“Lying about Donald Trump has become an Olympic sport,” writes Samantha Strayer at The Federalist. In the article she stomps on a bunch of those lies, and here’s how I’d sum it up: The information war is the center of it all. If we don’t reach more people, we lose — the “narrative” is set by the extreme lefties and their right of center useful idiots.
That Donald Trump is not your typical conservative is a feature, not a bug. And it certainly doesn’t mean Hillary is the better choice.
Lying about Donald Trump has become an Olympic sport. Like the quadrennial games, strident anti-Trumpism comes with shady financial deals, sexual depravity, and lotsand lots of melodrama. Sprinkle all that with beta male tears and spasmodic chest pounding, and you pretty much have the worst of NeverTrumpism.
The latest entrant in the Anybody But Trump game comes from James Kirchick at The Daily Beast. The thesis? Hillary Clinton is predictable and therefore more conservative (i.e., better) than Trump because cherry-picked quotations from Edmund Burke say so. Oh, and Trump is reeeally evil, says horrible things, and doesn’t want to conserve anything. Thus, implies the author, the fate of Planet Earth — nay, the universe! — rests on Trump’s defeat.
Yeah, okay. Repeating false narratives is like zombie Christmas to the unimaginative. But let’s dispense with several of the criticisms about Trump because — while I don’t agree that the fate of the nation hinges on any one person — much indeed is at stake.
Big Lie 1: Predictability Is Inherently Conservative and Therefore Good
The basis for Kirchick’s argument is that predictability is conservative (therefore good) while unpredictability is not conservative (therefore dangerous). And never the twain shall meet.
This is a beaut and a false dichotomy, because the ordered universe shows us each and every day that the predictable and unpredictable are necessary parts of life. Struggling to find the balance between these two realities is as natural as breathing and at the heart of every great story. Elements of both are evident in Trump. Common sense and self-respect demand an understanding of this basic fact.
This lie is also Exhibit A for Why Conservatives Lose. “How can we be losing?” you ask. “We have majorities in Congress, governors, and state legislatures! By the way, we are really, really smart and have loads of principles and believe in, you know, the Constitution.”
Hello, people. We. Are. Losing. The. Culture.
Read more: The Federalist
Image credit: Cartoon by A.F. Branco.
