It is difficult to believe how biased and hysterical the comments are here. Douthat merely points out, reasonably, that Obama has contributed to (not even largely caused) the rise of jihadists by pulling US forces of Iraq, by weakening Assad, by underestimating ISIS (the "JV" squad, they are "contained," etc.), and by actions that allowed the growth of radicalism in Libya and elsewhere in North Africa. Nor, in a time of turmoil, has Obama spoken with a reassuring and cautious voice about immigration and security. We need a president with a much better foreign policy. Maybe that would be the fairly hawkish Hillary Clinton. I would prefer Jeb Bush. In any case, it is a mistake to overlook Obama's errors. We all need to study his failures and figure out what to do next. Trump is the very wrong way to go, but he wouldn't be getting anywhere in the polls if a good number of people were not afraid, and those fears arose under Obama's watch.
8
Bottom line? Many Republic ans support Trump and the more angry hateful things he says the more they support. Its not about trying to stop him, he represents the feelings of millions of repub voters. Like it or not, the repubs have created this monster and now its out of their control.
10
As a lifelong Democrat, I believe that Trump's popularity is a natural reaction to a lack of leadership. When there is a void, that void is going to be filled. The President, although occasionally dynamic, intelligent and possessing some really sound ideas, is more like a very interesting college professor than a leader. The American people and our allies have been frustrated by the lack of American leadership in the province of foreign policy, and I thought early on that the President was simply absent from public view during many critical debates on domestic policy including during health care reform. Hillary Clinton usually twists in the wind of public opinion which also fails to inspire confidence in her leadership ability. The rest of the Republican field either appear incompetent, like Carson, or insincere panderers, and do not appear to be leaders. Whether you like Trump or hate him, the reality is that he possesses an ability to appear strong and decisive; two critical attributes of leadership. When it comes to the fundamental characteristics of leadership, Trump is the only game in town.
5
You may well remember leading up the the 2014 midterm elections our Nation and the World were dealing with the Ebola epidemic. It is a perfect microcosm of how our National politics has played out over the Obama Presidency. The GOP, in its entirety, was blasting President Obama for his feckless response, his lack of understanding of the problem, his failure to respond decisively, his endangering American lives, he's failure to impose a travel ban, his negligence in sending troops to West Africa and opening the door to the spread of the disease within our Nation, his failure to secure the southern border where Ebola was sneaking across to our Nation and fear mongering of the highest order with facts conspicuous by their absence. In hindsight President Obama was correct and the Republicans, in their entirety, were complete incorrect.
39
"you just need to be tougher and smarter and harder-nosed than the current occupant of the White House."
Nailed it. Now just call up Reince Priebus [sound of two hands clapping off dirt after a long and fruitful day's work], and we're done.
What other lessons are lurking in this chock-full op-ed?
1. Channeling Nixon is the cure.
2. It is reasonable to prioritize Islamic terrorism as a major election issue after a "Global wave of attacks that killed hundreds from Cairo to California."
3. More sensible candidates sound "Bush-esque" and can't get a hearing among once-bitten-twice-shy Republican voters.
I have seen nothing but a clown-car full of McCarthys. Carson: Religious tests for president; Jeb Bush: Limiting refugees from the war-zone to Christians; Cruz: bombing the Middle Eastern sands till they "glow." (Glow how?)
They can't denounce Trump with legitimacy because they are him. Stoking the fears of a population that has as much chance of being hurt by an ISIS-terrorist refugee, or Mexican "killer-rapist" as they do of getting hit by a meteor.
The real "clash of civilizations" does not involve Sunni tribesmen, driving a line of Toyota trucks up and down the main drag of fly-blown Raqqa. It is the one between the traditions of a pluralist, democratic state and a party of demagogues of both the stupid and shameless variety.
Nailed it. Now just call up Reince Priebus [sound of two hands clapping off dirt after a long and fruitful day's work], and we're done.
What other lessons are lurking in this chock-full op-ed?
1. Channeling Nixon is the cure.
2. It is reasonable to prioritize Islamic terrorism as a major election issue after a "Global wave of attacks that killed hundreds from Cairo to California."
3. More sensible candidates sound "Bush-esque" and can't get a hearing among once-bitten-twice-shy Republican voters.
I have seen nothing but a clown-car full of McCarthys. Carson: Religious tests for president; Jeb Bush: Limiting refugees from the war-zone to Christians; Cruz: bombing the Middle Eastern sands till they "glow." (Glow how?)
They can't denounce Trump with legitimacy because they are him. Stoking the fears of a population that has as much chance of being hurt by an ISIS-terrorist refugee, or Mexican "killer-rapist" as they do of getting hit by a meteor.
The real "clash of civilizations" does not involve Sunni tribesmen, driving a line of Toyota trucks up and down the main drag of fly-blown Raqqa. It is the one between the traditions of a pluralist, democratic state and a party of demagogues of both the stupid and shameless variety.
49
To win the Presidency as a Republican one must be the choice of the Republican voters, but those voters have had their bigotry stroked with dog whistles for decades to get them to the polls. Is it any wonder why they have gotten so excited when one of their politicians actually says out loud - on the world's stage - all the things they believe to be true and acceptable?
Any Republican politician who tut-tuts their bigotry now will only increase Trump's popularity. Trump is the baby those on the right have recklessly conceived and birthed. Now he's matured and out of the GOP's control.
Trump has embarrassed the GOP, which is okay with me, but he has also embarrassed our country in the eyes of the world, and, along with our insane gun fetish and resulting carnage, has caused many to question just how great the U. S. really is.
Donald Trump won't win the nomination, but the damage has already been done because he's exposed the real heart of the GOP base, and it is ugly.
Any Republican politician who tut-tuts their bigotry now will only increase Trump's popularity. Trump is the baby those on the right have recklessly conceived and birthed. Now he's matured and out of the GOP's control.
Trump has embarrassed the GOP, which is okay with me, but he has also embarrassed our country in the eyes of the world, and, along with our insane gun fetish and resulting carnage, has caused many to question just how great the U. S. really is.
Donald Trump won't win the nomination, but the damage has already been done because he's exposed the real heart of the GOP base, and it is ugly.
33
Revelation: Trump is the fall guy in a cohesive, diabolically brilliant Republican strategy for 2016. By being so out-of-control, over the top, repulsive and dangerous, his role is to make those other candidates look moderate, and safe to pay and vote for. Bingo! The right wins!
5
So if I'm reading correctly, Mr. Douthat's view is that a certain base has gravitated to Trump as a result of a comparative policy analysis?
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
22
I want to see the press take on Saudia Arabia and their support for militant Islamists and admit that the invasion of Iraq back in 2003 was, and continues to be, an unmitigated disaster that has lead to the emergence of ISIS. I want the Republican Party to come clean on these topics before I give any credence to anything a Republican candidate is selling.
39
The Republican party has no head.
23
Ross is clearly promoting Cruz over Trump because Cruz somewhat less fascist than Trump. Seems to me the whole Republican slate of candidates is vying for the title of "most crazy." From that viewpoint it's a toss-up between Cruz and Trump (at this point), with the remainder of the pack largely grouped into the category of "just less crazy."
Cruz recently stated that "we will carpet bomb [ISIS] into oblivion. I don't know if sand can glow in the dark, but we're going to find out." Advocating the use of nuclear weapons against ISIS is not only beyond the pale, but it should also scare the hell out of our good friends in Israel. Anyone that can find ISIS-claimed territory on a map and that understands the term "fallout pattern" had better hope that a President Cruz can also control which way the wind blows.
Donald Trump's fascism hasn't put the Republican Party's leaders in a bind. Just as W created ISIS, the Republican Party created Trump, Cruz and all the more minor crazies. It pains me to say it, but those people make Cheney look quite reasonable by comparison.
Cruz recently stated that "we will carpet bomb [ISIS] into oblivion. I don't know if sand can glow in the dark, but we're going to find out." Advocating the use of nuclear weapons against ISIS is not only beyond the pale, but it should also scare the hell out of our good friends in Israel. Anyone that can find ISIS-claimed territory on a map and that understands the term "fallout pattern" had better hope that a President Cruz can also control which way the wind blows.
Donald Trump's fascism hasn't put the Republican Party's leaders in a bind. Just as W created ISIS, the Republican Party created Trump, Cruz and all the more minor crazies. It pains me to say it, but those people make Cheney look quite reasonable by comparison.
29
Ross Douthat is blaming Obama. Why am I not surprised! The POTUS is an easy and convenient mark. This "overt" racism dates all the way back to Sarah Palin and the Tea Party! It was brewing then and now, with a little help from Trump, the tea kettle is now whistling. People like Douthat (the GOP) let the racism flow because the POTUS is black. Remember Joe Wilson and you lie? All that was ok. Now, even with the changing of voting laws to give themselves an unfair advantage, they still see themselves as losers. They are losers because they failed to adjust to the changing face of America. They didn't embrace minorities but alienated them with their anti Obama rhetoric (Was he born here?, Is he intelligent enough to be POTUS?, Is he a Muslim?...) Trump started with the Central Park Seven (Blacks and Mexicans )and ended with Muslims. Can the GOP carry the presidency with the white alone?
24
Great column Ross. I have been a supporter of the president, even traveled to Las Vegas to knock on doors in 2012. But I am finding myself skeptical for the first of his diffident, calm, let's-all-just-take-it-easy-now approach. I think he is mis-perceiving the genuine desire even among his staunchest supporters that ISIL be addressed, and forcefully. And that policies be undertaken to protect Americans at home from people like Tashfeen Malik. But, as you say, Trump is the only one currently speaking up forcefully on the issue, leaving those of us who are concerned but not crazy to wonder who has the authority and, yes, strength to steer us through the shoals of demagoguery on one side and diffidence on the other. I lived through Nixon. I marched against the war. But it would be nice right now to have his sense of what can be done and confidence to do it, without his attendant paranoia or Trump's idiocy.
11
"since his own foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya"
huh? I think it's irresponsible to write a sentence like this as though it is a given, instead of stating that this is the opinion of many Republicans.
huh? I think it's irresponsible to write a sentence like this as though it is a given, instead of stating that this is the opinion of many Republicans.
59
The "one term Obama" pledge by the entire republican Congress back in '08 has created a permanent divided government. The undercutting of his Presidency, both domestically and very sadly, internationally has backfired into the current national security crisis. The strongest the US can ever be is in reuniting together. But this has big problems for the current crop of republicans seeking the White House.
First of all I appreciate the acknowledgment that there was even such a thing as "The previous Bush Presidency". No one on the campaign trail nor anywhere in republican leadership, i.e., Rush Limbaugh, et al has discussed this past unpleasantness.
Secondly, how does tearing into President Obama as having failed to stop, start, continue, lose, perpetuate, etc. ad nauseam create any likely winning scenerio for the nation let alone the Republican party? The incessant negativism has created a blowback that will take losing the Presidency a few more times. Why? The rise of Trump plus the stunning obstruction to 21st governing is the greatest losing strategy since starting the Civil War.
First of all I appreciate the acknowledgment that there was even such a thing as "The previous Bush Presidency". No one on the campaign trail nor anywhere in republican leadership, i.e., Rush Limbaugh, et al has discussed this past unpleasantness.
Secondly, how does tearing into President Obama as having failed to stop, start, continue, lose, perpetuate, etc. ad nauseam create any likely winning scenerio for the nation let alone the Republican party? The incessant negativism has created a blowback that will take losing the Presidency a few more times. Why? The rise of Trump plus the stunning obstruction to 21st governing is the greatest losing strategy since starting the Civil War.
52
Yes, as with every dangerous domestic or foreign situation, at its root the Trump phenomenon is all Obama's doing. How self-exculpating that is for embarrassed Republicans like Ross Douthat. When Democrats act outrageously, it's a Democratic fault. When Republicans act outrageously, it's also a Democratic fault. And pining for Nixon, of all people -- the author of the Southern Strategy! It's rich. No Republican would be caught dead pining for Eisenhower, that notorious RINO; after all, he disliked and distrusted Nixon.
60
After listening to a Charlie Rose guest the other night speak about what is actually being done to fight ISIL, we can only be thankful that Obama is at
the helm. Enormously complex and thorough measures are being carried out
consistently in order to destroy ISIL. Republican babble is ignorant and
insane.
the helm. Enormously complex and thorough measures are being carried out
consistently in order to destroy ISIL. Republican babble is ignorant and
insane.
14
A new Bloomberg/Purple Strategies poll suggests two-thirds of likely Republican primary voters support Trump’s plan for Muslims.
When you sow the wind...
When you sow the wind...
10
Republicans have worked diligently during the entire Obama presidency to delegitimize the authority of the President. And the Tea Party wing is intent on tearing down the legitimacy of ANY authority - political, scientific, cultural - indeed of government itself. (That this is a profoundly adolescent effort is for another day.) Reaping what they have sown, I believe we call this. The right to claim authority doesn't come from the person, but from the system that person is embedded in. Destroy the system - as is the Republican goal - and you destroy the basis for legitimate authority itself.
10
The Republican Party has been dealing in race baiting, dishonest debate, and false modes of argumentation for 30+ years, so long that they have forgotten what the real purpose of a debate is: to make a sincere argument, but also to listen to your opponent's, and to be prepared to change your views if his/her arguments hold water. It is emphatically not to win.
The crisis of Republican authority exists because not a single one of the elders -- not John McCain, not Orrin Hatch, and certainly not James Inhofe or Mitch McConnell -- has the necessary gravitas or track record of sincerity. They have been sniping from the gutter their entire careers, so how are they going to stop another guttersnipe? Their dilemma is a little bit like that of Lonegan in the The Sting: "What was I supposed to do? Call him out for cheating better than me?" Only it is much worse because the stake is the future of the country.
The crisis of Republican authority exists because not a single one of the elders -- not John McCain, not Orrin Hatch, and certainly not James Inhofe or Mitch McConnell -- has the necessary gravitas or track record of sincerity. They have been sniping from the gutter their entire careers, so how are they going to stop another guttersnipe? Their dilemma is a little bit like that of Lonegan in the The Sting: "What was I supposed to do? Call him out for cheating better than me?" Only it is much worse because the stake is the future of the country.
11
"First, many of those voters lived through the George W. Bush presidency, when a Republican president combined an idealistic attempt to spread democracy in the Muslim world by force of arms with a firm repudiation of any suggestion that Islam writ large might be a problem. And they remember that this strategy did not exactly seem to reap the desired results."
Wait - I thought Iraq was about WMDs. Or have the cons finally abandoned that lie...
Wait - I thought Iraq was about WMDs. Or have the cons finally abandoned that lie...
15
A long time ago, Barry Goldwater warned the GOP against saddling up with the Christian right and the kind of people who join the John Birch Society.
But seeing voter gold in the millions of (mostly) Southern whites angered by the Democratic party's embrace of civil rights, the GOP ignored Goldwater and began to craft a hateful, nativist message. It worked, too.
But now the GOP's most ardent activists and voters are exactly the kind of people Goldwater warned could take over and ultimately destroy the party.
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are not the disease eating away at the GOP. They're merely symptoms of the disease. The disease is the GOP base.
But seeing voter gold in the millions of (mostly) Southern whites angered by the Democratic party's embrace of civil rights, the GOP ignored Goldwater and began to craft a hateful, nativist message. It worked, too.
But now the GOP's most ardent activists and voters are exactly the kind of people Goldwater warned could take over and ultimately destroy the party.
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are not the disease eating away at the GOP. They're merely symptoms of the disease. The disease is the GOP base.
21
That poor elephant.
14
Ross:
I am only 61 years old and I am afraid you lost me with the reference to the
“pink right down to her underwear” Nixon, which is a rather different sort of thing." (I am sure it must have been!)
Then you write:
"But just as the younger Nixon tangled with Joe McCarthy only on Eisenhower’s express orders, [ Ted ] Cruz seems content to wait for Republicans with more seniority and authority to tear down Donald Trump."
It's interesting that you mention Joe McCarthy and Ted Cruz in the same sentence. Have you ever Googled up a photo of Joe McCarthy from 1954?
He seems to bear a striking resemblance to Ted Cruz!
I am only 61 years old and I am afraid you lost me with the reference to the
“pink right down to her underwear” Nixon, which is a rather different sort of thing." (I am sure it must have been!)
Then you write:
"But just as the younger Nixon tangled with Joe McCarthy only on Eisenhower’s express orders, [ Ted ] Cruz seems content to wait for Republicans with more seniority and authority to tear down Donald Trump."
It's interesting that you mention Joe McCarthy and Ted Cruz in the same sentence. Have you ever Googled up a photo of Joe McCarthy from 1954?
He seems to bear a striking resemblance to Ted Cruz!
10
When are the chicken-hawk conservatives like Douthat going to realize that being "tougher" and "harder-nosed" is, oftentimes, the exact opposite of being "smarter"?
Yes, Ross (and the rest of you), it FEELS great to go beat up the bad guys and, by the assertion of our awesome POWER, allay our fears. But talk about unintended consequences. How many times do we have to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result before we realize that we are being INSANE.
The only way to "win" by asserting power is to do as we did with Germany and Japan: (1) completely decimate the enemy, (2) occupy the country (which is what, exactly, here?) and destroy the revanchist elements, (3) bring the "enemy" into the world where they, too, can enjoy Cadillac Escalades and Chicken McNuggets (or BMWs and bratwurst or Hondas and sushi).
Problem is that Germany and Japan were already industrial powers and weren't riven by tribal and religious hatreds. We'd have to spend ... well, forever, to bring the Middle East into the modern (i.e., consumer-driven) era.
No, instead, what we should do is CONTAIN the virus and let it feed upon itself because, eventually, it will destroy itself Just like the Soviet Union did.
This is no football game winnable in a couple of hours and playable by well-defined rules whatever the fear-filled ignoramuses who make up the Republican base believe. But because they are fear-filled ignoramuses, it's likely that Trump will be the GOP standard-bearer.
Yes, Ross (and the rest of you), it FEELS great to go beat up the bad guys and, by the assertion of our awesome POWER, allay our fears. But talk about unintended consequences. How many times do we have to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result before we realize that we are being INSANE.
The only way to "win" by asserting power is to do as we did with Germany and Japan: (1) completely decimate the enemy, (2) occupy the country (which is what, exactly, here?) and destroy the revanchist elements, (3) bring the "enemy" into the world where they, too, can enjoy Cadillac Escalades and Chicken McNuggets (or BMWs and bratwurst or Hondas and sushi).
Problem is that Germany and Japan were already industrial powers and weren't riven by tribal and religious hatreds. We'd have to spend ... well, forever, to bring the Middle East into the modern (i.e., consumer-driven) era.
No, instead, what we should do is CONTAIN the virus and let it feed upon itself because, eventually, it will destroy itself Just like the Soviet Union did.
This is no football game winnable in a couple of hours and playable by well-defined rules whatever the fear-filled ignoramuses who make up the Republican base believe. But because they are fear-filled ignoramuses, it's likely that Trump will be the GOP standard-bearer.
19
The "Crisis of Republican Authority" is that the GOP leadership has yielded to the worst voices in their party.
They were happy to feed the fringe when Obama was that fringe's target. They smiled and nodded at every racist joke, every offensive comment. But now the tables have turned and "the crazies" are going after their own leadership for being insufficiently pure.
It is richly deserved, and would be amusing to watch if they weren't all threatening to burn the country to the ground.
They were happy to feed the fringe when Obama was that fringe's target. They smiled and nodded at every racist joke, every offensive comment. But now the tables have turned and "the crazies" are going after their own leadership for being insufficiently pure.
It is richly deserved, and would be amusing to watch if they weren't all threatening to burn the country to the ground.
25
Ross that was quite a lot of words to basically say reasonable republicans hold a position not to different from Obama and the others offer already proven bad strategies
frankly the media in general continues to let republicans bad mouth someone else's ideas without much substance to their own vague promises and macho fist pumping
this group of republican candadates will drive us to another war quagmire because their big mouths will lead their actions
frankly the media in general continues to let republicans bad mouth someone else's ideas without much substance to their own vague promises and macho fist pumping
this group of republican candadates will drive us to another war quagmire because their big mouths will lead their actions
5
So now Republicans are "Waiting for Nixon"? the Doughhat doesn't seem to remember that Nixon was the Republican's gentler/kinder alternative to Goldwater and the tinfoil hat brigade. The real danger here is that Republicans will choose Cruz as their second choice. My brother engaged the Cruz'r in a 10 minute airport debate and got the full force of his new charm offensive.
8
The Republican race for President has turned from a circus to a horror show where no one knows which way to turn in a house in which a mad killer is loose. We watch as each person in that house is knocked off by his own stupidity. Americans have always found this sort of thing appealing, but as it is played out by half of our country the rest of us could be caught in the crossfire and it is no longer fun.
11
The problem with Mr. Trump is not merely his def-con 5 solutions to level 3 crises. It is that he never seems to have thought through his solutions. He has not formulated a clear and workable policy. It seems that he makes things up on the fly. That means he doesn't know how to play government. He won't be the CEO, able to fire people on the spot. Instead, he will have to present an airtight case to Congress to specify in law and regulation. So far, he hasn't shown an ability to do more than thought bubbles.
10
Trump is only saying out loud and constantly what the Republican Party has said since Obama became President. Trump spent millions trying to prove Obama was not born here. No Republican spoke up against him then. Is it any wonder they are afraid of him?
17
"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind"
Hosea 8:7
Hosea 8:7
17
"An idealistic attempt to spread democracy in the Muslim world by force of arms" - am I the only one noticing the multiple oxymora in this sentence?
81
How long with our naiveté last? Bush sent the US military to bomb the cities of Iraq, to let chaos reign, sent soldiers into the streets to kick down doors, paid bounties to war lords to round up "bad guys" at three thousand US dollars a pop, put those people in prisons, kept them naked, and tormented many in novel, perverse, excruciating ways--because he wanted to help them out? He longed for them to know the joys of freedom? No, that's too mad an idea to last. It was about the oil and the power to remake and control the ME with Iraq as a starting point and base. It's time we admitted it; the "we killed them to help them" idea is just too sick.
16
You always seem to forget who started this mess in the middle east - George W Bush and his invasion in 2003. We need to just leave and let them fight it out.
9
Can't wait for Trump's announcement on internment camps for Muslims and other undesirables.
"They'll be great, just great. Best ones ever, and you know they will be because everything I do is great."
"They'll be great, just great. Best ones ever, and you know they will be because everything I do is great."
4
Whoever said "Mitt Romney now looks like Mandela" called it exactly right. What a pathetic collection of "candidates" the right has put forward, and in so doing, has dragged the country into a darkest political times in memory.
8
It is not the fault of Republic authorities that Trump supporters beat up protesters at a campaign rally. We just need to face the fact that we have an ugly (and larger than many of us thought) segment of our populace. No excuses should be made for them and their behavior.
2
The title to this opinion intrigued me, so I decided to give the writer the benefit of the doubt. However, once again we find a right wing pundit who only sees the world through the anti Obama prescription lenses handed out to everyone on the Republican side of the aisle. History is a minor inconvenience for these folks, as they can not analyze anything that occurred prior to President Obama taking office. This is especially true when it comes to Iraq, because none of them realizes that President Bush's war destabilized an entire region which was only held together by the delicate balancing act of a despotic tyrant. This is not to say that tyrants should be tolerated, but that decisions to invade another country shouldn't be made solely for frivolous reasons, because there are dire consequences. Once the lid was off the boiling kettle which was once Iraq, radicalism raised its ugly head and we've been trying to beat it down ever since. This was not President Obama's doing and he should not be blamed for it. Find another dead horse to flog.
16
Your premise of why people are following Trump is flawed. If you actually speak to his followers they don't care what he says. They only care that he sounds angry and aggressive. You've made this about immigration and it isn't. It's about anger and bucking a system that seems unfair--IS unfair.
Unfortunately his followers don't seem to understand that rather than supporting a minion of Satan, they are supporting Satan himself and nothing this man says is to be trusted.
Unfortunately his followers don't seem to understand that rather than supporting a minion of Satan, they are supporting Satan himself and nothing this man says is to be trusted.
9
This column is about as coherent as the ramblings from the Republican candidates - no historical context and no truth telling.
3
Here is the elephant in the room, Trump represents the republican base better then any other candidate. In a democratic republic like we have he should be the republican nominee. Get use to that concept Ross.
8
The scariest thing for republicans regarding Trump is that, underneath all the bombastic blather - as nauseating as that might be - he's still more-or-less a New York City demo-publican. That's what really gets in their craw. In a presumptive Trump presidency he'd care not a whit to carry water for the radical Christian agenda. It's likely he'd be more-or-less an absentee prez, having put the feather in his cap, which is really all he wants. The nitty-gritty of actual governance with incumbent problems of having to deal with opposing parties, political fall-out, and constitutional constraints will have lost any charm it might have had soon after his 1/17 state of the union speech, where he'd preemptively claim "country iz now great cuz me".
6
The key point of this column by Douthat (and the same lament we often read in David Brooks' columns) is the absence of the Republican "establishment" and its "authority" over Republicans. Where are they? Among the principal presidential candidates, they would be Bush, Kasich, maybe Christie or Rubio, definitely not Cruz, Fiorina, Carson, or Trump. Other current Republican "mainstream" leaders include Ryan, a few others in Congress, maybe Romney. Are they going to coalesce behind one mainstream (establishment may not be the right word) candidate to wrest the nomination from Trump or Cruz? Looks like it is too late, even if they really want to do this. Looks like the end of the Republican party as we have known it. Thank goodness the Democrats have a new leader in the making (Hillary Clinton), will choose a good VP candidate to run with her, and give us hope that sanity will prevail with a victory in November 2016.
8
I don't normally read the drivel that Douthat writes, but I blundered into this statement this AM-"thanks to a visa that the president of the United States could not even correctly identify in his attempt at a reassuring prime-time speech." Is this really the best you can do? Do you really think the POTUS has time to know the visa laws? Try looking at the GOP candidates without the rose colored glasses. Not one of them equals Obamas depth of knowledge or ability to think things through to logical conclusions.
15
Surely you jest Mr.Douthat. Who in the Republican Party carries auctoritas? Who could plausibly aspire to do so ?
4
You almost had me Douthat. For the last few weeks, I've been reading your columns and thinking, "That Ross Douthat is the kind of Conservative that Republican's should be listening to." Then you go and try to make Ted Cruz seem like reasonable alternative to Trump. Ted Cruz, really?
Cruz the leader the Republican Crazies in Congress that created the "hate the government, fear Obama" wave of hysteria that Trump is riding. Cruz is no different than Trump on the issues, he's just better at being a political weasel. The only thing he has in common with Nixon is being unlikable.
Until recently I agree that Obama's response to ISIS was too slow and too limited. However, what you neglect to point out is that for more than a year we have been blowing the hell out of ISIS fighters, killing their leadership, improving our relationships with the people who are their principle enemies in the region (Iran and the Kurds), making a broader coalition move against ISIS possible. Our list of allies and potential allies is growing, mainly because of Obama's caution and judicious use of language.
ISIS is scary and until recently Obama wasn't doing enough. But, let me remind you of something. If Bush didn't wage an unnecessary war against Iraq based on a lie, there would be no ISIS; No ISIS in Iraq, No ISIS in Syria, and No ISIS in Libya. Ted Cruz sounds a lot like Bush ("shock and awe" = "glowing sand") and only has the ability to make the ISIS problem worse.
Cruz the leader the Republican Crazies in Congress that created the "hate the government, fear Obama" wave of hysteria that Trump is riding. Cruz is no different than Trump on the issues, he's just better at being a political weasel. The only thing he has in common with Nixon is being unlikable.
Until recently I agree that Obama's response to ISIS was too slow and too limited. However, what you neglect to point out is that for more than a year we have been blowing the hell out of ISIS fighters, killing their leadership, improving our relationships with the people who are their principle enemies in the region (Iran and the Kurds), making a broader coalition move against ISIS possible. Our list of allies and potential allies is growing, mainly because of Obama's caution and judicious use of language.
ISIS is scary and until recently Obama wasn't doing enough. But, let me remind you of something. If Bush didn't wage an unnecessary war against Iraq based on a lie, there would be no ISIS; No ISIS in Iraq, No ISIS in Syria, and No ISIS in Libya. Ted Cruz sounds a lot like Bush ("shock and awe" = "glowing sand") and only has the ability to make the ISIS problem worse.
22
Ross, you do realize that Trump could instead of referring to "Muslims," simply substitute Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, Gays, women, or almost any other minority in his rhetoric and his supporters would still say, "YEAH BABY, GIMME MORE!" Coincidentally some, most, or all of those groups have been demonized by Fox News as well as the Ailes-Atwater-Rove propaganda machine. Coincidence? You decide.
13
"To understand the bind in which Donald Trump’s fascistic forays have placed pundits like me, it’s useful to start with the specific fears that he’s exploiting. Bigotry and anxiety about a changing world are to some extent understandable and reasonable. How do I say that, without actually saying that?"
1
So even in your informal role as apologist for the Republican Party, you can't come up with one Republican politician that espouses a rational, measured approach to national security and immigration, and that also has the gravitas and stature to counter Trump?
And you are so desperate for a counter-example that the best you can come up with is Senator Cruz? And then you have the temerity to suggest that Cruz isn't going after Trump because he's waiting for more senior figures to do so, rather than acknowledging that Cruz hasn't done so because he AGREES WITH Trump.
Given this, how can you continue to support the Republican Party, a party that doesn't have the capacity to produce policy solutions that benefit our country?
And you are so desperate for a counter-example that the best you can come up with is Senator Cruz? And then you have the temerity to suggest that Cruz isn't going after Trump because he's waiting for more senior figures to do so, rather than acknowledging that Cruz hasn't done so because he AGREES WITH Trump.
Given this, how can you continue to support the Republican Party, a party that doesn't have the capacity to produce policy solutions that benefit our country?
17
That's good, Douthat. Outline problems for republicans and then blame Obama for it. Trump is parlaying that age-old southern political style. He'll never be out-muslimed. It's remindful of another like minded politician from the 50-'s and 60's, George Wallace. Trump doesn't really believe everything he's saying but a lot of people do and he wants them all voting for him. After he's elected president and thanks to him the problem will no longer exist he can then reverse field. Or after he's nominated, he can reshuffle the etch-a-sketch and sound more presidential. Or the third party is always an option. Imagine the 3-way debate in prime time. Either way, we're in for a treat.
2
I detest the media's overuse of the word "fear". Media (Fox may be the worst), is constantly referencing our "fears", and whether the President "keeps us safe", as if we are all a bunch of infants looking for a strong patriarchial figure to reassure us. This is a favored term of the theraputic society (just talk to a few counselors) which uses the term as code for "ignorance", because we just don't "understand"; so we are afraid.
I taught my children that free people have a tenuous relationship with fear and authority. Order requires a certain yielding to authority, but the world is full of crooks that thrive by putting a dog collar on you and holding the leash. And Fear can preserve you or imprison you; you must learn to listen but test it with your reason and empirical skills (understand your bias and seek contrary facts, which are not always as readily available).
I am not a Trump supporter, but I know many. They are not afraid, but they are aware of a documented existential threat. Only a fool would not be concerned. Trump's popularity reflects the malpractice of governance in Washington..parcing words, condescension, reverse stereotyping. It is Trump's bluntness that is refreshing and connects. Yes, Trump's words matter--in fact, All Words Matter, including the President's rhetoric of wishful thinking.
By the way, I noted that Mohammed Ali criticized Trump over his statements today..was he as vocal in speaking against the mass murder in Ca?
I taught my children that free people have a tenuous relationship with fear and authority. Order requires a certain yielding to authority, but the world is full of crooks that thrive by putting a dog collar on you and holding the leash. And Fear can preserve you or imprison you; you must learn to listen but test it with your reason and empirical skills (understand your bias and seek contrary facts, which are not always as readily available).
I am not a Trump supporter, but I know many. They are not afraid, but they are aware of a documented existential threat. Only a fool would not be concerned. Trump's popularity reflects the malpractice of governance in Washington..parcing words, condescension, reverse stereotyping. It is Trump's bluntness that is refreshing and connects. Yes, Trump's words matter--in fact, All Words Matter, including the President's rhetoric of wishful thinking.
By the way, I noted that Mohammed Ali criticized Trump over his statements today..was he as vocal in speaking against the mass murder in Ca?
2
"The conservative shift to ever more extreme, ever more fantasy-based ideology has ominous real-world consequences for American society."--David Frum, from his 2011 essay "When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?"
http://nymag.com/news/politics/conservatives-david-frum-2011-11/index4.html.
Frum was trying to alert you and his fellow conservatives, Ross, on the dangers of a party platform that was "fantasy-based." You all mocked or ignored him and now you find the conservative movement saddled with a Donald Trump as its spokesperson/intellectual leader. Big surprise.
" For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." Hosea 8:7.
http://nymag.com/news/politics/conservatives-david-frum-2011-11/index4.html.
Frum was trying to alert you and his fellow conservatives, Ross, on the dangers of a party platform that was "fantasy-based." You all mocked or ignored him and now you find the conservative movement saddled with a Donald Trump as its spokesperson/intellectual leader. Big surprise.
" For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." Hosea 8:7.
6
Something else is being lost that deserves attention: this new fascism is resonating with an electorate that conservatives have created. Remember all the nonsense about things like:
1) Obama is foreign born
2) Obama is a Muslim
3) Obamacare is "Armageddon" (John Boehner's words)
4) "You lie!" at the State of the Union Address
5) Job reports are rigged
6) Guns will be confiscated
7) Benghazi is a cover up
8) TARP is a banking system take over, etc.
Networks, pundits and political leaders all enjoyed playing footsie with this nonsense because it was at the expense of Democrats. But now it has turned on them and they don't know what to do.
You can say to Republicans, "You reap what you sow," but here is a prediction: Fascism has been resurrected in the United States, and it will grow. The same way ISIS was created in a vacuum and spread out of control, this neo-fascism may be represented today by only Trump, but once he leaves the scene, there will be others who will carry it further, and they can come from anywhere.
1) Obama is foreign born
2) Obama is a Muslim
3) Obamacare is "Armageddon" (John Boehner's words)
4) "You lie!" at the State of the Union Address
5) Job reports are rigged
6) Guns will be confiscated
7) Benghazi is a cover up
8) TARP is a banking system take over, etc.
Networks, pundits and political leaders all enjoyed playing footsie with this nonsense because it was at the expense of Democrats. But now it has turned on them and they don't know what to do.
You can say to Republicans, "You reap what you sow," but here is a prediction: Fascism has been resurrected in the United States, and it will grow. The same way ISIS was created in a vacuum and spread out of control, this neo-fascism may be represented today by only Trump, but once he leaves the scene, there will be others who will carry it further, and they can come from anywhere.
112
two things Ross. 1. You believe that the sitting President has contributed to the rise of ISIS but in fact, like terrorism and Presidents, the opposite case can be made. He may have just gotten us the best case we could get considering the mess we have in Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of the invasion and lies of the Republican administration bordering on war crimes.
2. Fear of Islam, like my fear of Christianity as a Native American, is only correct if the rules of the terrorists are the rules of the majority of Islam in its current state. You can take the crass statements of the Christian right about crusades, guns, etc. and make a good case for Christianity's and now Judaism's (in the Westbank) spread of terror and tyranny as a tenet of faith. Christianity's five hundred year history in the Americas is not filled with religious tolerance and its attitude towards Indigenous faiths is no less "apostate" ridden than Islam of today. Remember that the US Army beheaded all of the warriors they fought in the Indian wars and sent their heads to the Smithsonian for phrenological study. Is ISIS "studying" the bumps on the heads of the people they murder and decapitate, for the purpose of deciding the scientific basis of Western apostasy? Inquisitions, it seems, are not dead but just sleeping. The Dragon is waking up in the minds of the afraid and the unthinking. People who worship words and books are no less idolatrous than painting and sculpture.
2. Fear of Islam, like my fear of Christianity as a Native American, is only correct if the rules of the terrorists are the rules of the majority of Islam in its current state. You can take the crass statements of the Christian right about crusades, guns, etc. and make a good case for Christianity's and now Judaism's (in the Westbank) spread of terror and tyranny as a tenet of faith. Christianity's five hundred year history in the Americas is not filled with religious tolerance and its attitude towards Indigenous faiths is no less "apostate" ridden than Islam of today. Remember that the US Army beheaded all of the warriors they fought in the Indian wars and sent their heads to the Smithsonian for phrenological study. Is ISIS "studying" the bumps on the heads of the people they murder and decapitate, for the purpose of deciding the scientific basis of Western apostasy? Inquisitions, it seems, are not dead but just sleeping. The Dragon is waking up in the minds of the afraid and the unthinking. People who worship words and books are no less idolatrous than painting and sculpture.
9
the other choices on the buffet table are cold, stale or under cooked, so it makes perfect sense for 35% of the GOP to fill up from the trash can??
4
For a young Republican, authority should be carried by principles even if no senior person to represent them.
This is a thoughtful piece, but it omits a crucial fact. The Republican party is no longer the party of Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and George H. W. Bush. It has swerved far to the right, and can be compared with the UKIP party in England and the National Front in France. Its leading figures, including Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, have views and perspectives similar to Donald Trump, but, with more political experience, can mask them better.
The evidence is mounting that the Republican nominating convention next summer will be a raucous one, from which a large group of delegates may leave or be expelled, leaving a weakened rump to carry on as best it can.
The evidence is mounting that the Republican nominating convention next summer will be a raucous one, from which a large group of delegates may leave or be expelled, leaving a weakened rump to carry on as best it can.
4
The notion that anyone on the right, including pundits, could even responsibly dress themselves anymore, let alone deserve serious consideration while claiming this president is responsible for the rise of ISIS, is hilarious. Voters must never forget the invasion and occupation of the one and only nation in the middle-east that had nothing to do with 9/11 and its justification on fictitious grounds the entire world knew were just that. This was the breeding ground for ISIS.
18
There's a good point buried deeply-- very deeply-- in this column: some of the anti-Muslim xenophobia sweeping the U.S. has a kernel of truth.
The question is how immigration policy can be amended to keep out terrorists and would-be terrorists, while admitting legitimate immigrants, including refugees.
That's a worthwhile subject for policy discussion and political debate, and an area that requires urgent focus by the Department of Homeland Security.
The question is how immigration policy can be amended to keep out terrorists and would-be terrorists, while admitting legitimate immigrants, including refugees.
That's a worthwhile subject for policy discussion and political debate, and an area that requires urgent focus by the Department of Homeland Security.
2
Long before Trump the Republican Party's leaders, supported by their low-education base, have placed their party into 'fascistic forays'.
They wrapped themselves in the flag and carried the cross, the minute that 'other' looking man with the funny name was inaugurated the first time around.
The rest of the article is the usual Obama bashing and fact denying blabber of not holding the prior administration responsible for the sectarian warfare and the rise of ISIL in the Middle East.
They wrapped themselves in the flag and carried the cross, the minute that 'other' looking man with the funny name was inaugurated the first time around.
The rest of the article is the usual Obama bashing and fact denying blabber of not holding the prior administration responsible for the sectarian warfare and the rise of ISIL in the Middle East.
6
George HW Bush stated he would not remove Saddam Hussein, as this would DEstabilize entire Middle-East. "W"-Cheney, PNAC neocons did so for profits-removing already standing military, trained and supplied over decades by U.S., as U.S. proxy vs. Iran, whom U.S. CIA also DEstabilized, deposing democratically elected Mossadegh, Iranian Prime Minister, replaced with Shah of Iran=military dictatorship. ISIL is formidable enemy, as professional military; the very military U.S. trained, Iraq, for Saddam.
We have already witnessed how they fight in face of overwhelming weapons and military, Iraq; they vanish, planting IED's-waiting till occupiers "leave" to mount direct attack. Those advocating "more of same" will get "more of same," to no end.
Those who fomented this internationally illegal invasion, on basis of LIES connecting Iraq to 911, need be held accountable, by international tribunal, Hague; complete with Middle-Eastern involvement in prosecution. "Truth and reconciliation" must be defined, to end violence. In the end, this will take a political resolution-anything short of truth leaves U.S. defined by the (Colin Powell) consideration-"You break it-you bought it".....
We have already witnessed how they fight in face of overwhelming weapons and military, Iraq; they vanish, planting IED's-waiting till occupiers "leave" to mount direct attack. Those advocating "more of same" will get "more of same," to no end.
Those who fomented this internationally illegal invasion, on basis of LIES connecting Iraq to 911, need be held accountable, by international tribunal, Hague; complete with Middle-Eastern involvement in prosecution. "Truth and reconciliation" must be defined, to end violence. In the end, this will take a political resolution-anything short of truth leaves U.S. defined by the (Colin Powell) consideration-"You break it-you bought it".....
2
"...it shouldn’t be that hard for the leaders of the Republican Party to respond to these anxieties with a normal partisan rallying cry: Obama isn’t handling the Islamic State effectively, Obama can’t be trusted with border security, vote for us instead." It should be noted (though Republicans tend to forget it) that they won't be running against Obama in 2016, and Hillary has her own rough tough stuff to offer. The rest of the piece is flimflam. Theorigins of ISIS lie in the US invasion of Iraq, the greatest foreign policy error of what looks to be a long century.
4
It was the "establishment" Republican candidate, Jeb Bush, who said we should just accept Christian refugees from Syria. Trump is just the logical ( if that word could be used) extension of Republican pronouncements or dog whistles that we have been hearing for quite a while.
5
I´ll say it again. Don´t underestimate Trump. Remember he is a pragmatic business man whose rhetoric functions in relation to his objective. Things
do change and one´s mind is in constant change as circumstances provokes it. I am sure once a president he will settle down to bargain.
do change and one´s mind is in constant change as circumstances provokes it. I am sure once a president he will settle down to bargain.
We need a different voice "where national security and immigration intersect", one that is more creative than shutting the door and hiding: a response that highlights compassion and inclusion would a better counter the ISIS narrative. Part of this war is ideological - and its weapons include propaganda; America appears very inept in this field at the moment.
Trump is not the problem for the American People.
The Clinton / Bush Establishment Party is the problem no matter what the issue.
Until you break the back of the "Authority" nothing will change.
The Clinton / Bush Establishment Party is the problem no matter what the issue.
Until you break the back of the "Authority" nothing will change.
2
So, Ross, are you conceding that the Republican Party has effectively lost next year's election?
I remember when it was supposedly the Democratic Party one belonged to if he said he was not a member of any organized political party.
I remember when it was supposedly the Democratic Party one belonged to if he said he was not a member of any organized political party.
2
One of the biggest problems for Republican voters is that they do not see a very big difference between their establishment candidates and Hillary Clinton, and this is the primary reason why Trump and Cruz are doing so well in comparison to Jeb!, Kasich, and Rubio, especially on immigration and foreign policy. For example, I dare anyone to give a detailed description of how Jeb! and Hillary differ on foreign policy and immigration.
1
Dear Mr. Douthat,
When you're looking to Nixon for advice, things aren't going well for your party. It was an entertaining read though. Let me know how thing work out for you in 11 months.
When you're looking to Nixon for advice, things aren't going well for your party. It was an entertaining read though. Let me know how thing work out for you in 11 months.
94
Fears are seldom wholly irrational. Jihadist terrorism today is of course very real, but in another generation that threat was the Nazi's, or the spread of communism, or in Selma or Little Rock, a fundamental change to a way of life. Most of us manage our fears with a certain confidence that comes from education, experience, a civil society, or perhaps a spiritual belief. The Republican Party though seems to excel at exploiting fears. Whether it's economic doom, immigration, the destructive power of the ACA, Ebola, the secret life of the neighbor next door, a President with a foreign name and dark skin - we're regularly told to be very afraid. It's not that there are never scary monsters under the bed, it's just that the GOP can't be botheed with a flashlight and some healthy curiosity. Honesty isn't nearly as self serving.
2
As a Liberal I find most of the reasoning in this column sound.Except where Mr. Douthat attributes to the current President responsibility for the rise of ISIL/ISIS,since it was Saddam's generals who Cheney-Bush deposed along with the dictator who started ISIS ,and who still lead it.
But at least Mr. Douthat accurately calls Trump's latest chest beating what it really is, Fascism,and I'm sparing in calling people who I disagree with politcally Fascist or neo Nazi.But ,even if it's just for show by Trump for his core supporters ,these are exactly what he's become,little different from the Aryan Nations who once made my former home ,Northern Idaho,their headquarters.
Many of the other Republicans leaders,now condemning Trump's idea,but refusing to say they won't support him if he's the nominee,aren't innocent this, since they themselves,in an often racist manner,have spent Obama's 2 terms stoking the most extreme right's fears about the President,and as result of what they in turn sowed,they reaped in the person of Trump.
But at least Mr. Douthat accurately calls Trump's latest chest beating what it really is, Fascism,and I'm sparing in calling people who I disagree with politcally Fascist or neo Nazi.But ,even if it's just for show by Trump for his core supporters ,these are exactly what he's become,little different from the Aryan Nations who once made my former home ,Northern Idaho,their headquarters.
Many of the other Republicans leaders,now condemning Trump's idea,but refusing to say they won't support him if he's the nominee,aren't innocent this, since they themselves,in an often racist manner,have spent Obama's 2 terms stoking the most extreme right's fears about the President,and as result of what they in turn sowed,they reaped in the person of Trump.
2
What Trump supporters may finally be figuring out is that the GOP “establishment” has a Very Small List of things over which they are willing to fight to death: low taxes, especially for the wealthy and minimum accountability for businesses. They also say they want smaller government, but most of this relates to the other two. They don’t really mind a large government, but only under certain conditions: 1. Their patrons don’t personally have to pay for it; 2. It does not include agencies that will enforce regulations that might cut into the profits of their patrons (labor, safety, environmental, land use, etc.); and 3. There are lots of lucrative government contracts and subsidies available with minimal oversight.
And Trump supporters have figured out that just about anything else the establishment claims to favor in public will immediately get thrown under the bus if it might interfere with getting anything on the Very Small List. Immigration would fit that category. The patrons don’t really mind a lot of immigration, since it expands the labor pool, which helps to keep wages down. And Trump seems like he might actually be crazy enough to try to follow through on his threats in this area.
And Trump supporters have figured out that just about anything else the establishment claims to favor in public will immediately get thrown under the bus if it might interfere with getting anything on the Very Small List. Immigration would fit that category. The patrons don’t really mind a lot of immigration, since it expands the labor pool, which helps to keep wages down. And Trump seems like he might actually be crazy enough to try to follow through on his threats in this area.
4
Your party created this Frankenstein monster, Ross. Not so much fun anymore now that it's taken on a life of its own, is it?
3
Before you glorify and wish for a resurrection of the Richard Nixon style of politics, go listen to the tapes. Or a few of the speeches he sent his Vice President Spiro Agnew out to deliver.
These were not men who brought out the best in their fellow Americans. You can draw a pretty direct line from there to Reagan, Atwater, Rove, Trump, and Cruz.
These were not men who brought out the best in their fellow Americans. You can draw a pretty direct line from there to Reagan, Atwater, Rove, Trump, and Cruz.
1
OT but: That photo of an elephant being dragged around in a political parade - am I the only one worried by that? Are such endangered animals privately owned in the United States, and if so, why??? How is its welfare monitored or regulated?
People should be ashamed of using an animal like that in a lowdown political fight.
People should be ashamed of using an animal like that in a lowdown political fight.
3
I am quite amazed that Republicans are surprised that Mr. Trump is doing so well. None have criticized a Republican governors who wished to deny an average of 200 refugees into their states. Mr. Trump just raises the stakes like any good poker player with a good hand. Why stop at 5yr old refugees, let's ban everybody that's not like us, whatever your definition of us is.
3
What authority are you talking about? A group that forces woman to give their rapist visitation rites, wants to abolish the dept of education, register minorities and round up 11 million for deportation, describe the bloated military as underfunded? I feel as if I woke up to some dystopian world like Mad Max in the CAPITOL BUILDING.Let me know where i can get off. If the far-right gets elected , WE ARE FINISHED AS A NATION.
4
The crisis is of their own making. It is not a crisis of Republican authority; it is its product, authoritarianism. They traffic in of the lowest form of authority: blind obedience to power.
Like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice, they have lots all control of the monster they created. My most fervent hope is that they drown in its waters come election day.
Like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice, they have lots all control of the monster they created. My most fervent hope is that they drown in its waters come election day.
3
Here's an interesting exercise: Count how many times in today's edition of the Times, one reads the words "fear" or "frighten" or a variation thereof. Specifically as it pertains to the US or to Americans. I bet the number surprises. The entire US media - including the venerable NYT - predicates its tone on fear, anxiety and frightening America. Is it any wonder this country is so crazy?
3
Really? First of all, Nixon did not wisely repudiate Wallace by undercutting his message. He just prettified it, making it endemic and subliminal (almost). Secondly, the problems with safety in general and with dealing with peoples around the world who have bad governments and hostile societies are historic. Violence is common and is constantly in need of being suppressed (which is what police forces are supposed to accomplish). A lack of well-governed happily functioning societies has been with us since the beginning of the formation of complex states. We are probably living during a period of the least malignant of these problems, especially in the U.S. We have a ways to go, and should not panic just when we are making progress. Just like in eradicating small pox or polio, usually the last hold-outs are the hardest to get at. But when we put our resources together, the goal is at last reachable, if we only don't give up too soon.
1
Visas--understandably a difficult concept for nativists to understand, but here goes: Contrary to the writer's assertion, visas are not issued "from" the emigre's country (in this case Saudi Arabia) but rather "by" the country one hopes to visit (in this case the U.S.). Thus a student visa issued by the U.S. is exactly the same for a student from Brazil or China or Saudi Arabia. There is no visa to visit the U.S. issued by Saudi Arabia.
3
Trump is merely a symptom of the disease at the core of the Republican Party.
4
"when Europe is struggling to cope with huge refugee flows from the Muslim world; when Muslim immigration to the United States has doubled on a yearly basis since the 1990s and some of those immigrants are the explicit targets of Islamic State recruitment; "
you lost me right there, Ross. Sounds like you are not too much different from Trump or his supporters after all. Trump's firebrand depends on fearmongering and getting people to believe that all Muslims entering the U.S. could become radicalized. How is this different from Carly Fiorina inciting hatred against Planned Parenthood with her slanderous claims that they rest babies on the table? Look what happened a couple weeks ago in Colorado because of her remarks.
Ross, you continue to lose credibility...
you lost me right there, Ross. Sounds like you are not too much different from Trump or his supporters after all. Trump's firebrand depends on fearmongering and getting people to believe that all Muslims entering the U.S. could become radicalized. How is this different from Carly Fiorina inciting hatred against Planned Parenthood with her slanderous claims that they rest babies on the table? Look what happened a couple weeks ago in Colorado because of her remarks.
Ross, you continue to lose credibility...
3
The problem, Mr. Douthat, is that a large number of Republican supporters do not understand the philosophy they espouse. They decry "Emperor Obama" as an authoritarian, yet applaud Trump the fascist. They rail against any encroachment on their 2nd amendment rights and believe anyone who disagrees should be denied their 1st amendment rights.
In other words, they use their ideology only opportunistically. The constitution is not, to them, the foundation of a successful society, but instead just a weapon to enforce their views on others.
It would be unfair of me to fail to recognize that liberals do the same. Freedom of expression was paramount to a liberal movement trying to gain traction and acceptance, yet too many liberals now try to deny freedom of expression to those who oppose their now established truths ("de-platforming" anyone?)
The problem, it seems, is that those on the extremes have lost their way and are degenerating into partisan, tribal behaviour.
Luckily, they are on the extremes and America is still home to the most animated and vibrant debates on any important topic. These debates are frustrating and often stupid, but they are the very means by which you will come out of this intact.
In other words, they use their ideology only opportunistically. The constitution is not, to them, the foundation of a successful society, but instead just a weapon to enforce their views on others.
It would be unfair of me to fail to recognize that liberals do the same. Freedom of expression was paramount to a liberal movement trying to gain traction and acceptance, yet too many liberals now try to deny freedom of expression to those who oppose their now established truths ("de-platforming" anyone?)
The problem, it seems, is that those on the extremes have lost their way and are degenerating into partisan, tribal behaviour.
Luckily, they are on the extremes and America is still home to the most animated and vibrant debates on any important topic. These debates are frustrating and often stupid, but they are the very means by which you will come out of this intact.
4
Remember the Spanish Inquisition? When radical Catholics tortured and killed anyone who was suspected of ... just about anything? I think that's what ISIS and ISIL are up to. Eliminate the Infidel. Squeeze life out of them. Take over in the name of the One True Faith. Force it down throats.
Inquisitors are always hated. Law-abiding Muslims must be stronger than the Inquisitors who claim ownership of their faith. They must work to eliminate the barbarism, alongside the rest of us, and be uncharacteristically loud about it. We need the good and pious Muslims who respect life to help us eradicate the crazy madmen and madwomen who crave a body count before they end their own pathetic lives.
We don't need Donald Trump and his witch-hunts, nor do we need quibbling fools who pride themselves on spewing ill-conceived Republican obstructive talk. We need Muslims, and we need to stand beside them. It's their battle, but it hurts all of us, and we'd best not let them perish.
Inquisitors are always hated. Law-abiding Muslims must be stronger than the Inquisitors who claim ownership of their faith. They must work to eliminate the barbarism, alongside the rest of us, and be uncharacteristically loud about it. We need the good and pious Muslims who respect life to help us eradicate the crazy madmen and madwomen who crave a body count before they end their own pathetic lives.
We don't need Donald Trump and his witch-hunts, nor do we need quibbling fools who pride themselves on spewing ill-conceived Republican obstructive talk. We need Muslims, and we need to stand beside them. It's their battle, but it hurts all of us, and we'd best not let them perish.
5
How did you manage not to notice that our invasion and destruction of Iraq when Iraq had zero to do with 9-11 was led by W and his torture loving leader Cheney? There's plenty of blame to go around for Obama but misspeaking on the name of the fiancee visa is nothing compared to starting a war that ended up destablilizing an entire region based on lies. Here's the reality: the Republicans have no authority and waiting for a new Nixon is about the most pathetic thing I have read in a long time. Trump may be the worst of the Republican field but the rest of it is just as pathetic. And Cruz isn't Nixon at his worst: Cruz is Joseph McCarthy at his ignorant worst. As for Rubio, all of his ideas come straight from his Cuban American family which has still not grasped that sixty years of hoping to return to Cuba to its banana republic leaders will not happen.
8
The Bush Middle East doctrine was a fiasco pure and simple. It has lead to the formation of ISIS, who are being lead by former Baathist. To blame all this on Obama is exactly why no one will listen to any Republican without thinking "here we go again". Follow the line started by the Bush/Cheney folks and it leads to ISIS. We can not just take out ISIS and expect all to be well. Just as we could not just take out Saddam and expect the Middle East to be all democratic and such. Republicans see the military as the only answer, which Bush proved to be wrong. Obama may have missed how successful ISIS would become due to restraint in Syria but Bush's horrible Middle East fumbles have lead America to be skeptical of our Military ventures actually resolving anything. Afghanistan is also looking iffy after years of military involvement. Republicans need a new game plan, if they want to be taken seriously .
84
Great, the 35% of Republicans who are prejudiced, xenophobic, self serving and scared have come out of the closet to cheer for Trump, a demagogue who has no solutions, has no ability to solve our problems, is unleashing more terrorists than he could ever kill and is doing great damage to our country and our ability to address terrorism.
We need to put both the terrorists and the xenophobes back in the closet where that kind of thinking, those kinds of impulses and those behaviors belong.
We need to put both the terrorists and the xenophobes back in the closet where that kind of thinking, those kinds of impulses and those behaviors belong.
3
It isn't just extreme Islamophobia that sets Trump apart from the rest of the GOP pack. Back in April in New Hampshire, he said this: “Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, they want to do it on Medicare, they want to do it on Medicaid. And we can’t do that. And it’s not fair to the people that have been paying in for years and now all of the sudden they want to be cut.”
This RESONATES in a huge way with the working class/ lower middle class white voters who form Trump's base. I don't know if he means it, but no other GOP candidate will say anything close to that. Why, that sounds like a Democrat! It almost sounds ... Nixonian! Here was Nixon in 1974 - "Comprehensive health insurance is an idea whose time has come in America ... let us act sensibly. And let us act now–in 1974–to assure all Americans financial access to high quality medical care." From his 'Special Message to the Congress Proposing a Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan', February 6, 1974.
Russ, there can be no Nixon today. Back then, there were many many reasonable centrist Republican Senators and Congressmen who could reach across the aisle and make common cause with Democrats to advance useful and reasonable legislation. There was no "Hastert Rule". You belong to the party of extremist crazies, whose major focus today seems to be seeing who can win the bet to make Obama utter the words "Radical Islamic Terrorism".
This RESONATES in a huge way with the working class/ lower middle class white voters who form Trump's base. I don't know if he means it, but no other GOP candidate will say anything close to that. Why, that sounds like a Democrat! It almost sounds ... Nixonian! Here was Nixon in 1974 - "Comprehensive health insurance is an idea whose time has come in America ... let us act sensibly. And let us act now–in 1974–to assure all Americans financial access to high quality medical care." From his 'Special Message to the Congress Proposing a Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan', February 6, 1974.
Russ, there can be no Nixon today. Back then, there were many many reasonable centrist Republican Senators and Congressmen who could reach across the aisle and make common cause with Democrats to advance useful and reasonable legislation. There was no "Hastert Rule". You belong to the party of extremist crazies, whose major focus today seems to be seeing who can win the bet to make Obama utter the words "Radical Islamic Terrorism".
3
"Except that on the issues where Trump is making hay right now, no such authority exists." This is a direct result of the Republican ideology. Trumps call to ban Muslims is an extension of the term " radical Islam" and the words and deeds of Republican governors and congressional Republicans. I fully expect that Trumps will point out the hypocrisy of those who are currently attacking him for his proposal by pointing out that they are engaged in " political correctness" and he is not responsible for the deaths of thousands of Muslims as Bush/ Cheney are.
1
Thank you, Mr. Douthat. You just made a very convincing argument for a Hillary Clinton Presidency. Glad you've come to your senses.
4
Cruz is not an experienced statesman by any stretch. He is a politician. Think of Jimmy Carter if he want an example of statesmanship.
1
As is typical of most Republicans, Mr Douthat is a salesman. His objection is not to the Republican product -- fear, hate, racism, and bigotry -- but to the packaging. His search is not so much for a political leader of quality as much as it is for a man who can tie a pretty ribbon.
2
I came here directly from Mr. Cohen's column. I might suggest the NY Times and its writers have begun to beat the war drums in earnest. The tipping point is apparently past, and the warmongers will again have their way if we let them fool us again.
1
The complicity of progressives in the Trump ascendancy is not well appreciated. Read the top comments here. Many years ago a close relative of mine was in our living room spouting right wing bromides about race, etc., when a cousin's husband berated him, calling him uninformed and basically neanderthal. I saw the flash of humiliation and burgeoning anger at the highly personal putdown, laid upon him in his own home.
That extreme disrespect highlighted these days by foul terms like "low information voter," "throwbacks," even "religious bigots," have sent folks like my relative into the happy arms of talk radio and conservative TV news people only too thrilled to boost ratings by telling their listeners they are the ones who get it, they are the ones who understand what makes America great, they are the patriots.
That hands of progressives are not clean; they are slick with the grease of gross disdain.
That extreme disrespect highlighted these days by foul terms like "low information voter," "throwbacks," even "religious bigots," have sent folks like my relative into the happy arms of talk radio and conservative TV news people only too thrilled to boost ratings by telling their listeners they are the ones who get it, they are the ones who understand what makes America great, they are the patriots.
That hands of progressives are not clean; they are slick with the grease of gross disdain.
2
Hahaha. So, even the GOP apologists agree that it's all Bush's fault!
1
The tissue of lies spun under Reagan and CheneyBush--and by "commentators" such as yourself, is coming home to roost--and you complain! You created this monster through your crackpot economic schemes, pseudo intellectual cultivation of hate, and fealty to Grover Norquist and others who share his illogical economic policies.
And now you are frightened.
Worse will come, when most Americans realize they are gamed and flush this iteration of the GOP down the toilet of history, either by voting or by revolt.
And now you are frightened.
Worse will come, when most Americans realize they are gamed and flush this iteration of the GOP down the toilet of history, either by voting or by revolt.
3
Why would any GOP candidate want to play Richard Nixon against Trump's George Wallace? Remember what the Left did to Richard Nixon.
So let them deal with George Wallace.
One apparent benefit of the Trump phenomenon is that, at least temporarily, he appears to have wiped from the Media lexicon the phrase "comprehensive immigration reform."
So let them deal with George Wallace.
One apparent benefit of the Trump phenomenon is that, at least temporarily, he appears to have wiped from the Media lexicon the phrase "comprehensive immigration reform."
The US has dropped 20,000 missiles on ISIS in the past 15 months -- we're literally "running out of bombs" we learned yesterday. But somehow we're given to think this administration isn't tough enough. I guess it doesn't swagger enough, or talk about "glowing sands."
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/04/politics/air-force-20000-bombs-missiles-is...
The Republicans have nothing if they can't level some charge of "not masculine enough, too politically correct" in the direction of the Democrats. This isn't about security, its about machismo.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/04/politics/air-force-20000-bombs-missiles-is...
The Republicans have nothing if they can't level some charge of "not masculine enough, too politically correct" in the direction of the Democrats. This isn't about security, its about machismo.
1
If anyone can make much sense of this col., please tell us what it is. Other than bashing Obama, which Douthat can do in his sleep as well as awake, it seeks both to condemn and to exalt the contenders for the Republican nomination. Douthat longs for one of the many Nixon persona (the less dark ones) to rise among them to win the day and the election. The most likely Nixonian? Ted Cruz! I can appreciate Douthat's dilemma. Faced with the impossible choices the Republican presidential clownsquad offers, it is hard to make any kind of case for one or the other of them. Except for Trump, whom Douthat despises, mainly because Trump has exposed the raw truth behind "conservative" politics -- its fundamental racism and intolerance, its jingoistic foreign and military policies, its contempt for science and rationality. Hard to write a col. to hide all this.
1
Ted Cruz showed a stunning lack of understanding about ISIS when he threatened to "carpet-bomb them into oblivion." If Senator Cruz is paying attention, he would know that, as we saw with the attacks in California and in France, ISIS is not simply a group living under the black flag in countries like Syria and Iraq; they are individuals living in America, Europe, Canada. There is no military strategy against an ideology whose adherents live worldwide. Donald Trump said that if he were President, Americans would not be afraid; the terrorists would be afraid. If Trump is paying attention, he would know that these terrorists gladly die for a fight, so they have nothing to fear. But it must make nice sound bites to pretend that you and your party can make impossible strategies work where the actual President has to look reality in the eye.
94
The problem for the GOP is that they can't promise a better strategy because there isn't one. There isn't a way to be tougher and smarter in the MIddle East. Mr. Obama is not actually being weak, as they claim. He is not being stupid, he is trying to walk a very narrow rope bridge that keeps swinging in unpredictable winds, like one of those scenes from Indiana Jones.
It is terrifying. It itakes balance. And it is uncertain. All you can do is keep moving forward constantly adjusting in small moves.
It is terrifying. It itakes balance. And it is uncertain. All you can do is keep moving forward constantly adjusting in small moves.
7
Please notice the difference between DT and Senator Bernie Sanders. Trump needs a real live elephant to get his point across because there is no substance and no solutions in his ravings - just showmanship-fear-mongering. Senator Sanders has been saying the same thing as long as he has been involved in politics and his honest message resonates with solutions for the problems we average people face every day. I fervently hope that Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton will select him as a STRONG Vice President and that he accepts. That team could help US change America.
6
I read Douthat to learn how the conservative mind thinks. Today's opinion piece leaves me hopeless that we can all get along.
11
Janet, there is no such thing as a thinking conservative mind these days, and Mr. Douthat is no exception. The fashionable thing for his like is to blame Obama for the rise of Trump, and to pretend to bash Trump (because they fear that ultimately he is a loser) while defending all of Trump's positions so that the hoped-for successor can keep them. If you look at the 14 characteristics of Fascism (well published--look it up), it is indeed true that Donald Trump gets the full Godwin of 14 out of 14, but his rivals Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, and even that bastion of the establishment, Jeb! match him or are only a little bit behind.
1
President Obama's "own foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya". Really? If you must blame a president, then blame the two Bushes, because their killing Muslims in the Middle East led to 9/11 and ISIS respectively.
As for Trump, he is the Frankenstein of the Republican Party, which long ago abandoned reason and honesty when dealing with tough problems. Before the Donald, there was Limbaugh and his gang of radical radio ideologues. The latter brainwashed the Republican electorate, setting the stage for you know who.
You reap what you sow.
As for Trump, he is the Frankenstein of the Republican Party, which long ago abandoned reason and honesty when dealing with tough problems. Before the Donald, there was Limbaugh and his gang of radical radio ideologues. The latter brainwashed the Republican electorate, setting the stage for you know who.
You reap what you sow.
20
Right on, Mr. TB. The Republican Playbook for the past many cycles has been a recipe for shooting oneself in the foot.
I once took a course on Liars and Lying. The professor teaching it indicated that In experiencing someone lying, one senses that things don't feel right. For thinking people, things have not felt right since Reagan's Administration began, only to be extrapolated to uber irrational exuberance in more recent years.
Thankfully, the Democrats have remained moderate, prudent and level headed.
I once took a course on Liars and Lying. The professor teaching it indicated that In experiencing someone lying, one senses that things don't feel right. For thinking people, things have not felt right since Reagan's Administration began, only to be extrapolated to uber irrational exuberance in more recent years.
Thankfully, the Democrats have remained moderate, prudent and level headed.
2
Ross Douthat's political navel-gazing is sometimes astute, but here it misses the larger point. The Republican party began eroding its own authority quite some time ago when it ceded control of its central ideas to its far-right base - the anti-abortion fundamentalists, the anti-government obstructionists, the climate-change deniers, the gun nuts, the nativists, the birthers, the racists. What were once principles and the substance of a genuine philosophy about governing became knee-jerk ideology and reactionary emotionalism. And in typical Republican fashion, Mr. Douthat blasts Obama's Middle East and immigration policies as weak, without offering a single suggestion of what he and his party would have done differently.
15
From Republican soil do these monsters come. It is a poisoned soil in which nothing good and decent can be grown.
9
There is much irony in this sudden concern for the welfare of Muslims when the people who implemented and condoned torturing them are still walking around from one TV show to another justifying their policies. Had this country been really appalled by mistreatment of Muslims, Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld would be in prison instead of enjoying comfortable leisurely lives. Trump's hateful reaction to Muslims stems from earlier governmental approval of unjustified torture and imprisonment of many innocent Muslims and from earlier castigations by Fox commentators and Trump himself that Obama was a Muslim and did not intend the best for this country. We are suddenly so disingenuously shocked when this rhetoric appears in the open, when the seeds were planted and glowingly approved by our leaders and newspeople for the last 12 years. The people who now stand in line to condemn it were the ones who were sowing the fields with seething hatred, accusing the President himself of being anti-American because he was a Muslim. as if Muslim and American were mutually exclusive. Trump is merely the exclamation point at the end of a long crowded sentence.
119
Douthat has conveniently left out of his analysis the fact that the business wing of the Republican party has spent the last 35 years not only ignoring the economic needs of Trump's supporters; they have spent the last 35 years actively working against their best interests. I know this demographic; I live among them. They are my former co-workers and my neighbors. My husband fits this demographic but fortunately for me he is completely apolitical.
They have, until recently, had nowhere to turn for economic help from either party. They've been told that unions are bad, pensions are bad, low wages are the result of lack of effort, tax cuts for the rich will trickle down to them, and if they don't have a degree they simply don't deserve to earn enough to live on. It's taken over thirty years but they're finally figuring out that it was the "Republican authority" who sold their interests down the river. The real head-scratcher is why they think a billionaire real estate developer will do anything to fix things for them. He tells them that trade agreements are bad for the American worker (and in this respect he is actually correct) but no one calls him on the fact that his own clothing line is made in China. He's already come out and openly said that he thinks wages are too high. http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/11/11/donald-trump-insi...
Why are they supporting Trump when clearly Bernie Sanders would be their best choice?
They have, until recently, had nowhere to turn for economic help from either party. They've been told that unions are bad, pensions are bad, low wages are the result of lack of effort, tax cuts for the rich will trickle down to them, and if they don't have a degree they simply don't deserve to earn enough to live on. It's taken over thirty years but they're finally figuring out that it was the "Republican authority" who sold their interests down the river. The real head-scratcher is why they think a billionaire real estate developer will do anything to fix things for them. He tells them that trade agreements are bad for the American worker (and in this respect he is actually correct) but no one calls him on the fact that his own clothing line is made in China. He's already come out and openly said that he thinks wages are too high. http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/11/11/donald-trump-insi...
Why are they supporting Trump when clearly Bernie Sanders would be their best choice?
20
Are you saying the Republicans need another Nixon? You may recall that Nixon continued the war in Vietnam and thousands of American servicemen died there despite his "plan" to end the conflict. He simply lied about what he was going to do. Obama said he was going to end American military involvement in Iraq and he actually did it. Now people like you are saying: "Oh, that was a mistake." We should have kept a large army in Iraq in order to prevent something like the Islamic State (which no one foresaw) from coming about. In fact, the number of Americans who have died from terrorist attacks does not compare to the number of Americans who would have died in Iraq (and Syria?) if we had kept a large army there. Just because they would have been in uniform does not make it any better. No, the best policy has been to help whatever Iraqi or Syrian moderates we can find to fight these extremists. This is their fight, not ours. As for the terrorists in the U.S., these folks would be committing their terrible deeds in any case. They don't need ISIS to help them hate.
2
If Mr Douthat has any integrity he would repudiate all the Republican presidential candidates, and stop trying to rationalize and justify what has happened to the GOP.
This country has real and serious problems with its' economy, its' health & healthcare system, with human rights, with immigration and foreign policy. There are legitimate conservative solutions to those problems. Tragically the Republican Party is no longer a legitimate political party. It has fallen into the hands of a criminal conspiracy bent on robbing us of our wealth and freedom.
This country has real and serious problems with its' economy, its' health & healthcare system, with human rights, with immigration and foreign policy. There are legitimate conservative solutions to those problems. Tragically the Republican Party is no longer a legitimate political party. It has fallen into the hands of a criminal conspiracy bent on robbing us of our wealth and freedom.
10
Are we sure Ross went to Harvard? This column is so misleading I don't even know where to start. Ross uses links and sly statements to act like the ISIS caught Obama by surprise (false) and that republican bigotry is an understandable response (also false).
Let's not forget the reason ISIS exists is because Bush invaded the wrong country. As for the San Bernadino attack let's talk about the dozens of other similar attacks by white gunman. Or let's talk about how in the US even with violence at multi generation lows we lose 10 9/11s worth of people every year due to fire arms.
Let's not forget the reason ISIS exists is because Bush invaded the wrong country. As for the San Bernadino attack let's talk about the dozens of other similar attacks by white gunman. Or let's talk about how in the US even with violence at multi generation lows we lose 10 9/11s worth of people every year due to fire arms.
10
Donald Trump is not George Wallace. George Wallace was a regional phenomenon who never came close to commanding the support of 1/3 of his party nationwide, with stronger support in many states outside the deep south than many states within it. It is precisely because the party establishment and the press keep trying to put him into that box and minimize him that he is cleaning both their clocks.
1
In spite of what Mr. Douthat apparently wants us to believe, the Iraq war was not “an idealistic attempt to spread democracy in the Muslim world by force of arms.” It was an oil grab.
11
All someone like Trump needs is another mass shooting brought on by Muslims and he looks like a genius. It could even win him the Presidency.
Of course, this is exactly what ISIS wants so it's more a matter now of when and where.
Of course, this is exactly what ISIS wants so it's more a matter now of when and where.
1
Don´t underestimate Trump. Remember he is a pragmatist business man.
his oratory will follow his interests, and those might change frequently.
his oratory will follow his interests, and those might change frequently.
11
Trump filed bankruptcy five times. Doesn't sound much like a pragmatist businessman to me. He left a ton of creditors high and dry. Many of them then had to file bankruptcy. Unless you were being sardonic.
1
I cannot pick through your tortured attempts to turn everything Obama does into the ultimate source of global conflict and everything GW Bush did into laudable idealism. But the problem with your theory that the GOP just needs easier world problems so that the fascist mob may be tamed is that the party is financially, politically and ideologically addicted to the mob. A plurality of people follow the GOP because they're afraid, not because they feel emowered to counter danger, because they want to assert their moral superiority, not because they want to be moral, because they want, as you do so well, to demonize the opposition, not because they want to offer solutions. If you want pragmatism and competency, vote for Clinton. She's more conservative and not half as pathologically criminal as Nixon.
8
Sorry, Ross, the President did not contribute to the rise of the Islamic state, your shock and awe Republican administration started this Islamic bowling ball rolling ---the problem our President is struggling with is too many pins, thrown into too many directions, on too many different alleys.
10
Including constantly defending himself against Trump and the birther movement.
Ross writes, "... since (Obama's) own foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq .."
And what choice was that in Iraq? President Bush had already signed an agreement to withdraw our troops by December 31, 2011. All Obama did was follow through on that agreement. And it is also worth noting that there was no popular support in this country to stay in Iraq. Nor did Iraq's government want us to stay past the withdrawal date. It's not Obama's fault that Iraq's government and military could not contain ISIS. And even when we had 100K troops in Iraq, we couldn't defeat the insurgency that now calls itself ISIS.
That said, Obama did create an awful situation in Libya, and that's his biggest foreign policy gaffe.
And what choice was that in Iraq? President Bush had already signed an agreement to withdraw our troops by December 31, 2011. All Obama did was follow through on that agreement. And it is also worth noting that there was no popular support in this country to stay in Iraq. Nor did Iraq's government want us to stay past the withdrawal date. It's not Obama's fault that Iraq's government and military could not contain ISIS. And even when we had 100K troops in Iraq, we couldn't defeat the insurgency that now calls itself ISIS.
That said, Obama did create an awful situation in Libya, and that's his biggest foreign policy gaffe.
3
Will the other Republican candidates support Trump if he's the nominee? The silence has been deafening. You know who else hasn't said word one about it? Ross Douthat.
Mr. Douthat lives in his own bubble of Republican intellectuals. He's bright, well-read, thoughtful and genuinely concerned with the good and the just. He can't be anything but embarrassed by the fact that he belongs to a political party that is seen as a safe haven by xenophobes, bigots and flat earthers. Still, there he sits, right in the middle of it, desperately spinning and spinning.
Ross, it's time to emerge from the bubble. Your party has left you. If they nominate Donald Trump, or even threaten to, yours needs to be one of the voices that says "I can't be a part of this". As Abraham Heschel said, "In a free society some are guilty, but all are responsible".
Mr. Douthat lives in his own bubble of Republican intellectuals. He's bright, well-read, thoughtful and genuinely concerned with the good and the just. He can't be anything but embarrassed by the fact that he belongs to a political party that is seen as a safe haven by xenophobes, bigots and flat earthers. Still, there he sits, right in the middle of it, desperately spinning and spinning.
Ross, it's time to emerge from the bubble. Your party has left you. If they nominate Donald Trump, or even threaten to, yours needs to be one of the voices that says "I can't be a part of this". As Abraham Heschel said, "In a free society some are guilty, but all are responsible".
12
The Art of the Deal: Make an agreement and decide if, when, and how to abide by it. The Donald is no fool; we are the fools.
3
"The Crisis of Republican Authority." What a joke. That crisis began with Lee Atwater back in the '80s and never stopped, to the point where now it's 'say anything' - ANYTHING - to get elected. And then later on do what you were bought to do. Damn the torpedoes and everything else.
10
Cruz has no chance of uniting the party much less the country. Better to look beyond the sorry list of announced candidates. I'd think that Paul Ryan has the best chance of uniting the party and running a credible campaign,
Douthat's column fails to acknowledge the essential divide between the GOP leadership and corporate/super wealthy donor base, which favors immigration and the cheap, readily exploitable work force it brings, and the majority of the GOP voters who favor building walls at the borders. This divide means that GOP presidents have to run by selling "tough on immigration" stances but then implementing softer immigration policies in office because they can never really disappoint their donor base. Trump rides this wave of GOP voter discontent at being suckered by almost every GOP politician in leadership roles at the national level.
4
I attempted to follow Douthats' logic but eventually gave up. Of course our hand in creating this mess is left unstated, while we traverse the good old days of Nixon, Wallace, Eisenhower, without the requisite nod to Saint Ronald..... Ugh!
4
I appreciate that Mr. Douthat sees Trumpism as toxic, but he continues to ignore the motivation behind the Republican Party's refusal to reject the phenomenon. Nixon;s Southern Strategy, Reagan's courting of the religious Right and the modern embrace of the Tea Party, all to offset demographic losses, is the linchpin of the current Republican legislative majority (that and gerrymandering in House districts, of course) and the GOP lack the courage to stand up to this constituency. It is convenient for Cruz, Ms. Fiorina, Jeb! and others to denounce one specific Trump outrage, but when they flock to, say, Frank Gaffney's paranoia-thon the motivation is clear. Mr. Douthat, you are using an analytical butter knofe when a scalper is called for.
4
Trump has to be working for Hilary. Cruz and Rubio have until 2020 to polish up their acts.
The 'Youth for Nixon' actually wore brown shirts. What scares the Republican leadership now is how many of the Trump supporters wear tin hats.
2
"...since his own foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya..."
Whoa, hold on right there. That's a ridiculous premise. President Obama has been working with our allies in the region to degrade the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya. If anything, his efforts have been hampered by Congress's refusal to authorize the use of military force in Syria.
It's a cheap trick to blame a political opponent for problems that your party exacerbated.
Seems to be a standard Republican ploy, though. For example, we witnessed Republican's refusal to go along with further economic stimulus or a jobs bill in the wake of the Great Recession so they could blame President Obama for a poor economy. Tried to blame him for their government shutdown too.
Whoa, hold on right there. That's a ridiculous premise. President Obama has been working with our allies in the region to degrade the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya. If anything, his efforts have been hampered by Congress's refusal to authorize the use of military force in Syria.
It's a cheap trick to blame a political opponent for problems that your party exacerbated.
Seems to be a standard Republican ploy, though. For example, we witnessed Republican's refusal to go along with further economic stimulus or a jobs bill in the wake of the Great Recession so they could blame President Obama for a poor economy. Tried to blame him for their government shutdown too.
8
In this sense, Trump is the ideal Republican candidate. He's happy to repeat patent falsehoods like "thousands and thousands" of Muslims cheering 9/11 in the streets of Jersey City. He doesn't care if it's true, only that it serves his goals.
Similarly, Douthat and the other Republican pundits insist that Obama is responsible for the disastrous GOP policies. If they repeat it often enough, maybe some one will believe them.
Similarly, Douthat and the other Republican pundits insist that Obama is responsible for the disastrous GOP policies. If they repeat it often enough, maybe some one will believe them.
2
Since that president is a Democrat, since his own foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq...
I don't buy that. The invasion of Iraq, a Republican enterprise, is overwhelmingly the cause of our woes in the Middle East. It's not just another factor. Now Republicans want to see us get tough again in that same region of the world. Well, how'd that work out last time?
I don't buy that. The invasion of Iraq, a Republican enterprise, is overwhelmingly the cause of our woes in the Middle East. It's not just another factor. Now Republicans want to see us get tough again in that same region of the world. Well, how'd that work out last time?
141
So one president's;
"...foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya..."
While another President foreign policy choices ;
"...did not exactly seem to reap the desired results."
As in, creating the the circumstances that have enabled the creation and rise of the Islamic state, period?
Mr Douthat fails to see the log in his own mind's eye when it comes to his depictions of recent history. The Islamic state's core is made up of Saddam's disbanded army. The seeds of today's Islamic state were sown when President Bush's ""Idealism" resulted in the invasion of Iraq and we are still reaping the poison fruit of its "unintended consequences"...
"...foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya..."
While another President foreign policy choices ;
"...did not exactly seem to reap the desired results."
As in, creating the the circumstances that have enabled the creation and rise of the Islamic state, period?
Mr Douthat fails to see the log in his own mind's eye when it comes to his depictions of recent history. The Islamic state's core is made up of Saddam's disbanded army. The seeds of today's Islamic state were sown when President Bush's ""Idealism" resulted in the invasion of Iraq and we are still reaping the poison fruit of its "unintended consequences"...
4
"Since that president is a Democrat, since his own foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya ...".
This is a current GOP canard - Obama has somehow contributed to the growth of ISIS. The usual charge is to claim that he "didn't do enough" to stop that growth. Short of re-invading Iraq or putting our troops into the midst of a multi-polar civil war in Syria, it remains unclear to me what options he had open to him. Since ISIS specifically welcomes the prospect of a ground war with the USA on their turf, is it really a great failing of the President that he didn't give the terrorists what they wanted?
Another possible option was arming "moderate" rebels in Syria to fight ISIS. First, what "moderate" rebels are we talking about? How much do we know about the various groups fighting the Syrian civil war? Second, the debacle in Tora Bora in 2001-2 demonstrated the effectiveness of subcontracting our wars to local militias. And the fact that ISIS captured huge stocks of American-made weaponry when they took Mosul reveals the wisdom of the administration's decision not to arm unknown "moderates" for fear of where our weapons might ultimately end up.
So enough with the vague partisan whining about Obama "contributing" to the growth of ISIS. Please lay out for us the specific, effective measures that could have been taken to block the growth of ISIS.
If you can't do that, then silence is always a good option.
This is a current GOP canard - Obama has somehow contributed to the growth of ISIS. The usual charge is to claim that he "didn't do enough" to stop that growth. Short of re-invading Iraq or putting our troops into the midst of a multi-polar civil war in Syria, it remains unclear to me what options he had open to him. Since ISIS specifically welcomes the prospect of a ground war with the USA on their turf, is it really a great failing of the President that he didn't give the terrorists what they wanted?
Another possible option was arming "moderate" rebels in Syria to fight ISIS. First, what "moderate" rebels are we talking about? How much do we know about the various groups fighting the Syrian civil war? Second, the debacle in Tora Bora in 2001-2 demonstrated the effectiveness of subcontracting our wars to local militias. And the fact that ISIS captured huge stocks of American-made weaponry when they took Mosul reveals the wisdom of the administration's decision not to arm unknown "moderates" for fear of where our weapons might ultimately end up.
So enough with the vague partisan whining about Obama "contributing" to the growth of ISIS. Please lay out for us the specific, effective measures that could have been taken to block the growth of ISIS.
If you can't do that, then silence is always a good option.
9
Speaking of Nixon, we are witnessing today the fruit of his 'Southern Strategy,' with the inmates now running the GOP asylum. The GOP center has disintegrated, and all the king's horses and men won't be able to put it back together. A three-party USA is now foreseeable
7
We are confronted with many difficult geopolitic problems and a large portion of the population is fed up with what looks to them like incremental changes, useless diplomacy, unwarranted nuance. They don't understand why carpet bombing everything in the Mideast, building a beautiful wall, asking people if they are Muslim will be all it takes to fix the situation so they can go back to watching ESPN.
These folks have been coddled by the Republican Party, which told them that smarty-pants intellectuals are weak and that they are the only real Americans. So let's get on with the carpet bombing dagnabbit! If Republicans want their party back, they should start by educating their members on the true nature of the world we live in.
These folks have been coddled by the Republican Party, which told them that smarty-pants intellectuals are weak and that they are the only real Americans. So let's get on with the carpet bombing dagnabbit! If Republicans want their party back, they should start by educating their members on the true nature of the world we live in.
83
This column is gross. Douthat acknowledges the bigotry in the GOP in the second paragraph, but then waters it down by talking about "anxiety" and "fears," some of which are "understandable and reasonable."
The problem here apparently is that the bigots' needs aren't being met. It isn't bigotry itself. George Wallace is bad (for some reason), so we need a Richard Nixon acceptable to mainstream America. There's no suggestion here that the "Southern Strategy" was a bad thing; that it was divisive for the country.
Honestly I wish conservative apologists for bigotry like Douthat had to actually live among the bigots of America, rather than surrounded by upper class respectability in the Northeast. Douthat writes as if he's never physically left the state of Connecticut.
Seriously, wake up. These attitudes are harmful and corrosive to the country. It goes to our basest instincts, not our ideals. Stop apologizing for it. Richard Nixon wasn't a good man or anything our country can be proud of. If you think this is the best America can do, you're nothing more than a hack for the Republican party and don't deserve to be associated with a great American institution like the NY Times. Go get your paycheck from the RNC.
I would also urge everyone to read RC Wislinski's comment below.
The problem here apparently is that the bigots' needs aren't being met. It isn't bigotry itself. George Wallace is bad (for some reason), so we need a Richard Nixon acceptable to mainstream America. There's no suggestion here that the "Southern Strategy" was a bad thing; that it was divisive for the country.
Honestly I wish conservative apologists for bigotry like Douthat had to actually live among the bigots of America, rather than surrounded by upper class respectability in the Northeast. Douthat writes as if he's never physically left the state of Connecticut.
Seriously, wake up. These attitudes are harmful and corrosive to the country. It goes to our basest instincts, not our ideals. Stop apologizing for it. Richard Nixon wasn't a good man or anything our country can be proud of. If you think this is the best America can do, you're nothing more than a hack for the Republican party and don't deserve to be associated with a great American institution like the NY Times. Go get your paycheck from the RNC.
I would also urge everyone to read RC Wislinski's comment below.
213
That's a fair analysis from Mr. Douthat but what's his solution? Nixon's "secret plan" to end the (Vietnam) war? How many American troops died before that "secret plan" came to fruition with the U.S. pulling out and leaving Vietnam to the Vietnamese (i.e., to the Communists in the North)? As far as ISIS goes, bombing them from the air won't work unless we're prepared to kill thousands of innocent civilians with whom the jihadists are embedded (as Bush did in Iraq), thereby creating thousands of additional jihadists from amongst the survivors. Insofar as immigration is concerned, who's going to pay for that wall that The Donald wants to build? Mexico? Not unless American taxpayers are planning to move there. Trump has no answers and neither do any of the other Republicans. And, apparently, neither does Mr. Douthat.
10
What a complicated join-the-dots rationalizing set of arguments.
5
Douthat nails it when he talks about the security/immigration issues and connection. And those issues are appealing to Democrats as well, as this President has not reassured the nation either with his recent speech or with his actions. Trump will continue to dominate the field.
You lost your party long ago. The decline began with Reagan and accelerated with George W. Bush and then ran off the rails with the rise of the Tea Party, Fox News and AM radio's many hate programs dedicated to reacting negatively to our first black president.
Any suggestion that the GOP is looking for a voice of moderation is repudiated by the timid responses by candidates to Trump's outrageous statements stopping all Muslims from entering our country. The maneuvering for cover in order to avoiding risking the wrath of Trump's followers is disgusting but also revealing that the Republican Party is in complete meltdown, morally and politically.
Any suggestion that the GOP is looking for a voice of moderation is repudiated by the timid responses by candidates to Trump's outrageous statements stopping all Muslims from entering our country. The maneuvering for cover in order to avoiding risking the wrath of Trump's followers is disgusting but also revealing that the Republican Party is in complete meltdown, morally and politically.
16
Well this is interesting. But one must remember that Richard Nixon was at his core little different from Joe McCarthy, and George Wallace now thrives within the Republican party, because that is what the Republican party is all about.
3
Ross,
We are all shocked to see that the Republican base is in revolt after all that low taxes and impotent government has done for them and their families. The freedom should be more than enough compensation for lives of economic insecurity and promises of an even less rosy future.
Why would the Republican base support someone who promises them control over their lives and their country? Have they gone mad?
We are all shocked to see that the Republican base is in revolt after all that low taxes and impotent government has done for them and their families. The freedom should be more than enough compensation for lives of economic insecurity and promises of an even less rosy future.
Why would the Republican base support someone who promises them control over their lives and their country? Have they gone mad?
6
Leaving aside all the pretty philosophies, the political party that refers to itself as "Republican", judging by those that vote for the elected candidates, and the actions of those elected candidates, has been irrelevant to informed, competent governance for a long time. Its simply not what they do, nor where their interest lies. Mr D. et. al. are orphaned. "Informed, enlightened, conservatism" -- though interesting to read and write about -- is as politically irrelevant as missionaries to Mars.
2
Ross you are taking the same cookie cutter approach towards analyzing Trump and Cruz. Their messages are exciting but not creating their supporters. These supporters: the angry, fearful, uneducated "left behinds" already existed in the millions. Trump and Cruz just went out and found them. Most history that people learn still focus on exceptionalism and success and how open and welcoming Americans have always been, Nonsense, there have always been racists and xenophobe in America; now those people have a giant, gold=plated megaphone.
3
Ross makes some oblique references to the failings of the prior presidency - the one that completely upset the balance in the Middle East and created the vacuum into which the Islamic radicals flowed. We fight wars with no regard to the unintended consequences, especially when we do not even attempt to understand the essential cultural differences between those we fight and ourselves. We have been doing the same ting over and over and continue to expect different results. Are we insane? Or just stupid?
3
So the ideal Republican would thread a Nixonian needle? The way Nixon did when he committed treason to scuttle a peace deal with Johnson and then took four years to end the war he promised to end? That's the reasonable model we can expect from the party of Lincoln?
2
The Republicans, in demonizing Obama, have created a desire among their base for his antithesis, someone who is not coolheaded, is not thoughtful, is not humble, and is not eloquent: Trump.
3
"Since that president is a Democrat, since his own foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya," this is the kind of garbage undermines virtually everything Ross writes—he is constantly blaming Obama for the bad choices Bush & Co. made.
5
In his refusal to condemn Trump's remarks, Cruz has failed to uphold and defend the Constitution, a violation of the oath he took as a Senator. Unfit for office.
5
Roosting chickens can be an ugly thing, Ross. These chickens belong to you and your fellow "Conservatives". Own them. You may as well eat them, too. You may consider pairing them with fava beans a nice Chianti.
Further, I'm quite comfortable with the Obama approach in this matter. He has reached the rational conclusion that American boots on the ground are not going to decide matters and also that those more closely affected by the problem need to step up to resolve it. Will there be difficult times? Yes. Will some will die because of this policy? Yes. But the price will be much lower than lurching across the Middle East dealing death and destruction, while loudly proclaiming moral superiority.
Further, I'm quite comfortable with the Obama approach in this matter. He has reached the rational conclusion that American boots on the ground are not going to decide matters and also that those more closely affected by the problem need to step up to resolve it. Will there be difficult times? Yes. Will some will die because of this policy? Yes. But the price will be much lower than lurching across the Middle East dealing death and destruction, while loudly proclaiming moral superiority.
18
I have been waiting for the fever to break within the Republican Party all my adult life and I am now 54 years old. Someone doled out a double dose of crazy and it seems as virulent as ever.
Back in my College days I enjoyed bantering/arguing politics with Conservatives, most of whom were well informed and somewhat reasonable compared to today. Then there were the "real" Conservatives who had strict purity tests they were unwilling to tolerate any deviance from- people like most of what we see in public these days.
The more crazy the Republicans get the harder it is going to be for them to win an election. Most Americans do not want to live in a Theocracy, do not want endless wars, do not desire a police state, want reasonable public services like good roads and do not wish to see Social Security privatized. Maybe that was secret "liberal" information you were never intended to hear, but I told you anyway.
Polling has shown two consistent things about Americans:
1- When asked if they are more conservative or liberal they tend to say conservative.
2- When asked preferences about policies without labels, they tend to support a long list of liberal policies.
Conclusion, Americans are far more liberal than they like to describe themselves as being.
Until the GOP figures that out, they will have to rely on voter suppression and gerrymandering like their current practice or get used to never holding the White House.
Back in my College days I enjoyed bantering/arguing politics with Conservatives, most of whom were well informed and somewhat reasonable compared to today. Then there were the "real" Conservatives who had strict purity tests they were unwilling to tolerate any deviance from- people like most of what we see in public these days.
The more crazy the Republicans get the harder it is going to be for them to win an election. Most Americans do not want to live in a Theocracy, do not want endless wars, do not desire a police state, want reasonable public services like good roads and do not wish to see Social Security privatized. Maybe that was secret "liberal" information you were never intended to hear, but I told you anyway.
Polling has shown two consistent things about Americans:
1- When asked if they are more conservative or liberal they tend to say conservative.
2- When asked preferences about policies without labels, they tend to support a long list of liberal policies.
Conclusion, Americans are far more liberal than they like to describe themselves as being.
Until the GOP figures that out, they will have to rely on voter suppression and gerrymandering like their current practice or get used to never holding the White House.
18
The last sane 'Presidential' Republicans were the very liberal Richard Nixon, the very conservative Barry Goldwater and the very liberal Dwight Eisenhower, all of whom would be allergic to today's Republican Party and who also wouldn't stand an electoral chance with today's GOP voters, who were successfully hijacked and intellectually decapitated first with the Southern (anti-black) Strategy, then with the Gods-Guns-and-Greed (anti-government) Strategy and who are now being comfortably hijacked with the GOP's anti-Muslim-Mexican Strategy.
Decades of systematic 'anti-everything' mental conditioning has long-term neurological effects; it causes the right-wing human brain to stop trying to understand anything in deference to the belligerent infantile response of "No-no-no !"
Of course immigration and security need to be addressed...by thoughtful, deliberative and realistic minds...personae non gratae in the GOP.
As the Conscience Of A Conservative author Barry Goldwater said way back in 1989, the Republican Party has been taken over by a ''bunch of kooks.''
And in the 1990's, Goldwater told establishment Republicans:
"Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have."
The crisis of Republican authority is the crisis of a right-wing, demagogic political insane asylum gone mad with extremism, fear-mongering, pandering and the ghost of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
No sane man need apply.
Decades of systematic 'anti-everything' mental conditioning has long-term neurological effects; it causes the right-wing human brain to stop trying to understand anything in deference to the belligerent infantile response of "No-no-no !"
Of course immigration and security need to be addressed...by thoughtful, deliberative and realistic minds...personae non gratae in the GOP.
As the Conscience Of A Conservative author Barry Goldwater said way back in 1989, the Republican Party has been taken over by a ''bunch of kooks.''
And in the 1990's, Goldwater told establishment Republicans:
"Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have."
The crisis of Republican authority is the crisis of a right-wing, demagogic political insane asylum gone mad with extremism, fear-mongering, pandering and the ghost of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
No sane man need apply.
93
What would actually be a reasonable fear, Mr. Douthat, if by reason we mean the careful interpretation of facts, is fearing white supremists and easy access to insanely lethal guns. Far more Americans have been killed by white, Christian terrorists than by Muslim ones, and we all know the gun situation is out of control. You normalize exactly what needs to be problematized. Immigrants and terrorists in the Middle East are not as big a threat to the homeland as many factors that are also far easier for us to address and change.
107
The GOP has long played a dangerous game by cynically appealing to the ugliest impulses of American culture so that it might gain and retain the power that allows it to pass legislation and policies that favor its elite benefactors. The result is a nation that, since the Reagan revolution of 1980, is increasingly divided by race, creed, and income.
At what point will the evidence finally be so overwhelming that we can no longer escape the fact that we are living in a failed, dysfunctional state?
At what point will the evidence finally be so overwhelming that we can no longer escape the fact that we are living in a failed, dysfunctional state?
126
Probably when the evidence about gun violence becomes overwhelming enough to prompt actual major legislation to ban automatic weapons and control the sale of ammunition. In other words, when the Tea Party freezes over.
2
The Republican party's authority erosion though began with the US' Iraq war based on lies, the process was expedited when the Republican party leadership had succumbed to the Tea Party rabblerousers' extremist whims that caused frequent legislative and administrative deadlocks. With the rank outsiders like Donald Trump succeeding to challenge the official choices of nominees for the presidential race the party leadership stands badly mutated and humiliated. The party challenge of navigating successfully through the intersection of the immigration and terrorism hasn't sprung up suddenly but created by the Trump like self-styled leaders who would do anything to exploit public anxieties and fears about national security in the context of terrorism and equating the same with the immigration issue.
3
I find it remarkable that Mr. Douthat's essay speaking to both immigration and Islam does not at all reference the glaring and profound Christian evangelistic fervor of the GOP candidates. The world watches and listens and hears echoes of our earlier invasion that was styled a crusade by extremists on both sides. Current GOP politics are inextricably tainted by this perception if not reality. And along comes Mr. Cruz, as evangelistic as they come. "But Cruz isn’t an experienced statesman." Mr. Douthat proclaims. Why the modifier? The fact, sir, is that he's not a statesman at all.
7
This is a sad statement on the current state of the conservative movement and the Republican presidential field, specifically. Resurrecting the ghost of Richard Nixon as an example to guide the Republican field away from its nativist, fear mongering approach to immigration and national security is just about jaw dropping, but hardly surprising.
Ross Douthat is implicitly arguing that the Republican Party can just white wash a latent and underlying "whites only" (conspicuously eschewing the term racist) strain of a significant swath of the Republican base. And the way to do this is to replay a more modernized "Southern Strategy" that Nixon employed with huge success, and the legacy of its results is still felt a generation later.
It's pretty clear that the conservative thought leaders within the Republican establishment are bereft of ideas for the 21st century, when they look to a failed president who history has shown to be a paranoid and even tortured bigot.
Ross Douthat is implicitly arguing that the Republican Party can just white wash a latent and underlying "whites only" (conspicuously eschewing the term racist) strain of a significant swath of the Republican base. And the way to do this is to replay a more modernized "Southern Strategy" that Nixon employed with huge success, and the legacy of its results is still felt a generation later.
It's pretty clear that the conservative thought leaders within the Republican establishment are bereft of ideas for the 21st century, when they look to a failed president who history has shown to be a paranoid and even tortured bigot.
4
Ross, have you read your colleague, Tom Friedman's commentaries on Iraq and Syria? He warned that going into Iraq and Syria and removing the dictators would allow the powder keg of civil war to explode. There are too many angry tribes seeking supremacy over their neighboring tribes. There is little allegiance to "Syria" and "Iraq". The chaos in Iraq is due to President Bush's invasion and forcing the Baathists into exile. The chaos in Syria has nothing to do with President Obama and everything to with President Assad. Does a strong U. S. President mean sending troops to other nation's civil war?Further, the Republicans want to go after the Islamic terrorists and those who caused 9/11. Why is Saudi Arabia not on their list where the majority of 9/11 terrorists came from and where Islamic Fundamentalism originated? More importantly, do a majority of Americans want troops in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq? Are Americans willing to share the sacrifice with our soldiers and pay for the war effort with increased taxes? Or do we put the cost on a credit card and complain about the balanced owed, the rising national debt? Young Richard Nixon became the old Richard Nixon, "finding" microfilm in a pumpkin patch and paying burglars to break into the campaign headquarters of the Democratic Party are actions with a Fascist's taint. Interesting this is your model for the "Right" Republican.
2
Douthat starts the column framing Trump's audience as having "reasonable and understandable" fears and concerns. Halfway through the column he drops "reasonable," and proceeds with just "understandable.
He must, because what is understandable need not be reasonable.
Trump's audience may be understandable, but they are not reasonable.
43% of Republicans --not just Trump supporters-- think Obama is a Muslim, according to the CNN/ORC poll released in mid-September.
Dec 3rd -- Trump says of Obama: "Radical Islamic terrorism. And I'll tell you what, we have a president that refuses to use the term. He refuses to say it. **There's something going on with him that we don't know about.**"
Dec 7 -- Trump calls for halt of Muslim entering the US.
It's only AFTER this last statement that the other Republican candidates come out with forceful statements decrying Trump. Why? Because prior to that they knew that doing so would alienate their voters!
Cruz, arguably running first but maybe second in the competition, is the figure most clearly riding Trump's coattails and playing from his script.
"Reasonable?" And now I've talked myself out of thinking this is at all even "understandable."
He must, because what is understandable need not be reasonable.
Trump's audience may be understandable, but they are not reasonable.
43% of Republicans --not just Trump supporters-- think Obama is a Muslim, according to the CNN/ORC poll released in mid-September.
Dec 3rd -- Trump says of Obama: "Radical Islamic terrorism. And I'll tell you what, we have a president that refuses to use the term. He refuses to say it. **There's something going on with him that we don't know about.**"
Dec 7 -- Trump calls for halt of Muslim entering the US.
It's only AFTER this last statement that the other Republican candidates come out with forceful statements decrying Trump. Why? Because prior to that they knew that doing so would alienate their voters!
Cruz, arguably running first but maybe second in the competition, is the figure most clearly riding Trump's coattails and playing from his script.
"Reasonable?" And now I've talked myself out of thinking this is at all even "understandable."
4
I think Douthat, whom I almost never agree with, is onto something. Cruz and Early Nixon do strike me as eerily alike. I had to look up the "pink down to her underwear" red-baiting reference to Helen Douglas when Nixon ran for the Senate in 1950. The smugness and off-the-charts debating skill are similar. Will we have a Checker's speech?
6
You mean Ivana/Marla/Melania in a good Republican cloth coat? Now, there's an unlikely picture! : )
3
Though your Republican ethos is anathema to most thinking Americans - it is manna to low-info folks who are crazy for Trump and Cruz and all the evils they and their dysfuctional wannabe POTUS colleagues espouse. The GOP is unified in demagogic fear-mongering and scaring the hell out of Americans who care about concealed carry guns, the NRA and immigration of dangerous felons from the Middle East radicalization of ISIS believers into the US. Not to mention bombast and blatherskite about mens' rights over womens' bodies and all that is legal today (including gay right issues to marriage). and rights to choose secure information about contraception and abortion rights from legal organizations like Planned Parenthood. Not a single Republican wannabe POTUS candidate has a chance at the White House next year, and they are all involved in the dusty 11 months long sprint to the White House. No right wing candidate is electable just as occurred in 2008 and 2012. Republicans, dysfunctionally and hysterically exploiting fears in the American people, is not the way to win an election.
1
No, it is NOT reasonable to be so fearful of a tiny mass-murdering, drug-crazed, radical religious group of people who spread fear and hate and "have killed hundreds of people from Cairo to California." Hundreds. It is reasonable to detest them and help the people of the area get rid of them, to build an international coalition to destroy them by sharing intelligence and other resources and to ask tech wizards to take down their social media. Fear solves nothing but putting dictators in power. There are no super heroes and one person cannot change America. WE must let OUR elected officials know what WE want and make them provide it instead of waiting for someone to "save" us. Guns kill thousands of Americans every year right here at home. Start by demanding that they be taken off OUR streets.
13
Lets's be clear about this; 49% of Americans say they are or lean Republican.
And 35% of them are for Trump.
The problem isn't just Trump or Cruz or the other xenophobic, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, gilded age, corporation representing, gun peddling, wealth and income mongering plutocrats running for office, it's the large number of Americans who live in a separate reality that perceives the snake oil they sell as a quality product.
They aren't buying it because they've been talked into it. They're buying it because they've bought it before and want more. They're proud of it.
These candidates are the only individuals allowed to be candidates in the Republican Party.
This is as if Edward R Murrow didn't triumph in 1953: McCarthy did.
.
And 35% of them are for Trump.
The problem isn't just Trump or Cruz or the other xenophobic, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, gilded age, corporation representing, gun peddling, wealth and income mongering plutocrats running for office, it's the large number of Americans who live in a separate reality that perceives the snake oil they sell as a quality product.
They aren't buying it because they've been talked into it. They're buying it because they've bought it before and want more. They're proud of it.
These candidates are the only individuals allowed to be candidates in the Republican Party.
This is as if Edward R Murrow didn't triumph in 1953: McCarthy did.
.
29
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickenlover
Nixon too!
One of the compilations
http://youtu.be/k1vKDM7wfiA
Nixon too!
One of the compilations
http://youtu.be/k1vKDM7wfiA
Douthat on fascism naturally focuses on republican
Authority.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Authority.
Since South Park guides some of his moral thinking, that cartoon series has an epsidoe he could benefit from on authoeity though I fear he misses the joke.
Authority. Hehehhe.
And on good authority, this
"When he [Tricky Dick] made his law-and-order, peace-with-honor pitch in 1968, Nixon could rely on his association with the relative tranquillity of the Eisenhower era."
Is just crazy, clever shallow masquerading as learned deep, as asking a few humans would quickly reveal.
Authority.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Authority.
Since South Park guides some of his moral thinking, that cartoon series has an epsidoe he could benefit from on authoeity though I fear he misses the joke.
Authority. Hehehhe.
And on good authority, this
"When he [Tricky Dick] made his law-and-order, peace-with-honor pitch in 1968, Nixon could rely on his association with the relative tranquillity of the Eisenhower era."
Is just crazy, clever shallow masquerading as learned deep, as asking a few humans would quickly reveal.
4
As far as this reader is concerned the GOP is not trustworthy, is run by extremists, and should be put out of business because it's a morally bankrupt group that is busy destroying America to benefit itself and its rich donors.
42
Don't forget that any policy must have immediate measurable success, cannot allow for any form of gun control, must not involve the raising of taxes, especially on the rich, to finance it, not even allowing uttering the word "draft" to enhance man and woman power in our military, must avoid diplomacy with the likes of Russia and Iran, and will immediately be repudiated in the face of any new terrorist act traceable to ISIS influence in any way.
36
Which policies of course have painted the Republicans into a corner.
1
It also needs to restrict abortion.
1
"Republican Authority" -- almost did a spit-take, but this term is correct although Mr. Douthat, again, dances around the truth.
And that, folks, is why Republicans do not have authority. The GOP has spent the last 7 years in total reality distortion mode. Once could reasonably argue that reality-denial extends all the way back to 2000, explaining the Cheney/Bush/Rumsfeld blunder in Iraq, the financial collapse in 2008 and the impending bio-disaster due to climate change.
Republicans simply do not tell the truth. You cannot build authority on lies.
And that, folks, is why Republicans do not have authority. The GOP has spent the last 7 years in total reality distortion mode. Once could reasonably argue that reality-denial extends all the way back to 2000, explaining the Cheney/Bush/Rumsfeld blunder in Iraq, the financial collapse in 2008 and the impending bio-disaster due to climate change.
Republicans simply do not tell the truth. You cannot build authority on lies.
121
"Republicans simply do not tell the truth. You cannot build authority on lies."
I still find it funny that Democrats think they are so different.
"Islam is a religion of Peace" Hilary Clinton
"You can keep your doctor." Barak Obama
"You have to pass it to find out what's in it." Nancy Pelosi
That's just a quick list off the top of my head. Keep in mind, I'm a democrat, but you have to own the fact that our politicians are politicians too. They are just as full of crap as the Republican side.
I still find it funny that Democrats think they are so different.
"Islam is a religion of Peace" Hilary Clinton
"You can keep your doctor." Barak Obama
"You have to pass it to find out what's in it." Nancy Pelosi
That's just a quick list off the top of my head. Keep in mind, I'm a democrat, but you have to own the fact that our politicians are politicians too. They are just as full of crap as the Republican side.
The roots of the distortion go back at least to the times of the young Nixon in the '40s and '50s. The main reason Eisenhower picked Nixon as his running mate was to quell that wing of the party. We forget that that wing of the GOP was always skeptical of Eisenhower and grew disenchanted with Nixon before he was President. It was the Goldwater wing--although Goldwater himself was always more rational than most of his followers--and it was this wing who supported Reagan in his trial bid in '68.
Of course, these now GOP voters were also exemplified by many who were not traditional Republicans, the Wallace voters brought in by Nixon's Southern strategy and then the Christian Right, largely brought in by those leaders who preached a blend of the prosperity gospel and national salvation through the GOP--idolatrous both, but no matter. It all came together in the Reagan years. For a while, the party let surrogates in the media (talk radio, Fox, crazy websites, etc.) do most of the dirty work. But during the Clinton administration, in defensive during Bush II, and especially since Obama, the line between surrogacy and authority blurred entirely.
Make crazy promises long enough and weak minded people begin to believe them. Tell the weak minded they are the only "true Americans" long enough, and the weak minded believe it. When you make these promises long enough with no intention to fulfill them, the weak minded become enraged, especially when they are fearful.
Of course, these now GOP voters were also exemplified by many who were not traditional Republicans, the Wallace voters brought in by Nixon's Southern strategy and then the Christian Right, largely brought in by those leaders who preached a blend of the prosperity gospel and national salvation through the GOP--idolatrous both, but no matter. It all came together in the Reagan years. For a while, the party let surrogates in the media (talk radio, Fox, crazy websites, etc.) do most of the dirty work. But during the Clinton administration, in defensive during Bush II, and especially since Obama, the line between surrogacy and authority blurred entirely.
Make crazy promises long enough and weak minded people begin to believe them. Tell the weak minded they are the only "true Americans" long enough, and the weak minded believe it. When you make these promises long enough with no intention to fulfill them, the weak minded become enraged, especially when they are fearful.
1
I love how Douthat blames Obama for everything. I am sure as I know my name that it was the Republicans that got us into the mess in Iraq and Obama did his best to get us out (per the will of the people who elected him). Any backlash that we feel today can be traced back to the farce presidencies of Reagan, Bush I and Bush II (Clinton also has some blame). The Republicans have to stop blaming Obama and take responsibility for their long-standing horrible foreign policy decisions and maneuvers. This is not to say the terrorists are justified, they are not, but we should not be too surprised that long-standing hatred and prejudice comes with backlash.
The other things Douthat says, really? Call it like it is. Republican policies are about prejudice and hatred and Douthat just wants a candidate who can spin it better. Today's Editorial by the Board is dead right, every single candidate needs to state that they would challenge a Trump candidacy and anyone else, such as Cruz, who takes up his rhetoric. Stop this playing to the lowest common denominator and start making candidates accountable for their words and actions (or lack thereof).
I could go on and on, but as part of the 99% (where is that discussion by the candidates), I have to go to work...
The other things Douthat says, really? Call it like it is. Republican policies are about prejudice and hatred and Douthat just wants a candidate who can spin it better. Today's Editorial by the Board is dead right, every single candidate needs to state that they would challenge a Trump candidacy and anyone else, such as Cruz, who takes up his rhetoric. Stop this playing to the lowest common denominator and start making candidates accountable for their words and actions (or lack thereof).
I could go on and on, but as part of the 99% (where is that discussion by the candidates), I have to go to work...
536
"Since that president is a Democrat, since his own foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya..."
Obama's foreign policy choices have not contributed to rise of the Islamic State in Iraq; It was George Bush's invasion of Iraq, coupled with Saudi Arabia's sponsored Wahhabism, that gave birth to ISIS.
Obama's foreign policy choices have not contributed to rise of the Islamic State in Iraq; It was George Bush's invasion of Iraq, coupled with Saudi Arabia's sponsored Wahhabism, that gave birth to ISIS.
909
The birth of ISIS is a direct and proximate cause of George W Bush's dismantling of the Iraqi Army and its ban on former Baathist members from serving in the new Iraqi government.
Republicans keep trying to foist it off on President Obama, but those of us who've been paying attention know better.
Republicans keep trying to foist it off on President Obama, but those of us who've been paying attention know better.
5
Without disagreeing with your statement about the "birth" of ISIS, is it not fair to say that Obama's decision to not engage in Syria before ISIS gained power at least "contributed" to the rise of ISIS as Mr. Douthat states?
Blatant nonsense!
GWB's attempt at democracy in the middle east by invading Iraq. Remember the WMD that did not exist?
He kicked over the Sunni power structure in that country. Generations of Sunnis controlled that state. Bush dispossessed them and their response is called ISIS.
Good try Douthat! No facts in your favor. Typical GOP false news.
GWB's attempt at democracy in the middle east by invading Iraq. Remember the WMD that did not exist?
He kicked over the Sunni power structure in that country. Generations of Sunnis controlled that state. Bush dispossessed them and their response is called ISIS.
Good try Douthat! No facts in your favor. Typical GOP false news.
3
Once again, Douthat's column reminds me of Batman's smoke grenades; he throws down an argument so full of twisted logic that it stuns and disorients his readers, and then he pushes the "publish" button and gets away.
56
That makes me laugh. Why try to paper over the innate bigotry of the 2/3 of the republican base who agree with Trump's Muslim ban? Douthat's "legitimate fear" argument is just a flaccid attempt to justify the hatred and xenophobia that the GOP had used to stoke anger and thereby enhance turnout. What Trump is doing is making GOP strategy explicit rather than implicit, promising to really do what the establishment keeps promising with a cynical wink. And the reason the GOP base is following Trump with such vehement loyalty and rage is that they are sick of being taken for dupes.
This can only in a fracturing of the GOP into the right wing nuts and the traditionalists. It will take a generation for the GOP to reemerge.
This can only in a fracturing of the GOP into the right wing nuts and the traditionalists. It will take a generation for the GOP to reemerge.
30
From your mouth to God's ears!
"This can only in a fracturing of the GOP into the right wing nuts and the traditionalists. "
As opposed to left-wing nuts who will make sure that peace in our life times is impossible on a global scale.
As opposed to left-wing nuts who will make sure that peace in our life times is impossible on a global scale.
Always great when Republicans invoke Nixon. Some of us remember that nervous Nelly, that sweatband brow, that litany of lies. Talk about infamy! And Trump (R) wants to reinstate internment camps. The Bush-Rummy war in Iraq. Is there ANY horrible, immoral, illegal thing you DON'T want to do all over again?
60
Well, anything else would involve creative thinking and they are against that. Texas even banned, or tried to, critical thinking from the educational system. Truth is such a menace to blind obedience!
2
Mr. Douhat lost me when he asserted that Trump supporters are those dissatisfied with the GOP establishment's failure to offer a "firm repudiation of any suggestion that Islam writ large might be a problem." Seriously? "Islam writ large" is simply a veiled assertion that Islam as a RELIGION is the problem, which is belied by the fact the vast majority of Muslims around the world reject the atrocities advocated by ISIS and other Muslim radicals. Mr. Douhat is just as bad as Trump while attempting to appear more enlightened.
42
9/11 happens. Islamic majority of peace.... crickets....
Madrid bombings, Islamic majority of peace.... crickets.....
Multiple random terrorist attacks across Western countries Islamic majority of peace... crickets.....
Madrid bombings, Islamic majority of peace.... crickets.....
Multiple random terrorist attacks across Western countries Islamic majority of peace... crickets.....
Trump's anti-Muslim populism exploits the lack of a liberal critique of Islam.
When there is no liberal credibly addressing in all its nuances the problems with the idea of jihad or that no Sharia law equates to oppression per some Islamic ideologies, or with the conflict of blasphemy in Islam versus free speech, then the lunatics take over. Liberals who attempt it are shouted down as Islamophobes. The lunatics, on the other hand, are not worried by labels.
I recommend looking up the Rubin Report on ora.tv, the interviews with Sarah Haider, Faisal Al-Mutar, Sam Harris; and Rubin's commentary on the regressive Left, if you want to understand better what I mean.
BTW, American Muslims might be a tiny minority, but Islam worldwide is very powerful, with the largest grouping of nations outside the United Nations being the 50+ nation Islamic Conference.
When there is no liberal credibly addressing in all its nuances the problems with the idea of jihad or that no Sharia law equates to oppression per some Islamic ideologies, or with the conflict of blasphemy in Islam versus free speech, then the lunatics take over. Liberals who attempt it are shouted down as Islamophobes. The lunatics, on the other hand, are not worried by labels.
I recommend looking up the Rubin Report on ora.tv, the interviews with Sarah Haider, Faisal Al-Mutar, Sam Harris; and Rubin's commentary on the regressive Left, if you want to understand better what I mean.
BTW, American Muslims might be a tiny minority, but Islam worldwide is very powerful, with the largest grouping of nations outside the United Nations being the 50+ nation Islamic Conference.
6
"Trump's anti-Muslim populism exploits the lack of a liberal critique of Islam."
That's because there isn't any. Islam recognizes two distinct areas. The house of submission where Islam and Shariah law rule, and the house of war where it doesn't. I'll let you figure out what house of war means and you can obfuscate about peace with Islam.
That's because there isn't any. Islam recognizes two distinct areas. The house of submission where Islam and Shariah law rule, and the house of war where it doesn't. I'll let you figure out what house of war means and you can obfuscate about peace with Islam.
To Arun Gupta and others denying the existence of a liberal response to jihad and a liberal criticism of sharia law as oppressive;
Obama's administration is fighting against ISIS; it fought against Libya's Gaddafi, it has and continues to support Israel against Hamas and Hezbollah. What are you suggesting it do more of?
Hillary, as Sec of State and now, has helped lead the charge against sharia oppression of women.
The question is, why are you blinded to this.
Obama's administration is fighting against ISIS; it fought against Libya's Gaddafi, it has and continues to support Israel against Hamas and Hezbollah. What are you suggesting it do more of?
Hillary, as Sec of State and now, has helped lead the charge against sharia oppression of women.
The question is, why are you blinded to this.
Mr. Douthat correctly identifies the reasons for voters distrust of the Republican party's ability to handle foreign affairs. We haven't forgotten that naive and reckless war-mongering brought about the current destabilization in the Middle East, nor that an amply-warned Administration was asleep at the wheel in regard to 9/11.
The current crop of Republican candidates appears (if this is possible) even more uninformed, unrealistic and naive when it comes to dealing with the threats created largely by past Republican actions.
And although the people on the far right that Mr. Douthat is concerned about won't be voting for her, we will have an adult in the White House in 2017. Now if we could only get a few grownups in the House....
The current crop of Republican candidates appears (if this is possible) even more uninformed, unrealistic and naive when it comes to dealing with the threats created largely by past Republican actions.
And although the people on the far right that Mr. Douthat is concerned about won't be voting for her, we will have an adult in the White House in 2017. Now if we could only get a few grownups in the House....
25
"many of those voters lived through the George W. Bush presidency, when a Republican president combined an idealistic attempt to spread democracy in the Muslim" - a rather silly rambling article that makes very little sense to this voter that lived through the catastrophic Bush presidency.
Jerry NYC
Jerry NYC
26
What if Trump's 30% ARE those knuckle-dragging nativists?
They just won't go away
They just won't go away
2
Great analysis of the thinking that no one is actually doing. Neither Trump nor any of the other candidates are peddling thoughts. They are peddling fear and offering the balm of hate.
11
Well said. I haven't heard any actual REASONING come out of the GOP camp in decades.
Hate? Certainly.
Intolerance? Most definitely.
Outrage? Constantly.
But reasoning... never.
Hate? Certainly.
Intolerance? Most definitely.
Outrage? Constantly.
But reasoning... never.
2
Douthat writes, "Since that president is a Democrat, since his own foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya, . . "
Seriously?? Where do I begin my history lesson? Maybe 1950s when Eisenhower helped topple an elected leader in Iran and appoint a boy prince? Maybe late 1980s when St. Reagan sent arms to the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan who then morphed into Al Qaeda and all future splinter groups?
Many Americans have piled on Obama for many things in these past seven years, but a pundit who ought to know history doing so in irresponsible. No wonder the GOP is where it is and the cavalcade of candidates is who they are.
Seriously?? Where do I begin my history lesson? Maybe 1950s when Eisenhower helped topple an elected leader in Iran and appoint a boy prince? Maybe late 1980s when St. Reagan sent arms to the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan who then morphed into Al Qaeda and all future splinter groups?
Many Americans have piled on Obama for many things in these past seven years, but a pundit who ought to know history doing so in irresponsible. No wonder the GOP is where it is and the cavalcade of candidates is who they are.
683
Douthat has never demonstrated acquaintance with history or data--why start now?
3
Douthat probably knows history, he just chooses to ignore it and distort it to his partisan purposes.
4
Perhaps Ross has forgotten the single-minded viciousness of Mitch McConnell who, since Obama's inauguration, has been public about 'making him a one term president', destroying Obamacare, resisting nominations, and generally undermining any respect or authority the Office once held. Couple Mitch with the constant rhetoric against abortion and for guns all offered as ways to de-legitimize the government they do not run. Then you wonder why there is no 'Republican authority': they have spent years carefully cultivating a disrespect for elected officials, damaging the effectiveness of their own offices in the legislature, and claiming somehow that all that was OK. Having now begun to reap the whirlwind there is a lot of whining that they didn't really mean all that.
The long term damage the last seven years of Republican rebellion has brought us to this edge: Trump in the lead, a completely ineffective national legislature, dozens of unfilled offices, a rising external threat, and self-satisfied Republicans comfortable that they have helped the nation by spreading fear and guns across the land. What have we come to?
And why does anyone, Ross included, think this is a good outcome?
The long term damage the last seven years of Republican rebellion has brought us to this edge: Trump in the lead, a completely ineffective national legislature, dozens of unfilled offices, a rising external threat, and self-satisfied Republicans comfortable that they have helped the nation by spreading fear and guns across the land. What have we come to?
And why does anyone, Ross included, think this is a good outcome?
519
Nor can it exist. The Republican Party has controlled the House for years, but has not addressed immigration, even when the Senate did. This article does not address the discrepancy, but we can conclude that the powers that be, controlled by those who pay the freight, like things the way they are. Cheap labor is the name of the game, a substitute population for the lack of an outright slave population. Aside from this, the Republican candidates for President, with the exception of Trump, look like a bunch of want to be puppets that have paraded themselves, like horses at a horse show, before "big money," and/or are supported by it outright through huge donors. In short, they lack credibility. Making themselves out to be fascists is not helping them either, and the more they criticize Trump, the more his supporters did in because this is what it is all about. Trump represents the downtrodden people, who some how still perceive themselves as Republican, which is the purist testimony to their under informed existence. Trump is like a freight train going down grade. It is gathering steam, and may collect many more undecided voters or new voters by the time he reaches the station.
8
Your thesis has the singular defect of making Obama and Bush 43 sound completely interchangeable. Only the body counts differ.
6
So Ross Douthat and Republican voters recognize the disastrous results of a war of choice against Muslims under Bush, and yet they "know" that Obama is a weak President who somehow should have been able to prevent the rise of ISIL?
I'm afraid Douthat's analysis isn't more coherent here than the double-think of Trump's supporters. Like Douthat, Trump, Cruz, and other GOP candidates keep sustaining the myth that a "strong" Republican president would clean up the Middle East, presumably through military action (Cruz's phrase is that he would "carpet bomb" Syria). The fact that Obama has not defeated IS is supposed to be proof he is a "weak" president.
This is a circular logic that is at the root of our blind, disastrous drive toward endless war.
I'm afraid Douthat's analysis isn't more coherent here than the double-think of Trump's supporters. Like Douthat, Trump, Cruz, and other GOP candidates keep sustaining the myth that a "strong" Republican president would clean up the Middle East, presumably through military action (Cruz's phrase is that he would "carpet bomb" Syria). The fact that Obama has not defeated IS is supposed to be proof he is a "weak" president.
This is a circular logic that is at the root of our blind, disastrous drive toward endless war.
29
I think the original plan was for Trump to play Barry Goldwater, make a spectacle of himself, rally the base with hate talk, scare independents with his red meat proto-facism, and act as a lightning rod for the other candidates. With Trump sucking up all the media oxygen, the lesser candidates can go about their primary campaigns without intense media scrutiny. Protective coloration courtesy of Trump. Through the primaries Trump continues to carpet bombast his way to the right of Attila the Hun, strategically making Cruz, Rubio, et.al., appear like rational Kiwanis Club centrists. The GOP convention is deadlocked. A deal gets brokered for an anti-Trump who holds the base but appeals to moderates and independents. The convention nominates Paul Ryan, two heartbeats from Obama and a "proven" leader who gets things done, like house-breaking the Freedom Caucus and passing the budget. Rubio gets the Sarah Palin role or Carly Fiorina. Trump continues as campaign attack dog and if Ryan wins he makes Trump the new Ambassador to the Court of St. James. A plausible explanation for this curiously under-whelming and repulsive group of GOP Obama wannabes. A straw man strategy to make GOP look adult, not like a nursery of baby hyenas. This is the movie version. In the book Trump is the nominee, losing when DNA tests prove paternity claims by two refugee Syrian teens. Otherwise, Ross, blaming Obama if we're no longer the land of the brave? We never were.
12
Douthat is right that people want their candidates to address the fears of our times, with policies that will reduce the threats.
What all the Republican candidates are doing, is not calming fears by discussing sound policy or nation character, but instead pandering to that inner atavistic part of us that is reacting irrationally to threats. In essence, the candidates are bolstering our instinct to panic and act hysterically. After all, it is an election year, and nothing plays to the base like feeding the beast. It makes us look like a really ugly nation.
Douthat's reaching back to Nixon for inspiration is telling (when did we decide that Nixon was the Republican to emulate?) We really don't have a better and more recent inspiration to model our politics and behavior on?
I am trying to imagine Winston Churchill, faced with a a real threat, a huge existential threat that would affect millions of people daily, taking a Trump or Cruz approach to talking about the London airstrikes. That would surely have helped people go about their daily business with grace and resilience.
What all the Republican candidates are doing, is not calming fears by discussing sound policy or nation character, but instead pandering to that inner atavistic part of us that is reacting irrationally to threats. In essence, the candidates are bolstering our instinct to panic and act hysterically. After all, it is an election year, and nothing plays to the base like feeding the beast. It makes us look like a really ugly nation.
Douthat's reaching back to Nixon for inspiration is telling (when did we decide that Nixon was the Republican to emulate?) We really don't have a better and more recent inspiration to model our politics and behavior on?
I am trying to imagine Winston Churchill, faced with a a real threat, a huge existential threat that would affect millions of people daily, taking a Trump or Cruz approach to talking about the London airstrikes. That would surely have helped people go about their daily business with grace and resilience.
2
While I despise and hate Donald Trump at least he has the guts to state forcefully and unequivocally exactly what he thinks, what he proposes to do and why. Mr. Douthat you and the rest of your friends over at the Republican Party believe in everything Trump says and wants to do but want to say it in a nicer way that offends less of the world while doing less damage to the ideal of " American Exceptionalism". Nixon was a crafty and devious sower of divisiveness and hatred while preying upon white people's prejudices and fears. He crated the southern strategy as well as the " silent majority" which has morphed with the help of Fox News into today's GOP. Trump is merely stating what all of you are thinking and he is saying it proudly , loudly and clearly for all to hear ! Never has the choice been clearer for the American electorate to define who we are and what we truly stand for.
219
Paraphrasing John N Welch:
Until this moment, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to this country. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear this country shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty I would do so. I like to think I am a gentleman, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.
You have seen fit to bring it out.
And if there is a God in Heaven it will do neither you nor your cause any good.
Until this moment, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to this country. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear this country shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty I would do so. I like to think I am a gentleman, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.
You have seen fit to bring it out.
And if there is a God in Heaven it will do neither you nor your cause any good.
5
Trump says when the GOP/T candidates believe but they use code words. This was first started by Nixon and Reagan. Second, the immigrants fall into 2 extreme categories: firt the skilled on H1Bs who displace US workers and the second who may well be killed in their home country. The second are the children from central America. The GOP/T used fear of those to win in 2014. Now Trump is extending this action to Syria. So the GOP/T used a similar approach but now this is out in the open and they fear the reaction of independents. GOP/T must learn to live with Trump's claims
3
I think Douthat is leaving out one very large component of why none of the non-Trump Republican candidates is a non-starter for Trump supporters. And that component completely collapses his argument.
All of the non-Trump candidates are backed by the very people that are at the root of the Trump supporters economic travails... the 0.01% oligarchs. They are all the puppeteers behind the candidates like Rubio, Cruz, Bush, Fiorina, Carson, etc.
At least Trump, the billionaire, is out there using his own mouth to trumpet his conservative id that is clearly resonating with the old white blue collar voter Trump is speaking to.
The other Republican candidates can't be trusted because they are too ingrained in the oligarch and corporate greed that is financing the Republican show.
The Trump voters may not be college educated, but they aren't stupid.
And that's why they won't support a Nixonian like candidate like Rubio or Cruz in a general election.
All of the non-Trump candidates are backed by the very people that are at the root of the Trump supporters economic travails... the 0.01% oligarchs. They are all the puppeteers behind the candidates like Rubio, Cruz, Bush, Fiorina, Carson, etc.
At least Trump, the billionaire, is out there using his own mouth to trumpet his conservative id that is clearly resonating with the old white blue collar voter Trump is speaking to.
The other Republican candidates can't be trusted because they are too ingrained in the oligarch and corporate greed that is financing the Republican show.
The Trump voters may not be college educated, but they aren't stupid.
And that's why they won't support a Nixonian like candidate like Rubio or Cruz in a general election.
5
Hate to be redundant BUT I believe ISIS's rise can be traced back to the destabilizing nation building attempted by the Cheney-bush administration.
18
"you just need to be tougher and smarter and harder-nosed than the current occupant of the White House."
Must be why a recent poll indicated that Hillary Clinton had just the right characteristics voters are looking for when addressing terrorism and ISIS. One of the major reasons Hillary lost to Obama in the Democratic primary was because she was too hawkish for her Party. Times change and now that position may be just what the country is looking for. When you contrast the red hot responses the Republican candidates propose along with the cool detachment of an Obama; Hillary may be in the sweet spot. It is the Goldilocks formula; it is too hot, it is too cold, it is just right.
Must be why a recent poll indicated that Hillary Clinton had just the right characteristics voters are looking for when addressing terrorism and ISIS. One of the major reasons Hillary lost to Obama in the Democratic primary was because she was too hawkish for her Party. Times change and now that position may be just what the country is looking for. When you contrast the red hot responses the Republican candidates propose along with the cool detachment of an Obama; Hillary may be in the sweet spot. It is the Goldilocks formula; it is too hot, it is too cold, it is just right.
143
W Bush tried to spread democracy in the Middle East? Before the "spread", Christians in Iraq were able to worship without being beheaded and buried alive, before the "spread" there was no ISIS , Saddam Hussein made sure of that. W got "got" by Saddam!
9
Mr. Douthat poses a good question: "But in the party as it currently exists, which prominent candidate has the credibility to play the part?"
The answer: no one who is on the ticket now. My hunch is that the Republicans will turn to Paul Ryan to bail them out. He's arguably increasing the functionality of Congress, he's been vetted on the national stage, and presents himself as a "moderate" to those who don't look closely at his proposals. None of the candidates who have debated thus far could beat Ryan in a primary...
The answer: no one who is on the ticket now. My hunch is that the Republicans will turn to Paul Ryan to bail them out. He's arguably increasing the functionality of Congress, he's been vetted on the national stage, and presents himself as a "moderate" to those who don't look closely at his proposals. None of the candidates who have debated thus far could beat Ryan in a primary...
"He-who-shall-not-be-named" (see Charles Blow's column) is the embodiment of everything that the GOP has rhetorically stood for in the last seven, if not the last 30, years. The only difference is that he, and Cruz, and perhaps others, will actually want to implement this program.
Since adopting the "southern strategy" the GOP has engaged in a bait-and-switch game, arguing for an end to abortion, restricting rights of minorities, and restoring the "order" that some believe the 50s had (whether the 1950s, the 1850s, or the 1750s is an open question). Now the voters want someone who will deliver the goods - and that is what has the establishment scared!
They have been exposed as the Madoff's of the body politic.
Since adopting the "southern strategy" the GOP has engaged in a bait-and-switch game, arguing for an end to abortion, restricting rights of minorities, and restoring the "order" that some believe the 50s had (whether the 1950s, the 1850s, or the 1750s is an open question). Now the voters want someone who will deliver the goods - and that is what has the establishment scared!
They have been exposed as the Madoff's of the body politic.
5
Exactly the point. The candidate that actually understands that 9/11 and other events are connected to immigration and US foreign policy will stand out. You might add the outsourcing of labor and tax avoidance by corporations (inversion) and individuals (salaries masquerading as capital gains) and you have a list that would resonate with many of the voters.
1
At least the headline writer got it right. There's a crisis of Republican authority, Decades of slithering down the slope of Nixon's Southern Strategy is what got them here, and yet Ross is still trying to find some sort of Nixonian figure to turn things around. The Republican Party cannot turn things around as long as it continues to appeal to the same xenophobic fears that Nixon more subtly appealed to. Scared white votes might be enough to win the party's nomination, but the rest of all of us - in spite of the Republican Party - still get to vote.
10
So far, what I hear offered up by Republicans is sure to make the global situation re: terrorism worse. I believe Obama's approach to managing the situation is working as well as we can expect given this rapidly evolving situation. The first thing that needs to be done is to create reasonable expectations about the situation in the Middle East where different players, including the U.S. are on at least two sides simultaneously. We are also constrained by unreasonable expectations about our military actions. We can not defeat ISIS without some civilian casualties. Yet every time there are civilian casualties all the reporting is woe is me. Politicians ultimately are accountable to the voters, and I believe most voters have no idea what is going on internationally with Islam and terrorism. That is why people like Trump are able to energize his uninformed base.
2
" Republicans would tell their voters; you just need to be tougher and smarter and harder-nosed than the current occupant of the White House." Looks like Douthat is telling the voters to vote for Hillary. There is certainly no paucity of more hard-nosed and tougher wannabes in the GOP field who can run against a president who cannot run again. And as the dazed and confused Douthat meanders on, there is a dearth of smarts in the group. Finally, Douthat lucidly blames Bush.
5
The moment is ripe for right wing populism. The white working class has seen its wages stagnate or decline for over a generation and its values are now scoffed at by elites. Free people don't acquiesce to that sort of thing. Trump has occupied this space buffoonishly with an economic platform little different from Bush. A right wing populist with an anti establishment message and a modicum of statesmanship would win the nomination.
1
It's one thing to spend the bulk of one's time gerrymandering voting districts in order to win a majority in the House; it's quite another, requiring a much different skill set, to do something positive for one's political party and the country.
Trump or no Trump the Republicans have put forth more than a dozen candidates for their party's nomination for president, thus far none of them are able to get out of their own way. That is the crisis of Republican authority. They've been tripping over themselves for so long to undermine democratic and even bipartisan policies in a non-violent attempt to create turmoil that they have lost credibility with all but their most ardent followers.
The Republicans, without Trump still offer no better than a pant load of unqualified choices for nomination. Perhaps their best bet is to send Trump to foreign policy school.
Trump or no Trump the Republicans have put forth more than a dozen candidates for their party's nomination for president, thus far none of them are able to get out of their own way. That is the crisis of Republican authority. They've been tripping over themselves for so long to undermine democratic and even bipartisan policies in a non-violent attempt to create turmoil that they have lost credibility with all but their most ardent followers.
The Republicans, without Trump still offer no better than a pant load of unqualified choices for nomination. Perhaps their best bet is to send Trump to foreign policy school.
255
I believe a significant part of Trump's appeal is the hysteria he induces in the elite media. He speaks and they catch the vapors.
"But Cruz isn’t an experienced statesman, he isn’t an authority figure, he’s running his own kind of populist, “bomb ’em back to the Stone Age” campaign and riding Trump’s wake as he goes."
Well stated, Ross. But from what you write, it appears nobody can rein in Trump. If, historically in the Middle East, the Democrats are weak, and the Republicans ineffective, why not go with the strongman who talks the toughest and is a celebrity to boot? That front runner is a delight for your party to hear, because he tells it like it I--down the ugliest and most draconian solutions that you usually only hear in a bar in Texas at midnight.
Ross, you simply cannot compare Trump to Nixon, by any stretch of the imagination. That era--an era of relative sanity--is long gone. Before today's media evolution, Americans were more or less on the same page regarding facts, as we all watched the same news. The biggest divide was racial: south versus north.
Today the divide cuts through every single issue, policy position, and domestic and international challenge facing the country: guns, women's rights, immigration, tax reform, inequality, ISIS, global warming. Name an issue, and I will tell you with precision the position of each side.
Into this polarized climate steps Trump, reaping decades of hate and polarization. There's a crisis of Republican authority all right--because they've ceded it all by themselves.
Well stated, Ross. But from what you write, it appears nobody can rein in Trump. If, historically in the Middle East, the Democrats are weak, and the Republicans ineffective, why not go with the strongman who talks the toughest and is a celebrity to boot? That front runner is a delight for your party to hear, because he tells it like it I--down the ugliest and most draconian solutions that you usually only hear in a bar in Texas at midnight.
Ross, you simply cannot compare Trump to Nixon, by any stretch of the imagination. That era--an era of relative sanity--is long gone. Before today's media evolution, Americans were more or less on the same page regarding facts, as we all watched the same news. The biggest divide was racial: south versus north.
Today the divide cuts through every single issue, policy position, and domestic and international challenge facing the country: guns, women's rights, immigration, tax reform, inequality, ISIS, global warming. Name an issue, and I will tell you with precision the position of each side.
Into this polarized climate steps Trump, reaping decades of hate and polarization. There's a crisis of Republican authority all right--because they've ceded it all by themselves.
29
". . . it’s been hard for the G.O.P. to find someone capable of playing Richard Nixon to Trump’s George Wallace. "
RD is comparing Nixon to Cruz, not GW.
RD is comparing Nixon to Cruz, not GW.
The world was always dangerous, but we jeered at it and got on with life. What’s wrong now? Is it fearful old age that rots the backbone of a vibrant nation? Big Pharma creates conditions that we must fear—and for which we must buy their pills There’s no pill for lack of common sense—a condition promoted vigorously by cash-stuffed right wing.
However, all Americans need to consider the serial failures of our intelligence services, and the probability that intelligence has been tampered with—as an ongoing investigation at the Pentagon suggests. Remember Saddam’s WMD? Were we given a false picture of progress against Daesh? We were surely given wrong estimates of the strength of Daesh and of the weakness of Iraqi forces.
Other blindness: the fall of the USSR; the dangers of the mujahedeen. Clinton acted on intelligence and bombed a factory in Sudan (a chemical weapons works!) but it turned out to be an aspirin factory. Too many were asleep at the wheel before 9/11. What’s the problem? American conviction of invulnerability? Rampant individualism promoted by our commercial masters? Failure of esprit de corps in America?
Douthat and his ilk need to take off their partisan and sectarian blinders and look at the roots of real problems. Answers are dangerous if we don't ask the right questions.
However, all Americans need to consider the serial failures of our intelligence services, and the probability that intelligence has been tampered with—as an ongoing investigation at the Pentagon suggests. Remember Saddam’s WMD? Were we given a false picture of progress against Daesh? We were surely given wrong estimates of the strength of Daesh and of the weakness of Iraqi forces.
Other blindness: the fall of the USSR; the dangers of the mujahedeen. Clinton acted on intelligence and bombed a factory in Sudan (a chemical weapons works!) but it turned out to be an aspirin factory. Too many were asleep at the wheel before 9/11. What’s the problem? American conviction of invulnerability? Rampant individualism promoted by our commercial masters? Failure of esprit de corps in America?
Douthat and his ilk need to take off their partisan and sectarian blinders and look at the roots of real problems. Answers are dangerous if we don't ask the right questions.
11
Conveniently absent from the article is mention of the years of fearmongering that the GOP has promoted. Trump is reaping what Bush/Cheney sowed.
56
Why go to such lengths pretending that Trump's supporters are put off by Obama's foreign or immigration policy? There is no need to ascribe to them such nuanced sensitivities. A CNN/ORC poll from mid-september showed that 43% of Republicans believe that Obama is, in fact, a muslim. Trump, the original birther barker is simply to the party's core beliefs, i.e., a revulsion of people of color.
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2015/images/09/12/iranpoll.pdf
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2015/images/09/12/iranpoll.pdf
71
The understandable and reasonable fears that the Republicans never address are the poverty, economic insecurity, wage stagnation, etc., the end of the American Dream for a big portion of the population. Of course they want to know why. But they don't get fair economic programs - that would hurt the rich - they're all told just to blame it all on foreigners.
The Left - Bernie - needs to reach out more to that segment of the population - to recapture the trust of the working class.
The Left - Bernie - needs to reach out more to that segment of the population - to recapture the trust of the working class.
13
au.thor.i.ty
əˈTHôrədē/
noun
noun: authority; noun: auth.; plural noun: authorities
1. the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.
"Republican Authority"?
They have none. They can't even enforce 'obedience' on a bigot who spouts publicly what they've been saying privately for decades.
əˈTHôrədē/
noun
noun: authority; noun: auth.; plural noun: authorities
1. the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.
"Republican Authority"?
They have none. They can't even enforce 'obedience' on a bigot who spouts publicly what they've been saying privately for decades.
20
I'm having flashbacks. This reminds me of what I listened to at my grandfather's dinner table when I was growing up in the 1940s. Amazing that the GOP and its supporters have never moved past that.
11
What Douthat, like so many of his GOP ilk, is completely blind to is the role that their demonizing of a brilliant, thoughtful and, yes, very successful President has had in the derangement of the GOP base. Their scorch the earth, flat out refusal to cooperate with a legitimately twice-elected President, even with policies that they had historically previously supported, combined with the 24/7 spouting of lies and distortions about Obama's accomplishments and motivations through the conservative media, have created the Frankenstein monsters now vying for the presidency. Trump is just the tip of the iceberg of the ignorance and paranoia that Fox and conservative radio daily feed the beast.
151
Thanks AJBF. A brilliant, thoughtful and, yes very successful President. YES! I am grieving that he has only one year left in office. Ross's calling Obama out for for failed policies in the middle east is vile. W invaded Iraq on a lie, totally fumbled it and threw a match on the tinderbox and now we are struggling to contain the "collateral damage." Ross is Label Man. He can't write a sentence without assigning liberal or conservative, secular, or those of the faith to his words. Neat little pigeon holes of a neat little priggish mind. No room for expansion.
6
So Bush's Iraq war- the $4 trillion off-budget disaster whose anti-Bathification policy created Daesh-ISIS- is excused as mere "idealism". And you wonder why your party has no credibility.
238
There's no Republican authority for a very simple reason. You reap what you sow. For eight years the Republican Party's constant whining and predictable tantrums about literally every word uttered by "the opposition" have erased any perceived authority which may have existed before - even in the minds of many of the most loyal Republican voters. This is no "crisis", because it's no surprise.
26
This column gets tangled up in its own underwear trying to make rational sense of where the former Republican Party finds itself today. The notions that the fears of the followers of Trump, Carson, Cruz, & Co. are "reasonable", that what this country needs is another Nixon, that among Republican leaders today there is anyone smarter than Obama, that we should for the moment ignore the other outrageous policies being promoted by the political right on guns and abortions to focus on immigration and national security, is hallucinatory and expansively beside the sad point that Republicans today are a lost cause, committing suicide.
22
The problem that all politicians are having right now is that the 'valid concerns' that you mention are totally out of proportion to the threat and appear to be ginned up by bigotry and sensationalism. Consider this, on your front page today you have a story about an anti-abortion zealot, Robert Dear Jr, who killed three people in a family planning clinic in Colorado. I haven't heard any demands for draconian measures to track and protect society from people who disapprove abortions and there shouldn't be. While this sort of thing happens more often than it should, it still isn't a big enough threat to our day to day lives to warrant punishing people just in case they decide to do something wrong in the future. We Americans are way better at killing ourselves than these ISIS folks are. So why are people more afraid of ISIS than other Americans? Certainly not because it is more likely that you will be killed by an ISIS bullet. No, it simply because ISIS is not us. We seem to accept the death from other American's is just a fact of life but from another group the same behavior scares us to death.
It is hard for politicians to deal with a real but irrational fear. The only way to reduce threat of death by international terrorist to zero is to turn American into North Korea. There will always be some frightened souls who are willing to give in to that sort of foolishness.
It is hard for politicians to deal with a real but irrational fear. The only way to reduce threat of death by international terrorist to zero is to turn American into North Korea. There will always be some frightened souls who are willing to give in to that sort of foolishness.
10
It was three republican Presidents who created the hell on earth that is the modern Middle East.
Eisenhower deposed the elected government of Iran which led to a radical fundamentalist Iran ruled by the ayatollahs.
Reagan armed the Afghans who became the Taliban which led to a radical fundamentalist Afghanistan which gave bin Laden sanctuary and al Qaida a home.
The Charge of The Fools Brigade into Iraq, led by an entire cabal of Viet Nam dodging, cowardly chicken hawks, Bush, Cheney, Rove, Libby, Wolfowitz, Bolton and Kristol, gave al Qaida a new Field of Dreams, an opening in Iraq where none existed before.
The war crimes of Abu Ghraib, the subcontracting of torture to, among others, Bashar al Assad of Syria, the concentration of captured al Qaida at Camp Buca, created ISIS.
Now, Trump, one more tough talking blowhard, one more republican chickenhawk warmonger, one more republican coward who dodged the Viet Nam draft, proposes, what else, more war in the Middle East.
Whatever could go wrong?
Eisenhower deposed the elected government of Iran which led to a radical fundamentalist Iran ruled by the ayatollahs.
Reagan armed the Afghans who became the Taliban which led to a radical fundamentalist Afghanistan which gave bin Laden sanctuary and al Qaida a home.
The Charge of The Fools Brigade into Iraq, led by an entire cabal of Viet Nam dodging, cowardly chicken hawks, Bush, Cheney, Rove, Libby, Wolfowitz, Bolton and Kristol, gave al Qaida a new Field of Dreams, an opening in Iraq where none existed before.
The war crimes of Abu Ghraib, the subcontracting of torture to, among others, Bashar al Assad of Syria, the concentration of captured al Qaida at Camp Buca, created ISIS.
Now, Trump, one more tough talking blowhard, one more republican chickenhawk warmonger, one more republican coward who dodged the Viet Nam draft, proposes, what else, more war in the Middle East.
Whatever could go wrong?
200
Why should voters feel more secure with Republicans at the helm, when 9/11 happened on their watch, and they ignored all the warnings from the spymasters? They permitted it to happen to have an excuse to go to war. The Project for a New American Century reported in February 2001 that such an event would be necessary for America to launch a military campaign for domination of South Asia and the Middle East. It was all about controlling the resources. Nothing idealistic about it. The Republican created this mess and Obama is letting it fester because the terrorists are the pawns in the larger geopolitical game of containing Russia and China. Funny how we went to war against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, only to let them slip away. (Now that we've got the poppy fields back and a heroin epidemic here at home,) we are allied with Al Qaeda, once again, in the fight against Assad, (just as we were in Libya, in bringing down Ghadaffi,) all in the name of preventing Russia from piping its gas and oil to Europe.
1
We are NOT at war with ALL Islam. How exactly do we defeat 1.5 billion or 20 % of the world's population? How many hundreds of millions would we have to kill? How many nuclear bombs?
We are NOT at war with ALL Radical Islam - Ross' and the Republicans' favorite non-PC term (though many really mean ALL Islam). 4 major versions of Radical Islam that produce terrorism: Al Qaeda and ISIS/Daesh based on Saudi/Salafi/Wahabbi version of Islam; Hezbollah, Al Quds based on Iranian/Shai version of Islam; Hamas (though they get Iranian backing along with Saudi backing, so much for that absolute Shia-Sunni divide) based on Sunni Muslim Brotherhood (Qutb) version of Islam; Taliban (also influenced by Saudi/Wahabbi), LeT (and other Kashmari) based on Pakistani/Jamaat (Maududi) version of Islam. Only Al Qadea and ISIS and the Salafi/Wahabbi ideology of our oil addiction ally Saudi Arabia produces a global terrorist threat to 99% of Muslims, 100% of non-Muslims and generates indiscriminate killing of Westerners and Americans on home soil. The other 3 versions of Radical Islam are regional terrorist threats to our allies and interests - they are enemies and adversaries, but we do not have to be at war with them unless they support Al Qaeda (like when Taliban provided haven to Bin Laden) or ISIS (Iran/Shia are their mortal enemies). Focus on our main enemy.
We are at war with Al Qaeda and ISIS and anyone that supports them.
We are NOT at war with ALL Radical Islam - Ross' and the Republicans' favorite non-PC term (though many really mean ALL Islam). 4 major versions of Radical Islam that produce terrorism: Al Qaeda and ISIS/Daesh based on Saudi/Salafi/Wahabbi version of Islam; Hezbollah, Al Quds based on Iranian/Shai version of Islam; Hamas (though they get Iranian backing along with Saudi backing, so much for that absolute Shia-Sunni divide) based on Sunni Muslim Brotherhood (Qutb) version of Islam; Taliban (also influenced by Saudi/Wahabbi), LeT (and other Kashmari) based on Pakistani/Jamaat (Maududi) version of Islam. Only Al Qadea and ISIS and the Salafi/Wahabbi ideology of our oil addiction ally Saudi Arabia produces a global terrorist threat to 99% of Muslims, 100% of non-Muslims and generates indiscriminate killing of Westerners and Americans on home soil. The other 3 versions of Radical Islam are regional terrorist threats to our allies and interests - they are enemies and adversaries, but we do not have to be at war with them unless they support Al Qaeda (like when Taliban provided haven to Bin Laden) or ISIS (Iran/Shia are their mortal enemies). Focus on our main enemy.
We are at war with Al Qaeda and ISIS and anyone that supports them.
1
Republican authority? An oxymoron. The party sold out entirely long ago. Douthat is peddling delusion, but then again, that's what he's paid for.
22
Douthat clams that Obama's "foreign policy choices have contributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Libya." And Dubya's reckless invasion of Iraq, his ridiculous claim to victory after three weeks had nothing to do with ISIS? Come on.
Let's be honest, Trump is simply expressing the rage the the Republicans have been actively cultivating with ever since Nixon started with his Southern Strategy.
Sleep with the dogs, wake up with fleas.
Let's be honest, Trump is simply expressing the rage the the Republicans have been actively cultivating with ever since Nixon started with his Southern Strategy.
Sleep with the dogs, wake up with fleas.
62
>
It's entertaining and refreshing in an odd way to watch when the lions turn on the lion trainers.
The rightwing bloggers, the rightwing Op-Ed columnists, the Fox News jokers, the Rush Limbaughs of the country, the GOP politicians, your crazy uncles....have created a monster that they've lost control of with their quest for pure power over sound governance with their never ending diatribes against government, to be continued.
Mary Shelly would say I told you so.
It's entertaining and refreshing in an odd way to watch when the lions turn on the lion trainers.
The rightwing bloggers, the rightwing Op-Ed columnists, the Fox News jokers, the Rush Limbaughs of the country, the GOP politicians, your crazy uncles....have created a monster that they've lost control of with their quest for pure power over sound governance with their never ending diatribes against government, to be continued.
Mary Shelly would say I told you so.
59
That poor elephant. Elephants have dignity, some people do not.
13
Mr. Douthat refers to "the Nixonian move — promising to address the legitimate fears Trumpism is exploiting, while disavowing the bigotry and crankery and proto-fascism — is both the right one and the one that the party badly needs." That is not what candidate Nixon did. Instead, his "southern strategy" consisted of appealing to the same cohort to which Wallace appealed, but with coded words, "dog whistles" and similarly roundabout ways of assuring them that he would cater to their baser instincts. The GOP continued on that same course and perfected its messaging over the following decades (remember how Pres. Reagan announced his candidacy in a town in Mississippi that held particular resonance for the biased wing of the party?) and it continues to this day.
10
Ross Douthat expects us to believe that the panic and the concerns of Republican voters are authentic. The truth is it's the same old same old xenophobia and self-interest. The candidate who begins with bigoted remarks about Mexicans instantly gets 25% of the Republican vote. Add in Islamophobia and it brings you up to about 35%. The only question is how do you sew up the rest of the GOP base and the nomination? The blacks? Jews? Women? The other candidates share Trump's views, they just don't have the nerve to express them so bluntly. Reasonable people should be fleeing the GOP--it's beyond saving now.
30
Authority "the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience"
What Republican authority?
What Republican authority?
5
How sad that anyone would be searching for the next Nixon.
32
This column makes no sense because Trump got his huge initial boost that exploded into the top of the GOP heap exploiting migration from south of the border, which had nothing to do with terrorism.
14
Donald Trump has created an inflection point on the curve. It is a demand for Saudi Araba to reform its strict religion-based social and government system.
The end result of his idea to ban Muslim entry into the united States will be a big problem for the 65,000 subsidized students and their families now studying at colleges and universities all over the USA and living in the USA It means that the Saudi princes will not be able to send their children to the USA for college.
What Donald Trump was getting at on Tuesday and Wednesday when he said there is a really big problem somewhere is that hatred is brewed somewhere and it resulted in 9/11, San Benadino, the Sinai, Paris.
The source can be traced back to the missionary zeal in Saudi Arabia which propagaidizes Whabbiasm both interrnally in Saudi Arabia and throughout the middle east and the world. It supports the Madrassa school system which trains teachers and Immans and provides the vitriolic textbooks and terachings which produce the zihadists and suicide bombers. It's the primative form of a huge military-base training system.
It results in the confinement of women in Saudi Arabia who are not allowed out of their homes without an escort, are not allowed to drive and will be arrested if they do so, where men and women are needlessly segregated, and where women must bundle up to go the the mall.
It's a dysfunctional social and religious system and the poster child for why religion and state must be separated.
The end result of his idea to ban Muslim entry into the united States will be a big problem for the 65,000 subsidized students and their families now studying at colleges and universities all over the USA and living in the USA It means that the Saudi princes will not be able to send their children to the USA for college.
What Donald Trump was getting at on Tuesday and Wednesday when he said there is a really big problem somewhere is that hatred is brewed somewhere and it resulted in 9/11, San Benadino, the Sinai, Paris.
The source can be traced back to the missionary zeal in Saudi Arabia which propagaidizes Whabbiasm both interrnally in Saudi Arabia and throughout the middle east and the world. It supports the Madrassa school system which trains teachers and Immans and provides the vitriolic textbooks and terachings which produce the zihadists and suicide bombers. It's the primative form of a huge military-base training system.
It results in the confinement of women in Saudi Arabia who are not allowed out of their homes without an escort, are not allowed to drive and will be arrested if they do so, where men and women are needlessly segregated, and where women must bundle up to go the the mall.
It's a dysfunctional social and religious system and the poster child for why religion and state must be separated.
21
But the world want shiny objects (cars).
30% of Republicans believe Islam should be banned. Only 49% believe Islam should be legal. 21% are not sure.
76% of Republicans do not believe Islam is compatible with American values.
That's NOT Radical Islam, that's all Islam.
65% of Republicans (on first, one-day snap poll) agreed with Trump's proposal to ban all Muslims from entering US.
That's NOT Radical Muslims, that's all Muslims.
57% of Republicans favor officially making US a Christian Nation.
Your first hero, Eisenhower brought Christianity combined with Big Business (turning Jesus' message on its head) into the Government:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/a-christian-nation-sinc...
Your second hero, Nixon gave us his Southern Strategy - a blatantly racist strategy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/opinion/charles-blow-race-to-the-finis...
Ronald Reagan brought in the Moral Majority and other extremist Evangelicals with their obsession about the End Times into the Republican tent.
Ross, your problem is not Trump. He is just a neo-Facist taking advantage of the xenophobes, bigots and religious zealots that make up the base of your party. It took decades to distort and destroy Lincoln's party. Your justification and rationalizations for the bigotry and hatred only add fuel to the very dangerous fire.
76% of Republicans do not believe Islam is compatible with American values.
That's NOT Radical Islam, that's all Islam.
65% of Republicans (on first, one-day snap poll) agreed with Trump's proposal to ban all Muslims from entering US.
That's NOT Radical Muslims, that's all Muslims.
57% of Republicans favor officially making US a Christian Nation.
Your first hero, Eisenhower brought Christianity combined with Big Business (turning Jesus' message on its head) into the Government:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/opinion/sunday/a-christian-nation-sinc...
Your second hero, Nixon gave us his Southern Strategy - a blatantly racist strategy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/opinion/charles-blow-race-to-the-finis...
Ronald Reagan brought in the Moral Majority and other extremist Evangelicals with their obsession about the End Times into the Republican tent.
Ross, your problem is not Trump. He is just a neo-Facist taking advantage of the xenophobes, bigots and religious zealots that make up the base of your party. It took decades to distort and destroy Lincoln's party. Your justification and rationalizations for the bigotry and hatred only add fuel to the very dangerous fire.
62
Fears that they are exploiting, the Republican mantra and most of them are irrational. There is no place for those with "reasonable concern" in the Republican party.
10
It is unfortunate that Mr. Douthat address political optics here, instead of probing more deeply and directly the question of whether it is "reasonable" to fear a rise in terrorist activity by those who enter the country legally. Numbers? Evidence? Context? Mr. Douthat, as usual, seems more interested in the relative power of his political tribe than getting at the truth.
57
This is one disjointed argument. I’d summarize it as the Republican establishment favors a harder-nosed approach to vetting Muslim immigrants, but favor an open-ended immigration policy generally; and that Trump appeals to the masses of Republicans in part by driving home the first need with bombast and excess that no other candidate has the chops to challenge.
First of all, when was the Republican establishment in favor of open-ended immigration? It’s not. It’s in favor of targeting skills that make immigrants immediately productive and addressing skills gaps our economy needs to plug in order to grow. They DO NOT favor welcoming hordes of impoverished, low-skilled people in unassimilable numbers that Democrats favor because they believe they’ll vote for entitlements and by extension for Democrats.
Then, Trump’s general popularity has little to do specifically with immigration but with his identification as the anti-government candidate at a time when we’ve seen governmental brainfreeze for seven years that has accomplished nothing useful; and due to the entertainment value of his bombast and demagoguery.
Favorable reaction to The Donald’s type of excess is very hard to maintain credibly for the long run. There’s plenty of authority among the other candidates to challenge him, and we may see a unified “drown Trump” effort with the next debate. There need not be ANY serious intersection between better vetting of Muslim immigrants and immigration policy generally.
First of all, when was the Republican establishment in favor of open-ended immigration? It’s not. It’s in favor of targeting skills that make immigrants immediately productive and addressing skills gaps our economy needs to plug in order to grow. They DO NOT favor welcoming hordes of impoverished, low-skilled people in unassimilable numbers that Democrats favor because they believe they’ll vote for entitlements and by extension for Democrats.
Then, Trump’s general popularity has little to do specifically with immigration but with his identification as the anti-government candidate at a time when we’ve seen governmental brainfreeze for seven years that has accomplished nothing useful; and due to the entertainment value of his bombast and demagoguery.
Favorable reaction to The Donald’s type of excess is very hard to maintain credibly for the long run. There’s plenty of authority among the other candidates to challenge him, and we may see a unified “drown Trump” effort with the next debate. There need not be ANY serious intersection between better vetting of Muslim immigrants and immigration policy generally.
5
Richard,
You make it all too complicated.
The very economy created by both the Democrats and Republicans since 1968 has severely damaged that segment of society most in need of effective government the most.
Republicans and conservatives have indeed been telling the truth government is the enemy and they have indeed lived up to those words.
It is of little surprise to me that Donald Trump finds resonance among the Republican base he speaks a language they understand and he listens to their pain and frustration. He also knows their real enemy which is NOT too much government but too little.
It wasn't the wealthy and privileged who built the suburbs and the highway system and everything else that made America the wealthiest nation the world ever knew it was the government. Americans are starving for leadership and direction which Donald is promising to give them.
The burden of lower taxes and smaller government in an age of rapid technological advancement has taken a heavy toll and it is time to remove the Reagan mausoleum from Red Square.
Richard you and your cohort have delivered the government you said would make their lives better. You were mistaken. You can't fool all of the people all of the time.
America needs Bernie for a while to get things back into balance but the propaganda network of hate and vilification has given you Trump and after they get us they will be going after you.
You make it all too complicated.
The very economy created by both the Democrats and Republicans since 1968 has severely damaged that segment of society most in need of effective government the most.
Republicans and conservatives have indeed been telling the truth government is the enemy and they have indeed lived up to those words.
It is of little surprise to me that Donald Trump finds resonance among the Republican base he speaks a language they understand and he listens to their pain and frustration. He also knows their real enemy which is NOT too much government but too little.
It wasn't the wealthy and privileged who built the suburbs and the highway system and everything else that made America the wealthiest nation the world ever knew it was the government. Americans are starving for leadership and direction which Donald is promising to give them.
The burden of lower taxes and smaller government in an age of rapid technological advancement has taken a heavy toll and it is time to remove the Reagan mausoleum from Red Square.
Richard you and your cohort have delivered the government you said would make their lives better. You were mistaken. You can't fool all of the people all of the time.
America needs Bernie for a while to get things back into balance but the propaganda network of hate and vilification has given you Trump and after they get us they will be going after you.
7
Translating this column into plain language: Trump should stop saying out loud what we leaders of the GOP are all thinking.
426
And have been saying in private for years. The GOP reaps what is sows. Fear, fear, fear with no real attempt to solve any of the problems. Just whip everyone into a frenzy to get their votes, then strip away all safety nets to make sure they won't be able to gain basic needs. Keep the money where it belongs - to the richest of us.
9
Douthat offers a nuanced and sophisticated rationale here for the grim, dark biases and hate of the low information, white working class Trump voter base. But the lipstick Ross tries to put on this pig misses a larger point: right wing pundits, Fox News and the neo-con commentariet have been stoking ugly fires here for years. Behold what you have made! That the fire you've helped create now burns uncontrollably in the GOP hearth is deserved. May it consume your candidates and their enablers alike. Maybe then can the Republican Party find its best, true way forward then.
380
There's nothing sophisticated about it. He just completely ignores history that doesn't fit his bogus thesis. For example the rise of ISIS is pretty much entirely attributed to Bush not Obama.
13
Thank you for this post.
4
Built upon Nixon's " Southern strategy," for decades Republicans have been winning elections by igniting and then fanning the flames of hatred and division.
It appears that Ross is advocating more subtle forms of hate- mongering.
He points out that Muslim immigration has doubled recently ( perhaps because the Bush administration blew up much of the Middle East?). in other words, large numbers of Muslims are seen as a threat, rather than patriotic and grateful immigrants who will contribute to our strength, many as translators, soldiers, undercover officers, cultural attaches, small business creators and other contributors to the life of our communities and to our security.
Might a few wish to harm us? Perhaps a few are goaded by ISIS's best recruiters: Republicans, Fox and hate radio telling them that we are at war with their religion on top of the Bush/ Cheney invasion.
The mind set that looks at "Muslims" as a threat is a bigger threat.
The biggest threat to our day- to - day security is the Republican spread of hatred and paranoia to unstable minds, along with the deadly weapons and ammunition to enable dysfunctional people to act on their hatred.
It appears that Ross is advocating more subtle forms of hate- mongering.
He points out that Muslim immigration has doubled recently ( perhaps because the Bush administration blew up much of the Middle East?). in other words, large numbers of Muslims are seen as a threat, rather than patriotic and grateful immigrants who will contribute to our strength, many as translators, soldiers, undercover officers, cultural attaches, small business creators and other contributors to the life of our communities and to our security.
Might a few wish to harm us? Perhaps a few are goaded by ISIS's best recruiters: Republicans, Fox and hate radio telling them that we are at war with their religion on top of the Bush/ Cheney invasion.
The mind set that looks at "Muslims" as a threat is a bigger threat.
The biggest threat to our day- to - day security is the Republican spread of hatred and paranoia to unstable minds, along with the deadly weapons and ammunition to enable dysfunctional people to act on their hatred.
221
Douthat here does what Republicans more generally are attempting just now.
He condemns Trump, then defends what Trump says as "understandable and reasonable" fears. He says the Party is "supposed to address" these fears, but not Trump.
Nowhere here does he defend anything Trump attacked. He supports Republicans attacking all of those understandable and reasonable fears. He just does not support Trump doing it.
Why does he not support Trump doing it?
He fears Trump winning the nomination, then losing the election, as if any of these other clowns could win doing as they are.
He fears Trump being too brazen, for the Party that keeps its 47% comments behind closed doors, or tries to do so.
Well, Trump is brazen all right. But he isn't different in what he thinks, just how he says it. He's honest about it. Those who think this way seem to appreciate honesty.
They think he'll do what the others claim they'll do but won't really as they serve their donors instead.
Would he? Hard to say what Trump would do. I doubt he knows himself.
Are the others liars? Yes, every one of them, and their voter base seems to know that, hence support Trump.
He condemns Trump, then defends what Trump says as "understandable and reasonable" fears. He says the Party is "supposed to address" these fears, but not Trump.
Nowhere here does he defend anything Trump attacked. He supports Republicans attacking all of those understandable and reasonable fears. He just does not support Trump doing it.
Why does he not support Trump doing it?
He fears Trump winning the nomination, then losing the election, as if any of these other clowns could win doing as they are.
He fears Trump being too brazen, for the Party that keeps its 47% comments behind closed doors, or tries to do so.
Well, Trump is brazen all right. But he isn't different in what he thinks, just how he says it. He's honest about it. Those who think this way seem to appreciate honesty.
They think he'll do what the others claim they'll do but won't really as they serve their donors instead.
Would he? Hard to say what Trump would do. I doubt he knows himself.
Are the others liars? Yes, every one of them, and their voter base seems to know that, hence support Trump.
191
Nixon would seem like a breath of fresh air in this abattoir of a Republican campaign. Douthat is flailing in his attempt to find a reasonable Republican among the grandstanding clowns, the fundamentalists, the reality-deniers and the throwbacks who, ironically, don't believe in evolution.
As scary as the prospect of a Trump presidency is, Cruz is absolutely terrifying. Trump is ahead because he channels the dull-witted resentment of the low-information voter who doesn't realize that Republicans engineered the dysfunction in Washington that they're unhappy with.
Cruz channels something less understandable, and far more dangerous. It's a kind of apocalyptic ideology that seems not to be grounded in reality. His statements are disjointed and illogical. He seeks to be the head of a government that he wants to shut down.
The only good thing about Trump is that he's likely to siphon off enough voters to scuttle any real chance of a Republican victory. The bad thing is that we're a two-party system in which one party is so divorced from reality that it has ceased to function. No reasonable, rational Democrat can expect to lead a country in which someone like Trump is a real contender, and in which the rest of the Republican field is even worse.
Obama will go down in history as a president who did remarkable things under unimaginable odds. I can't imagine how history will treat the next president. The future is always unknown, but our seems undefined.
As scary as the prospect of a Trump presidency is, Cruz is absolutely terrifying. Trump is ahead because he channels the dull-witted resentment of the low-information voter who doesn't realize that Republicans engineered the dysfunction in Washington that they're unhappy with.
Cruz channels something less understandable, and far more dangerous. It's a kind of apocalyptic ideology that seems not to be grounded in reality. His statements are disjointed and illogical. He seeks to be the head of a government that he wants to shut down.
The only good thing about Trump is that he's likely to siphon off enough voters to scuttle any real chance of a Republican victory. The bad thing is that we're a two-party system in which one party is so divorced from reality that it has ceased to function. No reasonable, rational Democrat can expect to lead a country in which someone like Trump is a real contender, and in which the rest of the Republican field is even worse.
Obama will go down in history as a president who did remarkable things under unimaginable odds. I can't imagine how history will treat the next president. The future is always unknown, but our seems undefined.
603
@gemli: Brilliant comment. Too bad Douthat probably didn't read it. For Republicans these days, denial is the only way to keep the faith.
5
"The future's uncertain and the end is always near" (Jim Morrison). Every president has to govern with the country he's got, not the country he wants. How history treats a president depends on who writes that history, and who succeeds in re-writing it as some are trying to do today. So if it's the winners who write the history and some other winners who get to re-write it at some later date, will we be learning that there was no slavery or will it be that there was but it was all good?
We've learned that the Earth is round, but some still believe it's flat. You could take them up in space and show them and they'd still believe it. If a large majority believe it then, effectively, the earth is flat. No reasonable , rational person, of any party, can expect to lead a country like that if he or she thinks the earth is round. See the dilemma? Political reality is arbitrary, unlike objective, empirical reality. The problem is so many of these guys live in alternate dimensions, who's to say what's real or not? This is making me tired and confused.
I think the only solution is to round them all up and push them off the edge.
We've learned that the Earth is round, but some still believe it's flat. You could take them up in space and show them and they'd still believe it. If a large majority believe it then, effectively, the earth is flat. No reasonable , rational person, of any party, can expect to lead a country like that if he or she thinks the earth is round. See the dilemma? Political reality is arbitrary, unlike objective, empirical reality. The problem is so many of these guys live in alternate dimensions, who's to say what's real or not? This is making me tired and confused.
I think the only solution is to round them all up and push them off the edge.
3
I didn't think of that. If a Trump or a Cruz help a Democrat get elected, there is still a demonstrated large segment of our population who have been led to believe in what Trump or Cruz stand for. How will it be for the next president to govern? Trump stopped being entertaining to me a while ago. I think of him and his ilk as scary in present terms but had not thought of how all this crazy nonsense will play out past the election.
5
"the George W. Bush presidency, when a Republican president combined an idealistic attempt to spread democracy in the Muslim world"
Douthat is delusional.
Douthat is delusional.
517
The last sentence of the paragraph you cited also stated, "And they remember that this strategy did not exactly seem to reap the desired results."
I don't believe "delusional" is a strong enough adjective to describe Douthat's view of George Bush's wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Douthat has a pathetically weak description for those two wars that resulted in thousands of deaths and the maiming of men, women and children who will suffer throughout their lives both physically and mentally. Our veterans are still committing suicide to this day as a result of their experiences in Bush's two wars.
"Did not exactly seem to reap the desired results" - You've got to be kidding me!!
I don't believe "delusional" is a strong enough adjective to describe Douthat's view of George Bush's wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Douthat has a pathetically weak description for those two wars that resulted in thousands of deaths and the maiming of men, women and children who will suffer throughout their lives both physically and mentally. Our veterans are still committing suicide to this day as a result of their experiences in Bush's two wars.
"Did not exactly seem to reap the desired results" - You've got to be kidding me!!
416
Sadly, not delusional, but mendacious. How about “he tried to kill my daddy and Mr. Cheney wants the oil for his company?"
30
@abo: George W. Bush was advised by Karl Rove that 9/11 would get him reelected in 2004 if they played it right and he campaigned as a "War President." That's why Dubya lied us into the war with Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Idealism played absolutely no part in it. That abysmally conducted war cost more than half a million people their lives, cost the American taxpayers somewhere between 2 and 4 trillion dollars, and resulted in the birth of ISIS. Oh, and in their "idealism" the Bush administration unapologetically used torture and violated the Geneva conventions, disgracing our nation in the eyes of the world.
Ross Douthat seems to think New York Times readers are stupid. We're not.
Ross Douthat seems to think New York Times readers are stupid. We're not.
50
Dubya's "idealistic attempt to spread democracy in the Muslim world by force of arms" was for domestic consumption only. He was suspicious of nation-building projects, but found himself occupying a country he had invaded mistakenly believing it had WMDs, and had to come up with a reason to be there in order not to be a one-term president. If WMDs had been found, they would have shown that the invasion was justified, and the subsequent chaos would have been written off as the cost of eliminating the WMD threat.
The idealistic attempt was reelection framing; the army had been given no preparation for midwifing a vibrant Iraqi democracy and the early months when things might have been possible were totally wasted. This whole history is enough to destroy Republican authority, which is why it is ignored or suppressed by defenders of Republican authority. Handicapping the presidential race allows commentators to bypass history and concentrate on the existing images of history without bothering about their accuracy. Nixon's peace with honor, too, turned out to be only an election stunt, but it got him elected, so its degree of reality was irrelevant.
The idealistic attempt was reelection framing; the army had been given no preparation for midwifing a vibrant Iraqi democracy and the early months when things might have been possible were totally wasted. This whole history is enough to destroy Republican authority, which is why it is ignored or suppressed by defenders of Republican authority. Handicapping the presidential race allows commentators to bypass history and concentrate on the existing images of history without bothering about their accuracy. Nixon's peace with honor, too, turned out to be only an election stunt, but it got him elected, so its degree of reality was irrelevant.
230
The WMDs were eventually found. They turned out to be the WMDs we supplied Saddam Hussein so he could more efficiently slaughter Iranians.
1
This appeals to a base which lacks understanding key issues (i.e. Islamophbia serves Isis goals) and likes simplicity over complexity. Our only hope is an intuitively sound citizenry who has known a bad boss, a foolish uncle, an arrogant neighbor and will recoil from dumb bluster at the ballot box.