Were Bill Kristol and his friends ever meaningfully conservative?
The Never Trumper was conceived when President Donald Trump was merely candidate Donald Trump. He had threatened to seek the presidency before, sometimes as a Republican, other times as a third party nominee.
Never Trumpism has moved from conservative orthodoxy to the embrace of liberal ideals.
Those viscerally opposed to Trump saw in the New York billionaire the audacity to think he could capture the Republican Party without having paid the usual political dues. Whether it was former Florida governor Jeb Bush or a lifelong Republican acolyte like columnist George Will, Never Trumpers saw a terrifying fraud in Donald Trump and declared his emergence a political crisis.
It’s ironic, then, that Never Trumpism has moved from conservative orthodoxy to the embrace of liberal ideals. It stands as an example of how aggravated animus against a personality will sometimes overwhelm all common sense and eradicate one’s own ideological convictions.
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Bill Kristol, David Frum, George F. Will.[/caption]
KRISTOL, FRUM, AND WILL: THE TRINITY OF NEVER TRUMPISM
The quotation “If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain” has often been erroneously attributed to Winston Churchill. (The statement’s actual author was a professor at Edinburgh University named Paul Addison). Regardless of who said it, it is a keen observation of the political evolution an individual goes through during their lifetime, and it’s one the NeverTrumpers have recklessly repudiated.
Witness the political conversion of Bill Kristol. Kristol, who presented himself as something of a conservative icon before the emergence of President Trump, was the efflorescent standard-bearer of conservative ideas as the editor of the now-defunct Weekly Standard.
Kristol was one of those conservatives who did not like Trump, and, instead of merely becoming an obdurate opponent to his presidential candidacy, Kristol has transformed his hatred into a rejection of both the Republican Party and conservatism.
“Not presumably forever; not perhaps for a day after Nov. 3, 2020; not on every issue or in every way until then,” Kristol tweeted on February 1st. “But for the time being one has to say: We are all Democrats now.”
Just who is Kristol hailing as being “all Democrats now?” How can a former conservative now be a Democrat? Democrats are poised to nominate Bernie Sanders as their presidential candidate, a “Democratic socialist” who has spent his political career as an ardent apologist for communism. He has longed for the realization of a Red America as much as a child anticipates Christmas. The Democratic Party now believes in some form of socialized medicine, a Green New Deal that promises to eradicate cars and planes within the decade, and a country without borders. Is this how Kristol sees himself?
Frum, apparently an amateur psychologist, argued that the President likes to cite his own intelligence because of unresolved Daddy issues with a father who was reluctant to acknowledge his son’s achievements. Frum offered these “insightful” remarks on— you guessed it—“Reliable Sources.”
Another former conservative who is aiding and abetting the Democrats is the always-caustic staff writer for The Atlantic, David Frum. Frum, a Canadian who wrote for one of the country’s few conservative organs, The National Post, owes his five minutes of fame to contributing the phrase “Axis of Evil” to former President George W. Bush’s speech to a joint session of Congress in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
But Frum decided that he did not like Donald Trump—not at all. So he has dedicated his punditry to eviscerating President Trump, calling him “one of the fattest” and “least physically capable” presidents, indicating just how far Frum has strayed from conservative orthodoxy. At a time when we should be rallying behind our man, Frum has become a recurring guest on the notorious CNN program “Reliable Sources”—whose host’s observations on the American media are anything but reliable.
Frum also had the astounding nerve to suggest that Hillary Clinton, who collapsed on the 2016 presidential campaign trail, is a “vigorous” woman. Frum, apparently an amateur psychologist, argued that the President likes to cite his own intelligence because of unresolved Daddy issues with a father who was reluctant to acknowledge his son’s achievements. Frum offered these “insightful” remarks on— you guessed it—“Reliable Sources.”
Finally, whatever happened to longtime conservative columnist George F. Will? Will, who has lost none of his talent for assembling as many impressive words as possible into one sentence,, attacked Vice President Mike Pence “oleaginous,” derided his “talent for toadyism and appetite for obsequiousness” while mocking his evangelical faith. From his elitist vantage point at the liberal Washington Post, he declared Pence the “most repulsive” man in Washington. That is a highly debatable assertion, given that Will continues to reside in the nation’s capital. But Washington will always have room for another Never Trumper who puts hatred over political results.
But that is hardly what really matters with the Never Trumpers.
They are people who once fought in the trenches for conservative ideas and a Republican victory. Now, they are prepared to vote for the most socialist incarnation of the Democratic Party—whoever wins the presidential nomination will stand to the left of George McGovern. All because they do not like Donald Trump.
That is the definition of political insanity.
