Yes, it’s taken awhile. National Review conservatives like Jonah Goldberg were repelled by Donald Trump’s vicious nativism, his embrace of those good people who shout “Jews, you will not replace us”, plus all his wild talk about how we shouldn’t be in Afghanistan and that he always thought the invasion of Iraq was a bad idea, but, well, now that Donald’s signed off on our forever war in Afghanistan, not to mention Niger and points east, west, south, and north, what’s not to like? Besides, who do you like better, those damned Clintons?
We’ve known for a year that the Democratic Party ultimately provided funding for the “Steele Dossier” of unsubstantiated tattle-tale regarding Donald Trump, none of which was ever used in the campaign, but thanks to the Washington Posts breathless “scoop” that the “Clinton campaign” ultimately paid for it (something we already knew),1 desperate conservatives like Jonah have their hook: paying for research that was never used that involved interviews with people with ties to the Russian government is the same thing as the myriad direct links of the top officials in Donald Trump’s campaign, including, of course, Donnie Junior, with a wide variety of Russian officials—“links” that included both millions in cash and the illegal hacking of Democratic emails and links that Donald Trump sought to conceal first by attempting to influence the FBI’s investigation and then by firing the FBI’s director—well, it’s practically the same thing! In fact, it’s worse, because Clintons!
The National Review originally attacked Trump because he was too soft on immigration rather than too tough. They deeply feared his “wild talk” about the U.S. being overinvolved in the Middle East and they hated his alt-right gangsta buddies, who had the nasty habit of breaking into the “Horst Wessel Song” when they’d had a few brewskies.
But Donnie’s clearly back on the America track in the Middle East, embracing both the Saudis and Netanyahu, so we can forget about the dread possibility of peace breaking out any time soon. Iran is back in its role as the Great Satan, and we’ve got another forty years of new Cold War ahead of us. What’s not to like?
Afterwords
Sure, there are few fussy folks who still whine about the pussy-grabbing stuff, but that’s old news, and look at Harvey Weinstein! Just look at him!
