Shot in the Dark

The Company You Keep

As I’ve been noting for about eight years on this blog, I’m intensely ambivalent about Donald Triump.

His personality roils with traits I personally don’t care for.

But something about all the prosperity, peace and border security is looking good.

“Oh, Merg, so you just want someone who’ll make the trains run on time, yuk yuk”

Peace and security are legitimate jobs of a national government. Prosperity is the opposite of the “Fascist” dynamic you’re yukking about. And Trump at his wackiest didn’t approach the level of authoritarianism of any of Baraclk Obama’s three terms in office.

I’m on Team DeSantis [1],but if it came down to Biden, Harris or Newsom against Trump, I’d probably hold my nose and vote Trump.

The worst thing about Trump is that he, like Obama before him, is the center of a personality cult. And with Trump, soooooo many of the cultists are just so deeply dim:

Loomer – charitably described as “insane” – cites a piece on by David Greenberg, a Rutgers historian who’s never been mistaken for someone who’d throw a life ring to a conservative who fell overboard.

Bill Clinton infamously threw some of his more extreme supporters under the bus in his long forgotten”Sista Soulja” moment (in the the long-forgotten Sista Soulja”). Trump’s never gonna have a “Crazy Laura” moment.

If he did, I might have to hold my nose a little less hard.

[1] And yeah, I think in a just world Doug Burgum would be on the short list, but we don’t live in a just world.

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11 responses to “The Company You Keep”

  1. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Loomer is revealing, apparently, that she failed high school history, as it was Hoover, not Coolidge, who was President when the Depression broke out. Perhaps she’s grouchy that Coolidge was an early supporter of civil rights?

  2. John "Bigman" Jones Avatar
    John “Bigman” Jones

    Hoover took office January 1, 1929. The stock market crash occurred nine months later.

    George Bush the Younger took office January 1, 2001. The Twin Towers fell nine months later.

    Hoover is as much to blame for the policies which caused the economic collapse as Bush is to blame for the policies which caused the terrorist attack. 🤔

    If the policies of their predecessors bear some responsibility for setting in motion the events which occurred during the latter administration, then the “insane” Laura Loomer comment looks much more reasonable.

    Our am I missing something?

  3. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    No one is to blame for the occurrence of the Great Depression; depressions occur. They force a clean up of the financial crap that has built up during the good times. The problem was not letting the depression run its course – just like Harding did with the post-WWI depression. It was all the policies that kept that depression going for almost 10 years that made it The Great Depression (and a favorite political tool of Democrats).

    I suppose Hoover could’ve done something to reverse the insane policies that allowed “investors” to dig themselves huge holes of debt while betting on stocks – like Bush could’ve done something about all the Islamic radicals running around the US prior to (and after) 9/11. However, actually, Hoover, the engineer, was mostly to blame to setting in motion all the energetic fixes that 1) had little to negative effect on the recovery and 2) were copied and enhanced by FDR (after being ridiculed during the election).

    Btw, Coolidge had the same feeling about Hoover that Obama had about Biden.

    Also btw, the worst thing about Trump is that he causes a level of personal animosity in people who should know better such that they are unable to know better.

  4. John "Bigman" Jones Avatar
    John “Bigman” Jones

    I truly despise both speech to text and auto correct. I must have a speech defect, because my phone never knows what I’m trying to say. and it continues trying to fix my words up to the very second I click send. herewith, a correction

    Hoover took office in March 1929 and the stock market crashed October 1929

    Bush took office January 2001 and the twin towers came down in September 2001

    The difference in starting dates was the 20th amendment to the Constitution

    My factual recitation was incorrect but my point remains valid: the policies enacted during the prior administration may be to blame when the disaster happens.

    Loomers point remains valid: for DeSantis to seek to emulate Coolidge is to set in motion the economic policies which led to the economic disaster which was unfairly blamed on Hoover.

    Apologies for the errors.

  5. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    My thought about Coolidge is that he seems to have been more likely to let the markets sort themselves out than was Hoover, which probably would have shortened the Great Depression to be the Panic of 1929-30. Yes, a lot of the margin loans that made things volatile got going during his administration; but on the flip side, I don’t know that he would have pursued the easy money policies that Hoover used to make a panic into the Depression.

  6. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    And Trump? Exactly what my host says. He was smart enough to realize, and act upon, the reality that the GOP wasn’t cluing in to the populist concerns of Reagan Republicans, and the reality that the evangelical base was getting antsy about the fact that GOP judicial nominations were often “maturing in office” to be fairly liberal. He also understands that in foreign policy, uncertainty is sometimes as good as the use of force.

    And then a constant litany of embarrassments…..grow up already, Donald!

  7. John "Bigman" Jones Avatar
    John “Bigman” Jones

    “And then a constant litany of embarrassments…..grow up already, Donald!”

    I concede that point. It would be nice to have a more polished professional political candidate. Mitt Romney, perhaps. He would lose, of course, but it would be a graceful and tasteful loss rather than a street brawl fought on behalf of his constituents.

  8. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    I don’t mind the fighter persona. The things with Stormy Daniels, the constant flat out bovine scat coming out of his mouth, that’s what I’m getting at. Something between Mitt and Donald would be really nice, and I’d guess darned near unbeatable.

  9. Sailorcurt Avatar
    Sailorcurt

    “I don’t mind the fighter persona. The things with Stormy Daniels, the constant flat out bovine scat coming out of his mouth, that’s what I’m getting at.”

    Yup, I’m all about the dogged fighter who never gives up. The narcissistic, egotistical, blowhard, childish tantrum thrower I could do without.

    I still think he’ll be the nominee and I’ll still gladly vote for him, but a guy I’d like to go out for a beer with? Hard Pass.

    Interestingly, I met GW Bush twice while in the military (once before 9/11, once after). Seemed like a genuinely nice guy (at least for a politician). I hated most of his domestic agenda and a good bit of his international, but I wouldn’t hesitate to sit down at a bar with him.

  10. John "Bigman" Jones Avatar
    John “Bigman” Jones

    The problem with presidential politics is that it’s basically high school student council writ large. The people who are eager to do the job are the ones who should on no account be trusted with it.

    Add the fact that any decent person who runs will immediately be attacked by the entire media as “Literally Hitler,” RINOs will turn on anybody who hasn’t paid their dues within the party, and liars will come out of the woodwork to claim they were raped or cheated or bullied decades ago – which will make fastidious Republicans tut and distain to vote for a person of such low character – and you have secured your place in the permanent minority. There simply isn’t anybody worthy of your vote. Let the Democrats win. We can write stern editorials later.

    Not seeing the upside. Better to take a chance on the heel who might have a chance to win. If nothing else, Moar Mean Tweetz!

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