Yes, Trump ran an often ugly campaign. Yes, I am among those worried about his unpredictability. But the left has work to do, not only on policy and organization but also on attitude. Too many of my progressive friends seem to have forgotten how to make actual arguments, and have become expert instead at condemnation, derision and mockery. On issue after issue, they’re very good at explaining why no one could oppose their policy positions except for the basest of motives. As to those positions themselves, they are too often announced with a zealous solemnity suggesting that their views are Holy Writ -- and those who disagree are cast into the outer political darkness. In short, the left has lately been dripping with hubris, which in classic literature always portends a fall.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
By Stephen L. Carter …
… Trump and the Fall of Liberalism - Bloomberg View.
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Progressive left, populist right. Both are collections of whiners and malcontents. I didn't vote for either candidate, because neither presented any ideas or embodied any values that I respect.
ReplyDeleteThe anti-Trump vote, was anti-Trump, and sent Americans looking for who could possibly represent the country. Because Trump is not a true Republican himself, voting for Hillary first, then Romney in 2012, the Republicans have work to do as well. Indeed, many of those that will take a spot in his administration, are the ones he would call losers on the campaign trail. The Republican leaders, who did not care to play coat-tail politics, but seemed to care more for our country and its people, turned their backs on Trump.
ReplyDeleteIf Hillary had won the presidency, the analysts would be saying that people split their votes in order to have a balance of power and ideas. I did not decide to vote for Hillary until a few days after Weld called on his Libertarian supporters to vote for her. This was the first scare that flew in the face of what many pollsters were saying, the shrewd politician Weld, giving up his votes because if nothing else, it was too close to mess around with a third party getting Libertarian ideas out. This was not the time, and he was right.
Possibly for the first time ever, I voted a straight Democratic ticket ~~ in order to balance power, what many like me probably did while voting straight Republican, or voting for Hillary on otherwise straight Republican ballots.
The most significant thing for this country that the Trump election shows, has nothing to do with liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, because Trump could have chosen to run on the Democrat side, where he put his vote and support in 2012, the Republican ticket simply and most importantly being his path of least resistance for 2016.
The most significant thing is that Americans voted for a man who acted shamefully, and deserves punches in the mouth from all who he insulted. American voted for a man who is under a long-lasting IRS audit, who next month was about to be sued by those he scammed in his Trump University scam, a man who taught his own children that he cannot be trusted and neither can anyone else . . .
. . . And all the scummy things he did in the past year and a half, his own deplorable deeds. If it turns out that Trump has a slim popular vote lead after all, we can attribute that to his true deplorables, the Nazi vote he went after, who are celebrating (while putting those people down who would anti-celebrate, protest instead).
Here's some of what's been unleashed, just a few examples, focused on our children, the biggest losers: (1) Teen Hands Out "Deportation Notices" to Students at School Following the Election; (2) Michigan middle school students: 'Build the wall!' and (3) Kids’ post-election fears spur trauma counseling in schools this week.
Of those 3 links about how the fallout from the results reached our children and into our schools, the first 2 stories have been deleted from my Facebook page since last night, the third garnering a comment, "twats", whether to mock Trump, or to support him, hard to tell.
This is what happens when you make a deal with the devil.
As ideas state capitalism and socialism are not the same thing at all. In practice they could cross over or not.
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