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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSinister figures lurk around our careless president - By George F. Will
By George F. Will Opinion writer October 13 at 8:10 PM
With eyes wide open, Mike Pence eagerly auditioned for the role as Donald Trumps poodle. Now comfortably leashed, he deserves the degradations that he seems too sycophantic to recognize as such. He did Trumps adolescent bidding with last Sundays preplanned virtue pageant of scripted indignation his flight from the predictable sight of players kneeling during the national anthem at a football game. No unblinkered observer can still cling to the hope that Pence has the inclination, never mind the capacity, to restrain, never mind educate, the man who elevated him to his current glory. Pence is a reminder that no one can have sustained transactions with Trump without becoming too soiled for subsequent scrubbing.
A man who interviewed for the position Pence captured, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), is making amends for saying supportive things about Trump. In 2016, for example, he said he was repulsed by people trying to transform the Republican National Convention from a merely ratifying body into a deliberative body for the purpose of preventing what has come to pass. Until recently, Corker, an admirable man and talented legislator, has been, like many other people, prevented by his normality from fathoming Trumps abnormality. Now Corker says what could have been said two years ago about Trumps unfitness.
The axiom that Hell is truth seen too late is mistaken; damnation deservedly comes to those who tardily speak truth that has long been patent. Perhaps there shall be a bedraggled parade of repentant Republicans resembling those supine American communists who, after Stalin imposed totalitarianism, spawned the gulag, engineered the Ukraine famine, launched the Great Terror and orchestrated the show trials, were theatrically disillusioned by his collaboration with Hitler: You, sir, have gone too far.
Trumps energy, unleavened by intellect and untethered to principle, serves only his sovereign instinct to pander to those who adore him as much as he does. Unshakably smitten, they are impervious to the Everest of evidence that he disdains them as a basket of gullibles. He understands that his unremitting coarseness satisfies their unpolitical agenda of smashing crockery, even though his self-indulgent floundering precludes fulfillment of the promises he flippantly made to assuage their sense of being disdained. He gives his gullibles not governance by tantrum, but tantrum as governance.
With Trump turning and turning in a widening gyre, his crusade to make America great again is increasingly dominated by people who explicitly repudiate Americas premises. The faux nationalists of the alt-right and their fellow travelers such as Stephen K. Bannon, although fixated on protecting the United States from imported goods, have imported the blood-and-soil ethno-tribalism that stains the continental European right. In Answering the Alt-Right in National Affairs quarterly, Ramon Lopez, a University of Chicago PhD candidate in political philosophy, demonstrates how Trumps election has brought back to the public stage ideas that a post-Lincoln America had slowly but determinedly expunged. They were rejected because they are incompatible with an open society that takes its bearing from the Declaration of Independences doctrine of natural rights.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sinister-figures-lurk-around-our-careless-president/2017/10/13/09c9448c-af6e-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)There you have it.
Toss a couple of baskets of gullibles and deplorables together and what do you get? The Latter-Day republican-russian Party, Inc.
dalton99a
(81,707 posts)ATL Ebony
(1,097 posts)A well-thought out comprehensive article encapsulating the sick person elected to govern us by a "basket of gullibles" and/or "basket of deplorables", both descriptions apply to his base.
Brainstormy
(2,381 posts)that being said, the fundamentals of this piece are spot on.
Polly Hennessey
(6,815 posts)it is a bit over the top. I call it flourishing one's sword.
cilla4progress
(24,800 posts)though I appreciate he is anti-trump. And yes, his verbosity is pretentious.
But Will will find himself on the right side of history.
I believe Miller is the most heinous of those directing trump, and I'm glad will called him out here. Miller is truly a sick fuck.
llmart
(15,567 posts)You've carried water for the GOP for years, but now you want to be on the right side of history and/or relevant, so you choose to castigate Trump and Pence. Well, here's my opinion on your opinion piece.
We are not going to forget that it isn't just Trump/Pence who are trying to destroy our democracy. It's literally the entire GOP and we Democrats are NOT going to forget that.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)The axiom that Hell is truth seen too late is mistaken; damnation deservedly comes to those who tardily speak truth that has long been patent. "
Mr. Will, the truth you ignored is right in front of you, and you ignored it for years. Are you practicing a speech for St. Peter, the one you give before you sent thrown down with all the other pundits? Might I sugest this for reserach?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malebolge
especially this part:
Bolgia Two: Sinners guilty of excessive flattery are punished in this bolgia, immersed forever in a river of human excrement, similar to what their flatteries were.
I expect you and many of your fellow right wing pundits will find many, many friends there.
Response to llmart (Reply #7)
Zorro This message was self-deleted by its author.
Skittles
(153,299 posts)Mr. Will can fuck himself
Just like some I know who had Trump signs in their yard and now try to pretend they didn't vote for him, like those of us who pass their house every day can't remember.
NBachers
(17,186 posts)his favor.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)I actual like a G will quote:
"The axiom that Hell is truth seen too late is mistaken; damnation deservedly comes to those who tardily speak truth that has long been patent.
lindysalsagal
(20,792 posts)I seriously doubt Will cares any more about regular people than frump: This is 180 degrees from why the frumpers love their idiot: He makes them feel better about themselves. Put Will in that category, as well.
janx
(24,128 posts)Will, who writes a column for The Washington Post, spoke about his decision Friday at an event for the Federalist Society in Washington.
This is not my party, he told the audience, the news site PJ Media first reported.
Speaking with The Post, Will said that he changed his voter registration from Republican to unaffiliated several weeks ago, the day after House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) endorsed Trump.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/george-will-exits-the-republican-party-over-trump/2016/06/25/2b6cdcaa-3b09-11e6-9ccd-d6005beac8b3_story.html?utm_term=.f1da3b1dd1b3
KG
(28,753 posts)eleny
(46,166 posts)He was right there sucking up to them.
"Calling himself very pro-tea party, Will argued that in some ways the tea party is more of a force than ever. "
http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/29/george-will-in-some-ways-tea-party-more-of-a-force-than-ever/
So, Will, in the coarsest way possible - go fuck yourself.
Demtexan
(1,588 posts)The GOP selling out to the russians.
Now they are trying to act innocent.
A lot more republicans will be doing this.