Dueling Articles

We need to revisit in thought if not in fact the practice of dueling. Later. In lieu of that, here are a couple of dueling articles. You know where I stand. How about you?

David Frum, The Ruin that a Trump Presidency Would Mean

Steve Cortes, Only Trump Can Save America

For the foolish Frum Ukraine is the only issue worth mentioning.. He neglects to observe, however, that the devastation of that country would not have occurred had Trump been president. 

Nothing else seems to interest him. And so he fails to understand Trump's broad appeal. Cortes gets it:

We confront a perilous moment in U.S. history. Our country suffers from sky-high violent crime, the ravages of an effectively open border, a subversive educational system, and the anxiety of an economy that punishes workers – all brought about, deliberately, by Joe Biden and his allies. [emphasis added.]

There you have the explanation of Trump's comeback in a nutshell. There is more to be said, but  the Cortes quotation cannot be beat for pith and punch.  

But let me tweak it a bit. For the average citizen, the order of concern is  (i) the economy, (ii) crime, (iii) the subversion and 'wokification' of curricula with the concomitant labelling of protestors at school board meetings as 'domestic terrorists,' and (iv) the wide-open border. Now I don't expect Joe Sixpack to understand the full ramifications of a wide-open border, but my surmise is that what really rankles him is the fact is that he is being played for a chump: he works long and hard, plays by the rules, obeys the law and has to watch global elitist lawbreakers allow illegal alien lawbreakers to invade his country, and then add insult to injury by smearing him as a 'racist' and a 'white supremacist.'

Without touching upon the deeper issues that exercise right-thinking historians, political scientists, and philosophers, we have in the four points mentioned an adequate explanation of Trump's ascendency.

Addendum

Anent the folly of Frum, vide Francis P. Sempa, "David Frum and the Axis of Errors."

Comments

[Elliott]

Bill,

Your reference to “global elitists” is important. Michael Sandel has made a similar point, though not specifically about immigration. Here are a couple of short but substantive videos. In the first, he says that trust in elites has collapsed (see around 2:00) and that, even in Davos, there is a grudging appreciation for Trump’s economic policies (3:02). He also says that much of Trump’s energetic support comes from those who resent the failure of the elites who have governed in the past. (3:15)

Quibble: the interviewer mistakenly speaks as if she coined the term ‘elite.’ (2:42)

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/01/16/exp-trump-iowa-michael-sandel-intv-01169aseg01-cnni-politics.cnn

In the second video, which is about three years old, Sandel notes that Trump grasps the understandable resentment people have toward elites and their credentialism and policies of globalization. Sandel refers to the elitist attitude as “meritocratic hubris” and “elite entitlement.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoUdlo7_gAg

[James Soriano]

The idea of “global elites” comes out in the Frum article. Frum’s one of them. He’s in the inner circle of America’s foreign policy practitioners. That’s why he offers up Ukraine as the only example in his case against Trump.

Frum’s delusional. He thinks that once more over the top with more aid for Ukraine will save the day. Ukraine’s beaten. No amount of aid will help. Russia will dictate terms. Western elites will have to eat it. Frum’s repelled by the thought. It means that everything he has stood for, his whole professional life, has been a lie. He and others of his “neo-con” ilk will have to come to grips with the fact that they cannot remake the world in their image.

Frum’s projecting. He’s telling us that Donald Trump will lose Ukraine. What ruin Trump will bring, he says. What he doesn’t see is that the war should not have been fought in the first place and that the dominant foreign policy outlook among his fellow elites, provocative, expansionist, messianic, caused the catastrophe on the Eurasian steppes in the first place.

[BV]

Elliot,

Thanks for the videos. I listened to a minute of each but had to turn them off. Tyranny of merit? Authoritarianism? Attack on 'democracy'? Grievance? Sandel is a joke. And he teaches at Harvard, which fact is an argument against him given what Harvard has become. When Harvard made a plagiarist its president, it destroyed its reputation, a reputation that had already been declining. Wokeassery has no place in universities.

What did this guy say about global elitists that impressed you? If you point me to places in the video(s) I may go back and invest a minute or two.

[BV]

James,

Thank you for the penetrating comment. Spot on!

The neocons have had their day. The extent to which Nikki Haley is associated with them is the extent to which she will get "smoked" -- to use Christie's word.

Christie himself got 'smoked': he garnered only 35 votes in the Iowa caucuses.

Things are moving fast. Pence is already a bad dream.

[Elliott]

Bill,

Sandel says that (a) the elites have failed in their decades-long attempt to lead the world, (b) working folks have legitimate resentment against these elites who, among other failures, don’t comprehend the dignity of work and the working person, and (c) Trump understands all of this. Part of Trump’s appeal, Sandel says, is that he is a politically astute ally to the working person and foe of the elites. I think Sandel is right regarding (a) – (c), although there is more to Trump’s success that these three factors.

It seems to me that the left-wing media largely refuses to try to understand why voters support Trump. Instead, they scorn such voters as ignorant and dangerous. This is a big mistake. Sandel has attempted to understand Trump’s appeal. Is he a Trump supporter? I don’t know. I doubt it.

Regarding “The Tyranny of Merit,” I think that’s not the best title for his book. Sandel is not opposed to legitimate merit. But he argues that there is an ersatz merit that permeates our culture and undergirds the influence of ‘elites.’ These elites, in many cases, don’t merit their positions of leadership, don’t understand how elements of luck have worked in their favor, don’t grasp the purpose and value of education, don’t comprehend the dignity of work, and have failed to lead. They are blinded by hubris, and they look down on those who have not ‘succeeded’ in the faux meritocracy.

By the way, there are two senses of ‘elite.’ The first is a matter of abilities and qualities the possession of which makes one superior in certain respects to the non-possessor. For example, given his athletic talents, fast-twitch muscle fibers, etc., the Olympic sprinter is superior in speed to the non-athletic dude who lives down the street from me. The person with an IQ of 150 is smarter than the one with an average IQ. The surgeon is better at surgery than the banker and the lawyer.

The second sense of ‘elite’ is a matter of possessing power and influence merely because of one’s wealth, position, or social status.

One can be elite in the first sense but not in the second and vice versa. Sandel seems to be using ‘elite’ in something like the second sense.

[Elliott]

James,

You wrote: “He thinks that once more over the top with more aid for Ukraine will save the day.”

This is a good point. It seems that support for Ukraine has become an idée fixe for so many pundits and politicians. Another $61 billion for Ukraine? Why not devote that money to shoring up our southern border? Why not ask American taxpayers if they consent to the $75.4 billion we’ve sent to Ukraine since January 2022?

https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts

[BV]

Elliot,

Thank you for that very balanced report on Sandel's views. Perhaps I was too harsh on the guy. And you are right to point out the two senses of 'elite.'

OK, I gave Sandel another chance. But again I had to turn it off. He is repeating the standard leftist garbage about authoritarianism and attack on 'democracy.' Projection! Wasn't he paying attention at all during Trump's four years in office?

[BV]

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-just-staged-biggest-political-comeback-american-history-opinion-1861260

>>So they set out to undermine and destroy him in the most corrupt and dangerous ways: launching the Russia Hoax to attack him as a Putin stooge—a lie gravely damaging to his presidency, the country, and our national security; hitting him with two phony impeachments; leveraging the pandemic to change election laws to weaken his 2020 chances; refusing the extra security he had requested for January 6; had his home raided by the FBI; and now burying him in an avalanche of bogus lawfare.

Trump's enemies have thrown the kitchen sink at him, hoping that something would neutralize him as a political player. Nothing has worked. In fact, the opposite has happened: like a mythical superhero, the more he's hit, the stronger he becomes, evidenced by his historic win in the Iowa GOP caucuses this week.

Trump won with 51 percent, the biggest margin of victory in the history of the caucus; he's also the first Republican to score over 50 percent of the vote. In fact, no Republican presidential candidate has enjoyed a winning margin greater than 12 percent. Governor Ron DeSantis, former Governor Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy trailed far behind with 21, 19 and 7 percent, respectively.<<

[Vito B. Caiati]

In this time when demonic evil is all around us, it too absurd to suggest that what Pius V said of Don Juan of Austria after Lepanto might apply to Donald Trump: "Fuit homo missus a Deo"?

Who knows? Not impossible.

"For my thought are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" (Isaiah 55: 8).

[BV]

Fuit homo missus a Deo, cui nomen erat Donaldus? Cf. John 1:6.

Well, the Lord does work in mysterious ways!

Well Vito, I've had that thought too, as crazy as it seems.

[Joe Odegaard]

Mr. Calati; I don't think it is impossible at all. And include Melania in it too; I think she is a big part of DJT's new believing. Melania once opened a Trump rally by reciting the Lord's Prayer over the microphone, in her beautiful accent. The video is out there.

[James Soriano]

For Elliott:

I just saw your comment of yesterday on additional aid to Ukraine and I’m in agreement with it.

Here’s a nightmare scenario to think about:

Ukraine’s on the ropes. It can’t win. The clock’s ticking. The Dems have to keep Ukraine afloat until November. They can’t walk away lest the GOP sail to victory. Surprise: US troops cross into western Ukraine. It’s the only way to save the day. Biden appeals to patriotism, paints Trump as a putinista, goes on to win.

That’s what I fear.

A nightmare scenario has a low probability of occurrence, but it’s not zero.

- JS

[Elliott]

Bill,

About the leftist garbage, I oppose the left’s Procrustean attitude toward truth: stretching it until it snaps or lopping it off as needed to fit their ‘progressive’ ends* – ends which, were they honest about them, half of their Democratic supporters would ditch the Donkey Party, many of whom naively believe the Dems are the party of JFK and Jimmy Carter.

*Many of these ends are antithetical to genuine progress and human welfare. They are reversely progressive.

James,

The scenario you illustrated is seriously nightmarish: a moribund POTUS who is unable to walk steadily and speak clearly, whose desire for power prevents him from soberly stepping aside, and who sends our young people to fight in a foreign war merely as a means to keep his power. Imagine: four more years of a bootless president while our fighting boots are on the ground in Eastern Europe and another 8 million illegal boots cross our southern border. What a bad dream!

If this were the plot of a movie, I’d title it “The Anti-Patriot.”