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Trump: it’s all mutable — 46 Comments

  1. Trump will echo FDR.

    As in NONE of his campaign ‘pledges’ will amount to a hill of beans.

    He’s going to play it from the hip — from his first day to his last.

    The only president that immediately comes to mind as being that ‘directionless’ is FDR… maybe Bill Clinton.

    ( The latter could flip-flop FOUR times on a big issue// key vote in a single afternoon. Yeap. )

    So the selection is:

    Loose cannon vs

    Pistol to your head.

    That really clarifies choice.

  2. Blert, Trump is not going to echo FDR, and funnier, i dont think people that dislike people are going to be good at predicting what the person they dislike is actually going to do…

    Hostile witnesses are not all that good at surmizing the outcomes of anyone they are focused on… they accentuate the negative, ignore the positive, and that changes all their calculations…

    by the way the VAST majority of people have no idea about FDR except what the popular press has said about him, and that leaves out a whole bunch of negative crap that no one speaks of as negative, like selling people out at Yalta, not caring about communists or spies, hating jews (Trump does not hate jews or blacks, he fought FOR them in palm beach and the palm beach police were the ones that Kelly went to knowing this).

    As i have said, i have worked with him in terms of photos, piers morgan has as a winner on his show, and watched him for weeks close up. those that have done that have a completely different image of him than the press that hates him and doesnt say anything good unless there is no way to avoid it.

    here goes a question blert… rather than make a litanny of hate, how about you listing five good things about the person you dislike… and without sarcasm or gaming or playing around with it.

    you might be surprised you dont know enough to actually list them out without piss vinegar and venome…

    no wonder we have a communist direction ot the counrty so blatant the ex soviet know it that are my friends, as the ex cubans are reporting to the news, and more..

    we as a people WANT it cause we cant want something else which is more scary, and would include working with free people WARTS and all.. not controlled fearful people who all watch what thye say and you dont know a think about cause they dont want you to, as real personality is deadly to trickery…

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    But there you have Hillary’s gender theory in a nutshell: men are bums and bullies who belong in internment camps under female lock and key. – Camile Paglia

    Despite their show of bravado, most savvy Democratic strategists have surely known for months that Trump was by far the most formidable of Hillary Clinton’s potential opponents–which is why they’ve been playing the race and riot cards against him to the max. Hillary has skimmed along in her bouncing gender bubble, virtually untouched by her too chivalrous Democratic rivals. Far from Hillary (in this election cycle or the last) having a harder time as a woman candidate, she has been habitually shielded by her gender. – Camile Paglia

    The Hillary acolytes are joined at the hip to “her”, the Great Leader Who Needs No Name, the Maternal Tit daubed in wormwood, the bitter toxin left by men—those spoilers of the universe who created the master structures of modern civilization that provide us put-upon gals with jobs, transportation, abundant food, clean water, housing, electricity, and a magical disease-spurning municipal sewage system that only men seem required to clean and repair. – Camile Paglia

  3. Oh puhleeze stop with the anti-Trump chatter. Does anyone in his right mind wish to see an unindicted felon and possible traitor as the next POTUS? Or, remotely but in third place, an actual communist?

    Those are the choices. I’ll take my chances on Trump since he may, MAY, get some things right, as opposed to sitting the sidelines in order to maintain my moral purity, thus allowing Hillary in.

    You don’t like Trump? How about spitting on that GOP stalwart, Paul Ryan, who gave BHO his total budget, and who refuses to endorse Trump? I have no use for Ryan the lizard, no use at all. If Trump loses, I hope he takes Ryan and a lot of the GOP weenies down with him.

    The Dems put Party above country. The GOP, not so much. The GOPers are too busy lining their individual pockets to care. Apre moi la deluge, they think but do not say.

    America before Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressives was probably a pretty good place. I’m sorry I missed the 19th Century.

  4. Somebody said the basic reason for supporting Trump is convenience. “Trump” is one syllable, while “eff you” directed toward the government is two syllables.
    It’s difficult to get some folks to understand that for a good many people, DC is so unbelievably messed up, and by the purpose of the messers-upl, that it’s a hard sell that the cure for the results of doing things the usual way is to do things the usual way.
    I preferred Cruz and was pleased at the choice of Fiorina. Still, I don’t know how to talk to Cruz supporters when they point out we’ve been used, bruised, and abused by DC and there’s nothing we’ve been able to do about it.

  5. Frog:

    You write: “puhleeze stop with the anti-Trump chatter.”

    Of course I won’t.

    And you would do well to stop with the trivializing put-down of a word like “chatter,” which refers to rapid or incessant talk about trivial matters.

    I haven’t decided who I will vote for, but I plan to continue to tell the truth as I see it about the topics that interest me. Such as this, for example.

    By the way, I’ve written about Ryan before, and so have other commenters. I also suggest you read at the links here.

    You can disagree all you want. It goes without saying that just about everyone here is an opponent, and usually a very very strong opponent, of Hillary Clinton and does not want her to become president. But Trump’s flaws are huge, and they cannot be ignored or wished away.

  6. Trump sticking to his position on Muslim migration is an indication that, if elected he will support whatever the majority position is at the moment.

    He’d get some early, probably minimal cooperation out of Congress but to avoid being seen as a failure, employing greatly expanded, unconstitutional executive orders, has to be in his planned ‘playbook’.

    What specifically Trump might do is IMHO of far less importance than what the long term consequences will be of Trump ‘cementing in place’ Obama’s replacing of the rule of law with the rule of the powerful able to influence the mob.

    I cannot help but think of Sir Thomas More’s warning of the fateful consequences of cutting down all the laws to “get after the devil”. What laws Trump may leave upright, his successors will cut down, for Ceasar will allow, only futile defiance.

    I discount fears of wild foreign policy actions not because I think it unlikely but because IMO, neither Putin nor the Chicoms are going to risk nuclear war with a delusional ‘cowboy’.

    While some of America’s talons have been pulled by Obama, Putin and China’s aggressiveness is based in the firm perception that America’s leader lacks the will to act decisively and ruthlessly. They fully recognize that militarily, we are still the alpha dog.

    Though China is working toward the day when they have achieved technological dominance. It is then that the dragon will strike, roaring it’s challenge.

  7. Geoffrey Britain:

    I also have thought many many times recently of that clip from “A Man for All Seasons.”

  8. neo,

    Trump’s flaws are huge and those who present an obstacle to his ambitions will be squashed like a bug.

    On the other hand, Hillary simply insists that you agree that 4+4=5. Or 7 or whatever the State has decided it is today. You may even have to guess the correct answer, since that is the best indication of your current state of mind. If you refuse, you will either be ‘convinced’ or turned into fertilizer, whichever best serves the needs of the ‘village’.

    That is the difference.

  9. posted before I finished. Trump is littered with faults but I feel assured that he Loves America & that counts for alot. He was educated in the 50’s & 60″s back when Patriotism was taught in school & the Founders were revered, so that is a good thing too.
    Unfortunately America wasn t ready for a woman like Carly, she was outstanding but would have been excoriated by the Left because she is anti abortion.

  10. “I shall be posting this with a sigh
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:…..”

  11. vanderleun:

    Since you’re familiar with poetry, you may recall that Frost’s poem was ironic, and he was saying that the surface idea that the choice made a difference was probably an illusion.

  12. Why am I not surprised that a Trump supporter wants the anti-Trump chatter to stop. Guess you better find yourself a safe space to stay in for the next 6 months.

  13. I am not a Trump supporter. I contributed $ and effort to Cruz. I have believed in Cruz from the getgo, when people were fawning over Rubio. Actually, I sent Carly, Carson and Cruz money.

    My point is that the choice is
    a) Trump
    b) Hillary
    and, remotely
    c) Bernie.
    Watcha gonna do? Besides agree that the USA is being flushed down the toilet?
    What good does it do to complain about Trump’s many flaws? Think we’ll change him?
    On the other hand, I know what Hillary and Bernie are. Hillary is a core-rotten Alinskyite and Bernie is a pleasant communist. Both are the Devil in the Blue Dress.

  14. I posted a comment on the LI thread, which was an analysis (one I thought interesting and different) from an old squadron mate that I am still in touch with.

    To sum up his analysis:
    Trump is not an ideologue, he’s a pragmatist.
    Trump is always looking for a way forward.
    Trump is a man of impressive energy who looks for ways to get things done and keep moving forward.
    Trump has seen that progressive policies don’t work. He watched Giuliani bring New York back with conservative policies.
    Trump is not afraid or ashamed to be pro-American. He will always put America’s well being first.
    Trump has no use for political correctness.
    Trump has an enormous amount to learn.
    Trump has a great potential upside for this country, but just as he has done in business, he could fail.
    Trump’s a gamble, but we know HRC is a further one-way ticket to Banana Republic territory, which Obama has embarked on.
    Trump could not step too far out of line as he is not impeachment proof like Obama.

    All points worth considering. His personal demeanor and his lack of a consistent ideology turn many people off. I know they have that effect on me. However, the primary is over and I’ve made the decision to vote for Trump, even though he was my least favorite of the GOP candidates. It’s a gamble that I see as worth it.

  15. Of course, he changed his mind. Yesterday he said he was for raising the minimum wage. Today be renounces his tax plan (though apparently it is still on his website) And in between he proclaimed he is no longer self funding his campaign. There is no constant with Trump. As my husband says, he changes policy positions mid-sentence.
    He tried to once again to refine his walk back of the punishing the woman for rape stance, this morning; and bungled through it with a word salad that has to be heard (or better yet, seen: as in reading the transcript) to be believed:
    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/05/trump-cannot-articulate-his-position-on-abortion.html
    Question: does anyone care that he’s doing a 180 on one thing after another; or is this the new normal, since it is Trump?

  16. J.J.,
    Yes Trump has an enormous amount to learn. I haven’t seen any evidence that he is trying to.

  17. Found this via Redstate Some advice for trumpsters

    Since I live in a solid blue state and since Trump has said repeatedly he does not want or need the conservative vote, I will not vote for him. Furthermore after the “Lying Ted”, his support of $15 minimum wage, his walk back on the wall, his walk back on deportation and his numerous other changes I see no reason to vote for him.

  18. well I guess he supports him now. which is perfectly fine. free country (haha) and all that. but isn’t the purpose of commenting on a blog to like maybe express your opinion. I don’t see anybody changing anyone else’s mind so I think it’s best to accept that there are two irreconcilable opinions about the dude.

  19. Jules: “Question: does anyone care that he’s doing a 180 on one thing after another; or is this the new normal, since it is Trump?”

    Have you noticed that Hillary reversed herself on coal mining when confronted by a miner? HRC will do 180s when she thinks she has to. Her only core ideology is to win.

    Similarly, Trump does not have a core ideology except he wants to win. He is often incoherent because of that. Unlike Ted Cruz, who has been settled on his core ideology since he was 12. It’s a bad bargain for the GOP, but it’s what we are stuck with now.

    Expat: I agree. Will he try? We can hope. Otherwise, it will be a monumental victory for HRC (who may yet be indicted) or Bernie., or Biden, or?

  20. expat:
    “Yes Trump has an enormous amount to learn. I haven’t seen any evidence that he is trying to.”

    In terms of foreign policy, Trump appears to be learning it from Russia.

    Rhetorically, the conflation of Bush and Obama’s foreign affairs, contrary to Obama’s deviation from Bush, in order to discredit the paradigm of American leadership of the free world is consistent with Russian propaganda. Trump’s misrepresentation of the Iraq intervention especially is a Russian tell. Note:

    Competitors like Russia understand stigmatizing the paradigm of OIF discredits the fundamental principles of American leadership in the mission, which subverts the premise of American leadership of the free world.

    Practically, if a President Trump were to exercise his Article II authority consistently with his campaign rhetoric so that American leadership afield recoiled further, the effect would be like President Obama’s 3rd term.

  21. Eric,
    About a decade age I spent about 2 months in Nice. When I left Germany in January, it was snowing, and when I arrived in Nice, there were lemon trees bearing fruit and flowers blooming. I never wore more than a lightweight jacket, but in the fancy shopping areas downtown, I saw loads of Russian women wearing full fur coats. These are the types of corrupt people who benefit from Putin’s corruption. I suspect Trump would be open to anything they said.

  22. It looks like Trump is taking a Marxist approach to policy. In the sense of Groucho Marx and his famous line: “These are my priniciples. If you don’t like them, I have others!”

  23. JJ, Yes Clinton did a 180 on coal. But Trump changes his stance on almost every issue, sometimes on the same day, it has become so common place that the media or the voters probably can’t keep track.
    Also as you say, he does not have any core value except winning. These two factors result in him almost never being held accountable for anything he claims he believes even if it is the opposite of something he said yesterday or earlier in the day.

  24. To repeat the choice we face:
    Trump plus Reps in Congress, or
    Clinton plus Dems in Dongress.
    (Hmm, I’ll leave Dongress rather than Congress…)

    I vote for more Reps in Congress.
    Stuck with Trump. I don’t believe he really knows what he’ll do when he wins, so, no, I don’t believe his policies.

    I do believe Congress will have a big influence, and especially if Reps are majority or not.

  25. Tom G:

    Everything I have read indicates that Trump is toxic to Republican representatives in Congress, and that there is very little hope of coattails. In fact, the coattails are negative.

    Whether this will pan out I don’t know. My guess is that it will, and that the idea of a GOP Congress is gone with the Trump nomination.

  26. I feel to a certain extent like I’m battling HDS. If Hillary is bad then, by definition, anything or anyone that can be demonstrated as not-Hillary is therefore good, or at least inarguably better.

    The problem is, in Trump, you’ve found someone for whom that isn’t necessarily true. The only point that I agree that a Trump presidency is better than a Hillary presidency is that, especially with a Republican congress, we are likely to get better Supreme Court justices out of it. Hillary will, 100% guaranteed, nominate hard left social justice warriors committed to the punishment of ordinary Americans. Trump will nominate … who knows what, but at least there’s a chance they will be to the right of whatever Hillary would have nominated.

    That’s it. There’s no other positive I can think of for having a mean, childish, aggressive, uninformed, three-different-positions-every-day-on-any-given-topic loose cannon at the helm of a superpower.

  27. I’ll preface this all this by saying most Republicans would call me a RINO. But I’m not. I’m an unabashed neocon.

    I cannot believe the religious right and Tea Party have let themselves be hoodwinked by Trump. All we had was his word. We have no idea what he’ll do.

    Trump is not one of us. He isn’t a libertarian. He isn’t a neocon or paleocon. He isn’t even Tea Party. He’s an opportunist.

    I will never support Trump. And I will never support anyone who assists him.

    There needs to be a third choice. There needs to be a Republican in the general. Time to revive the Bull Moose Party.

  28. Tom G:
    “I vote for more Reps in Congress.”

    What if Republican is being fundamentally redefined?

    Our frame of reference for Republican has been a standard set by the Right, chiefly by conservatives, but the Trump phenomenon is ushering in a different standard for Republicans set by the alt-Right social activist movement, which is moving to drop the ‘alt-‘.

    JJ’s squadron mate assessed, “Trump has no use for political correctness.”

    But the alt-Right activist social activist movement, the creative engine of the Trump phenomenon, won the GOP nomination by adapting the Left activist playbook. That amends JJ’s squadron mate’s statement to “Trump has no use for [the Left’s] political correctness,” but he welcomes methodologically similar alt-Right political correctness.

    Neo:
    “Everything I have read indicates that Trump is toxic to Republican representatives in Congress, and that there is very little hope of coattails. In fact, the coattails are negative.”

    If Trump wins the ultimate poll in the general election, that view will need to be reevaluated.

    Alternate possibility: Trump’s coattails are not negative in terms of the number of Republicans elected to Congress because GOP politicians belatedly recognize the activist market inefficiency exploited by Trump and adapt the activist tactics of the Trump phenomenon. Or, Trump’s coattails are negative in terms of number elected, but GOP politicians belatedly recognize the writing on the wall and adapt activism nonetheless.

    However, without the option of a viable conservative social activist movement, making the necessary (belated) activist adjustment will compel GOP politicians to turn pragmatically to the proven alt-Right activists that are ascendant in the social political hierarchy ushered in by the Trump phenomenon.

    With that opportunity, alt-Right activists possess the Left-like will to power and activist mindset and skillset to push beyond the inroads made in the GOP by the limited quasi-activist Tea Party. They can go as far as the Left takeover of the Democrats.

    Thereby, whether the number of elected Republicans drops, rises, or stays level in the wake of the Trump phenomenon, the change to the GOP wrought by the Trump phenomenon promises to fundamentally alter the GOP standard so that Republican representatives in Congress become different.

    Recall that de-Nazification and de-Baathification involved distinguishing which Nazi and Baath party members were cadre and which were only pragmatic. Activism includes but is not limited to direct conversion or physical replacement. It also involves a gestalt manipulation of pragmatic independent choices through the reconstruction of the social cultural/political ecosystem.

  29. I believe Eric has it exactly right when he states that Trump won the nomination by adopting the Left’s activist playbook. It is the main reason he was able to overcome the many obstacles in his path( including his own childish behavior) in my opinion. At an investment meeting I hosted Wednesday night discussing the Presidential election’s likely impact on capital markets, my clients overwhelmingly supported Trump’s Alinsky-like approach in dealing with our internal and external enemies. They want the ” street fighter ” to use whatever tactics necessary to put America’s interests first again. I completely misunderstood and misjudged the effectiveness of this strategy that Eric seemed to understand months ago- kudos to Eric.

  30. Richard:
    “Trump won the nomination by adopting the Left’s activist playbook. It is the main reason he was able to overcome…”

    Not just “he”. They. And more they than he.

    The Trump phenomenon is due to more than Trump the man just as Obama’s rise and effects have been due to more than Obama the man, or even Obama the President.

    Obama’s effects have not been due mainly to a remarkable individual, but rather the Left social activist movement.

    Following their prepped path – assuming a President Trump carried forward his alliance with alt-Right activists, which would be pragmatic – the belief that Trump would be contained by a ruggedly independent, steely ethical GOP Congress, etc, implicitly assumes that the influence of the progressing alt-Right social activist movement, which by then would be responsible for Trump’s GOP nomination and presidency, will be excised somehow from American politics.

    That hasn’t happened with the Left. It won’t happen with the Left-mimicking alt-Right.

    The alt-Right activists that are the creative engine of the Trump phenomenon have already established their Gramscian long march and displaced conservatives and seized their space in the American political landscape. If they further drive Trump to the White House, their social activist movement will only accelerate, normalize and grow, and progressively alter the American fabric according to their preferred social condition.

    In the Marxist method of Left activists and alt-Right activists, their class warfare is a strategy for paradigm shift.

    Debating Left and alt-Right activists on the merits of an issue is often an out-of-sync experience because they’re not debating on the merits. Rather, they mean to render the competition and all their merits irrelevant in the sweep of the greater ‘truth’ of paradigm shift. So, although the Narrative contest for the zeitgeist (where narrative is elective truth while the actual truth is just a narrative that must be competed like any other in the arena) looks like HS debate club based on merit, it’s really maneuver contest based on mass.

    Which is to say, for conservatives to hold the line let alone right the nation’s course, they have to make a lot more practical, strategic activist adjustments in the arena than simply relying on the merits of their ideas in Congress or anywhere else.

  31. Richard:
    “kudos to Eric”

    I only know what I know from having played the game. Albeit I played at the local community level, the basic principles scale up.

    I discovered that, although the cause was a conservative darling, the conservatives on my side, with the exception of a cherished few teammates, ranged from ‘dumb’ labor only (not stupid, but little initiative, spotty availability, and acted only to the extent of simple instructions) to a counter-productive aversion to activism.

    Compensating for the drag and resistance from my own side was exhausting. I envied my Left activist opponents who suffered no such inherent handicap on their team.

    Eventually, our team won our game mainly due to the anti-leftist liberals on the team rather than the conservatives. The same handicapped mindset regarding activism has been evident with conservatives commenting here and on the national level.

    Notably, the cause I advocated was, according to conservatives, quixotic within an inveterately biased community. The truth was, while the community was indeed biased due to the work of the Left activists, it was conditioned to respond to activism, and it responded accordingly to our activism.

    The competition in the arena was intensive, iterative with (painful) failures, and our win was not guaranteed. But the cause was not quixotic. It only seemed that way to conservatives because they had neglected to apply the correct, activist method needed to compete for real.

  32. So, we didn’t unite and work for the most conservative electable candidate. So, we maintained our principles. So,we’d never vote for a parvenu like Trump. So, we are the Eloi of the right. So, we vote for a third party, write-in, or don’t vote. So, if conservatives don’t vote for Trump, Hillary will certainly get elected.

    But just look on the bright side — we’ll have 30 or 40 years, maybe forever, to complain about how the Evil Empress put the country on an ineluctable road to serfdom. But we didn’t vote for the assh*le! No, siree! Rather than compromise and vote for the lesser of two evils, we let the greater evil win. Aren’t we great! Aren’t we ideologically pure! Aren’t we so-o-o-o righteous!

    I said it all primary season, and I’ll probably say it again: Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. (Never thought I’d get it twice in one lifetime, though.)

  33. Geoffrey Britain Says:
    Trump sticking to his position on Muslim migration is an indication that, if elected he will support whatever the majority position is at the moment.

    Does that mean that trannies in the bathroom is now the majority position? I doubt it.

  34. Richard Saunders:

    As I’ve said many many many times, the people refusing to vote for Trump are not refusing to vote for the lesser of two evils. Not by their calculations, anyway. You may think it’s crystal clear that Trump is the lesser of two evils. But it is not clear to a lot of thoughtful people.

    In the past (refusal to vote for Romney, for example) that “lesser of two evils” argument was pretty clearly the case, in the sense that even most Romney-haters on the right felt he was the lesser of two evils. But they still didn’t like him, and therefore they didn’t vote for him.

    I don’t see anyone saying they won’t vote for Trump despite him being the lesser of two evils. They are saying they won’t vote for him because he is either just as evil or even more evil than his opponent.

    You may disagree with their evaluation of the situation. In fact, you DO disagree with it. But don’t pretend they’re taking some holier than thou “I refuse to vote for what I clearly know is the lesser of two evils” stance. That’s not what’s going on here.

    And the possible or even probable evil represented by Trump is not some sort of fault-finding nitpicky fantasy on their part. There is no need to once again list his enormous and obvious flaws of character and of policy, because it’s already been done.

    What’s more, if Hillary is elected and leads to what you describe, you’ll blame those people because in your mind of course Trump would have been better. But the people who didn’t vote for him think he would be worse. And unless he is elected, we’ll never know. That probably won’t stop you from blaming them, though, even though we don’t have an alternate universe in which President Trump is available to be compared to President Hillary Clinton.

    Your use of the words “parvenu” and “eloi” indicate that you think that objection to Trump is based on some sort of snobbish elitism. What trivialization on your part! That reminds me of those who call any criticism of the deeply-flawed Obama “racism,” or any criticism of the deeply-flawed Hillary Clinton “sexism.” Now criticism of Trump is some sort of snobbish classism. Sorry, would that it were.

  35. RS,

    I will not vote for djt simply because I have a life long (68 yr) conscience based upon the principles I was taught from an early age. Those principles are simple and readily understood: be honest and work hard, believe in the free will of the individual, never give up your freedon and choose death and battle before abandoning freedom, never suffer fools, never succumb to the honey tongues of demagogues, stand with family and friends, and never abandon the ideal of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. NEVER TRUMP.

  36. Neo at May 6, 10:00 pm.

    Thank you. Very well said.

    Its going to be non-stop between now and November, especially if the elections tight or Trump is behind in the polls, this harangue against people who won’t vote for Trump as somehow traitors to the country. I’m impervious to it, but it still gets tiring. Thanks for being a voice of reason.

    If Trump wants to win, it’s up to him to make the case and win over voters. It’s not our obligation to vote for the loudmouth poltroon. So get to work Trump supporters. Make a better case than “he’s not as bad as her (unproven)

  37. Somehow the iconic taco bowl tweet has made The Donald less offensive. There may be a point beyond clownish pandering when one is relieved that the candidate is at least not vandalizing again. When Reince Priebus then pronounces the episode as “He’s trying”, we then see how some can find the yellow-haired miscreant charming.
    Perhaps the pivot is to more pandering, less vandalizing.

  38. Neo:
    “You may think it’s crystal clear that Trump is the lesser of two evils. But it is not clear to a lot of thoughtful people.”

    The paradigm of the Democrat-front Left that Hillary Clinton panders to or the paradigm of the Left-mimicking alt-Right that Trump panders to?

    In the last century, the German people faced a similar reduced choice as the activism-deficient alternatives were discredited inside the political evolutionary arena of their activist game, with epochal consequences for the world.

    Neo:
    “That reminds me of those who call any criticism of the deeply-flawed Obama “racism,” or any criticism of the deeply-flawed Hillary Clinton “sexism.” Now criticism of Trump is some sort of snobbish classism.”

    Yep, Marxist method class framing. They’re Left-mimicking.

    To be clear,based on past discussion, I don’t believe Richard Saunders is an alt-Right activist. I don’t believe he’s cadre. But the rhetoric indicates alt-Right influence. Activism is simply sociology weaponized or industrialized. The general will of We The People is a function of activism.

    As I commented upthread,

    In the Marxist method of Left activists and alt-Right activists, their class warfare is a strategy for paradigm shift.

    Debating Left and alt-Right activists on the merits of an issue is often an out-of-sync experience because they’re not debating on the merits. Rather, they mean to render the competition and all their merits irrelevant in the sweep of the greater ‘truth’ of [class] paradigm shift. So, although the Narrative contest for the zeitgeist (where narrative is elective truth while the actual truth is just a narrative that must be competed like any other in the arena) looks like HS debate club based on merit, it’s really maneuver contest based on mass.

    With the Left-mimicking alt-Right activist rhetoric, Richard Saunders is making a critical point to conservatives with “So, we maintained our principles. So,we’d never vote for a parvenu like Trump. So, we are the Eloi of the right. … Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.”

    It fits the counsel that I make here repetitively, which is to say, conservatives collectively need to end their self-obsolescing aversion to activism and undertake the necessary adjustments to mindset and skillset and become a social activist movement that’s required to compete for real.

  39. Add: If the limit of conservatives’ adjustment to the alt-Right insurgency that’s the creative engine of the Trump phenomenon is “we vote for a third party, write-in, or don’t vote” (Richard Saunders), he’s correct that doesn’t move the needle towards the necessary social cure.

    If the electoral choice of redirecting or pocketing one’s vote is the limit of conservatives’ adjustment to the situation, then practically, that aids the Democrat-front Left and the Clinton campaign and only slides conservatives further down towards political obsolescence.

    Participatory politics subsume electoral politics. A vote for a 3rd-party or write-in candidate can hope to makes a difference only if it’s action taken in the context of a competitive social activist movement that will reconstruct American society.

  40. Choice also includes “none of the above”.

    It also includes “let it burn”, which actually motivates some for Trump too.

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