Tea at Trianon: An Army of One

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

Sunday, March 17, 2019

An Army of One

Trump fights on alone and does not give up. From The American Thinker:

Then along came Donald Trump, previously a member of each political party at different times in his life when such party affiliation served his interests. The truth was he was never a Democrat or a Republican, at least as they are defined today. Instead he is a problem solver, beholden to no one and not part of the political establishment. His loyalty is only to America and those who voted for him, not to the donor classes and globalist elites.

Seeking the presidency, he understood the folly of running as a third-party candidate, at least officially, although in reality he was very much a third-party candidate, joining the GOP as the lessor of two evils. He was not part of either party’s ruling cabal, having never held elective office or political appointment. He did not campaign or arrive at the White House with an entourage of advisors and staff, from previous stints as a governor or senator. Trump was an army of one.

His past confidants from the Trump Tower days were his family and assorted lawyers and other fixer types, used as necessary when swimming through the shark-infested waters of New York City real estate development. President Trump entered the White House thin on trusted political aides and advisors. Few are still in his administration while most are long gone, some quietly and at least outwardly supportive of Trump, while others departed noisily, making trouble for Trump in exchange for book deals or appearances on CNN. Very few were solidly part of Trump’s army.

Now in the second half of his first term in office, he remains the king of a nonexistent political party, at least in Washington, DC. His actual party is “Yuuge” with a political base that elected and likely will reelect him in 2020. Trump hovers around 50 percent in the polls with 90 plus-percent support among Republicans.

Those few Republicans, like John Kasich, making noise about a primary challenge are chihuahuas nipping at the hooves of a massive Budweiser Clydesdale. The “son of a mailman” had his lunch handed to him by candidate Trump. Facing President Trump in 2020, he will be irrelevant.

Yet Trump is largely alone. Where are Republican members of Congress? Where are the pundits? Defenders are as scarce as moderate Democrats. Nancy Pelosi is on television more in one week than Paul Ryan was in two years.

Trump’s army is small, with only a few Congressional allies such as Mark Meadows and Lindsey Graham. Just a handful of media figures support President Trump while the rest call him a Nazi, a racist, a terrorist, or just a dolt. The remainder of the Republican Party is waiting patiently to stick a knife into Trump’s back when the situation allows. (Read more.)

From The National Review:

Schoenfeld only fuels the popular perception of The Bulwark Never Trumpers as an angry, coastal elite who are anguished that their warnings about Trump were ignored by both hoi polloi and their conservative “grifters and trolls.” In careerist fury, he now damns others for his own self-immolation — as if the country must suffer for the sins of not listening to his own genius, which would probably have given the country a 16-year Obama-Clinton regnum.

That Never Trumpers at The Bulwark were wrong about the Trump nomination, the general election, and the first two years of the Trump administration seems only to have fueled their spitefulness. If Schoenfeld is representative of this rump movement, then they are engaging in projection.

How strange to suggest that writing a book about why Trump got elected and why he has done well is proof of one’s careerist effort to gain favor with a politician or perhaps find employment in his administration. This is a charge against those who have never worked in a campaign or sought administration employment, leveled by those who most certainly have done one or both in the past and no doubt will in the future — at least if they can pull off yet another careerist contortion in 2024.

The bitter hostility of Schoenfeld reflects the Trump-assassination theme pushed by celebrities. Just as Madonna, Kathy Griffin, and Johnny Depp vie to see who can most grotesquely envision Trump’s death, so too Never Trumpers seek ever-more-creative ways to gnash their teeth at Trump and his supporters. Instead of trying to smear those with whom they disagree, they might have at least offered a coherent defense of their own creed, such as it is. (Read more.)

From Charlie Kirk:

In the end, they all forsook him and fled.

It is very important to remember that all of this has come to a head over the past five months because the President did not place his own Party in the position of having to shut the government down while they controlled both Houses of Congress. For two years the President had a majority in the House and in the Senate and tried to rely on them to cooperate in getting our border secured.

They did what is in their nature to do. They did nothing.

It is worth presenting a roll call of those GOP Senators who voted against the President. To borrow from the all-time movie classic, Casablanca, let’s round up the usual suspects:
Mitt Romney (UT), Susan Collins (ME), Marco Rubio (FL), Pat Toomey (PA), Roger Wicker (MS), Lamar Alexander (TN), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Roy Blount (MO), Jerry Moran (KS), Mike Lee (UT), Rob Portman (OH)…

…and Rand Paul (KY) whose libertarian ideals I generally but with whom I simply cannot agree in this case.

The reasons for their turning their back on the President run along the expected lines. Some fear that the use of Emergency Powers will encourage future Presidents to do the same. Others say outright that it is unconstitutional. Roy Blunt actually said that he worried this would allow a Democratic President to use an Emergency Declaration to pass gun control. Is anybody ready to join me in giving up?

Fortunately, the President isn’t giving up. He is going to veto this non-sensical Bill and let the fight turn to the courts where Republicans along with Democrats will try to stop him. This is with complete disregard of the wishes of the American people. The polls on the border and the building of a wall can be confusing when looked at as independent parts of a whole because depending upon how the question is asked, journalists and pundits can cite scripture for their purpose and draw differing conclusions. That said, back in January, The Daily Caller ran a piece that did a good job in synthesizing the results of various polls. The conclusion? Americans feel border security is a really big problem and they are willing to spend money to address it. (Read more.)