This is impolite to mention, but one thing about anti-Trump conservative professional political pundits (as opposed to rank and file ex-Republicans) is their job essentially *requires* them to be perpetually saying Democrats are failing to win them over.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 29, 2019
A normal person can be a Republican with an unusually high-openness personality, be alienated by Trump, and then go become a regular Democrat.
But if you’re a #NeverTrump pundit it’d be a bad career move to just become a replacement level liberal pundit.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 29, 2019
This is true! Spare a single tiny tear for the professional Panglossians, paid by Our Betters to remind all ‘sensible’ readers that well-groomed center-right white men with the correct credentials are obviously the best people to lead us, that’s just science. The Oval Office Occupant has been almost as much a disaster for their quiet careers as he is for the rest of the world… a sloppy, shambling, semi-literate professional faker who continually demonstrates not only his own unfitness, but the general shoddiness of the Panglossians. One tear, maybe a swift kick, and move on without them.
If your only option is to vote for a racist, misogynistic, bigoted, transphobic, xenophobic authoritarian because you can’t abide Democrats’ stances on healthcare and immigration, then you’re not even in the car, David Brooks. pic.twitter.com/WPpnksx93h
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) June 28, 2019
When you’re a privileged white dude, not getting first chair (and right of refusal) feels like a demotion…
It’s a national emergency, join our unity government; also we offer you nothing and we’re moving full speed to the left.https://t.co/WaGj67OrwJ
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) June 28, 2019
I also feel like sanity and a lack of corruption is not nothing, as a start. Respect for NATO, for the Intelligence agencies, for the rule of law, for the first amendment, for compliance with the emoluments clause. But yeah we are going to disagree on policy and it is a Primary.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) June 28, 2019
Sorry Brian, rather the government murder brown children than people who earn 100X more than me have to pay the same tax rate as teachers.
— Tom Stoyton (@TomStoyton) June 29, 2019
Ross Douthat in the 1930s would absolutely be arguing that the fascists are a totally reasonable response to liberal democracies giving in to those radical Bolsheviks demanding the end of segregation and for women being allowed to divorce. https://t.co/kRwiUYQLgO
— Weedlewobble (@weedlewobble) June 29, 2019
someone who’s not an incompetent, ignorant, narcissistic sociopath would be a significant improvement so the bar’s pretty low https://t.co/70S5P9YFPq
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) June 29, 2019
Conservative whining on this point makes NO sense. There has to be a consequence to a political party failing as completely as the Republicans have regarding Trump. This isn't pettiness.
— Stephen Robinson (@SER1897) June 29, 2019
Oy, what an asshole. That “for ‘real America,’ people who speak something other than English, & don’t look like any of actor in Birth Of A Nation, are too scary, & Dems should stop pandering to exotica & make Real America feel safe” schtick is lazy, racist bullshit. Two of… https://t.co/hmvx0SnaYa
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) June 29, 2019
I can't see the future, so it's possible Bret Stephens is right this time, but he really wasn't all the previous times he made this exact argument, and for some reason that doesn't lead him to believe that he may just be really bad at this. pic.twitter.com/T3J1tKdUNP
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) June 29, 2019
Remember when Bret Stephens objected to Pete Buttigieg speaking Norwegian? Me neither.
— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) June 30, 2019
you ran your party into a god damned ditch and now spend every day trying to tell Democrats what to do. Just shut up.
And you lie about climate science.
You’re either a shameless liar, an idiot, or both. https://t.co/Bla5GASlZm
— Cake or Death (@Johngcole) June 30, 2019
is there a kickstarter and the potential for a spin-off featuring david brooks https://t.co/swWgB0j7oe
— Cake or Death (@Johngcole) June 30, 2019
The greatest existential threat to non-whites is racism.
The greatest existential threat to white men is being called racist. https://t.co/p0RgLD2h0T— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) June 30, 2019
(Cf Margaret Atwood: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”)
Plato
I thought douthat was dead?
Then, who was the rethug pundtwit who died last year?
Was NotOnScript
Maybe you’re thinking of Krauthammer?
Fred Fnord
Douthat has been dead for many, many years.
plato
Best reply to that punk.
PS: Fix the blog already. Each sign-in is a pita.
Mohagan
@Plato: The guy in the wheelchair – Charles Krauthammer – died a little over a year ago. For some reason he was well respected as a pundit although I could never see it – seemed like just a standard Republican/Conservative/whatever apologist.
Plato
@Was NotOnScript: @Mohagan:
Yes, that’s the one. Thanks, to me, all these punks look and sound the same.
sukabi
@Mohagan: Krauthammer was spreading his “wisdom” in newspapers since at least the 70s. There was a group of them that have dropped their pearls for far too long. Mostly they’re a bunch of hypocritical moral scolds.
droog
(Off topic, but technically this is an Open Thread)
As far as I can tell today’s NK update in right-wing narrative is as follows:
1. Trump walks out of summit after throwing in crazy demands.
2. NK shrugs and walks away. NK executes its negotiators.
3. NK meets Russia.
4. NK meets China.
5. Trump walks into NK for photo-op and promise of more talks. No concessions from NK. Trump is a genius.
low-tech cyclist
WSJ, above:
A higher minimum wage, universal health care, and unionization, for starters.
And (if we’re lucky) saving the climate in time so that their children and grandchildren don’t spend their lives in a hellscape of fire, floods, and desertification.
You’re welcome.
Betty Cracker
@low-tech cyclist: Thank you! BTW, I know this is a species of whataboutism, but: Trump is the only president in history to never achieve an average approval rating of 50% or higher at any point in his presidency. He’s been underwater since the day he was sworn in to the present, which is all the more remarkable since he inherited a fairly decent economy and hasn’t managed to blunder into a war yet. Where are all the op-eds pointing out Trump’s historic unpopularity and admonishing him to reach out beyond the base? ::crickets::
low-tech cyclist
@Plato: I can keep most of the pre-Internet pundits straight because back then, there just weren’t that many opinionators you had the chance to be exposed to.
Nowadays, there are a metric ton of intelligent people blogging, tweeting, and otherwise broadcasting their critiques, so it’s hard for me to care who’s on the NYT op-ed page, and damned if I can tell the difference between Ross Douthat and Bret Stephens.
But the NYT, WaPo, etc. should still treat their op-ed pages like a scarce and valuable resource (because a lot of people still read them, apparently), stop treating op-ed spots like tenured professorships, and give the boot to writers that don’t measure up, whether they’re geezers like David Brooks and George Will who haven’t had a new insight in years, or younger idiots like Douthat and Stephens.
SRW1
Dear Never-Trumpers: There was a Mitch before that Donald guy, where were you then?
low-tech cyclist
@Betty Cracker:
Who would they come from? I’m not sure there’s a space on the political spectrum for that anymore.
People who think Trump is bad (including the conservativish never-Trumpers) don’t want him to reach out. So they’re not going to encourage him to do so.
Fans of Trump won’t point out his failure to reach beyond the base because they don’t have room in their heads for honest critiques of Dear Leader. (One of the major gulfs between left and right nowadays.)
And the only people undecided about Trump are extremely low-information voters, which obviously excludes the pundit class.
Baud
@low-tech cyclist:
And a chance at redemption.
Barbara
The idea that Bret Stephens could or would channel the experience and desires of the kind of voters who went from Obama to Trump is profoundly dishonest. This is the same guy who wrote an entire column basically mocking the white working class for not being more like hardworking immigrants.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
There have been a smattering of op Ed pieces that address this, even some in the NY Times. But here is (ugh) Jonah Goldberg, pointing out that Trump ain’t a normal president.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-goldberg-trump-poll-twitter-20190528-story.html
Brachiator
@low-tech cyclist:
I think that universal health care has broad appeal, especially since you can show that the GOP lie big time about their plans to improve access to health care.
I don’t know that large numbers of voters see unions as an answer (they should) or see that a president is supposed to try to revive unions.
Some people back a higher minimum wage, but they are also worried about their stagnant wages and job insecurity, and don’t hear Democrats saying enough about these issues. I have heard stubborn people pretend to believe that the Democrats want to push everyone into minimum wage jobs, or defiantly suggest that Democrats only care about poor people and not the middle class. This is all BS, but the main thing is that for some people, the emphasis on increasing the minimum wage is a turn off because it is too narrow, and people can whine, “yeah, but what about me?”
Climate change is tough. Even if people are not deniers, the threat doesn’t seem real or immediate
Anyway, that is my ramble. I blame insomnia.
Gvg
Trump reneges on deals, even to his own party. This is why he can’t get anything done. This is one of the things that he is a liar mean. He can’t reach across the aisle anymore, no one dares take his hand.
It may be why Republicans aren’t shutting the government down anymore. They figured out Trump might not let it reopen even with a good deal. Also may be why democrats took what we think is a bad deal. Dealing with the other weasels is possible. Trump doesn’t have sense enough to come in out of the rain. Nobody can deal with him.
Mike in DC
These would have been the same backing Joe Lieberman and Jim Webb for the Democratic nomination previously. They are, how shall you say, a bit out of step with what Democrats actually want.
Ken
@Fred Fnord:
In The Inferno, Dante is surprised to see several people in Hell who he thinks are alive. Virgil, his guide, explains that some sins are so horrifying that the person’s soul is instantly dragged down to hell, leaving their body to live out its natural span.
Is that what you mean?
Baud
@Ken:
Classic!
low-tech cyclist
@Brachiator: @Brachiator:
Agreed.
I’m thinking mostly about the Obama-Trump voters here: Romney-Trump voters are solidly Republican and are largely out of reach. Since we’re told that a large chunk of them are Midwestern WWC types, they should have some familiarity with unions.
It’s true that a minimum wage hike won’t do much for someone already earning $60K/year, but it will help the guy making $40K, because when former $8.50/hour workers are making $15/hour = $31,200/year, it’ll push up those guys making $10, $12, $14, etc./hour too, which will push up the salary of the $40K guy. There’ll be some compression in there, so the effect probably will wear off before $60K, but there’s a lot of people who will benefit from a $15 minimum wage who earn more than that already.
This is why it has to be sold as industrial policy – building everything from solar arrays to high-speed rail. We’re talking millions of skilled jobs here.
I sympathize. Woke up at 3:45am this morning, and that was a *good* night by recent standards. Insomnia sucks.
SFAW
That Stephens idiocy (“You, simple: … Me, sapient:”) blowjob of the Traitor-in-Chief reminds me of Assrocket’s paean to George W. Bush, lo these many years ago. Does that fucking moron really think the Liar-in-Chief has enough functioning brain cells to think anything more complex than “Me no like wimmins/coloreds/Jews. Me like ice cream!”?
There was an SNL sketch during Reagan, where, as soon as the cameras and reporters were gone, Reagan became the uber-smart, uber-planning, get-it-done executive. Stephens, you fucking moron, that was a fucking joke: Reagan was not actually smart, and Trump is even stupider than you are.
Jeffro
@Brachiator:
A truly strategic Dem candidate would run on “The 99% need a RAISE” and make that the theme they hammer home on every issue.
“I’m not just talking about a $15 minimum wage…although that’s part of it…”
“I’m not just talking about green jobs and switching our country over to renewable energy even faster than it already is…although that’s part of it…”
“I’m not just talking about a carbon tax, with the dividends paid back out to American workers…although that’s part of it…”
“I’m not just talking about limiting stock buybacks unless the corporation has already given its employees substantial raises…although that’s part of it…”
Tie it all together: AMERICA NEEDS A RAISE!
Betty Cracker
Just made a batch of Meyer lemon scones, and they are damned delicious, if I say so myself:
Resisting the urge to eat a second! If my neighbors across the swamp weren’t assholes, I’d share. But they are, so no scones for them!
Zinsky
If the Democrats want to win in 2020 they better go at Trump the way Roger Stone went at Hillary – incessantly refer to him as a “rapist”, “serial sexual offender” and “sexual deviant”. I prefer “rapist-in-chief”. It’s the only way to take down this POS.
As a reminder of how the other side plays the game, here is a picture of Stone in a T-shirt with Bill Clinton’s image and the word “RAPE” in capital letters across the bottom. If Dems aren’t willing to confront these fascist vermin on their own terms, they will LOSE the election in 2020. Just sayin’….
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Oh wow. That looks fabulous. I want it.
Heh. I love Cole.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
What did they do, fly a “Trump/Pence 2020” flag on their lawn?
MattF
Question I’d ask Brooks: Have you ever voted for a Democrat?
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: You know that if a Democrat governed “liberally” the way Trump does all the papers would have been writing the op-ed “Why won’t ‘the Democrat’ reach out to Republicans” since the middle of 2017. If Hillary had won they would have started writing that on January 21, 2017 at 12:01 PM.
As for Stephens, all he wants is a “better” Republican. He doesn’t want to deal with what Trump being elected means for the Republican party at all. People like him want to pretend Trump never happened, and like Biden seem to think we can go back to the way things used to be without a reckoning. Oh, and just like white pundits who are all over my TV he thinks the “average” voter is a straight, white, Christian man, and that winning without their vote is wrong.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: Aren’t they the ones whose unsecured wifi network has some sort of pro-Trump name?
Juice Box
What’s wrong with California? A vibrant economy, progressive taxation (as recommended by Bolsheviks like Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson), European-level maternal mortality rates, clean air and water, low gun death rate, low teen pregnancy rate, modestly more generous social support, expensive housing? Must be the expensive housing.
donnah
So Trump gets his photo op with Kim Jong Un and smiles, shakes hands, and makes history for stepping into North Korea. They exchange promises to work together in the future. Once again, Trump has given a murderous dictator the keys to the White House and a bright spotlight on the world stage. All to tweak his own vanity and prove what a dealmaker and negotiator he is.
Until he isn’t.
HRA
I and I am sure others are processing just what did I see for 2 days last week. I had 1 phone call from a friend who I understood was reverting to the teen days of watching a beauty pageant when she said Gov. Inslee got all his bills past and he is really a good looking man. I cleaned up her wording there.
As someone else did write here recently, I stopped watching TV after the election in 2016.
In regards to the Biden/Harris incident, I personally know it was not only the white parents who were against their children being bused out of their area.
Have a good day everyone.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: Twitter:
Yeah, kinda funny, that. It’s a mystery.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
SFAW
@MattF:
If he had lived in the appropriate location, he woulda voted for Strom Thurmond.
PWNED, libtard!
Another Scott
@low-tech cyclist: Even beyond increasing the wages of people making above the minimum, it will help everyone (except car title and payday lenders) because more money will be circulating in the economy instead of sitting in bank accounts. We’ve (the modern world) had a problem with too much savings and not enough spending for far too long. Someone getting a $4-$8/hr raise is going to spend that money rather than not eating for the last few days of the month…
Dean Baker argued that the minimum wage would have been over $18/hr in 2015 if the US had kept to its previous policy of having the minimum wage reflect productivity growth in the economy. That way, it ensured that the bottom part of the income distribution became better off as the economy as a whole advanced. It wasn’t just “keeping up with inflation” which effectively kept people stuck at the bottom.
Cheers,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
@Mohagan: Krauthammer played in the George Will/William F. Buckley “conservative intellectual” slot: use some 50-cent words and very occasionally criticize your own party for acting stupid, and some fraction of non-conservatives will praise you for being one of the smart ones.
SFAW
@Juice Box:
Governor Moonbeam! Gays! Crazy Nancy! Gays! Messicans! Gays! etc etc etc
Pwned, libtard
Matt McIrvin
@HRA: Busing was *mostly* about black students being bused to majority-white schools, and the massive resistance to it was mostly white parents resisting black kids coming in, not their own kids being bused out. I’m sure some black parents didn’t like that their kids had to go on long bus rides–I didn’t like the long bus ride I went on to haul my white butt to a super-white “gifted and talented” program either, but I lived with it because I thought (rightly or wrongly–I’m still not sure) there was a benefit.
But the idea of your white kids being forced to ride a bus for an hour to go to the black school was the line opponents always emphasized for the cameras.
Betty Cracker
@germy: They named their WiFi network “TrumpIsYourPresident.” They have a Trump BILLBOARD on their property and at least two large Confederate flags, one of which has a spotlight on it so no one can pass their gate at night without seeing the treason rag. Oh, and there’s a swastika painted on the door of one of their outbuildings that can be seen from the road, so I guess they’re proud to be actual Nazis in addition to being Confederates and Trump cultists.
I’m a Warren supporter, but I like Harris too, and part of me hopes Harris wins the nomination and beats Trump just so I can piss the racist Nazi neighbors off by renaming my WiFi network KamalaIsYourBlackFemalePresident.
Villago Delenda Est
The broken, exsanguinated bodies of Douchehat, Stephens, Brooks, and ESPECIALLY the entire WSJ editorial board need to be found in a back alley somewhere in lower Manhattan.
Wapiti
@Another Scott: We need to index the minimum wage to congressional salaries.
sdhays
I have to give George Conway credit, even though I can’t grasp how he says these things and remains married.
low-tech cyclist
@Another Scott:
Tru dat. Thanks for making that point!
Villago Delenda Est
@donnah: I’ve been to North Korea in exactly the same way Donald has.
Villago Delenda Est
@Matt McIrvin: The loss of Krauthammer, like the loss of Michael Kelly, is no loss at all.
mrmoshpotato
Where are the sermons about ice cream creations?
snoey
@sdhays: They’re pros. Don’t know how this Trump thing is going to play out, so lets make sure one of us is employable afterwards
joel hanes
@Betty Cracker:
You’re evidently a better person than I —
I could not live close to such people.
Jerzy Russian
@Betty Cracker:
Christ, what a bunch of assholes! I suggest you rename your WiFi network “nosconesforyou!”
HRA
@Matt McIrvin:
Yes it was about Black students being bused into white neighborhoods. When word spread in the ward where I finished growing up and was then in a suburb, I got a phone call to come back home to help the turmoil happening after the announcement or news. Why would they even think of sending the Black students when we all went to the same schools from K to 12? Someone wrote here about a white mother saying she had to wake her child very early to get on a 2 hour bus trip, etc. That was only one part of what I heard from the parents in my old ward. “Jim takes the car to work. What will happen if I am called to pick up a sick child? What if he is not brought home? , etc. ” Thankfully, it got straightened out and the Black children did not have to go out of the area.
Sherparick
@droog: of the Underpants Gnome kind.
Sherparick
@low-tech cyclist: yep, just a decent standard of living wherever they live & FDR’s Four Freedoms.
Steeplejack
The one I always wonder about when I see her (on MSNBC, usually Morning Joe) is Susan Del Percio. She is billed as a “Republican consultant” or “Republican strategist.” She hates Trump and seems very reasonable and articulate—in much more than a pro forma “never Trump” way—and I always wonder, “How can you continue to be a Republican and work to advance these assholes’ agenda with all this shit going down?” I wish someone would ask her, but Morning Joe is a hive of embarrassed Republicans, so it won’t come up.
According to her (sparse) Wikipedia page, she hasn’t worked for anyone really heinous. She did hold a city job during the Giuliani administration, but it doesn’t seem to have been a political slot (deputy commissioner for finance and administration). And she was a special adviser to Andrew Cuomo in 2014-15, apparently working on his reëlection campaign.
I wonder about the personal finances—whether at some point you can make a living just off of being a pundit without having to do the “consulting” or “strategizing” that is your nominal base of expertise.
I guess my big question is, “What are the valuable Republican policies that you support that can move forward once Trump is gone?” The whole party is a charnel house of dead, failed policies, and at some point you’ve got to realize that you’re nothing more than a “good German.” But maybe, as Yglesias says above, “it’d be a bad career move to just become a replacement level liberal pundit.”
Glenn Bateman
It is obvious that all that the Never-tRumpers want is for the Democratic Party to nominate and get 100% behind John Kasich.
Is that too much to ask of democrats to get some midwestern white male votes – yes!
polyorchnid octopunch
@Fred Fnord: Well, his junk has been ever since he fumbled with chunky Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
Steeplejack
That Cake or Death guy sounds kind of unhinged.
Percysowner
@Wapiti:
Congress hasn’t given itself a raise since 2009. They decided they would rather not make more money than face the optics of not raising the minimum wage. It also insures that people of moderate means can’t afford to get elected to Congress and live in Washington. That’s one reason we have so many rich SOBs in government.
Gex
This idea that these certain Americans should get their way, is the same belief that had these “respectable” Republicans reaching out to the Birchers to win elections in the first place. It is literally the recipe that brought us to Trump because it is the argument that certain people matter more and should get to impose their views even if they do not command a majority.
James E Powell
I don’t believe any of these “Never Trump” Republicans actually dislike Trump. They are posturing because they think it will help their careers – short run and long run – to be seen as unconnected with him. They do not denounce any Republican policies. They are not opposed to any of the outcomes. They do not object to the RW justices or judges. And most of all, they do not want Democrats to win any elections.
Using phrases like “march lockstep” connotes fascism. And what’s more, we all know that Democrats have never marched lockstep anywhere for anything. Only Republicans do that and they have been doing it for years.
They are more comfortable with their party normalizing Nazis and white supremacists with euphemisms than they are with a modest increase in marginal tax rates for people who have more wealth than anyone in the history of the world. The Democrats offer a few policies to smooth the rough of edges of a capitalist economy – luxuries like food, health care, and a place to live – and they all respond with hysterics about moving to the left. It is a matter of public record and daily reminders that “The Left” despises the Democratic Party and any person who might get the nomination.
They all say they oppose Trump and yet they serve him.
low-tech cyclist
@Percysowner:
I’ve had an idea for that for awhile: tie the compensation of executives at nonprofits to Presidential and Congressional salaries. Have the max compensation of the CEO (aside from health care) be no greater than the compensation of the President (ditto), and everyone else’s compensation be no greater than that of the Congressperson with the lowest statutory salary.
Every college president and football coach in the country, plus the heads of a metric ton of right-wing and centrist think tanks, and those megachurch pastors too, would be pounding on their Congresscritters’ doors to make them raise their own salaries.
But it totally makes sense: what is it that any nonprofit does, that’s more important than what the President and Congress do? Either there are a bunch of top executives for nonprofits that are getting paid too much, or the President and Congress aren’t getting paid enough. Legislation like this would force the issue.
JAFD
@mrmoshpotato: Well, a few decades ago, I was very good friends with a young lady, who decided she wanted to try out some things she read in _Cosmopolitan (?)_… So I got a bottle of chocolate syrup and, one fine Sunday morn, started to draw with it, designs on her recumbent back, while limbering up my tongue.
She had not, unfortunately, remembered the part about ‘take the chocolate syrup out of fridge and warm it up, beforehand’, and seemed to jump up about a foot, while horizontal. I had to lick very very fast, then get warm moist towel and rub, to ‘restore the mood’.
The moral of this story, of course, is that you should always send your children to Sunday School – so they can learn how to be a sundae.
J R in WV
From the original post:
Ross is arguing that very thing today, thinks FDR was a communist / socialist, wishes he could help put kids in concentration camps, no not by political persuasion, by taking them into his hands and putting them in cages himself.
So while this comment is true, accurate, perceptive, Ross is none of those things about any issue at all, ever. He probably is dimly aware that Appleby’s has no salad bar, however. So, he’s smarter (or at least more observant) than David Brooks, who left his long time Jewish wife for his Catholic office maid, who made David convert to Catholicism.
J R in WV
@low-tech cyclist:
Me too, at 3:25, did go back to bed at 8:30, slept til noon, so 8 hours all told. I blame Trump!! I bet he’s too demented to miss any sleep, unaware of the depths to which he is sinking.
Fred Fnord
@Ken: I don’t remember that part, but it certainly is a valid explanation.
I mean just reading his prose is enough to tell you that he is soulless.
Citizen Alan
@Mohagan:
I always thought the resemblance between Charles Krauthammer and Davros, creator of the Daleks, was striking.