[Kaitlyn S]

I tried to break free of the Water Cooler but this sums up the feeling of so many on my side that I just had to post it. I believe almost all of it, and I probably won't respond to comments (which I suspect will be quite derogatory) but you should know how half the country thinks.

He Fights
by Evan Sayet

Posted: Jul 13, 2017 1:57 PM

My Leftist friends (as well as many ardent #NeverTrumpers) constantly ask me if I’m not bothered by Donald Trump’s lack of decorum. They ask if I don’t think his tweets are “beneath the dignity of the office.” Here’s my answer:

We Right-thinking people have tried dignity. There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W. Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency. We tried statesmanship. Could there be another human being on this earth who so desperately prized “collegiality” as John McCain? We tried propriety ­ has there been a nicer human being ever than Mitt Romney? And the results were always the same.

This is because, while we were playing by the rules of dignity, collegiality and propriety, the Left has been, for the past 60 years, engaged in a knife fight where the only rules are those of Saul Alinsky and the Chicago mob.

I don’t find anything “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper” about Barack Obama’s lying about what went down on the streets of Ferguson in order to ramp up racial hatreds because racial hatreds serve the Democratic Party. I don’t see anything “dignified” in lying about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi and imprisoning an innocent filmmaker to cover your tracks. I don’t see anything “statesman-like” in weaponizing the IRS to be used to destroy your political opponents and any dissent. Yes, Obama was “articulate” and “polished” but in no way was he in the least bit “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper.”

The Left has been engaged in a war against America since the rise of the Children of the ‘60s. To them, it has been an all-out war where nothing is held sacred and nothing is seen as beyond the pale. It has been a war they’ve fought with violence, the threat of violence, demagoguery and lies from day one ­ the violent take-over of the universities ­ till today.

The problem is that, through these years, the Left has been the only side fighting this war. While the Left has been taking a knife to anyone who stands in their way, the Right has continued to act with dignity, collegiality and propriety.

With Donald Trump, this all has come to an end. Donald Trump is America’s first wartime president in the Culture War.

During wartime, things like “dignity” and “collegiality” simply aren’t the most essential qualities one looks for in their warriors. Ulysses Grant was a drunk whose behavior in peacetime might well have seen him drummed out of the Army for conduct unbecoming. Had Abraham Lincoln applied the peacetime rules of propriety and booted Grant, the Democrats might well still be holding their slaves today. Lincoln rightly recognized that, “I cannot spare this man. He fights.”

General George Patton was a vulgar-talking, son-of-a-bitch. In peacetime, this might have seen him stripped of rank. But, had Franklin Roosevelt applied the normal rules of decorum, then Hitler and the Socialists would barely be five decades into their thousand-year Reich.

Trump is fighting. And what’s particularly delicious is that, like Patton standing over the battlefield as his tanks obliterated Rommel’s, he’s shouting, “You magnificent bastards, I read your book!” That is just the icing on the cake, but it’s wonderful to see that not only is Trump fighting, he’s defeating the Left using their own tactics.

That book is Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals ­ a book so essential to the Liberals’ war against America that it is and was the playbook for the entire Obama administration and the subject of Hillary Clinton’s senior thesis. It is a book of such pure evil, that, just as the rest of us would dedicate our book to those we most love or those to whom we are most indebted, Alinsky dedicated his book to Lucifer.

Trump’s tweets may seem rash and unconsidered but, in reality, he is doing exactly what Alinsky suggested his followers do.

First, instead of going after “the fake media” ­ and they are so fake that they have literally gotten every single significant story of the past 60 years not just wrong, but diametrically opposed to the truth, from the Tet Offensive to Benghazi, to what really happened on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri ­ Trump isolated CNN. He made it personal. Then, just as Alinsky suggests, he employs ridicule which Alinsky described as “the most powerful weapon of all.”

Everyone gets that it’s not just CNN ­ in fact, in a world where Al Sharpton and Rachel Maddow, Paul Krugman and Nicholas Kristof are people of influence and whose “reporting” is in no way significantly different than CNN’s ­ CNN is just a piker.

Most importantly, Trump’s tweets have put CNN in an untenable and unwinnable position. With Trump’s ability to go around them, they cannot simply stand pat. They need to respond. This leaves them with only two choices.

They can either “go high” (as Hillary would disingenuously declare of herself and the fake news would disingenuously report as the truth) and begin to honestly and accurately report the news or they can double-down on their usual tactics and hope to defeat Trump with twice their usual hysteria and demagoguery.

The problem for CNN (et al.) with the former is that, if they were to start honestly reporting the news, that would be the end of the Democratic Party they serve. It is nothing but the incessant use of fake news (read: propaganda) that keeps the Left alive.

Imagine, for example, if CNN had honestly and accurately reported then-candidate Barack Obama’s close ties to foreign terrorists (Rashid Khalidi), domestic terrorists (William Ayers), the mafia (Tony Rezko) or the true evils of his spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright’s, church.

Imagine if they had honestly and accurately conveyed the evils of the Obama administration’s weaponizing of the IRS to be used against their political opponents or his running of guns to the Mexican cartels or the truth about the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the Obama administration’s cover-up.

This makes “going high” a non-starter for CNN. This leaves them no other option but to ratchet up the fake news, conjuring up the next “nothing burger” and devoting 24 hours a day to hysterical rants about how it’s “worse than Nixon.”

This, obviously, is what CNN has chosen to do. The problem is that, as they become more and more hysterical, they become more and more obvious. Each new effort at even faker news than before and faker “outrage” only makes that much more clear to any objective observer that Trump is and always has been right about the fake news media.

And, by causing their hysteria, Trump has forced them into numerous, highly embarrassing and discrediting mistakes. Thus, in their desperation, they have lowered their standards even further and run with articles so clearly fake that, even with the liberal (lower case “l”) libel laws protecting the media, they’ve had to wholly retract and erase their stories repeatedly.

Their flailing at Trump has even seen them cross the line into criminality, with CNN using their vast corporate fortune to hunt down a private citizen for having made fun of them in an Internet meme. This threat to “dox” ­ release of personal information to encourage co-ideologists to visit violence upon him and his family -- a political satirist was chilling in that it clearly wasn’t meant just for him. If it were, there would have been no reason for CNN to have made their “deal” with him public.

Instead, CNN ­ playing by “Chicago Rules” ­ was sending a message to any and all: dissent will not be tolerated.

This heavy-handed and hysterical response to a joke on the Internet has backfired on CNN, giving rise to only more righteous ridicule.

So, to my friends on the Left ­ and the #NeverTrumpers as well -- do I wish we lived in a time when our president could be “collegial” and “dignified” and “proper”? Of course I do. These aren’t those times. This is war. And it’s a war that the Left has been fighting without opposition for the past 50 years.

So, say anything you want about this president ­ I get it, he can be vulgar, he can be crude, he can be undignified at times. I don’t care. I can’t spare this man. He fights.

What has Donald Trump done since he has been in office!!!
1. Supreme Court Judge Gorsuch
2. 59 missiles dropped in Syria.
3. He took us out of TPP
4. Illegal immigration is now down 70%( the lowest in 17 years)
5. Consumer confidence highest since 2000 at index125.6
6. Mortgage applications for new homes rise to a 7 year high.
7. Arranged 20% Tariff on soft lumber from Canada.
8. Bids for border wall are well underway.
9. Pulled out of the lopsided Paris accord.
10. Keystone pipeline approved.
11. NATO allies boost spending by 4.3%
12. Allowing VA to terminate bad employees.
13. Allowing private healthcare choices for veterans.
14. More than 600,000. Jobs created
15. Median household income at a 7 year high.
16. The Stock Market is at the highest ever In its history.
17. China agreed to American import of beef.
18. $89 Billion saved in regulation rollbacks.
19. Rollback of A Regulation to boost coal mining.
20. MOAB for ISIS
21. Travel ban reinstated.
22. Executive order for religious freedom.
23. Jump started NASA
24. $600 million cut from UN peacekeeping budget.
25. Targeting of MS13 gangs
26. Deporting violent illegal immigrants.
27. Signed 41 bills to date
28. Created a commission on child trafficking
29. Created a commission on voter fraud
30. Created a commission for opioids addiction.
31. Giving power to states to drug test unemployment recipients.
32. Unemployment lowest since may 2007.
33. Historic Black College University initiative
34. Women In Entrepreneurship Act
35. Created an office or illegal immigrant crime victims.
36. Reversed Dodd-Frank
37. Repealed DOT ruling which would have taken power away from local governments for infrastructure planning
38. Order to stop crime against law enforcement.
39. End of DAPA program.
40. Stopped companies from moving out of America.
41. Promoted businesses to create American Jobs.
42. Encouraged country to once again 'Buy American and Hire American
43. Cutting regulations 2 for every one created.
44. Review of all trade agreements to make sure they are America first.
45. Apprentice program
46. Highest manufacturing surge in 3 years.
47. $78 Billion promised reinvestment from major businesses like Exxon, Bayer, Apple, SoftBank, Toyota...
48. Denied FBI a new building.
49. $700 million saved with F-35 renegotiation.
50. Saves $22 million by reducing white house payroll.
51. Dept of treasury reports a $182 billion surplus for April 2017 (2nd largest in history.
52. Negotiated the release of 6 US humanitarian workers held captive in Egypt.
53. Gas prices lowest in more than 12 years.
54. Signed An Executive Order To Promote Energy Independence And Economic Growth
55. Has already accomplished more to stop government interference into people's lives than any President in the history of America.
56. President Trump has worked with Congress to pass more legislation in his first 100 days than any President since Truman.
57. Has given head executive of each branches 6 month time Frame dated march 15 2017, to trim the fat. restructure and improve efficacy of their branch.
58. Last, Refused his Presidential Pay Check, donated it to Veterans issues.


Evan Sayet is the author of The KinderGarden of Eden: How The Modern Liberal Thinks. His lecture to the Heritage Foundation on this same topic remains, some ten years later, by far the single most viewed lecture in their history. Evan can be reached at contactevansayet@gmail.com.

https://townhall.com...fights-n2354580

[kenberg]

You say you probably will not reply, I understand. This is indeed no hope whatsoever that we would ever see things even partially the same way. ` From your quote
"The Left has been engaged in a war against America since the rise of the Children of the ‘60s." Well, I haven't been. But I will not be debating that, just as I won't be debating whether I am, as occasionally gets suggested, a racist or a sexist. I am not, but if someone starts with the assertion that I am I have never found it profitable to discuss such matters. Is Ken berg waging a war on America? I think I will just skip that discussion, as you have announced you intend to do. Some people think Flannery is the invention of the Devil. Discussion with them is not profitable either.

The End

[Winstonm]

I weep for America.

And I wouldn't brag about being one of the 39% who approve.

Edit: My mistake, it's not even that good.

Quote

With just 35.1 percent of those polled in a Reuters survey published Thursday approving of Trump’s job performance, Republicans expressed disapproval more than ever before.

[PassedOut]

Kaitlyn S, on 2017-July-29, 18:18, said:

It is a book of such pure evil, that, just as the rest of us would dedicate our book to those we most love or those to whom we are most indebted, Alinsky dedicated his book to Lucifer.

He did not, and only a liar or an idiot would make that claim. You can open your own copy to check. You might want to reread the book:

Quote

Believing in people, the radical has the job of organizing them so that they will have the power and opportunity to best meet each unforeseeable future crisis as they move ahead in their eternal search for those values of equality, justice, freedom, peace, a deep concern for the preciousness of human life, and all those rights and values propounded by Judaeo-Christianity and the democratic political tradition. Democracy is not an end but the best means toward achieving these values. This is my credo for which I live and, if need be, die.

Perhaps some politicians look to Lucifer for inspiration, but those are not the politicians who want to extend health care to everyone.

[The_Badger]

As much as I personally dislike Donald Trump, I think it's actually good for a country to have a businessman in charge than some career politician.

Career politicians I tend to find just say what the electorate want to hear. Modern politicians, I find these days, just haven't got the balls to get hold of a country and turn it around, putting their own personal stamp on things, even if their ideas and methods are particularly unpopular to many.

Here in the UK we have been bound up with so much red tape and bureaucracy that we struggle to breathe. Add into the mix European legislation as well, and as a country now we have absolutely no direction now. My opinion.

And whilst Trump might be uncouth, vulgar, sexist and racist around the edges, and unpopular generally - I do think the word 'disgusting' is a little harsh as he is a man of a certain age, who's been brought up a certain way, and does things his way, and a leopard's never going to change its spots, is it? - I do think that he does have the USA's best interest at heart.

There's nothing wrong with being patriotic and being proud of one's country: I just wish he would operate with more humanity and think before he tweets.

[Bad_Wolf]

Anyone who believes this stuff is beyond psychiatric help. Why do loonies like this think Obama and other democrats are 'leftist'. In New Zealand they would be regarded as a party of the right. Personally I have come to believe that the Republican party is as close to - for want of a better word - evil as one can find in main stream politics. Knife-fighting is the least we need to do. "Teach the children quietly and someday our sons and daughters will rise up while we stood still"
Gerry

[steve2005]

The_Badger, on 2017-July-30, 01:32, said:

I do think the word 'disgusting' is a little harsh as he is a man of a certain age, who's been brought up a certain way, and does things his way.

give me a break, being old doesn't give you carte blanche

[Vampyr]

How could you indeed? A decent person would at least have the grace to be ashamed by now.

[kenberg]

The_Badger, on 2017-July-30, 01:32, said:

As much as I personally dislike Donald Trump, I think it's actually good for a country to have a businessman in charge than some career politician.

I am assuming that you would agree that it depends on the businessman, and for that matter on the career politician. A lifetime in academia has shown me that mathematicians often make surprisingly good administrators. I would be terrible at it.

Quote

Career politicians I tend to find just say what the electorate want to hear. Modern politicians, I find these days, just haven't got the balls to get hold of a country and turn it around, putting their own personal stamp on things, even if their ideas and methods are particularly unpopular to many.

Here in the UK we have been bound up with so much red tape and bureaucracy that we struggle to breathe. Add into the mix European legislation as well, and as a country now we have absolutely no direction now. My opinion.

And whilst Trump might be uncouth, vulgar, sexist and racist around the edges, and unpopular generally - I do think the word 'disgusting' is a little harsh as he is a man of a certain age, who's been brought up a certain way, and does things his way, and a leopard's never going to change its spots, is it? - I do think that he does have the USA's best interest at heart.
[\quote]
I find him repulsive. I acknowledge that there can be debate over whether this is due to him or me, or both, but it is a fact. I find him repulsive.
[\quote]

There's nothing wrong with being patriotic and being proud of one's country: I just wish he would operate with more humanity and think before he tweets.

My social views include the idea that people are responsible for themselves, but society and government can help, and this can work to everyone's advantage. Oddly, I think just about everyone agrees wit this, the question is how to go about this in the best manner. The citation n the opening post so completely distorts progressive ideas that it makes any meaningful dialogue impossible. With Trump, his tweets are a problem, but I think they are a problem in the same way that coughing up blood is a problem. The blood is a problem but it is a symptom of a much larger problem.

As for politicians having courage, balls if you like, we shall see. I think we are entering difficult times so I hope we see it. David Brooks noted that two senators who have displayed significant levels of testosterone are named Susan and Lisa.

[diana_eva]

Kaitlyn I like you but this post only continues to confirm your incredible ignorance. I can understand you along with many other frustrated voters got duped by the propaganda and the bubbly speeches during the campaign, but after so many months in office it's clear he's not fighting for anyone but his family and his self-image.

[Winstonm]

The Scaramucci hire confirms that with Donald Trump in charge the U.S. has devolved from a democracy to a demasscracy: a government of, by, and for assholes.

[The_Badger]

steve2005, on 2017-July-30, 05:03, said:

give me a break, being old doesn't give you carte blanche

Couldn't agree more, Steve, but the proverbs 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks', or 'old habits die hard' come to mind but, yes I agree 'It's never too late to mend, and it's never too late to learn' should be in Trump's personal mantra too.

[Winstonm]

I will never understand support for a kleptocratic nepotist whose instincts are to turn the U.S. into his family piggy bank. This explains the thinking behind the actions.

[billw55]

Sounds like mostly still arguing against Obama, Clinton, and CNN. Straw man at its best. Also a long list of things Trump has done, many of which are really just things that happened. There is a difference.

I can understand being a conservative. I can understand being a republican. I can certainly understand not wanting Hillary Clinton to be president. None of that justifies electing and supporting ... this. There were good options among the R primary pool. Perhaps my first choice would have been John Kasich. Instead, the R voters willfully chose an ignorant, belligerent, self serving fool. Why?

The_Badger, on 2017-July-30, 01:32, said:

As much as I personally dislike Donald Trump, I think it's actually good for a country to have a businessman in charge than some career politician.

I can understand this to some extent. Business experience could be beneficial. But government experience also matters, and Trump has none, zero. Rs often complained that Obama was not qualified for the job ... with only seven years as a state legislator and a partial term in the US Senate. So of course Trump, with zero, is qualified because business? And his business skill is far from clear at that. Essentially it boils down to qualified because rich and famous. Kim Kardashian is just as qualified for the presidency as Trump was.

[Winstonm]

billw55, on 2017-July-31, 09:15, said:

Sounds like mostly still arguing against Obama, Clinton, and CNN. Straw man at its best. Also a long list of things Trump has done, many of which are really just things that happened. There is a difference.

I can understand being a conservative. I can understand being a republican. I can certainly understand not wanting Hillary Clinton to be president. None of that justifies electing and supporting ... this. There were good options among the R primary pool. Perhaps my first choice would have been John Kasich. Instead, the R voters willfully chose an ignorant, belligerent, self serving fool. Why?

I am registered Democrat mostly due to the Republican party being so far right. I can find a lot of areas of agreement with John Kasich.

[Vampyr]

billw55, on 2017-July-31, 09:15, said:

Sounds like mostly still arguing against Obama, Clinton, and CNN. Straw man at its best. Also a long list of things Trump has done, many of which are really just things that happened. There is a difference.

I can understand being a conservative. I can understand being a republican. I can certainly understand not wanting Hillary Clinton to be president. None of that justifies electing and supporting ... this. There were good options among the R primary pool. Perhaps my first choice would have been John Kasich. Instead, the R voters willfully chose an ignorant, belligerent, self serving fool. Why?



I can understand this to some extent. Business experience could be beneficial. But government experience also matters, and Trump has none, zero. Rs often complained that Obama was not qualified for the job ... with only seven years as a state legislator and a partial term in the US Senate. So of course Trump, with zero, is qualified because business? And his business skill is far from clear at that. Essentially it boils down to qualified because rich and famous. Kim Kardashian is just as qualified for the presidency as Trump was.

Anyway Trump's business career involved six bankruptcies (I would say that one bankruptcy could be unlucky; more than that is simple theft). and many other instances of not paying his debts to contractors and others. I will provide sources if anyone does not believe this.

Is this the type of "experience" (not to mention character) that could possibly be good for our country?

[barmar]

The_Badger, on 2017-July-30, 10:25, said:

Couldn't agree more, Steve, but the proverbs 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks', or 'old habits die hard' come to mind but, yes I agree 'It's never too late to mend, and it's never too late to learn' should be in Trump's personal mantra too.

That may be true. But it's merely an explanation for his behavior, not an acceptable excuse for allowing such a person into such an esteemed office.

Archie Bunker was an old man, set in his ways, trying to deal with a world changing around him. We laughed at his archaic racist, sexist, and homophobic ideas, even though we understood that he was a product of his generation. We wouldn't put him in charge of anything much more important than whatever loading dock he was a foreman of . He probably wasn't even well suited to that job (he got it through nepotism, much like Trump and his real estate career), since his attitudes would make it difficult for him to interact appropriately with women and minorities in the workplace.

[Vampyr]

barmar, on 2017-July-31, 16:05, said:

That may be true. But it's merely an explanation for his behavior, not an acceptable excuse for allowing such a person into such an esteemed office.

Archie Bunker was an old man, set in his ways, trying to deal with a world changing around him. We laughed at his archaic racist, sexist, and homophobic ideas, even though we understood that he was a product of his generation. We wouldn't put him in charge of anything much more important than whatever loading dock he was a foreman of . He probably wasn't even well suited to that job (he got it through nepotism, much like Trump and his real estate career), since his attitudes would make it difficult for him to interact appropriately with women and minorities in the workplace.

But Archie was a good man at heart and gradually became more accepting of people who weren't like him.

[cherdano]

Man, I really wish the name "Jeremiah Wright" had come up during the 2008 presidential campaign. Voters would have gotten a completely different image of Barack Hussein Obama. (In fact, did they know his middle name is "Hussein"?)

Kaitlyn, it is really sad to see you believe in this kind of bullshit. Let's just take one bullet point:

Quote

38. Order to stop crime against law enforcement.

Wtf is this even supposed to mean? Crimes against law enforcement were already a crime before Trump. Whoever wrote this is playing his reader's for a fool. And you are falling for it.

[cherdano]

Ok, just one more:

Kaitlyn S, on 2017-July-29, 18:18, said:

13. Allowing private healthcare choices for veterans.

This must be referring to the "Veterans Choice Program". Here is a story about it:

http://www.npr.org/s...private-doctors

Note the word "signed extension".

Whoever wrote this list (yes I realise you gave the name of the author, but I don't know him and have no intention to change that) thinks his readers are idiots. Not idiots in the sense of "cannot read" or "cannot understand complex reasoning", but idiots in the sense of "completely living within an echo chamber where everybody repeats wrong claims until everybody start believing them".

Well the author is right about one thing - there are enough people living within such an echo chamber that he might find a sizeable audience.