I did too. I also used to respect Max Boot. We didn't change, they did.
I’ll call myself out. I’m embarrassed that I used to listen to this guy.
“I did too. I also used to respect Max Boot. We didn’t change, they did.”
With respect, I think the people who changed are the conservatives - freepers included - who used to be for the Bush-style wars. When Trump came along, he condemned Bush and the Iraq War. This was a first for a Republican candidate, and Trump was roundly booed by the GOP establishment at the South Carolina debate, for breaking the taboo against condemning the Iraq War.
Trump set a big change in motion. Many freepers and other conservative were now free to voice the doubts they had about the Iraq War and George Bush. In other words, they changed their tune. (Remember it used to be fashionable to smirk “yeah, it’s Bush’s fault” whenever Bush was criticized. Now, after Trump said in essence, a lot WAS Bush’s fault, we now are free to admit that publicly).
Meanwhile, the people who didn’t change - who still refuse to change - are Kristol and the NeverTrumpers. They still insist that the Iraq War and the other “forever wars” are right and good, and have been good from the beginning. And they HATE Trump for changing the base’s consensus, and making it acceptable to criticize George W. Bush, the Iraq War, and the other neocon wars.
In short: freepers have changed, because Trump has led them to change. They used to defend Bush to the nth degree. Now they admit that he made HUGE mistakes and the invasion of Iraq was, as Trump puts it, was “a distastrous mistake.”