Tea at Trianon: Trump vs Cruz Headache for Radio Hosts

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Trump vs Cruz Headache for Radio Hosts

From The New York Times:

Part of the conservative radio divide reflects how Mr. Cruz was the darling of the far right wing of the Republican Party before Mr. Trump’s unexpected political rise. A frequent guest on talk radio, the Texas senator earned celebrity status for his effort to shut down the government, and was showered in effusive praise when he was the first to jump into the race. Mr. Limbaugh called his presidential announcement speech “dazzling” and “masterful.”

But Mr. Trump’s candidacy forced a realignment. Mr. Savage routinely has Mr. Trump on his show and decries Mr. Cruz as “an insider.” He sees Mr. Trump as galvanizing disaffected voters who have both powered his strong ratings for decades and have been ignored by previous Republican nominees.

“He’s speaking to the demographic of the electorate that has been ignored and castigated,” Mr. Savage said in an interview. “That’s what I see.”

Sean Hannity has not publicly staked out a side, and has said that both Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz are conservative choices. He tries to have both on his show as often as he can.

“Who am I to come in and tell them to vote for this person?” Mr. Hannity asked in an interview, referring to his audience. “I don’t think I serve them well that way.”

But he warned that any effort to deny Mr. Trump the nomination if he comes close to the 1,237 majority of delegates would be the downfall of the Republican Party.

“If they try to steal this nomination or disenfranchise the voters, it would be the end of the Republican Party. I guarantee you, it’s over,” he said.

“If it’s Trump” who is denied the nomination, “Trump supporters are walking. If it’s Cruz, Cruz supporters are walking. And they’re not coming back. And I’ll walk with them,” Mr. Hannity said.

Laura Ingraham, who also said she would not be endorsing a candidate, shared a similar point of view in an interview, calling the stop-Trump effort “a little juvenile.”

“There are a lot of purists out there who, if they don’t get everything checked off on their little bucket list,” then they say “take your pail and go home,” she said. “Come to the real world.” (Read more.)