Guest Post by Patrick J. Buchanan
The conservative movement is starting to look a lot like Syria.
Baited, taunted, mocked by Fox News, Donald Trump told Roger Ailes what he could do with his Iowa debate, and marched off to host a Thursday night rally for veterans at the same time in Des Moines.
Message: I speak for the silent majority, Roger, not you, not Megyn Kelly, not Fox News. Diss me, and I will do fine without Fox.
And so the civil-sectarian war on the right widens and deepens.
And two questions arise: Will the conservative movement and Republican Party unite behind Trump if he is the nominee? And will the movement and party come together if Trump is not the nominee?
A breakdown of the balance of forces in this civil-sectarian war finds most of the media elite of the right recoiling from Trump, while Trump leads by a huge margin in Middle America.
National Review, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, Wall Street Journal, and the conservative and neocon columnists on the op-ed pages at The Washington Post and The New York Times have almost all come out viscerally against Trump.
He, in turn, has trashed several by name. Wounds have been inflicted that will not soon be forgiven or forgotten.
But while columns and magazines appear in print twice weekly, weekly, biweekly and monthly, millions listen to talk radio every hour of every day. And though websites might be updated daily, radio, more than print, is a medium that moves people.
Among the top talkers, Trump gets more than a fair hearing. Some of the talk shows with the largest audiences are sympathetic, others are supportive. And the Drudge Report, the daily newspaper of Middle America, tracks Trump’s every move.
In the media battle, then, the media elite are being swamped by Trump. And Trump is winning the political battle as well. According to almost every poll, state or national, Trump is ahead of all rivals, with his closest challenger trailing by 10 or more points. Among the populist and Tea Party right, Trump has lapped the field, and he is now competitive among Evangelicals.
How will the civil war on the right end?
Because the differences are not simply about personalities and politics, but principles and policies, it may not end with this election.
There is talk of having the anti-Trump conservatives unite behind the one establishment candidate — Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Chris Christie — who emerges strongest after New Hampshire, to storm through the later primaries and take down Trump.
Yet such a scenario seems implausible.
That audience of 24 million that tuned in to the first Fox News debate and the 22 million that tuned in to the CNN debate were drawn to Trump, and Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, because these men seemed to represent real change.
Democrats who support Bernie Sanders and Republicans who support Trump may disagree on where America should go, but both agree on the need for America to radically change direction.
Yet, if this battle for the GOP nomination should yield another establishment Republican, would not all the fire and energy of the campaign of 2015-2016 soon disappear?
Consistency not being their long suit, some among the conservative elites who denounced Trump’s walkout from the debate, threaten to walk out of the party should Trump win.
But walkout is an option open to populists as well. And if, after the rise of the Tea Party, the capture of Congress in 2014, the Trump-Cruz-Carson rebellion, the GOP offers the silent majority yet another establishment candidate, will populists and Tea Party types rally to him?
Perhaps. One recalls that, after the Revolution of 1789, the march on Versailles, the guillotining of Louis XVI, the rise of Robespierre, and the Era of Napoleon, the French got the Bourbon Restoration — Louis XVIII, brother of the beheaded king, sitting on the old throne.
Still, if the populist-conservative struggle of the last five years, to put behind them the days of Bush 41 and Bush 43, produces Bush 45, or his moral equivalent, how many would shoulder arms and march for him?
And, again, the argument over the acceptability of Trump aside, there is a deeper conflict within the GOP and conservative movement that may be irreconcilable. Millions of conservatives and independents believe it was the Republican policies of the recent past that also failed America.
The Bush-Clinton-Obama trade policies produced the $12 trillion in trade deficits, which measures the net export of U.S. factories and manufacturing jobs, which explain the wage stagnation.
The Republican-neocon foreign policy of intervention and nation building is a primary cause of the present disasters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.
The immigration policies championed by Bush Republicans as well Clinton and Obama Democrats produced the immigration crisis that propels the Trump campaign.
In short, it will be difficult for populists to unite with Beltway conservatives in 2016, when the former see the latter as part of the problem, not the solution.
Our country is in an advancing stage of collapse on all fronts. Social, legal, economic, religious, you name it we are falling apart everywhere.
We are not going to be anything near what we have been in the past, with little freedom, widespread poverty alleviated to a bearable level by welfare for the largest part of what used to be tho middle and lower working class workers, no religious freedom, (at least for Christians, Islam will be accepted and promoted on the people) and total control of every aspect of the average citizens life to mention a few of the changes.
The Trump is the only shot against this, and even the Trump will be unlikely to prevent it at this point, the inertia of political and social momentum is against anything resembling traditional America surviving.
Time to start figuring out how to survive it if you don’t intend to cooperate and just go along and be a mindless part of it. The beginning of the new Dark Ages is upon us and is won’t be stopped.
by Karl Denninger
Fox Blows Own Head Off
You can’t trust online “polls” but the evidence is that Fox News is having a panic attack.
After Hannity basically begged Trump to come to the “debate” (and was turned down, politely) last night comes the news — it appears that 85% of the people who responded to an online poll will “stay home” tonight.
That, if it reflects into the ratings, will utterly destroy Fox’s revenue from this event.
You lose Fox.
Incidentally, Fox News and their allies are “open borders and worker displacement” folks. They all want much higher (essentially unlimited) H1B visas to trash US tech workers (while pocketing a ton of money and “boosting earnings”) and “regularization” (read: AMNESTY) for illegals already here.
Trump is against both and they believe he’ll do it too, which is why they want him gone.
It’s that simple folks — if Trump is President your job prospects will MASSIVELY improve while NONE of the other candidates will do a damn thing about this problem.
Choose wisely.
Father figure Bill Cosby is arrested for drugging women and rape.
Woman of the year is Bruce Jenner.
Liberals welcome rapist and killer muslims into their home country with open arms.
Trump is the leading candidate for president after a woman who is under FBI investigation and a card carrying socialist with a $17 Trillion dollar spending and taxing plan.
Seems like a comedy.
“Seems like a comedy.”
More like a tragedy. But these days I suppose that’s splitting hairs.
Its both a tragedy and a comedy;
“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.”
~Mel Brooks~
“We can’t do any better than our customers are doing” That is my reply to all the nosey busybodies that used to ask that question in my [now Closed,after 40 years ] Store. Who & what will it take to have our customers do better in this economy.??? Mike in Ct
Decay has CAUSES: environmental, social and human. The RINO establishment cannot accept that they are a CAUSE of the decay of America; “governing”, “Building consensus”, and “compromise” are all fine IF BOTH SIDES WANT IMPROVEMENT. If one side or the other wants to destroy America, and the other side compromises, then both are complicit.
Fox NEEDS a spanking or two (thousand) if that’s what it takes to get them to understand they’re part of the problem when they push MSM memes on the public. NR needs a spanking or two (thousand) if that’s what it takes to open their eyes. YOU CANNOT improve America by driving racial resentment, gender resentment, wealth resentment or any other division. Trump MAY understand this, it’s hard to say; some of his rhetoric is inclusive, some is at least mildly divisive. But at least Trump seems to understand immigration and national priorities.
It may not work, or it may not matter (way late for a stick save on this country); but I want someone to reduce the size of government, rebuild the industrial base and restore civil liberties, and neither Hillary nor Bernie have any interest in doing so. We’ll see if anyone else does.
It is actually a most UNcivil war, but whatever.
SMOD2016: You are our only hope.
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SMOD2016 = Sweet Meteor O’Death
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had to look it up.
Democrats have been slant drilling under the Republican base for years. Now that the Repugs are cratering, Trump offers them a way out of the ossified mess.
For the Repugnants, the answer is transform or die. Simply following the lead of the Demoncrats will get them nowhere, they will be doomed to followership forever.
The republican party doesn’t like someone that doesn’t walk the party line. If Trump does half of what he say’s it would be much more than what old school rep. like Jeb Bush or Rubio ever would.
Trumps sucking up to the military is kind of disgusting though. Like we need to police the freakin planet. If Trump would announce that he is for term limits he would win in a land slide.
He has at least mentioned the trouble with our debt.
Olga says:
“SMOD2016 = Sweet Meteor O’Death
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had to look it up.”
Why? It’s accurately and graphically depicted right there in the image.
Personally I’m opposed to SMOD. I prefer an extinction level event that allows all the viruses, bacteria, insects, reptiles, fish, birds and mammals to live. Only humans need to go.
Dinosaurs lived on Earth for 66 million years. Humans have only been here about 200,000 years. Just imagine the destruction we will cause in the next 200,000 years!
I-S, If you blew your brains out in the woods, would it make a noise?
EC- That was cold.
I/S- this is OT but I recently tried TJ’s Uncured Applewood Thick Cut Bacon- 12oz. for $4.69.
I’m sure not as good as the TN brand you related from Benton’s but it ain’t bad and I don’t think the price was too out of line for uncured. If you try it let me know what your thoughts are as to quality.
Bea, In the snowblower thread I admitted that I-S can be nice. He bypasses my comments as most people do.
Knowing that he doesn’t read my shit, how is it cold? A person has a theme that is a wish for everybody to be dead. The purported reasoning is that it would end the planet’s suffering. Planets do not suffer. Suffering is a human emotion. Maybe nature is impacted by man. Nature is a human construct; it comprises all living things like bb and non-living organisms like viruses. Nature is an interactive system but it has no feelings and does not suffer.
When somebody expresses an opinion that ‘nature would be better off if man was gone from the picture, we encounter a conundrum; man is a living creature and a part of nature. Wouldn’t nature suffer the loss of man if nature could feel?
However, I came up with a solution that might satisfy I-S and nature. I said that death erases all knowledge of this world. Therefore, if I-S was really committed to saving the world he knows by a mass extinction, he could end it all quietly in the middle of the forest. The world would be gone as far as he would know and he could rest easy knowing that he stopped man’s cruelty to nature and the world in one fell blow.
Got any pressing problem I can help you with, Bea?
“The Republican-neocon foreign policy of intervention and nation building is a primary cause of the present disasters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.”
Policy of nation building?
I’m sure old Pat was quite the thinker in his day, but that single line demonstrates just how deeply he has imbibed from the Kool-Aid decanter that is the Beltway.
This isn’t rocket surgery, folks.
If you lie, cheat, steal, feel up, mishandle, harass, impugn, insult, demoralize, piss off, arrest, offend, undermine and look down on decent people simply because they are the ones who won’t react like crybaby bitches, sooner or later even they will reach their limit.
This is it. Limit reached.
Donald Trump is the middle finger on the well calloused hand of the remaining Americans soon to be closed fist. All the deeply introspective, politically incisive, psychologically ruminated articles notwithstanding, a comeuppance is about to come up.
HSF, you lost me on the nation building thing
Pat is wrong about that being a disaster? Help me out here