U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hold a joint news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House June 7, 2018 in Washington, DC. Trump and Abe discussed the upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit.
Trump is turning out to be a pretty good president.
There, I said it, and by doing so I'm sure the people who most need what I'm about to write are going to discount it instantly. And I instantly feel the need to footnote it by saying I don't agree with Trump on every issue, which is pretty much what you'd have to expect since I'm a national-defense libertarian and Trump is an FDR Democrat in an elephant suit. But I agree with him way more than I expected to, and I'm very impressed at what he's done in particular in foreign affairs: both bringing North Korea to something that looks like real negotiations, and getting Saudi Arabia and a bunch of other Sunni nations into an alliance against Iran, and at least grudging tolerance of Israel.
So now, after 18 months or so, we're in a situation where the conservative wing of the coastal clerisy -- people like Bill Kristol, my erstwhile PJ Media colleague Jennifer Rubin, and Ron Radosh — are all pushing the notion that to "punish Trump," to "get Trump's attention," and to "save the Republican Party," conservatives need to campaign for and vote for Democrat candidates in the midterms. What is even harder to understand is that they claim to be doing it based on their "principles."
To which I say, "Are you mental?"
I can understand it, honestly. Trump won, and did so by delivering a flat-out country whoopin' to both the Republican clerisy and Mad Granny — who was, by the way, an atrocious candidate who couldn't stagger over the goal line with the DNC blocking Bernie Sanders and the combined efforts of political appointees in the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Intelligence Community doing their best to facemask him before — and late-hit him out of the game after — the election.
The fact is Trump's election was a massive shock, and Trump is an embarrassment to them. Worse, he continues to embarrass them every day by being a vainglorious loudmouthed Queens real estate developer instead of a proper politician.
And there's the problem. When you say you want to vote for Democrats to "send a message to Trump" in the name of "your principles," what you are saying is you're willing to vote for a party that has expressly promised to reverse the tax cuts, reimpose the regulations Trump's administration is canceling, further nationalize healthcare and legalize open borders now and forever. Not to mention at least tacitly endorsing the use of the IRS to suppress political speech, the use of the Intelligence Community to spy on political opponents, and the use of the Justice Department to criminalize the opposition. Whats more, it's the party that has promised to impeach Trump, leading to a political crisis the outcome of which no one can predict.
All to "send a message" about "your principles".
Here's some news: the message you're sending is "I don't care if the country goes to hell in a handbasket as long as we punish that vainglorious bastard," and the principles you're defending are "how dare you people fail to do what the clerisy tells you to do?"
Those motives are pernicious and the potential outcome horrendous, and I for one am not going along.
I saw this the other day: "I can't believe we have a president who sleeps with porn stars and wants a space army and I still hate him." I don't hate him, but I was never a fan, and I completely identify with this sentiment.
But if my choices are a vainglorious bastard who is a better president than we've had in a long time, or what the Democrats are offering, I'm going for the bastard.
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