Snakebit

How to rationalize voting for Trump again.

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426
Former Rep. Peter Meijer. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Welcome back from a long holiday weekend in which you paid no attention to politics, hopefully.

Good thing, if so. You might have lost your appetite.

A few days ago, for the first time, Donald Trump crossed 60 percent in the Republican primary national polling average. He’s topped 62 percent in each of the last four national polls taken while his two most credible challengers continue to hover at around 25—combined.

He reached another milestone earlier this month when he touched 46 percent in the average of head-to-head polling against Joe Biden. Last week he inched up further to 47 percent; the president, meanwhile, is treading water at 45 and may be on his way down. Of the last 18 surveys taken, Trump has led in 16.

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  1. George Goodwine

    This comment was written in response your earlier article crowning Mike Lee’s support of Trump as canonizing Trump as the ultimate evil to democracy. This article continues the diatribe so with very few changes of additions I shall pull punches. I hesitated sending it was mostly about Mike Lee though a camouflaged attack on Trump.
    I think a most interesting political question is why the Dispatch writers are so viscerally unhappy for such a long time at the thought of DJ Trump. It can only be answered within an envelope of speculation. The temptation is to oversimplify the Dispatch as a bunch of spoiled yuppies, baby boomers, or of that ilk who have always been very entitled, have never served in the military in a combat capacity,, and will only tolerate those who have pleasing accommodating personalities and who dare not rub them or any of their subscribers and Georgetown buddies the wrong way. I have been watching this from a distance since DJ came down the escalator in 2016.
    First, there was George Will and Charles Krauthammer, of considerably more intellectual weight than the editorial staff of the Dispatch. They sorely misjudged his abilities, and then shut up, in recognition. However, the Dispatch writers can’t seem to move on, as this article shows.
    Hindsight is considered 100%; but apparently, even this is beyond your ability to see things clearly. Other than Vladimir Lenin being in the Whitehouse suffering from dementia the decline of our nation from DJ Trump to Joe Biden could not be clearer.
    Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Elise Stefanik, Marco Rubio are neither opportunists or pseudo Nazis. The have come to realize we need a leader, whether he is likable or not. The Biden administration has put us into a position that we need “retake the hill.” The man in the arena to do this is DJ Trump. Personal dislikes are fading away to the desire for leadership. Although primaries obviously figure into it, the reason they do is because the people are behind it, not the Washington cocktail establishment. Use of inflammatory terms like leftist “vermin” only serves the journalist intent on further dividing America. The people only want to get back the America they gave up when electing Biden. Most of what they gave up were the Trump accomplishments. The fact you cannot see any accomplishment which is so obvious proves your total inability to recognize leadership, if it does not fit your personality cult. There are several factions intent on “remaking” America. MAGA merely wants to eliminate these political forces from ruling the republic and eventually destroying it fbo elite political and financial interests. Open borders, cheap labor, selling out to China, to name just a few.
    No matter how much one might dislike D.J. Trump, and want him disqualified as a candidate and written out of history, he’s an historical figure who started a corrupt and failing U.S. back on the road to prosperity and respect, and in character with its former traditions, whose image has been continually tarnished by the media, and others in the D.C establishment, because their power is threatened, and whose nose has been since out of joint since 2016. The fat cats are not good mousers- they have to get it through the tax payers and congress by trade with China, earmarks in legislation, and systemic deceit by the government bureaucrats. Historians are finally discovering what comprises the deep state and how they operate.
    You cannot safely say that most Republicans in Washington began as cynics about Trump. The power players considered him a threat to their political and profit seeking agenda, which includes the corporate press. They spent 4 years attempting to remove him one political way or another. They finally did so in a highly suspicious election, and then declared it an axiom that the 2020 election was entirely above reproach and it is hereby now axiomatic that anyone casting suspicions on the 2020 election needs to see a psychiatrist to realign themselves with reality. “1984” has been here and left it’s mark, and continues to operate. The media which has known for some time it is engaged in something sleazy, inevitably started to rationalize that it is actually virtuous! D.J. Trump was not a bogey invading Washington; he was the man in the arena taming the lions of corruption. Cracking the whip in in the political ring.
    Observers like the Dispatch, need to clear the fog of ego off their media binoculars and size up the real condition of the U.S. and see how much mileage is left in the Republic after the progressives get through with it. The rats are very comfortable living within the ship of state under Biden. They are terrified of getting fumigated by DJ.
    Your colleague, Andrew Egger sizes up Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and offers a guess as how he has journeyed from cynicism to conversion. Not much, Andrew theorized. In his journalistic snobbery he insults anyone daring to support MAGA which he chacterizes as “the heart of the world’s dumbest people.”
    His comments about J6 is incomplete gibberish. The fact is there is a no more clear exposition of the 2 tiered justice system. Although, some of it was clearly a crime, the history of a congress clearly setting the stage for it develops in hindsight day by day.
    George Goodwine

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  2. Wes.Bridges

    Let's not, shall we? At some point, a man needs to stand on principle.

    Current situation: "Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others."
    --Groucho Marx

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  3. PatThomson

    Okay, little mental exercise: What if Jesus pointed to Trump, and said, "It's him or me. Choose." What if the opposite happened, and Trump said of Jesus, "It's him or me. Choose."

    Which one would make you hesitate?

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    1. George Goodwine

      What if jesus pointed to you and said-why do you persecute the man in the arena.

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      1. PatThomson

        Is Trump the man in the arena? And how is evaluating a candidate for highest office the same as persecuting him? And what that Jesus ever said would make you think he would consider that evaluation the same as persecution?

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    2. DALE Nathan SWITZER

      Trump does this every day when he demands his acolytes to lie and say he is a good man. By Jesus standards , no one is good, but Trump is particularly bad. He brags about adultery ( not just sometimes fails or hides it because of its shame). Adultery is the very first work of the flesh and the New Testament repeats many times “Marriage is honorable… but adulterers God will judge”

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      1. PatThomson

        Dale, he doesn't put the choice so starkly. He puts his behavior in their faces, but doesn't say, "It's him or me. Choose." My friends who are Trump supporters don't see that they must choose one or the other. And the twisted kicker is that Biden is just as corrupt as Trump. I find it hard to wrap my brain around a choice between two such dishonest old men. I want a better choice!

        I believe my Christian friends will choose Jesus when they recognize the choice. It's their Lord who said, "You cannot serve God and Mammon."

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        1. DALE Nathan SWITZER

          You are being merciful and I don’t feel like being Christlike at the moment.

          Of course you a right that they don’t see the gradual substitution

          This of course is what the 2nd commandment is about. Don’t make an image of what you think I look like and worship it instead of me

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    3. Martin W Kraegel III

      Hey why won't Jesus come down from wherever he's hiding and do that? What gives? But yeah, I really think contemporary Christianity has only a tangential relationship to the moral teachings of Jesus Christ. It's now a power structure loaded up with hypocrites of the kind Jesus railed against in the Gospels.

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      1. PatThomson

        Mr. Kraegel, I don't think you understand that Jesus has already told us we have to choose whom we will serve, whether we serve the gods of money and trinkets or the Creator and Lord of the universe. The weird part is, even you serve somebody, even if it's only the man in the mirror. But, hey! Trump serves the man in his mirror, too!

        I doubt you ever darken the door of a church. That's why you are sure that we are all hypocrites. It's easier to judge somebody far away, than somebody you see regularly, and whom you know to be a decent person. You can call me a hypocrite, but you don't know that for sure. As my husband would say, "Lucky guess!"

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  4. Redskyatknight

    That there are several viable, vetted, psychologically stable republican candidates running for 2024 presidential office & NONE are the choice of likely republican voters ( according to polling ) over a 2nd Trump presidency ( regime is more likely) says it all.

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  5. Nick V

    Meijer is perhaps playing politics? Those seeking elected office have been known to do such things. I don't care for this behavior, but I recognize that if you want to run and win, you're gonna have to make friends with one team or the other. You can't hardly throw a rock in DC without hitting a politician who is willing to tell some voting bloc or another what they want to hear, all the while going on about business as usual.

    Anyway, I hope Meijer wins despite his apparent weasel tendencies on the Trump question, as I would greatly prefer a GOP controlled Senate regardless of who will sit in the Oval Office.

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      Gtcarp

      A spineless Republican controlled Senate (Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell), a MAGA controlled house, and a Trump presidency? What could possibly go wrong?

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    2. DavidWG

      Meijer is saying he would vote for a man who he's previously voted to impeach. He's on record, by vote in Congress, for saying that Donald Trump is so unfit for office that he should be disqualified from ever running for any office of trust ever again. Yet now he would vote for him?!?! That's way beyond playing politics.

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      1. Wes.Bridges

        Political survival now is focused on kissing the ring--or whatever else is proffered. Repulsive.

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    Citizen60

    In an interview with Bill Barr , who declared that Trump was a danger to the country, then answered the question if he'd vote for Trump: I'll vote for whoever the Republican candidate is in 2024.

    I think the same answer was given by everyone running against Trump in the Republican primary.

    I've long held that Republicans will "line up" to vote for anyone/anything that has a "R" next to its name on the ballot--even a tree stump. Sure seems to still be true.

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      Johnamurdock

      Asa Hutchison did not raise his hand to support Trump. Chris Christie sorta kinda did but quickly said he didn't (though it seems he was likely just trying to get to the mic first). https://www.foxnews.com/video/6335463798112

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    Kingusc

    Really good article, Nick. Succinctly putting several thoughts onto paper (?) that I've had bouncing around my head - particularly the bit about performative contempt.

    Unfortunately, performative contempt is also practiced on the other side of the political spectrum. Which begs the question about whose non-transfer-of-power behavior was more contemptible -- Trump's or the left's reaction to him? Until the election, I would have told you that the answer was subject to doubt. I say this as somebody who has never failed to vote for a Republican since Reagan and did not vote for Trump either time and will not this time. I will not vote for Biden either.

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  8. DALE Nathan SWITZER

    The best comparison of what is happening in America is not Rome, or even the Weimar Republic.

    The better example is Munster, Germany in 1534. The anabaptists, who had been persecuted everywhere, found a place to be free. Unfortunately, having been persecuted, some of them were out for revenge. They first allied with the Lutherans to remove the political influence of Catholics, then used their majority over the Lutherans to expel the Catholics. Then they removed the Lutheran political influence and expelled them. They then removed the insufficiently committed Anabaptists and started KILLING them.

    After a bit, the self-appointed prophet of the Anabaptists was taking the wives of his followers at will and killing anyone who spoke up against him.

    It doesn't take a majority to set up a dictator, it just takes a majority of people wanting REVENGE on their perceived enemies. After the enemies are punished, suddenly the less radical group discovers that they are in the minority of electorate. Now THEY are the enemies. Rinse and repeat until the death of the dictator.

    The only reason that the American people aren't afraid of Trump is because they believe, "It could never happen here" But it could.

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    1. Wes.Bridges

      Thanks for this. We covered the subject an undergraduate course on the history of the reformation, but I needed the refresher to bring it into focus. Cheers.

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  9. Msykuta

    There is a lot that concerns me in this, but the one that jumps out is the quip "Don't compare Trump to the almighty, conservatives tell themselves...". To listen to a good number of the Christian nationalists on the extreme right, they believe Trump IS the Almighty. And that, as Tim Alberta wrote today for The Atlantic, is a huge part of our problem today.

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    1. Wes.Bridges

      Weird. Growing up, "evangelical" was an adjective. Now it's apparently a noun, and, equally apparently, no longer means what it says. Equal parts sad and alarming.

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      1. DALE Nathan SWITZER

        Evangelical was used as a noun in the late 1700’s to describe Protestants in England who wanted Christians to proclaim a personal experience of conversion vs a child baptism identification. They were an associated group with the Methodists but did not preach against alcohol or demand other “holiness” commitments William Wilberforce and his mentor John Newton ( author of Amazing Grace ) were evangelicals.

        In the endless genealogies of religion, which, unfortunately, I know way to well, Evangelical means expecting an identifiable “born again” experience for each believer.

        I agree with you that the term has become identified with Christian Nationalism which is the exact opposite belief. Christian Nationalism teaches that every American should identify as a Christian by virtue of being part of a Christian Nation ( the US) and if you aren’t a Christian ( or at least a Jew) then you are not truly American. Born Again experiences are ignored in this belief. It is a cultural identity only.

        Trump is a “Christian” and the leader of “Christians” because he is “American” as defined by himself.

        Democrats, of course, are not true Americans and therefore not “Christians”.

        The only true “Christians” are those who believe Trump is God, jg (Junior Grade)

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      2. Wes.Bridges

        And what the heck is a "Christian nationalist," anyway? Should not exist in nature....

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    2. Martin W Kraegel III

      Absolutely. That's a huge part of this. But how do you even begin to argue against what is basically a faith position? If you're like Nick or myself and you're a non-believer how do you even begin to grapple with somebody who believes that God has ordained Trump to lead this nation?

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      1. Msykuta

        I wish I had a good response to that. Even as a Christian myself, it's pretty much impossible to have any kind of meaningful conversation with any hope of penetrating the zealotry and idol worshiping by those who view Trump as God's chosen instrument to redeem God's kingdom--a kingdom few of them could even comprehend in the context of Jesus' teachings.

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        1. Wes.Bridges

          Perhaps time to coin a new term: Christian idots. Those who profess God and Trump in the same breath, as a new duality to replace the Trinity.

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        2. PatThomson

          See my post above.

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  10. DALE Nathan SWITZER

    The response of the Trumpists to our warnings about dictatorship is best given here:

    https://1ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theamericanconservative.com%2Fapocalypse-trump%2F

    It is, in the watergate phrase, "a non-response, response". It just flippantly quotes articles warning about what Trump is saying and then sarcastically says:

    "Why not just release the hounds? After all, why not make good on his claim that, under the Constitution’s Article II, “I have the right to do whatever I want as president”?"

    Exactly, that's what we are saying. What will stop him from doing that this time? Last time he was stopped because the last gasp of the constitutionalist republican party refused to back him. All of the "traitors" who didn't back him are now purged.

    Peter Van Buren never answers the question, because the answer is clear. Nothing will stop him. Peter Van Buren certainly won't. He'll be in the front of the cheer-leading section, or in the administration carrying out the Trump orders to round up the traitors.

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    1. Martin W Kraegel III

      I saw that Van Buren article and found it utterly disgraceful. I can't read Am Con Mag anymore. Lost any semblance of fidelity to Burkean conservativism by drinking the "Flight 93" kool-aid. But how many people on the right are eating this up, or perhaps dealing with the cognitive dissonance of "Only Trump can save us" and "Trump's bluster is idle nonsense."

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