{"id":82976,"date":"2022-07-29T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=82976"},"modified":"2022-07-28T21:06:58","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T02:06:58","slug":"youll-get-nothing-and-like-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=82976","title":{"rendered":"You’ll Get Nothing And Like It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former Trump hand Michael Anton, writing for Compact<\/a>, offers a bracing view of the various pathologies of Trump haters, whose numbers are legion, at least among the chattering classes. I am going to pull a few quotes; this article is a festival of pull quotes, truly a “read the whole thing” special. But a few of Anton’s observations deserve particular consideration, to wit:<\/p>\n

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Complaints about the nature of Trump are just proxies for objections to the nature of his base. It doesn\u2019t help stabilize our already twitchy situation that those who bleat the loudest about democracy are also audibly and visibly determined to deny a real choice to half the country. \u201cNo matter how you vote, you will not get X\u201d\u2014whether X is a candidate or a policy\u2014is guaranteed to increase discontent with the present regime.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

All along the Potomac, you can sense it: oh boy, here comes the hoi polloi. The whole point of the current January 6 show trial is to demonstrate, beyond question, that your concerns do not matter. Stay outta the 202, y’all. The enmity Anton describes began before Trump — before the MAGA hat became the visible headgear from hell, the tricorner hats of the Tea Party were not a source of great amusement to our betters, but rather an unwelcome interruption to the exciting new world on offer. The concerns of those citizens mattered not at all then and little has changed.<\/p>\n

The Tea Party did not last; it was leaderless by design and easily coopted and dispersed by the professional Republicans who serve as junior partners in the Beltway ecosystem. So nothing changed. What did change? This time the hoi polloi had a herald, who happened to be a publicity hound from Queens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why did Trump get the gig? Why wasn’t the herald someone more housebroken, like Marco Rubio or “Jeb!” or John “Daddy Was a Postman” Kasich? Amazingly, it was because a carnival barker like Trump was more credible than the other worthies in the field were. Back to Anton:<\/p>\n

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The regime can\u2019t allow Trump to be president not because of who he is (although that grates), but because of who his followers are. That class\u2014Angelo Codevilla\u2019s \u201ccountry class\u201d\u2014must not be allowed representation by candidates who might implement their preferences, which also, and above all, must not be allowed. The rubes have no legitimate standing to affect the outcome of any political process, because of who they are, but mostly because of what they want.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What Tea Party\/MAGA types want isn’t hegemony over their betters. Rather, they want to be left alone, without the ministrations of those who have plans for how they ought to live their lives. Can’t have that, of course. And if you are old enough to have had friendships of over 30 years, you understand and have likely experienced the following:<\/p>\n

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People I have known for 30 years, many of whom still claim the label \u201cconservative,\u201d will no longer speak to me\u2014because I supported Trump, yes, but also because I disagree on trade, war, and the border. They call not just my positions, but me personally, unadulterated evil. I am not an isolated case. There are, as they say, \u201cmany such cases.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Kevin Williamson and the NR gang, pick up the white courtesy phone. Then Anton gets to the nub:<\/p>\n

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How are we supposed to have \u201cdemocracy\u201d when the policies and candidates my side wants and votes for are anathema and can\u2019t be allowed? How are we supposed to live together with the constant demonization from one side against the other blaring 24\/7 from the ruling class\u2019s every propaganda organ? Why would we want to?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I am not sure we can. There’s more, a whole lot more, at the link. Consider it carefully, as we are in a dangerous moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Trump hand Michael Anton, writing for Compact, offers a bracing view of the various pathologies of Trump haters, whose numbers are legion, at least among the chattering classes. I am going to pull a few quotes; this article is a festival of pull quotes, truly a “read the whole thing” special. But a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":358,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[321,16,24,434,51,368],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-left","category-conservatism","category-culture-war","category-mr-d","category-liberal-tyranny","category-trump-derangement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82976"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82978,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82976\/revisions\/82978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}