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The 4th anniversary of National Review's suicide
Don Surber Blog ^ | 01/25/2020 | Din Surber

Posted on 01/26/2020 2:45:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind



It may be difficult to believe in this enlightened age but there was a time not so long ago when the National Review was the intellectual heart of America's conservative movement. Its writers were sharp, gifted and irreverent. Their appearances on Fox News and other TV outlets made them rock stars.

All that ended on January 22, 2016, when the magazine posted online its "Against Trump" issue. Once again, the editors proudly chose to stand athwart history rather than make it. They chose to lose with what they consider honor rather than win.

22 writers signed on, each penning a small missive which was published inside.

The magazine's editors did not like him. They called him a witless ape and buffoon and even attacked his wife's looks. Later, they portrayed his supporters as little Nazis in a piece called the Father Fuhrer.

The main editorial said, "Donald Trump leads the polls nationally and in most states in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. There are understandable reasons for his eminence, and he has shown impressive gut-level skill as a campaigner. But he is not deserving of conservative support in the caucuses and primaries. Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones.

"Trump’s political opinions have wobbled all over the lot. The real-estate mogul and reality-TV star has supported abortion, gun control, single-payer health care à la Canada, and punitive taxes on the wealthy. (He and Bernie Sanders have shared more than funky outer-borough accents.) Since declaring his candidacy he has taken a more conservative line, yet there are great gaping holes in it.

"His signature issue is concern over immigration — from Latin America but also, after Paris and San Bernardino, from the Middle East. He has exploited the yawning gap between elite opinion in both parties and the public on the issue, and feasted on the discontent over a government that can’t be bothered to enforce its own laws no matter how many times it says it will (President Obama has dispensed even with the pretense). But even on immigration, Trump often makes no sense and can’t be relied upon. A few short years ago, he was criticizing Mitt Romney for having the temerity to propose 'self-deportation,' or the entirely reasonable policy of reducing the illegal population through attrition while enforcing the nation’s laws. Now, Trump is a hawk’s hawk."

The argument was that 1. you cannot trust anything that he says, and 2. look what he is saying!

Later, the editorial said, "If Trump were to become the president, the Republican nominee, or even a failed candidate with strong conservative support, what would that say about conservatives? The movement that ground down the Soviet Union and took the shine, at least temporarily, off socialism would have fallen in behind a huckster. The movement concerned with such 'permanent things' as constitutional government, marriage, and the right to life would have become a claque for a Twitter feed."

I had forgotten that the idea that electing Donald Trump president upends a constitutional government is not original to Democrats.

The National Review ended its suicide note, "Some conservatives have made it their business to make excuses for Trump and duly get pats on the head from him. Count us out. Donald Trump is a menace to American conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it underfoot in behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as the Donald himself."

Hahaha.

Fools.

Four years later, we have completed the first three years of this Magnificent Age Known as the Trump Years.

MAGAPILL has catalogued the successes.

Thousands of regulations are gone. 170 conservative judges are appointed, confirmed, and doing the Lord's work.

Tax rates are lower and the economy is expanding. Unemployment is at a 50-year low. Wages are at an all-time high. Retirees are enjoying huge growth in their investments.

Mexico protects our border while we build a wall.

Planned Parenthood stopped accepting federal money. Donald Trump will become the first president to address the March for Life in person.

Everything the writers at National Review said they wanted done, he's done.

A conservative publication by now would have admitted it was wrong, apologized, and celebrated.

These witless apes want him impeached. On the fourth anniversary of its suicidal Against Trump editorial, the magazine's staff ran an editorial, "Impeachment Doesn’t Require a Crime."

Madison, Mason and Hamilton say, Wha'???

My reaction to Against Trump was, "National Review Hoists White Flag, Defiantly Rows To Outcast Island." Ahoy!

I was correct. The National Review now serves no purpose other than as a platform for an occasional column by Conrad Black or Victor Davis Hanson.

How odd that the people who called for losing with dignity do not have the dignity to own up to their error, which has aided and abetted the critics and opponents of the most conservative president since Reagan.


TOPICS: History; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: 2020election; againsttrump; conradblack; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; donsurber; election2020; fatherfuhrer; gopestablishment; impeachment; marchforlife; massachusetts; mediawingofthednc; michigan; mittwit; nationalrepuke; nationalreview; nevertrump; nevertrumpers; partisanmediashills; plannedparenthood; presstitutes; rinos; smearmachine; tds; uniparty; utah; victordavishanson
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1 posted on 01/26/2020 2:45:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I have heard rumors that NRO is one RINO mega-donor away from extinction.


2 posted on 01/26/2020 2:50:30 PM PST by TTFlyer
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To: SeekAndFind

3 posted on 01/26/2020 2:51:08 PM PST by IWontSubmit
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To: SeekAndFind

And plenty of the never Trumpers are still prepared to say, “Yeah, but his tweets! Those are ... they’re ... well, they’re sort of ... rude. Ya know?”


4 posted on 01/26/2020 2:51:13 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: SeekAndFind

The National Review is the press representative for establishment Republicanism - losers who are useful mostly as punching bags for Democrats.


5 posted on 01/26/2020 2:52:15 PM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: SeekAndFind

National Review = Swamp Times

Not missed for a minute.


6 posted on 01/26/2020 2:53:40 PM PST by LeonardFMason (Lou Dobbs)
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To: IWontSubmit

I think of the authors on that cover, the following are now NOT #NeverTrumpers and have realized their mistakes:

Andrew McCarthy
Cal Thomas
Glenn Beck
Katie Pavlich
L. Brent Bozell III


7 posted on 01/26/2020 2:53:49 PM PST by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind

Should have gone the way of the Weekly Standard. Intellectual elites have no honesty and are too ashamed to admit it.


8 posted on 01/26/2020 2:54:50 PM PST by Fungi
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To: SeekAndFind

National Review came out against Any Rand. This resulted in Any Rand carefully checking the guest list of any party she was invited to. If William F. Buckley was there she would not go.


9 posted on 01/26/2020 2:59:02 PM PST by Nateman (If the left is not screaming, you are doing it wrong ...and Epstein did not kill himself.)
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To: SeekAndFind
I think of the authors on that cover, the following are now NOT #NeverTrumpers and have realized their mistakes:
Andrew McCarthy Cal Thomas Glenn Beck Katie Pavlich L. Brent Bozell III

Yes. Although A. McCarthy took a disappointing long time.
10 posted on 01/26/2020 3:00:03 PM PST by IWontSubmit
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To: SeekAndFind

“Its writers were sharp, gifted and irreverent.”

UPDATE:

“Its writers were sharp, gifted and IRRELEVANT.”


11 posted on 01/26/2020 3:00:52 PM PST by BobL (I eat at McDonald's and shop at Walmart - I just don't tell anyone.)
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To: AnotherUnixGeek

like Romney


12 posted on 01/26/2020 3:02:59 PM PST by Chickensoup (Voter ID for 2020!! Leftists totalitarian fascists appear to be planning to eradicate conservatives)
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To: SeekAndFind

Maybe, but I will never forget.
They will always be suspect.


13 posted on 01/26/2020 3:03:18 PM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: SeekAndFind

Also Thomas Sowell


14 posted on 01/26/2020 3:03:41 PM PST by Chickensoup (Voter ID for 2020!! Leftists totalitarian fascists appear to be planning to eradicate conservatives)
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To: TTFlyer

I say good riddance. That issue turned me off to them for life.

I subscribed to the mag for a couple of years and Buckley was still running it. I got turned on to it by Rush, and read every issue in its entirety.

The beginning of the end came when Jonah Goldberg was put in charge of National Review Online. That dude ain’t right in his head. I never understood why he had such a good rep as a writer because I found his righting sophomoric. About on the level of a writer for a high school newspaper.

I really want them to fold....or better yet, be sold. To a group that has true conservative values.


15 posted on 01/26/2020 3:15:26 PM PST by be-baw
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To: SeekAndFind

True. In fact they are now some of Trump’s strongest, most effective supporters.


16 posted on 01/26/2020 3:19:52 PM PST by SmokingJoe
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To: Chickensoup
Also Thomas Sowell.

The inability of Sowell to recognize the genius of Trump given his large body of work in discerning economic trends was a revelation to me because I realized that lowly little old me had greater insight and better judgment than the best of the conservative elites. I realized why the conservative movement had always lost ground even though libraries full of conservative screeds had been written and published over the years. The fact of the matter was the conservative movement had its own ivory tower intellectualloids just like the Marxocrats but the Marxocrats had a kick ass sensibility and shock troops to foist their crap on weak and trembling conservatives. We had no general who could control the battlespace practically forever. Even Reagan couldnt do what Trump is doing. Trump is a phenomenon who is like George Washington or even Julius Ceasar. We will never see his like for a hundred years.
17 posted on 01/26/2020 3:25:36 PM PST by DrPretorius
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To: DrPretorius

It’s not fair to try to compare Trump to Reagan. Reagan’s overarching mission was to weaken and destroy the Soviet Union. Everything else was secondary to him, and he was willing to compromise to maintain that focus. Even so, he accomplished additional great things. As with all who followed him, Trump is the beneficiary of Reagan’s greatness, and governs in a world far different than that Reagan inherited. Both are great Presidents, for whom we should be very grateful.


18 posted on 01/26/2020 3:31:23 PM PST by Timmy
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To: SeekAndFind

“All that ended on January 22, 2016”

National Review had committed suicide long before that date.


19 posted on 01/26/2020 3:33:03 PM PST by odawg
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To: DrPretorius

Well said.


20 posted on 01/26/2020 3:37:30 PM PST by Fungi
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