These last years have been difficult, and one can reasonably expect worse from Trumpism before that ideology is consigned – as it will be – to the political outer darkness. A necessary condition for optimism is an understanding of the present from which one can build a better future. (Local boosterism and babbittry are failures…
Never Trump
CDA, City, Congress, Crony Capitalism, Free Market, Gerrymandering, Government Spending, Local Government, Never Trump, Politics, Republicans, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way
F. James Sensenbrenner Heads for the Exit
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads that F. James Sensenbrenner, the pro-Trump septuagenarian multimillionaire congressman from a gerrymandered district that stretches all the way down to Whitewater, is retiring when his current term ends. Consigned to the minority forever must look unappealing. How time flies! It was not long ago that then-chairman of the Whitewater Community Development Authority was scampering…
Libertarians, Liberty, Never Trump, Politics, Poll, Trump, Wisconsin
Trump-Busting Issues for Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS •
Writing at Urban Milwaukee, Bruce Thompson looks at popular national issues to use against Trump, matches them against Wisconsin-specific polling, and offers How Democrats Can Beat Trump [in Wisconsin]. Many of the most popular poll issues are not libertarian ones, it’s almost unnecessary to say. They’re issues that have national and statewide support, and so…
Alt-Right, America, Bigotry, Culture, Ethnicity, Herrenvolk, Immigration, Misconduct, Never Trump, Politics, Race, Resistance, Trump
Trump’s Base Delights in Tales of Others’ Deprivation
by JOHN ADAMS •
In this conflict between defenders of America’s liberal democratic order and Trumpism, those of opposition and resistance have wisely steeled themselves for stories of cruelty as state policy. Trumpism’s aim is a herrenvolk, where his demographically homogeneous base receives permanent preference over others, and in which that same base delights in deprivations and depravities inflicted…
Authoritarianism, Elections, Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Foreign Affairs, Herrenvolk, Never Trump, Politics, Russia, Trump, Unfit
The Fifth Columnist at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
by JOHN ADAMS •
While a fellow traveler – however detestable – is merely someone who sympathizes with an adversarial foreign power, a fifth columnist is someone who actively cooperates – colludes, one might say – with a hostile foreign state. For all the talk of no collusion (styled as NO COLLUSION in a bigoted authoritarian’s tweets), Trump at…
Authoritarianism, Bigotry, Mendacity, Misconduct, Never Trump, Trump, Trump-Russia, Unfit
‘A cancer on the presidency’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Attorney George Conway III writes Trump is a cancer on the presidency. Congress should remove him. Although I would describe Trump more broadly as a blight on the country, Conway’s assessment is spot on: So it turns out that, indeed, President Trump was not exonerated at all, and certainly not “totally” or “completely,” as he…
Bigotry, Immigration, Misconduct, Never Trump, Trump
Unforgotten, Unforgiven
by JOHN ADAMS •
What any given person thinks about Trump is hardly a source of useful criticism. The proper focus of criticism is Trump, His Inner Circle, Principal Surrogates, and Media Defenders and this includes Trumpism Down to the Local Level. Predictably, these Trumpists think that if they leave his employ, perhaps they might recover from the stain…
Authoritarianism, Bigotry, Herrenvolk, Never Trump, Trump
What Never Trump Means
by JOHN ADAMS •
Those libertarians (as I am) and conservatives who declared themselves Never Trump (written on Twitter as #NeverTrump) are those who took that position when considering Trump’s career and his presidential campaign. On the ample record of Trump’s business career and political campaign, we found him unfit: a bigot, a would-be authoritarian, and an avowed friend…
Culture, Freedom of Speech, Never Trump, Resistance
The Middle Lane is a Dirt Road to Decay
by JOHN ADAMS •
Media critic Margaret Sullivan writes that The media feel safest in the middle lane. Just ask Jeff Flake, John Kasich and Howard Schultz: One of the supposed golden rules of journalism goes like this: “If everybody’s mad at your coverage, you must be doing a good job.” That’s ridiculous, of course, though it seems comforting. If…
Culture, Never Trump, Ocasio-Cortez, Politics
Why Won’t You Smile?
by JOHN ADAMS •
One can guess that libertarians oppose the anti-market economics of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. It’s odd, to me, though, how much time conservatives have spent complaining, critiquing, and analyzing that democratic socialist from New York. In those conservative critiques, however, one sees more than an economic or foreign policy disagreement: some of these conservatives are upset that…
Economy, Federal Government, Never Trump, Transportation, Trump
Commerce Slows
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update, Friday afternoon: Trump folds under pressure agrees to a three-week re-opening of the federal gov’t. Of his Rose Garden address this afternoon (one that I watched in full), Jennifer Rubin observes “[m]aybe this is part of an insanity defense for the Russia probe.” One reads that under the shutdown, interstate commerce now slows: Significant…
Kakistocracy, Never Trump, Presidential race 2016, Resistance, Trump, Unfit
Yet Go He Will…
by JOHN ADAMS •
Ted Koppel cautions Don’t expect Trump to go quietly: There is a disarming innocence to the assumption that whether by impeachment, indictment or a cleansing electoral redo in 2020, President Trump will be exorcised from the White House and that thereby he and his base will largely revert to irrelevance. Truthfully, there are few among the…
America, City, Federal Government, Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Local Government, Never Trump, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia, Unfit
Trump-Russia Roundup
by JOHN ADAMS •
While the proper focus against Trumpism involves a zealous lawful effort against Trump and his leading operatives, there is also a problem of Trumpism down to the local level. In both cases, officials advancing Trumpism ignore the overwhelming evidence of his betrayal of our own people to the benefit of a hostile foreign power. As…
America, Never Trump, Putin, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia
On Trump-Russia, Right from the Very Beginning
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embed from Getty Images Virginia Heffernan reports Early on, Trump-Russia obsessives were marginalized; they’re prophets now: “I felt like the guy in ‘Rear Window,’ ” David Corn, the coauthor of “Russian Roulette,” told me this week. Corn was referring to his affinity for James Stewart’s character, L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece film. Jeff witnesses…
