him which his ego will not allow him to concede to)
I have a real problem when people like Liz Cheney denigrate people that they agree with on 95% of things, yet join in as a pet useful idiot with people that they agree with on one issue they have dug their heels in on and refuse to let go when disagree with all else they espouse. Is this anti-anti trump?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think these useful idiots out to grift the "Boomer Rube Demo" as defined by Lincoln Project principal Rick Wilson are those who you are speaking about? The people who blow with the whim of the popularity of a narrative? I know I have a huge problem with these people who betray their followers as a matter of course and are celebrated by the media as they do it.
I agree with your sentiments, but come to the opposite conclusion. I do not think, and I'm confident Erick does not think in his heart, that Trump's violation of democratic norms is a peccadillo. It reminds me of Mr LePen in France calling the holocaust "a minor detail of history."
I think Erick is the most ethical and honest pundit/radio host on the right, but I also think he's trying to thread a needle here because he knows his core audience does not want to hear unvarnished criticism of Trump. To say Liz Cheney should not say Kevin McCarthy is a moral weakling because they agree on 95% of the issues is like saying "except for that Ms. Lincoln, the play was very entertaining..."
Trump doesn't believe in the ballot box. He declared before the vote that if he lost it would be because of fraudulent voting. He then doubled down on that rhetoric after the election which led to January 6. Republicans need to do the right thing and keep him from the nomination. But it's becoming more and more clear the cult of personality has consumed the Republican Party.
I'm not in "the ends justify the means" camp. I do believe we should use every legal avenue possible to make it as difficult as possible for him to get the nomination and failing that defeat him in 2024.
I put my faith in God and not a man. Trump is as narcissistic as Obama only from a underlying philosophy of capitalism combined w/ populism vs centrally planned governmental failure from Obama.
My desire is to move on from Trump. Trump is the result of expert elites preaching to and punishing the people they deem beneath them. The people who the elite class has sold down the river for decades. By elites in both parties. Republican victory won't solve this. There is still a ridiculous amount of work to restore rule by the people for the people.
Spiritually, I'm more with the Eastern philosophies, Taoism, Buddhism, etc. having lost faith in the Abrahamic concept of God. I hear you but all those non-elites have brains, they can figure this out. That's the only way to restore rule "by the people."
I'm in total agreement w/ the "By the people" point. Nothing will substantially change without reverting the powers as dictated by the constitution: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Republicans won't be substantially better IMO. Just a little slower in heading toward the cliff vs the Democrats pedal to the metal.
I'm a little more pessimistic about faith in the people paying attention and figuring stuff out. People are focused on maintaining their existence and living their life. I watched this kill my church and the secular world is catching up fast. I'm not betting the farm on that.
I just wish, Erick!
I just WISH that everybody on the right, would get a copy of the constitution and the bill of rights, and READ them over, and over, and learn what they mean to us! Then teach your kids and grandkids what they have, JUST by being born in this nation!
The real difference between the so-called left and right boils down to this! We on the right believe in the one true God, try to follow the Biblical principles, and our constitution, and defend it!
The left? Their god is government and power! They hate the constitution because they believe that they are superior to everyone else, and they only like the constitution when they can use it to further their goals!
We have to pray for them because they are being used by Satan himself, but we are fighting, not them, but as the Word says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:12 KJV
in other words, the devil and his demons that possess and influence these people! Keep in mind that Jesus Himself said to them in His day on earth, "You are of your father, the devil!"
Well we inspect the fruit, and see exactly what He was talking about! Baby killers, teens beating up and killing old people in the streets, blatant liars in government that believe they are your masters, and cruel in their own hearts!
Will it come to war? Not if we honestly take back the "seat of power" and be prepared to protect the constitution and liberty when the devil's kids (think BLM, Antifa) attack patriots on the streets!
Someone in Congress has to declare that Antifa and other violent gangs as domestic terrorists, and when necessary, eliminate the threat to the constitution!
Watch how far they push between now and the election! They've already been caught saying that if the FBI's fraudulent raid on Trump doesn't work, and he still runs for president, then their (the left) next move, will be assassination!
Agree with your points on Hayden and his group of misfits. The left hates republicans until a R does their bidding - looking at you Liz, McCain and Romney. Trump was a reaction to the left. Unlike Bush, he pushed back. I liked it. The left HATED it and still do. I appreciate Trump’s presidency, and he was treated totally unfairly.
Regardless, I think it’s time to move past Trump. He had no discipline. DeSantis is the man - he’ll
be hated too. He pushes back without the sideshow craziness and he’s a proven man.
Now want to do about the feckless Mitch and Kevin?
Yes. We know they truly do hate us. And they truly will justify ANYTHING that stops, ends and destroys us. And it is also pretty clear to some of us that republicans of the McConnell ilk pretty much feel the same way about us. Which is why many suggestions people have as to what they may do is more than just conspiracy theory. There are real possibilities of very bad things.
You could see this problem with George W Bush's presidency. The hatred and anger he provoked was completely unhinged and unjustified. It showed that the more extreme left needed someone to focus an abundance of anger upon
They thrive on hate. Oddly they love the yard sign “Love Trumps Hate” - they are some of the most hateful people I know.
I want a yard sign that says, "Sanctimony has no home here. EVERYBODY welcome even you dirty rotten haters"
That's gonna be a BIG sign.
OK, make it,
"Sanctimony has no home here*
*haters welcome"
That might get HOA approval.