Last week I wrote about growing perceptions that President Biden’s failing cognitive abilities were starting to interfere with his management of presidential duties.
I voted for Trump in 2016 because there was no other choice. I was a Cruz supporter then but having personal knowledge of the Clintons and their ways I could never vote for her. I have been a conservative Republican since before I could vote 55 years ago. My fear now is that Trump is indeed unelectable and that we are headed for an open convention which, in the modern era has not worked well. It’s only going to take one criminal conviction to make that happen. Looking at the other side, I see no way for the Democrat party to avoid that open convention. We shall see.
I did indeed find your column coming from Powerline. I intend to start a subscription.
I'm keeping this post to share with anyone who asks me if I'm a Republican - to which I currently reply, "No, I'm a conservative." - as explanation of what I mean. Especially the "getting shit done" part. 💜
Neither Trump nor the woke care about this country, they care about themselves. They are both divisive. Our enemies like it when we are divided.
I did not pledge an amount because I can't afford it. Because I would like to subscribe to all of the rational voices: yourself, Quillette, The Free Press, Sam Harris, and others. Maybe you can start a combine of some sort.
Yeah Danielle … I am one of those daily readers at Powerline blog who took note of what you had penned, and added my comments too.
You present some intriguing (behind the scenes perhaps, like D.C. Confidential) perspective, but I have a few contentions with you, especially when you describe yourself as a free trade internationalist.
I remember in the 1990s listening to The Michael Reagan Show (adopted son of the late great Ronaldus Magnus) and he was talking about US trade policy, and so-called “free trade” and what our policies really should be. Reagan summed it up pretty direct, whatever a country has as a trade policy towards America, we should have the same policy towards them too. If that country wants to impose high tariffs and restrictions against US made products, then we mirror that policy back at them.
I would also add my own caveat to this … that America should have no “free trade” with tyrannical, authoritarian and outright corrupt countries either. Yet in the 1990s the “free-traders” gave us terrible agreements like NAFTA, and Communist China was let into the WTO, with the express hopes that China “would become more like us.”
Well … in truth, China is NOT becoming more like us, but alarmingly the U.S. seems to becoming more like China! We now actually have lots of American pols and media figures who disparage the 1st Amendment and seek censorship and censoring-like policies and restrictions, all under the name of “saving democracy” and/or stopping “misinformation.”
Even some 30+ years ago, I was aligned with Ross Perot and against NAFTA, not because I am against free trade, but because I saw Mexico then as the corrupt narcostate that it is. Perot was right in his regards to NAFTA in that the treaty just seemed to put the Mexican narcostate on steroids. How many of those shipping containers from Mexico are getting packed by the cartels? And look where we are at right now with Mexico … the Democrat Party and their meat puppet Dementia Joe have essentially outsourced our entire southern border to the cartels.
As we are both Republicans rooted in our conservative values, we both should agree that the human trafficking, defacto sex slavery and compelled child labor emanating from all of this is a stain upon humanity. Add to this the narcotics trafficking, the fentanyl epidemic killing tens of thousands each year, as well as the loss of our American sovereignty and pride as a country.
The Republican Party was founded as an abolition party with the idea that each and every human being is created in the image of God, Imago Dei. We all have unalienable and Divinely gifted rights. Yet this 21st century underground slavery here in America grows like a cancer. And all the establishment elites seem to care about are Ukraine’s borders, or the next multibillion dollar allotment we’re going to give to Zelenskyy, or just gently managing our dysfunctional relationship with China. The D.C. establishment seems like the tax collector for the welfare state who is going to quietly and steadily manage America’s decline.
So free trade? Yeah … I’m all for free trade, but only with nations that share our values and are not prone to cheat us, steal our intellectual products and proprietary inventions, or act as mafia drug dealers to our fellow citizens.
You claim to be an internationalist … so what does this mean? Do you see yourself as an American patriot or as a “global citizen?” As an AEI internationalist, perhaps your thoughts and attentions are more devoted to international free trade, and sending all of our military support, national security attentions and resources to far flung countries and regions around the world?
But … what do you say about our relationship with Mexico? And while the horrible and unjust Russian invasion of Ukraine is indeed terrible, I would submit to you right now that many many more Americans have already died, and many more will die because of our “international” relationship with Mexico. I am not against supporting Ukraine, NATO, Taiwan, and Israel. In fact I view both Taiwan and Israel as top priorities for American support. But … we also must support America too, and there is a lot of truth to the adage that charity begins at home.
I remember reading about Ronald Reagan making a speech in which he talked about his lifeguard job as a young man. He described how as a lifeguard he had to workout, exercise, swim laps and stay healthy and in good shape to be the skilled and reliable lifeguard that he was. Otherwise, if he was just a sickly and frail lifeguard, he wouldn’t be strong enough to rescue anybody. And if he even attempted a rescue in such a weakened condition, both he and the person drowning would be at mortal risk.
Reagan’s analogy was a good one to use when describing his lifeguard experience to his then role as Commander-In-Chief in confronting and subsequently defeating the Soviet Union. America needs to be strong if it is to be a lifeguard to other nations.
Right now … America is not a strong nation. Everybody knows it. The Democrat Party (and its not Democratic Party because there is nothing democratic about this very undemocratic cabal) and their implanted meat puppet in the Oval Office have bludgeoned our economy, Biden’s inflation continues, the national debt keeps soaring to $35 trillion, more young Americans do not want to enlist in the Armed Forces, and our borders are open, with crime seeming to run rampant, especially in those Democrat party machine controlled cities and states.
At this moment in time, it’s hard to feel proud of and patriotic of America. How is one supposed to feel patriotic pride when half the country wants to vote to tax you into poverty? Or to throttle your 1st amendment, 2nd amendment and other constitutional freedoms? It’s all because of “white privilege” and/or the “patriarchy” you know? WTH … I say WTF?!? And, I say this as a U.S. Navy veteran who grew up in a LAPD cop family, and had a 25+ year federal LEO career.
In the meantime … if America just keeps driving ever closer to the cliff, then perhaps we can all be more like Venezuela. I had read that Venezuela was once the most prosperous country in South America some 40 years ago. Now … people there resort to eating their pets. Even zoo animals have been on the menu. All the while, young Venezuelan thugs claim “asylum” and form criminal gangs here committing mass thefts and robberies, while others stalk, rape and kill young college co-eds and defenseless children. A question that always comes to my mind about all these Venezuelans bum rushing our border … how many of them voted for their socialist tyrants, and then after ruining their country, have come here to ruin ours?!?
Lastly, I can understand your aversion and antipathy towards the Bad Orange Man, although I think much of it is unwarranted. DJT’s election in 2016 was middle America and the flyover states giving the D.C. establishment a big middle finger. This was a reaction to the greedy self-absorbed, incestuous relationships and priorities that come out of D.C. The simple truth is that the D.C. establishment whom you seem to know so well, needs more than just ridicule and condemnation and a collective middle finger. Much of the tone in D.C. is just all out unAmerican and seems more like the twisted thoughts and bizarre ideas that excrete their way out of Davos.
Yet, I can agree with you that DJT is a rather mercurial and very vain chief executive. But then again, show me anybody seeking POTUS, and I’ll show you somebody who also has a high level of vanity, arrogance, controlling behavior, and a temper. We are not electing a saint or a pope here … just a politician.
I can say this though in favor of DJT. First … a preface; I think working for DJT might be unbearable. As a chief executive he seems like a real asshole. But here is the silver lining. While I wouldn’t necessarily like working in a Trump White House or for the Trump Corporation, I like the idea of this asshole working for me and for the American people.
Despite his flaws, he does seem to love America and he brings into government a business and bottom line perspective that is so lacking in the federal government. And I say this as a retired federal LEO. So, I kinda like this guy being the asshole to those in government who really need a swift kick in the ass, and even a swift kick out the door and into the unemployment line.
I also like the idea of DJT being an asshole to the mullahs in Iran and to the communist dictators we have here in the Western Hemisphere. He even has enough asshole unpredictability along with his boorish personality to keep the ChiComs and Vladimir the Putin guessing, not knowing what to do. So … he can be our unpredictable leader who can be an asshole to the world’s other assholes who create such mayhem and chaos in the world. I like that.
So please Danielle … talk some more about your free trade internationalist values and perspective. How does your perspective align with the current societal disaster at the southern border. And why should we just keep chanting free trade when mercantilistic despotic regimes like the ChiComs routinely spy on us, steal our corporate and proprietary secrets, engage in hegemony, and repress their own people in Orwellian fashion?
Free trade? I’m all for it! Let’s have free trade with open and free countries like the U.K., Israel, Canada, Australia, The Philippines, Japan, and now with Argentina, among other countries like these.
Our attempts at free trade with totalitarian countries like China and corrupt narcostates like Mexico are not providing any lasting benefits to Americans. I would say that these policies have been dismal failures and America is suffering all the more for them, while a few elite Americans have made lots of personal fortunes by selling out their fellow Americans.
Thanks for your thoughtful and long note. Can't agree with everything but do agree about the trade issues. Funnily enough, together with a friend who was then at the Center for American Progress, I said much the same. We can no longer ignore that free trade has been a tool used by despots to enrich themselves and challenge us. I'm all for free trade with democracies, but less so for kleptocracies, dictatorships, narcostates etc. Piece is here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/02/20/it-is-time-for-the-worlds-democracies-to-stand-for-what-they-believe-in/
I voted for Trump in 2016 because there was no other choice. I was a Cruz supporter then but having personal knowledge of the Clintons and their ways I could never vote for her. I have been a conservative Republican since before I could vote 55 years ago. My fear now is that Trump is indeed unelectable and that we are headed for an open convention which, in the modern era has not worked well. It’s only going to take one criminal conviction to make that happen. Looking at the other side, I see no way for the Democrat party to avoid that open convention. We shall see.
I did indeed find your column coming from Powerline. I intend to start a subscription.
I'm keeping this post to share with anyone who asks me if I'm a Republican - to which I currently reply, "No, I'm a conservative." - as explanation of what I mean. Especially the "getting shit done" part. 💜
Neither Trump nor the woke care about this country, they care about themselves. They are both divisive. Our enemies like it when we are divided.
I did not pledge an amount because I can't afford it. Because I would like to subscribe to all of the rational voices: yourself, Quillette, The Free Press, Sam Harris, and others. Maybe you can start a combine of some sort.
Yeah Danielle … I am one of those daily readers at Powerline blog who took note of what you had penned, and added my comments too.
You present some intriguing (behind the scenes perhaps, like D.C. Confidential) perspective, but I have a few contentions with you, especially when you describe yourself as a free trade internationalist.
I remember in the 1990s listening to The Michael Reagan Show (adopted son of the late great Ronaldus Magnus) and he was talking about US trade policy, and so-called “free trade” and what our policies really should be. Reagan summed it up pretty direct, whatever a country has as a trade policy towards America, we should have the same policy towards them too. If that country wants to impose high tariffs and restrictions against US made products, then we mirror that policy back at them.
I would also add my own caveat to this … that America should have no “free trade” with tyrannical, authoritarian and outright corrupt countries either. Yet in the 1990s the “free-traders” gave us terrible agreements like NAFTA, and Communist China was let into the WTO, with the express hopes that China “would become more like us.”
Well … in truth, China is NOT becoming more like us, but alarmingly the U.S. seems to becoming more like China! We now actually have lots of American pols and media figures who disparage the 1st Amendment and seek censorship and censoring-like policies and restrictions, all under the name of “saving democracy” and/or stopping “misinformation.”
Even some 30+ years ago, I was aligned with Ross Perot and against NAFTA, not because I am against free trade, but because I saw Mexico then as the corrupt narcostate that it is. Perot was right in his regards to NAFTA in that the treaty just seemed to put the Mexican narcostate on steroids. How many of those shipping containers from Mexico are getting packed by the cartels? And look where we are at right now with Mexico … the Democrat Party and their meat puppet Dementia Joe have essentially outsourced our entire southern border to the cartels.
As we are both Republicans rooted in our conservative values, we both should agree that the human trafficking, defacto sex slavery and compelled child labor emanating from all of this is a stain upon humanity. Add to this the narcotics trafficking, the fentanyl epidemic killing tens of thousands each year, as well as the loss of our American sovereignty and pride as a country.
The Republican Party was founded as an abolition party with the idea that each and every human being is created in the image of God, Imago Dei. We all have unalienable and Divinely gifted rights. Yet this 21st century underground slavery here in America grows like a cancer. And all the establishment elites seem to care about are Ukraine’s borders, or the next multibillion dollar allotment we’re going to give to Zelenskyy, or just gently managing our dysfunctional relationship with China. The D.C. establishment seems like the tax collector for the welfare state who is going to quietly and steadily manage America’s decline.
So free trade? Yeah … I’m all for free trade, but only with nations that share our values and are not prone to cheat us, steal our intellectual products and proprietary inventions, or act as mafia drug dealers to our fellow citizens.
You claim to be an internationalist … so what does this mean? Do you see yourself as an American patriot or as a “global citizen?” As an AEI internationalist, perhaps your thoughts and attentions are more devoted to international free trade, and sending all of our military support, national security attentions and resources to far flung countries and regions around the world?
But … what do you say about our relationship with Mexico? And while the horrible and unjust Russian invasion of Ukraine is indeed terrible, I would submit to you right now that many many more Americans have already died, and many more will die because of our “international” relationship with Mexico. I am not against supporting Ukraine, NATO, Taiwan, and Israel. In fact I view both Taiwan and Israel as top priorities for American support. But … we also must support America too, and there is a lot of truth to the adage that charity begins at home.
I remember reading about Ronald Reagan making a speech in which he talked about his lifeguard job as a young man. He described how as a lifeguard he had to workout, exercise, swim laps and stay healthy and in good shape to be the skilled and reliable lifeguard that he was. Otherwise, if he was just a sickly and frail lifeguard, he wouldn’t be strong enough to rescue anybody. And if he even attempted a rescue in such a weakened condition, both he and the person drowning would be at mortal risk.
Reagan’s analogy was a good one to use when describing his lifeguard experience to his then role as Commander-In-Chief in confronting and subsequently defeating the Soviet Union. America needs to be strong if it is to be a lifeguard to other nations.
Right now … America is not a strong nation. Everybody knows it. The Democrat Party (and its not Democratic Party because there is nothing democratic about this very undemocratic cabal) and their implanted meat puppet in the Oval Office have bludgeoned our economy, Biden’s inflation continues, the national debt keeps soaring to $35 trillion, more young Americans do not want to enlist in the Armed Forces, and our borders are open, with crime seeming to run rampant, especially in those Democrat party machine controlled cities and states.
At this moment in time, it’s hard to feel proud of and patriotic of America. How is one supposed to feel patriotic pride when half the country wants to vote to tax you into poverty? Or to throttle your 1st amendment, 2nd amendment and other constitutional freedoms? It’s all because of “white privilege” and/or the “patriarchy” you know? WTH … I say WTF?!? And, I say this as a U.S. Navy veteran who grew up in a LAPD cop family, and had a 25+ year federal LEO career.
In the meantime … if America just keeps driving ever closer to the cliff, then perhaps we can all be more like Venezuela. I had read that Venezuela was once the most prosperous country in South America some 40 years ago. Now … people there resort to eating their pets. Even zoo animals have been on the menu. All the while, young Venezuelan thugs claim “asylum” and form criminal gangs here committing mass thefts and robberies, while others stalk, rape and kill young college co-eds and defenseless children. A question that always comes to my mind about all these Venezuelans bum rushing our border … how many of them voted for their socialist tyrants, and then after ruining their country, have come here to ruin ours?!?
Lastly, I can understand your aversion and antipathy towards the Bad Orange Man, although I think much of it is unwarranted. DJT’s election in 2016 was middle America and the flyover states giving the D.C. establishment a big middle finger. This was a reaction to the greedy self-absorbed, incestuous relationships and priorities that come out of D.C. The simple truth is that the D.C. establishment whom you seem to know so well, needs more than just ridicule and condemnation and a collective middle finger. Much of the tone in D.C. is just all out unAmerican and seems more like the twisted thoughts and bizarre ideas that excrete their way out of Davos.
Yet, I can agree with you that DJT is a rather mercurial and very vain chief executive. But then again, show me anybody seeking POTUS, and I’ll show you somebody who also has a high level of vanity, arrogance, controlling behavior, and a temper. We are not electing a saint or a pope here … just a politician.
I can say this though in favor of DJT. First … a preface; I think working for DJT might be unbearable. As a chief executive he seems like a real asshole. But here is the silver lining. While I wouldn’t necessarily like working in a Trump White House or for the Trump Corporation, I like the idea of this asshole working for me and for the American people.
Despite his flaws, he does seem to love America and he brings into government a business and bottom line perspective that is so lacking in the federal government. And I say this as a retired federal LEO. So, I kinda like this guy being the asshole to those in government who really need a swift kick in the ass, and even a swift kick out the door and into the unemployment line.
I also like the idea of DJT being an asshole to the mullahs in Iran and to the communist dictators we have here in the Western Hemisphere. He even has enough asshole unpredictability along with his boorish personality to keep the ChiComs and Vladimir the Putin guessing, not knowing what to do. So … he can be our unpredictable leader who can be an asshole to the world’s other assholes who create such mayhem and chaos in the world. I like that.
So please Danielle … talk some more about your free trade internationalist values and perspective. How does your perspective align with the current societal disaster at the southern border. And why should we just keep chanting free trade when mercantilistic despotic regimes like the ChiComs routinely spy on us, steal our corporate and proprietary secrets, engage in hegemony, and repress their own people in Orwellian fashion?
Free trade? I’m all for it! Let’s have free trade with open and free countries like the U.K., Israel, Canada, Australia, The Philippines, Japan, and now with Argentina, among other countries like these.
Our attempts at free trade with totalitarian countries like China and corrupt narcostates like Mexico are not providing any lasting benefits to Americans. I would say that these policies have been dismal failures and America is suffering all the more for them, while a few elite Americans have made lots of personal fortunes by selling out their fellow Americans.
G’day.
Thanks for your thoughtful and long note. Can't agree with everything but do agree about the trade issues. Funnily enough, together with a friend who was then at the Center for American Progress, I said much the same. We can no longer ignore that free trade has been a tool used by despots to enrich themselves and challenge us. I'm all for free trade with democracies, but less so for kleptocracies, dictatorships, narcostates etc. Piece is here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/02/20/it-is-time-for-the-worlds-democracies-to-stand-for-what-they-believe-in/
Apologies for the length. But at least it shows that your column got my mind racing with various ideas … which then just pour out into words.
Your 2018 WaPo column was pretty spot on too.
Best regards and g’day!