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| Megyn Kelly, seen here worrying about how Donald Trump views women as sex objects. |
I never liked Trump and I no longer think he will do. Many of Trump's ideas (perhaps we should call them attitudes) on the other hand I do like.
The real story of 2016 is the cultural revolution against internationalism in America and Europe. Assuming Trump loses (possibly in a landslide), he will have steered the Republicans in a new direction. Will he be the forerunner of a new politics and culture or simply make the GOP brand toxic?
Democrats and some Republicans assume the latter and this article in yesterday's Washington Post makes a good case for it.
Taking the Republicans to defeat against a very weak, widely loathed opponent is certainly not a good advertisement for the ideas that propelled Trump to the nomination. On the other hand, it is hugely significant that, riding a wave of popular feeling, Trump was nominated and was neck and neck with Hillary until the first debate.
Donald Trump is what it took to get Republicans to listen to their supporters. The old Republican Party, the party of George W Bush, Jeb and Mitt, is dead, and I don't think it will not be much mourned. Not by me. Most of the Neo-Cons have returned to the Democrats. The religious right is dead too.
Trump has in fact created a third party but cleverly done so taking over one of the two historic parties. The history of American third parties suggests that they explode on the scene and then disappear.
The real story of 2016 is the cultural revolution against internationalism in America and Europe. Assuming Trump loses (possibly in a landslide), he will have steered the Republicans in a new direction. Will he be the forerunner of a new politics and culture or simply make the GOP brand toxic?
Democrats and some Republicans assume the latter and this article in yesterday's Washington Post makes a good case for it.
Taking the Republicans to defeat against a very weak, widely loathed opponent is certainly not a good advertisement for the ideas that propelled Trump to the nomination. On the other hand, it is hugely significant that, riding a wave of popular feeling, Trump was nominated and was neck and neck with Hillary until the first debate.
Donald Trump is what it took to get Republicans to listen to their supporters. The old Republican Party, the party of George W Bush, Jeb and Mitt, is dead, and I don't think it will not be much mourned. Not by me. Most of the Neo-Cons have returned to the Democrats. The religious right is dead too.
Trump has in fact created a third party but cleverly done so taking over one of the two historic parties. The history of American third parties suggests that they explode on the scene and then disappear.
But this time a cultural revolution might be starting to happen. It may well be that for the conservative half of the US electorate, as Ann Coulter said, immigration is the new abortion.
How does this play out in an America where the white proportion of the population shrinks day by day?
The British have what Dr Johnson called 'bottom - fundamental good sense' (that's why Brexit won) and they quickly detect a rat when they smell one. The last Prince of Wales was an understandable exception. I don't think Americans are so good at detecting rotters and frauds. In fact, thinking of American public figures from Jerry Falwell to Betty Friedan, I am pretty sure they are not. But Americans are not fools and they have the good sense to see that internationalism and identity politics have gone much too far.
Trump's performance at the debate has saved his campaign, but he now has no chance of winning in my opinion (far away Englishman that I am). Had he quit (always unthinkable) the Republicans would have gained thereby. Perhaps Pence would have become President.
I never liked Trump as a man. Who could, though he is great fun? I no longer think he will do. Many of Trump's ideas (perhaps we should call them attitudes), on the other hand, I do like. Although I am a believer in free trade, I find I like Pat Buchanan more than any other American political figure, except Ron Paul, and Trump is Pat Buchanan's heir.
The British have what Dr Johnson called 'bottom - fundamental good sense' (that's why Brexit won) and they quickly detect a rat when they smell one. The last Prince of Wales was an understandable exception. I don't think Americans are so good at detecting rotters and frauds. In fact, thinking of American public figures from Jerry Falwell to Betty Friedan, I am pretty sure they are not. But Americans are not fools and they have the good sense to see that internationalism and identity politics have gone much too far.
Trump's performance at the debate has saved his campaign, but he now has no chance of winning in my opinion (far away Englishman that I am). Had he quit (always unthinkable) the Republicans would have gained thereby. Perhaps Pence would have become President.
I never liked Trump as a man. Who could, though he is great fun? I no longer think he will do. Many of Trump's ideas (perhaps we should call them attitudes), on the other hand, I do like. Although I am a believer in free trade, I find I like Pat Buchanan more than any other American political figure, except Ron Paul, and Trump is Pat Buchanan's heir.
The USA must not go back to politics as normal after this election but there will be a ferocious left-of-centre attempt not to persuade the electors to do so but to silence the people who supported Trump.
The liberals in both parties and especially in the media have been badly frightened. They will be determined to have their revenge.
The liberals in both parties and especially in the media have been badly frightened. They will be determined to have their revenge.
It's terrible that it needed a gargoyle of this magnitude to force the media to listen to the worldview he speaks for, but clearly it did. (And I blame the left for that.) If he loses, he will still have revolutionised the discourse, and I'm inclined to think that would actually be the best outcome of this. Clinton will be a manifest disaster, so the issues won't go away in the least.
ReplyDeleteThe presidency could easily prove to be a poisoned chalice for Clinton, if she comes into office with her reputations in tatters, faces an endless procession of horrors from the Middle East, and likely enough falls prey to another serious financial crisis. Meanwhile the Republicans may patch up their civil war once the remnant establishment recognizes the political possibilities of the Trump movement. Trumpism without Trump has the advantage of being a vital force, unlike most of the other factors on the political scene, and if the party leadership can triangulate between it and other right-of-centre interests the party's future may be bright.
ReplyDeleteOf course one can construct scenarios much less hopeful from their point of view.
Intriguing. A one-term (failed) Clinton presidency could set the scene for another round of internecine warfare, in both parties!
DeleteShe is old frail and perhaps sick but her will to power will carry her on for 8 years if she can do it and incumbency will help her be reelected. But in the end, it's the economy, stupid. Or, possibly, the economy and immigration, stupid.
DeleteAssuming he loses, the Republican establishment will, in my opinion, ignore the Tea Party voters as "ignorant racists" and continue with business as usual.
ReplyDeleteThe result will be Tea Party 2.0 with nominal Republicans being defeated in primaries as the Republican electorate will not forgive the betrayal of 2016.
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Perhaps in 8 or 12 years time, someone just as radical but more personable will lead a very different Republican Party to victory.
But then the question must be: Is it too late? By that time, the Supreme Court will have been altered to start overturning the Constitution and the basic conservative tenets of the Constitution attacked.
I think we're looking at a very dark time ahead of us and there is in the long run a real danger of civil war.
The Tea Party never captured the GOP. But the Tea Party were very different in their ideas from Trump - he is not a constitutional conservative or particularly a small state man. He likes 'socialised medicine'. I imagine many of the people in the two movements are the same though.
DeleteYeah - I agree, the Tea Party's core platform was fiscal responsibility, and that is why it was quickly discredited and destroyed by the Republican establishment. Trump's movement is very different, combining hero-worship, anti-corruption, and anti-globalism.
DeleteOh I don't know, the politics of the moment are just that and once feelings have been vented they often dissipate. If Trump the winner fails that will not only humble him but make quite a few people who rode along question what they had been drinking. The GOP was ready for a reset after the alley it had pushed itself into during Obama's terms, however I don't think Trumpism is the end result it ,was just the on/off button. The same can be said if Farage and UKIP in relation to the Conservative movement and Brexit, after all Farage ( or Gove and Johnson cone to that )wasn't that important a politician he was just an actor playing in Daniel Hannan's production, being widely known is usually not the same thing as being truly influential after all
ReplyDeleteWere it not for Nigel Farage the UK would not be leaving the EU. The same can be said of David Cameron but probably not of Johnson, Gove, Juncker or even Angela Merkel. Assuming we do leave the EU Farage will have changed the course of history to a remarkable extent. But of course Brexit was part of the zeitgeist.
DeleteI disagree about Farage even UKIP did not do the real pushing on D.C. but Eurosceptics within his own party as well as that strange orbit between Lawson,Johnson Lamont and himself.Nigel though a household name probably did as much to dissuade a larger number of swing voters thanbe brought to the show, without him the result might have been even more positive for Brexit.He was and remains nothing but a useful idiot for the likes of DH slightly more acceptable than the BNP. Had it not been him there were others history will show just how perhipharal he was to the real operators of the levers ( almost a pun ) of power.
ReplyDeleteNigel Farage's crucial role was in making UKIP a threat to the Tories, prompting David Cameron to offer a referendum. In the referendum campaign NF was kept out of sight but he did push immigration into the forefront of the campaign in the last two weeks which was wisely done. I do not know who DH is. The BNP have almost collapsed.
ReplyDeleteDaniel Hannah was the Architect and Director of Brexit
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DeleteNeither the classical liberal Thatcherite UKIP nor the very Whig Daniel Hannan have anything in common with fascists. That bugbear of fascism that is used to scare us no longer does so. Fascism will not be a danger again in Europe unless people are driven to the far right - by things like Angela Merkel’s migrant policy - but even if they desert the main parties in the UK there exists a democratic anti immigration party in UKIP.
UKIP was never a real threat and D.C. Knew that ,I repeat it was driven more from within the stories and Pimlico meetings than it ever was by the core 12% of the electorate who are natural UKIP voters
ReplyDeleteThe Tories' 8 seat majority was possible because the referendum promise dished UKIP. This is clear enough for a child to understand.
DeleteWe had Pim Fortuyn in The Netherlands who like Trump pinpointed islam as a threat for western societies. He was murdered at gunpoint shortly before national elections in 2002. That changed The Netherlands forever, followed by the murder of the descendant of Vincent van Gogh, Theo van Gogh, in 2004.
ReplyDeleteLosing one election was neither here or there in the long run or another coalition and I think the promise of the referendum did not dish UKIP who were in disarray anyhow , their funding shaky and their message fuzzy ( if anything the referendum focused and strengthened their message inthe public arena rather than weakening them ) the liberals betrayal of their voters in the previous administration had far more to do with the Tory landslide, any fool could tell you that
ReplyDelete"To a practicing curmudgeon, the presidential contest is amusing but unimportant. Hillary will win, whether she wins or not. She is just the wave front of deep and fast-flowing currents of decay that cannot be stopped. Trump may try, but he cannot succeed. We live in a dying culture and, soon, a diminished country. It cannot be saved."
ReplyDeletehttp://fredoneverything.org/ready-ronald-mcdonald-or-lucretia-borgia-in-the-long-run-we-are-all-dead/
Obviously this doesn't mean the Right should give up. But after Trump's loss (assuming he will lose) many more European Americans will be receptive to the Alt-right's message that only ethnonationalism can save them. Of course Trump was a deeply flawed man; he had no vision, no impulse control and had no chance of making the U.S. "great again" anyway. America's doom was sealed in the Allied "victory" of 1945, the most catastrophic watershed in the history of the West from which it can never fully recover. The issue is not greatness but survival. The Alt-right has benefited immensely for his having been the GOP nominee and should move on.
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