A few years ago, I wrote an extended piece bearing the title The Republicans: WTF Happened to this Party?. Recently, in response to a couple of engaging (relatively) meas culpas—Matthew Continetti’s The Right The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism and Tim Miller’s Why We Did It—I began preparing an update. I originally planned to…
Tag: Donald Trump
Shorter Bill Barr: Yes, I am a complete tool. Surprised?
Well, I am, for one, not. In fact, there never was a doubt in my mind that William Barr was a super shit, a super shit—to muddy the metaphor—of the very first water, a sentiment I have expressed any number of times, in exuberantly fecal prose. If there ever were any doubt in anyone’s mind—and…
Political Notes from All Over
“Anyone but Joe,” anyone? Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? Spending the last few weeks laughing at the Republicans over their self-inflicted imbroglio/embroilment trying to elect a speaker for the House of Representatives was a treat. Well, now it’s our turn to suffer, as Uncle Joe’s Corvette winter plus the upcoming Hunter Biden follies, which…
Hypocrisy is the homage that Ross Douthat pays to virtue
If, as increasingly appears to be the case, Donald Trump’s wild career will end, not with a bang but a whimper, then, sighs NYT opinionist Ross Douthat, more in sorrow than in anger, there will not be any accountability for Trump’s soft enablers within the Republican Party. There was a certain political accountability when the…
Oh, Donald! You silly, silly man!
Yeah, it’s Ross Douthat, actin’ all craven on our asses once more, “explaining”, and explaining away, the Jan. 6 riot as, perhaps, not really that big a deal after all, so why don’t those big-mouth Democrats stop talking about it 24/7 and, in particular, stop, you know, denouncing people just for defending it, because “However…
Joe Biden’s foreign policy: regressin’ to meaninglessness and following the path of greatest stupidity
Gee whiz but I wish I wasn’t so prescient. A whole six months ago I wrote a post Joe Biden likes being a Cold War President, moaning a bit theatrically about Uncle Joe’s “senile swagger.” Well, it seems like Joe was just getting warmed up. United States Enters a New Era of Direct Confrontation With…
Shorter Ross Douthat: Donald Trump is my daddy!
Yes, ole Ross is in love, with you know who! When all seemed lost, gushes our boy a leader emerged who persuaded the G.O.P. to abandon its fixation on deficits and just run the economy hot, who endorsed universal health insurance and pledged to protect entitlements, and who acknowledged that the Iraq war had been…
Shorter Josh Barro: If I shut my eyes very tightly, Donald Trump will go away
You know, he’s got a point there! If you shut your eyes very tightly, Donald Trump will go away! And so will everything else! Like Josh, I wish that Joe Biden were more than minimally competent. I wish he didn’t sound like a 79-year-old man (I’m 77) who’s tired of all your back talk and…
The Republicans: WTF Happened to this Party? Part II Part 1: Tim Miller’s Why We Did It
A couple of years back, when, it seems, I was feeling particularly down in the mouth, I wrote an extended piece bearing the title The Republicans: WTF Happened to this Party?. Recently, a couple of actual Republicans have written books asking themselves the same question, viz. Matthew Continetti (The Right The Hundred Year War for…
Yo, Joe! When Denouncing Donald Trump, It’s Considered Bad Form to Imitate Him!
Yeah, Uncle Joe was in rare form at his Independence Hall spectacular, complete with “dramatic” lighting and U. S. Marines in full dress uniform. I mean, who was the advertising wizard who came up with that one? But, seriously, folks, it’s a seriously dismal idea to use U. S. military as the backdrop for any…