These fuggin' guys
I read the WaPo, and mostly I skip their cadre of 'conservative' opinion writers, but once in a while, I click on one of their columns. It is almost always a mistake. This is no exception
While I have plenty to complain about the mainstream media (MSM), mostly their desire to both-sides every argument, and a tendency to “whataboutism” I still read both the Washington Post and the NY Times, but mostly refrain from clicking on links by their house conservatives.
For good reason, because 99 times out of one hundred, when you do dive into their writing, it is gratuitous arguments that are so one sided, so contrived, and so embellished with abominable takes on … well anything.
Today, when I saw the OpEd titled: “What 8 right-leaning columnists thing about Republican candidates for 2024”1 I hesitated greatly before clicking on it.
Did I really want to hear the addled back and forth from the titans of rational thought like Marc Thiessen, Henry Olson, Megan McArdle, and Greg Abernathy (among others)?
No, not really, but I did it anyway, and it was as specious and delusional as I expected. Some choice cuts, in case you don’t want to click the link.2
Beating Biden
If there is one thing that unifies these great thinkers3 it is their hatred for all things Liberal, Democrat, and Biden. They really seem to think that he is the worst president that ever walked the planet. A funny position to take when the doddering fool who can’t find his pants just guided through the insane caucus a bipartisan debt ceiling relief bill, mostly unscathed.
Yeah, he fucking pantsed your team, and they just gape slack-jawed.
Still, Biden isn’t very popular, and while his unfavorables are pretty high, he has beaten Trump like a rented mule in 2020, and he continues to surprise in the upside against the Freedom Caucus.
It’s almost like they aren’t very good at this governance thing.
Still, if it is Trump v Biden, then I am riding with Biden.
But won’t he get clobbered by DeSantis? Uh, have you seen DeSantis play retail politician? The man has less charisma than a 2 week old dog turd on the lawn. As long as he could hide in Florida, and not be exposed to the public, he could keep the facade of being a normal human being alive.
But as the public gets to see him in action, they are beginning to realize that he just doesn’t have it. Additionally, his cocooning himself away from the national media, while it sells in The Villages, and across the state that made “Florida Man” an internet sensation, to play in the big leagues, he can’t straight arm them.
Everytime he gets close to a reporter, he feeds the narrative that he is just fucking weird.
The main takeaway from this is that all these “conservative leaning” columnists hang their hopes on the Governer from Florida, with some minor concessions to the also rans. They game what the split in the likely Republican voters between the hard-MAGA, the soft-Maga, and the “normie”4 Republicans. They do admit that the Hard + Soft MAGA is probably 75% of the Republican voting public, and then dance around how DeSantis might be able to build a large enough coalition, if only he can avoid getting into the mosh pit with Trump.
But I suspect they are high on their own supply.
It’s Still Trump’s Party
I am only going to clip this one section from Jim Geraghty (probably the least trollish of the WaPo token conservatives):
For a long stretch now, a growing percentage of voters in the Republican presidential primary — and in some cases, gubernatorial and senatorial and House primaries — have wanted the craziest person in the race.
This observation is not going to make me popular, but “pick the craziest one” is a dumb way of picking nominees and presidents. You would not want the craziest person to be your child’s pediatrician. You would not want the craziest person to be admiral of a Naval fleet. You would not want the craziest person to be your boss. And you would not want the craziest person to be your child’s teacher, although maybe you’ve watched the feed of Libs of TikTok and discovered that your child’s teacher is, in fact, crazy.
By normal measurements, Republicans have a terrific selection of options this cycle. Alas, there’s still a strong appetite for the craziest candidate in the race, and I think we all know which dining companion of Ye, formerly known as Kanye West and Nick Fuentes wins on that criteria.
Jim recognizes that there are good, normal, not insane candidates. But he also with clear eyed insight makes the connection that the electorate wants the insanity, the liberal hurting, the bashing the right people, and policies and positions be damned.
That is pretty damn true.
Then there’s the what happens after Trump? Plenty of the Anti anti-Trump people (that encompasses this crowd of buffoons) seem to think that the old Republican party can claw its way back.
This is, naturally, complete bullshit. There is no “struggle for the soul” of the Republican party, here is Greg Abernathy:
Honestly, I don’t see a struggle for the soul of the party. Trumpism won, and that won’t change by 2024. There are Never Trumpers who want to cling to the hope that there’s a chance of returning to the pre-Trump party. I hope you’re right that there’s some chance of uniting the Trump and Reagan factions — and that if you take Trump himself out of the picture it’s easier to attract the old guard, even if the alternative candidate is basically still a Trumpist. That united coalition is necessary to win in November.
Ya think?
The award for the most fucktardery take goes to Marc Thiessen:
I don’t know. Just over 50 percent of Republicans are backing Trump — and it was below 50 percent until the New York indictment, which caused a rallying effect. That means about half don’t want the rematch, and many more are on the fence. There’s a struggle for the soul of the GOP. But there are a lot of ways that Trumpism and Reaganism are compatible. When you take Trump the man out of the picture, it will be possible to build a coalition of Trump and Reagan Republicans.
This fucking guy right here. I got a clue for you. Your desire for the party of Reagan (who wasn’t really that great of a president) is deader than the dodo. Jimi Hendrix has more of a chance to arise from the grave, with a Marlboro hanging off his lip, and deliver a blistering reunion, where he is joined on stage with Rory Galagher, and Eddie van Halen.
Seriously, fuck these guys, and the 20 minutes they stole from me from reading this trite bullshit.
This is my “gift” link, to get you by the paywall
I can sympathize if you pass on my gift ;-)
I think I got cancer typing that about this gang
Pre-2016 Republicans who ostensibly wanted small government, less regulations, and less taxes. It is easy to argue that the general electorate never really was that into these things, and the R elites fooled themselves into believing it.