Donald Trump is a demagogue. Period. The right’s failure to see it is a disgrace.

[sinkspur]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/2016s-big-reveal-1478564830

2016’s Big Reveal
Donald Trump is a demagogue. Period. The right’s failure to see it is a disgrace.

 
By BRET STEPHENS
Nov. 7, 2016 7:27 p.m. ET

Someday, maybe, when I’m old and a child asks me what I remember about the awful election of 2016, I’ll say: It was the Big Reveal.

Revealed: That the guiding spirit of the modern conservative movement is neither Burke nor Lincoln. It’s Marx. “These are my principles,” Groucho once cracked, “and if you don’t like them, well, I have others.” Everything Republicans once claimed to advocate—entitlement reform, free trade, standing up to dictators, encouraging the march of freedom around the world—turns out to be negotiable and reversible, depending on Donald Trump’s whims and the furies of his base.

Revealed: That moral clarity and moral equivalence have become interchangeable concepts in today’s GOP. The same Republicans who pontificated throughout the 1990s about restoring honor and dignity to the Oval Office are now eager to rent that office to a man who boasts of his own sexual predations. Why? Because Bill Clinton already did it.

more at link

[sinkspur]

One last loogie hocked in Trump's direction.

May you become what you most hate:  a big fat loser.

[Cripplecreek]

To me he always struck me as a liberal trying to pass themselves off as their distorted image of a conservative.

[HonestJohn]

What all this shows is that most conservative intellectuals have proved incapable of self-examination or even simple observation. Donald Trump is a demagogue. Period. The fervor of his crowds recalls Nasser’s Egypt. His convictions are illiberal. His manners are disgusting. His temper is frightening. It ought to have been the job of thoughtful conservatives in this season to point this out, time and again. If they can’t do that, what good are they?

George Orwell said that “to see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” The Big Reveal of 2016 is that most conservatives failed the Orwell test. On Tuesday we’ll learn if American voters can do better.

This is the money quote.

Very well said, Bret.

[aligncare]

A big fat loser...

Who has built hundreds of properties, including skyscrapers worldwide, owns 500 companies, and starred for 11 years on one of the most popular shows on television. And that only begins to touch on Mr. Trump's resume.

Why don't you show us your resume, sinky. I'm sure you're not a loser like Donald Trump.

[aligncare]

[aligncare]

Oh, did I mention that he has great successful children and extended family and a beautiful wife?

[aligncare]

...I should be such a loser.

[sinkspur]

A big fat loser...

Who has built hundreds of properties, including skyscrapers worldwide, owns 500 companies, and starred for 11 years on one of the most popular shows on television. And that only begins to touch on Mr. Trump's resume.
 
Why don't you show us your resume, sinky. I'm sure you're not a loser like Donald Trump.

Trump is a middling businessman.  He's had four bankruptcies, can no  longer build much because of his terrible credit rating, and makes his money now by leasing his name to what others have constructed.

I would never be so stupid as to run for President.  Trump thought America just couldn't live without him at it's helm.

He will find out tomorrow that, indeed, America can and will. 

[sinkspur]

Oh, did I mention that he has great successful children and extended family and a beautiful wife?

He has great children because he had little to do with raising them.  He has said, numerous times, that he left that to Ivana, his first of three wives.

[HonestJohn]

A big fat loser...

Who has built hundreds of properties, including skyscrapers worldwide, owns 500 companies, and starred for 11 years on one of the most popular shows on television. And that only begins to touch on Mr. Trump's resume.

Why don't you show us your resume, sinky. I'm sure you're not a loser like Donald Trump.

[aligncare]

Yeah, memes are very persuasive. Took how many seconds to post that brilliant argument, Johnny boy?

[240B]

I have been around the world. (twice).


I have done things that no one does. I have seen things that no one sees.


I am voting for Donald Trump because your life, my life, depends on it.

[HonestJohn]

Yeah, memes are very persuasive. Took how many seconds to post that brilliant argument, Johnny boy?

You don't even know where this came from.

LOL.

[EasyAce]

[jmyrlefuller]

Oh, did I mention that he has great successful children and extended family and a beautiful wife?

He divorced two of those wives once they got past their sell-by dates and probably slept with his daughter. And you're using that filth as an ASSET?!

[aligncare]

I was married for 37 years... before we separated and divorced.

Get a grip, Jimmy. People get divorced. Reagan was divorced.

And that disgusting lie you threw in there is beneath contempt and doesn't merit a response.

[jmyrlefuller]

And that disgusting lie you threw in there is beneath contempt and doesn't merit a response.

"If she weren't my daughter, I'd be dating her." -- Actual quote from Donald
"We don't discuss those things in public." -- Actual quote from Ivanka

You tell me that's a lie.

[r9etb]

It ought to have been the job of thoughtful conservatives in this season to point this out, time and again. If they can’t do that, what good are they?

There's the problem right there.  "Thoughtful conservative" has become an oxymoron.  "Talk radio conservative" is the thing now -- and that's precisely the type of shallow, invective-spewing "conservative" that fueled the Trump fire.

[EasyAce]

[chae]

@jmyrlefuller

Also on the Wendy Williams show, Trump said the only thing he and Ivanka had in common was sex.

[TomSea]

Bret Stephens is another minority who doesn't like the majority, so could be accused of prejudice as well. Prejudice is a two way street.

[TomSea]

There's the problem right there.  "Thoughtful conservative" has become an oxymoron.  "Talk radio conservative" is the thing now -- and that's precisely the type of shallow, invective-spewing "conservative" that fueled the Trump fire.

Oh, yes, others are so thoughtful.

But no problem for others to accuse others of hate right off in an argument.

The view from the Ivory Tower must be nice.

[TomSea]

Newt Gingrich on TV, he must be supporting a demagogue.

[240B]

All of this is meaningless. Trump is the single most horrible human being to ever exist. I get that.


But what then? Are we going to throw our vote to a unconvicted felon and crook? Possibly a murder? Are we going to 'write in' Mickey Mouse?


Trump is all we have. All of this, everything else, is just so much noise in the air.