There are a group of Conservatives that just cannot accept President Trump. They are constantly chastising him, only occasionally begrudgingly praising him for something before reverting to their total disdain. The question to them is are they more interested in their impression of proper presidential conduct or do they want to accomplish their policy goals?
Discounting Bill Kristol (who has seemingly gone off the edge) or people who are not really conservatives (David Frum or Jennifer Rubin), there are three principal ringleaders. The three have recently formed their own publication – The Dispatch. They are Steve Hayes, Jonah Goldberg and David French. Since forming the new publication (Hayes and Goldberg co-founded the publication then French came over from National Review), it seems from what the three write and their appearances on TV they have significant disgust for Trump and they regularly make that clear.
The fascinating part of this is these three are conservatives, a term I don’t call myself (I am a Republican). I can understand their initial trepidation about Trump. Many Republicans were hesitant or cautious until they saw how he has governed for the past three years. Yes, he has not effectively lowered the deficit and his tariffs go against conservative dogma. I agree that tariffs are not optimal. But, I have yet to hear an effective effort to confront Chinese trade exploitation. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is against tariffs and their policy idea is to negotiate more. Haven’t we had enough of knocking our heads against a wall?
Recently I wrote this in my column about why we like Trump: We love the dismantling of the regulatory state. We love being back to free enterprise and ordinary Americans driving the bus. We love that the economy is booming not just for us, but for everyone. We love how he has created new trade agreements and forced China to stop taking advantage of us. We love how he is getting our NATO allies to step up to their commitments. We love highly-skilled federal judges who don’t make things up as they go along. We love that he is changing the formula on illegal immigrants. We love legal immigrants, but not ones who break our laws to be here. We love his support for Israel and Great Britain, our closest allies.
Any President who would be following those policies would ordinarily be considered a conservative’s dream. Just consider the judges. Conservatives have a grave distaste for judges who believe the U.S. Constitution is a living document. Ask them what they think of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Then watch them slobbering over Antonin Scalia. One hundred and ninety mini-Scalia’s. Trump has approved them with the help of Senate Leader McConnell. McConnell recently said during an interview that approving judges was his priority over legislation. Think about that: what good is passing legislation if an activist judge is going to derail it?
David French recently had a column entitled If the President is Going to Be So Powerful Can We Ask He Also Be Good? He wrote about how Trump subverted our international diplomacy. This is despite the supposed victim, President Zelensky, in a recent interview by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour called the impeachment a TV Soap Opera; he is more concerned with changing the image of his country as being corrupt. French states the only reason we support Trump is because he is winning. Winning at any cost.
Jonah Goldberg had a recent column entitled Our Nation is Paying for Trump’s Refusal to be Presidential. He starts the column stating, “I’ve long argued that Donald Trump’s presidency will end poorly because he’s a person of bad character.” He seems to consider whatever he thinks is the flaw in Trump’s character worse than Obama’s lying to us about health care to get it passed. Or the criminal activity Obama condoned where he used the IRS to suppress Republican groups from getting approvals on non-profit status. I would like Mr. Goldberg to tell us one thing that Trump has done that is equivalent to Lois Lerner’s suppression tactics.
Goldberg ends the column saying “Trump could have avoided impeachment had he governed, from the start, as a servant of all Americans.” Goldberg is a smart guy, but that is delusional. The hatred for Trump was severe before he won which then went into the stratosphere after he became president. The attacks on him just continued and his opponents were out to skin him alive. The only way they may have backed off was if he enacted their dreadful policies.
Goldberg and his colleagues seem to have a short memory. The only thing that stopped Democrats from a full frontal assault on George W. Bush was 9/11. That only lasted so long before they returned to their ad hominem attacks culminating in calling him a racist because of the failings of Democrats in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Somehow these Conservatives seem to think Trump is unbecoming because he fights back unlike what GWB did in 2005.
No, this country paid the price for GWB being hobbled for the remainder of his term because of false charges. Or how about their new hero, Mitt Romney, who was lied about by Senator Harry Reid on the U.S. Senate floor. Then after the election when Reid was asked about his lies, he said “He didn’t win did he?” On the other hand, Trump has fought through a three-year assault on him and delivered policies about which any Conservative should be delighted.
I ask you again: Do you want nice of effective? You can’t be nice to these people so I will take effective. They will respect you more and the country will be better for it.