You’ll Get Nothing And Like It

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 of Anton’s observations deserve particular consideration, to wit:

Complaints about the nature of Trump are just proxies for objections to the nature of his base. It doesn’t 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. “No matter how you vote, you will not get X”—whether X is a candidate or a policy—is guaranteed to increase discontent with the present regime.

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.

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. 

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:

The regime can’t allow Trump to be president not because of who he is (although that grates), but because of who his followers are. That class—Angelo Codevilla’s “country class”—must 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.

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:

People I have known for 30 years, many of whom still claim the label “conservative,” will no longer speak to me—because 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, “many such cases.”

Kevin Williamson and the NR gang, pick up the white courtesy phone. Then Anton gets to the nub:

How are we supposed to have “democracy” when the policies and candidates my side wants and votes for are anathema and can’t 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’s every propaganda organ? Why would we want to?

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.

71 thoughts on “You’ll Get Nothing And Like It

  1. ^^This is idiotic. No Trump crime has been alleged by the committee, but Emery already has him convicted and in jail.
    Biden ‘s justice department ignores the law all of the time.
    There was a Central American dictator who famously said “for my friends, anything, for my enemies THE LAW!”
    Welcome to Emery’s version of America.

  2. If you don’t prosecute, you subvert the rule of law.

    That ship sailed years ago. And you know it. But carry on.

    Trump has supporters. So what? A republic that will not defend itself is already terminal.

    That ship also sailed years ago. What’s the charge? Be specific. And spare me the blather about a republic that will not defend itself. Attorneys general at the state and federal level routinely blow off defending existing laws they disagree with.

    The law is the law.

    The law you are purposely not specifying.

    By not prosecuting Trump it sets a dangerous precedent for future populist leaders. Why not attempt a coup or something like it if you can get away with it.

    It’s evident you have no idea what a coup actually is. If you want a coup, keep doing what you’re doing.

    However the DOJ should only attempt to prosecute him is they are confident of success.

    Confidence of success isn’t the issue — with a DC jury, the feds could make up any charge they’d like and ram it through. Their concern isn’t success at all — their concern is payback. If we get in the habit of jailing our political opponents after the fact, there are a hell of a lot of people in Washington who would be looking at time in the gray bar hotel themselves, up to and including the most famous resident of the Kalorama neighborhood. Biden’s personal corruption makes Spiro Agnew look like a shoplifter. And I would imagine almost every member of Congress would struggle explaining why their personal wealth has burgeoned as a public servant. While the MSM and polite society avoid the topic, people know the score.

    The rest of your comment is masturbation and if someone else wants to clean that up, feel free.

  3. If there was a GoFundMe account to assist the bugs fighting valiantly upstream against the cocktail of stimulants floating in Pedo Joe’s blood, I’d contribute generously.

    Democracy and Freedom are in the balance.

  4. I wonder if Hunter realizes he’s fucked after Nov..

    Biden’s fuckhead brother is smart enough to be making contingency plans, but crackhead is no doubt counting on his network of strippers to hide him.

  5. Woolly claims the Jan. 6th hearings have had little impact on US public opinion. And no Trump crime has been alleged by the committee. As best I can tell — the Jan 6 committee hasn’t released its final report.

    Which suggest you are not following or analyzing the data carefully. The Biden approval rating is not the best measure, it is the Generic Congressional preference poll….. Which after being 2.5 to 3% positive for Republicans for 7 months has moved to basically a tie…. Nate Silver, who analyzes poll data more thoroughly & carefully than anyone is telling us that this is not insignificant, that “something is definitely going on”… And that other measures of voter interest, small dollar donations, and preference for Senate candidates are showing a similar move toward Democrats. The January 6th hearings along with the Roe decision, gun anxiety, & where is about a radicalized Court are clearly having a negative impact on voter attitudes toward Republicans. Which puts them in a difficult spot. A significant majority of Americans believe no one should be above the Law. The hearings have shown to the public’s satisfaction that the President committed crimes. Proving that in court is a different matter, and prosecutors don’t like to lose. But failing to prosecute a criminal just because you are afraid you would lose undermines public confidence in the Justice system. Garland is indeed in a pickle, an even bigger one then you suggest.

  6. ^^Emery is displaying the same razor sharp analysis that he used to predict that the Brexit vote would fail, that Hillary would win in a landslide over Trump, and that the Mueller report would find evidence that Trump colluded with Putin to steal the 2016 election.

  7. I wonder if Hunter realizes he’s fucked after Nov..

    I doubt it. I’m not detecting not much if any desire to stick it to the left from Republicans. Can’t we all just move on?

  8. Jonathan Turley, Via Ann Althouse:
    “If one does not use that term (and, worse yet, expresses doubts about its accuracy), you run the risk of immediate condemnation as someone excusing or supporting insurrection. This framing also reduces the need to address the question of how this riot was allowed to spiral out of control…. The effort to mandate ‘insurrection’ as the only acceptable description prevents the country from speaking with a unified voice. It clearly serves political purposes but only makes a national resolution more difficult as we approach a new presidential election.”

    Writes Jonathan Turley in “Harvard Study: J6 Rioters Were Motivated by Loyalty to Trump, Not Insurrection Against the Constitution.”

  9. Re: Swift’s comment about civil war

    One thing that should be explored is the real possibility of a state trying to secede from the Union. This was in effect what started the first civil war and is inevitably the trigger point for the formal “beginning” of most civil wars. There are a number of candidates that might try but the ones which strikes me as highly likely to actually do it would be Texas or potentially Florida.

    As the politics on the right get more demented and extremist and the tone of voice more apocalyptic the ground work is there. This is alongside a growing federal debt burden. Imagine the policies which will have to be implemented in order to start curbing the debt once the balance tips on the ability of the US Federal Government to spend more than it earns. This will create enormous tensions between the states as taxes rise and the Federal Government has to impose further austerity on the states. It would not take much for a state governor to start preaching that they don’t want to be part of the “fake” United States anymore and then you’re in secession territory. Once it happens, it cannot be undone, and then you are in a de-facto civil war.

    From an economic point this would likely mean the end of the US dollar as the global currency which would put the cat among the pigeons in terms of the role of China and Russia.

    I would not be enormously surprised if much of the manic Trumpist nonsense is surreptitiously encouraged by these two powers, albeit with limited influence as the strongest dynamic in the US is really it’s own internal contradictions. Whether the United States survives for much longer as a united country is a real question. The cracks are there for all to see and the ties that bind the states are becoming weaker every day

  10. You don’t know what you are talking about, Emery. You should take a course on American political science.
    The states can call a constitutional convention anytime they want to, as long as 3/4 of the states agree. Then the entire constitution is up for grabs. The convention could order that everyone where where their underwear on the outside, if the delegates agreed. Or the entire federal government could be dissolved.
    Never forget that the federal government is the least influenced by democracy, meaning actual people casting actual votes. Hostility to the federal government has a long history in every state. State governments have plenary power, the federal government does not. The constitution strictly limits the power of the feds.
    The reason the confederate states seceded is because they did not have the votes to force a constitutional convention. Free states and slave states did not mix well. Free states saw that their prosperity could only continue if, for example, residents of slave states were able to move to a free state and bring their slaves with them. Slave state dwellers thought that they should be able to take their human property anywhere in the US, just as they would be able to take their other portable property. The slave sates believed that their right to remain slave states was threatened as more free states were added to the union.
    There is no reasonable comparison between the threat posed by civil war in the 1850s and the threat posed by civil war today.

  11. Lincoln did not seek an opinion fro the Supreme Court on whether a states secession was legal or illegal. He went to war. Lincoln’s belief in the insolubility of the Union was extraconstitutional. The SC did decide against the right of states to secede, but not until after the war. It was not, I think, a definitive bit of case law. IIRC, it had to do whether the state of TX, post-war, was liable for the bond debts of the seceded state of TX.
    It is a hard fact for many people to acknowledge that the federal government is the creation of the states, and not the other way ’round.

  12. ^^ Again, no one talks so much, and says so little. You’ve turned gibberish into an art form.

  13. If only you had the wisdom to learn, grasshopper.
    Tell me again about the the precise analytical logic that you used to determine that the Brexit vote would fail and that Hillary would win over Trump by a landslide?

  14. Re: woolly’s diatribe about Taiwan and Pelosi.

    China is not a paper tiger but it isn’t nearly as scary as the uninformed imagine.

    China’s increased rhetoric only makes it more imperative that Pelosi make the trip, so as not to have travel and policy dictated by Beijing.

    China is trying to force the issue with their rhetoric in an attempt to drive a wedge between the US and Taiwan, which they think will give them the opportunity to say the US ultimately will not support Taiwan and allow them to take over the island.

    But this, like so many of Xi’s initiatives since he became president, will fail.

  15. ^ It’s no surprise rAT’s family abandoned him. Can you imagine being around him when he’s this drunk?

  16. Yep, that’s the way it goes sometimes, Blade. Wife gets the house and your left with a 240 square foot stoogy on Mud Lake Flowage, no indoor plumbing, empty bottles piling up outside the door, burning the furniture on a cold night just to keep warm . . .

  17. “Rioters Were Motivated by Loyalty to Trump, Not Insurrection Against the Constitution.”
    Care to address the fake electors?

    If we get to a point where an attempted coup, even a failed one, is not criminal—or there are people who can give it a shot and not fear retribution—that’s a concern for the US.

  18. “Coup attempt’? That’s crazy. By whom?
    You can’t even accurately describe what crime was committed, yet you want Trump prosecuted for . . . pissing you off?
    No more blather about “the rule of law,” please.

  19. Pelosi is in Taiwan today.

    Good for her — Democracies of the world should stick up for each other. The alternative is tyranny.

    Quite frankly—this only acknowledges that containing the expansion of PRC military power in the Indo-Pacific is one of the few issues on which majorities of Democrats and Republicans agree. There are no indications that the November elections will alter this consensus.

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