Bipartisan neocon Robert Kagan, who has served in the administrations of both Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, has a prescient rap on the Donald Trump phenomenon up at the Washington Post, denying that Donald hijacked the GOP. Instead, says Bob, Donald is “the party’s creation, its Frankenstein monster, brought to life by the party, fed…
Tag: Donald Trump
Why did the GOP fail to stop Trump? Because Republicans voted for him
At the Washington Post, Dan Drezner serves up “My very peculiar and speculative theory of why the GOP has not stopped Donald Trump”, receiving an approving nod from the American Conservative’s Daniel Larison, “How the GOP Failed To Stop Trump”. Drezner’s take: “My hypothesis is that GOP decision-makers also read the same analyses [from political…
William Kristol, unhappily swallowing, though not willing to digest, a very bitter pill
William Kristol, a man I love to hate—or at least ridicule—has a plaintive post up at his rag, the Weekly Standard, labeled “No Outrage”, in which the enraged Mr. Kristol gives vent to his bewilderment that no Republican—not Jeb Bush, not George Bush, not Dick Cheney—has been willing to fault Donald Trump for asserting that…
Iraq now must be seen as the Republicans’ Vietnam, Part II
I remarked earlier on the fact that both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz were gaining traction by rejecting the “muscular” foreign policy that has become de rigueur for Republicans since the Age of Ronnie. Well, now, the Donald has gone completely apeshit, saying that Bush’s incompetence caused 9/11 and that the Iraq war was not…
Trump chic and other assorted crimes
Over at Slate, Scots-Irish hillbilly for a day Reihan Salam thumps his chest with pride at his sly affection for Donald Trump, who is speaking up for the common man, or at least the common white man: “he is speaking for millions of Americans who’ve lost faith in the political process.” Well, yes. He is…
Are We Germany Yet?
In 1932, the two top presidential vote getters in Germany were Adolph Hitler (Nazi) and Ernst Thälmann (Communist). Well, Donald Trump is no nazi, and Bernie Sanders no communist, but it says a lot about the state of America that the Donald and the Bern are the two hottest acts in America these days. Incomes…
NR against Trump: He isn’t racist enough!
Unkind, I know, but scarcely inaccurate. Here are the National Review’s editors, dumping on Trump re immigration: “As for illegal immigration, Trump pledges to deport the 11 million illegals here in the United States, a herculean administrative and logistical task beyond the capacity of the federal government. Trump piles on the absurdity by saying he…
The Way We Were, and Why We Won’t Be Going Back There
Donald Trump from the right and Bernie Sanders from the left are leading the charge, not back to the future, but rather back to the past, a past that many if not most of their followers can’t even remember. This is why: As late as 1970, the “West”—basically, western Europe and North America—held an overwhelming…
The House that Krauthammer built
Back in the day, back in 1987, when the facts of what became known as the Iran-Contra scandal first hit the fan, wide-eyed Reaganite Andy Sullivan was appalled. Ronald Reagan’s White House secretly sold weapons to Iranian terrorists and used the money to finance Nicaraguan “freedom fighters” (aka “terrorists”), an activity specifically banned by the…
Iraq now must be seen as the Republicans’ Vietnam
Well, it was a long time coming, but now it’s here. Heresy-speakers Donald Trump and Ted Cruz walked away with the most recent Republican debate. Both Trump and Cruz have repeatedly and explicitly rejected the regime change meme that has been the foundation stone of Republican foreign policy since 9/11. And will no one notice…