Everyone Knows the Truth About Politics - Peggy Noonan on Whiny Donny

[question everything]

Found several paragraphs that made sense among her rambling thoughts:

(snip)

Everyone knows Donald Trump is a mental case, including I believe Donald Trump. Why else does he keep insisting he is an “extremely stable genius”? It’s as if he knows a lot of people are certain he’s neither. It would be nice here to say, “I don’t mean mental case. I mean his mind is a raucous TV funhouse; that he is immature, unserious, and at the mercy of poor impulse control; that he doesn’t exercise power intelligently but emotionally, and with an eye, always to personal needs.” But mental case will do.

He just fired his third national security adviser, by Twitter , under contested circumstances. They had apparently argued: the president was going to invite the Taliban, that band of gangsters, mooks and morons who housed the terrorists who killed 3,000 of us 18 years ago this week, to Camp David. Camp David! The august retreat where presidents host great nations and great allies. Where FDR met with Churchill and Reagan walked with Thatcher.

No one who knows what history IS would do this. No one who knows the American people would do it. No one who felt 9/11 in his bones would do it. But a guy going for a cheap handshake and a triumphant photo would. It’s the kind of idea a mental case might readily entertain.

By my observation something is going on with Mr. Trump’s supporters. They now concede much more about him in private than they did in the past. They use words like “unpredictable” or “emotional” or “a little chaotic.” They say, “Well, he may be crazy but maybe that’s what’s needed to keep his enemies hopping.” He may not be a good man, they concede, but the swamp has defeated good men. What is interesting is that they no longer say what they used to—“You’ve got it wrong, he’s stable, a successful businessman, a realist.” And they no longer compare him to Reagan. His most frequent public defenders now believe he’s a screwball, which is why they no longer devote their time to lauding him but to attacking his critics.

They’re uncomfortable. He is wearing his own people down.

More..

https://www.wsj.com/articles/everyone-knows-the-truth-about-politics-11568391426 (paid subscription)

[Karadeniz]

1. Peggy Noonan!!!

[jaysunb]

2. I noticed that she left out Carters Camp David Accords n/t

[brush]

4. I noticed that too. Carter hosting Sadat and Begin there was of much more significance than a walk.

with Thatcher. Once a repug always a repug I guess. She did do a shout out to FDR though.

[MaryMagdaline]

3. She's always been a good writer

It’s the underlying values that made her a Reaganite. She’s a deep stater, though, and Neocon. Those people despise trump.

[brush]

5. Hope they despise him enough not to vote for him and also encourage others to also not vote for him.

[MaryMagdaline]

7. Good point. There aren't enough of them though

[enough]

6. Another Republican benefiting from Trump administration enacting

every single element of the Republican Party’s most devoutly desired wishlist who now gets to start having some scruples.

Now that they have everything they have always wanted ( tax cuts for the rich, 150 lifetime judicial appointments, decimation of government agencies, despoilment of precious public lands, untold suffering of people they hate) they can start to have doubts.

[Paladin]

8. "And they no longer compare him to Reagan."

That's the only thing Noonan really cares about. The rest is just more of her usual drivel.

[lagomorph777]

9. I compare him to Reagan. Reagan was the asshole who sent the party spiraling into the abyss.

Reagan stripped the last pretense of morality from the GOP. Trump has benefitted from Reagan's legacy of getting away with high crimes.

[Paladin]

10. Noonan sees Reagan as the second coming of Christ.

She's been that way for years. Stomach-turning.