Posted on 08/29/2015 6:51:39 PM PDT by EveningStar
Traitor to His Class: Nothing is more terrifying to the elite than Trump’s embrace of a tangible American nationalism
Trump’s popularity, while beyond doubt, is treated not as a legitimate expression of popular will but as a mass psychosis to be diagnosed. It would seem to be the duty of every American pundit today to explain the inexplicable and problematic rise of Donald Trump. The critical question, however, is not the source of Trump’s popularity but rather the reason his popularity is so shocking to our political culture. Perhaps Trump’s candidacy threatens a larger consensus that governs our political and social life, and perhaps his popularity signifies a profound challenge to elite opinion.
Why is Donald Trump so popular? Explanations range from mere celebrity, to his adoption of extreme positions to capture the most ideologically intense voters, to his explosive rhetoric. These explanations are not entirely wrong, but neither are they entirely right.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
No one on this thread read it, did they? LOL! Pathetic.
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I only read the excerpt because it seemed like a liberal’s attack on Trump and I didn’t want to read further. After all the source is the Weekly Standard, home of idiot Bill Kristol.
... “perhaps his popularity signifies a profound challenge to elite opinion”
STE=Q
Actually a very good article. He seems to grasp the Trump phenomenon quite well.
“He speaks, that is, not for America as an abstraction but for real, living Americans and for their interests as distinct from those of people in other places. He does not apologize for having interests as an American, and he does not apologize for demanding that the American government vigorously prosecute those interests.”
2=2=4 is to “complex” a concept for the pointy headed pundits!
STE=Q
typo: to=too
I gots ta.
I feel the same.
Have you read this? It’ll reinforce your rage over McConnell and Boehner.
I thought the author nailed it: Trump is for real victories for America and Americans, for a genuine nationalism that moves beyond the rarefied environs of the abstract and theoretical in the real world.
It’s obviously pro-Trump even from the excerpt.
Pretty much.
Trump is a disruptive candidate. And that’s a good thing.
>> Did you read the article?
“Professional” opinion/analysis has proved itself irrelevant.
But if the article is worth a click, then give us a reason to jump from the excerpt.
No, the article is not buttwipe. It is pro-Trump and right on target.
Fair enough, but my +1 concerns the Establishment’s loyal agents in “conservative” media and the coordinated attack against Trump’s message. Good to know there’s an exception.
You must be having a bad typo night. Check the math.
Others[other than Trump], in contrast, appear to pursue public office mostly for the sake of implementing favored policies so that they can read about the results of their grand experiments in future economics textbooks.
What Is Liberty?
Actually, what is the political struggle that we witness? It is the instinctive struggle of all people toward liberty. And what is this liberty, whose very name makes the heart beat faster and shakes the world? Is it not the union of all liberties — liberty of conscience, of education, of association, of the press, of travel, of labor, of trade? In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does not harm other persons while doing so? Is not liberty the destruction of all despotism — including, of course, legal despotism? Finally, is not liberty the restricting of the law only to its rational sphere of organizing the right of the individual to lawful self-defense; of punishing injustice?
The Socialists Want Dictatorship
Again, it is claimed that persons are nothing but raw material. It is not for them to will their own improvement; they are incapable of it. According to Saint-Just, only the legislator is capable of doing this. Persons are merely to be what the legislator wills them to be. According to Robespierre, who copies Rousseau literally, the legislator begins by decreeing the end for which the commonwealth has come into being. Once this is determined, the government has only to direct the physical and moral forces of the nation toward that end. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the nation are to remain completely passive. And according to the teachings of Billaud-Varennes, the people should have no prejudices, no affections, and no desires except those authorized by the legislator.
/Bastiat
His job depends on this kind of reporting
Bttt...Pray for Donald Trump’s safety!
“Why is Donald Trump so popular?”......
Because he gives all of some hope and not the type odumbo flaunted, he gives us hope of being what America was and can be once again, to be PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.
Most candidates seek to define themselves by their policies and platforms. What differentiates Trump is not what he says, or how he says it, but why he says it. The unifying thread running through his seemingly incoherent policies, what defines him as a candidate and forms the essence of his appeal, is that he seeks to speak for America. He speaks, that is, not for America as an abstraction but for real, living Americans and for their interests as distinct from those of people in other places. He does not apologize for having interests as an American, and he does not apologize for demanding that the American government vigorously prosecute those interests.Would that have made a difference to you?
What Trump offers is permission to conceive of an American interest as a national interest separate from the “international community” and permission to wish to see that interest triumph. What makes him popular on immigration is not how extreme his policies are, but the emphasis he puts on the interests of Americans rather than everyone else. His slogan is “Make America Great Again,” and he is not ashamed of the fact that this means making it better than other places, perhaps even at their expense.
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