One reads much these days about how similar Trump and Silvio Berlusconi supposedly are. There’s something tempting about comparing Trump’s political situation to Silvio Berlusconi’s: both are businessmen, held no earlier office before winning a national election, are admirers of Putin, crude, anti-intellectual, and lecherous. There’s reason to look at parallels between the two; one…
Trump
Liberty, Politics, Trump
Saletan’s Faint Hope of Manipulating an Autocrat
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Somewhere, there’s sure to be someone insisting that a hooligan who beat someone unconscious only did so from insecurity, envy, or bad toilet training. That explanation should be of no comfort to a victim (should the victim even recover). The one thing of which one can be sure is that someone attacked another, causing severe injury. In…
Politics, Romney, Trump
Dinner and a Little Romance in Manhattan
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Federal Government, Language, Trump
Kakistocracy
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s a vast difference between the average Trump supporter (similar in most ways to most people) and the people who served in the Trump Campaign and who will serve in a Trump Administration (composed of generous helpings of mediocrities, liars, or bigots). Ryan Lizza’s found the Greek term kakistocracy, a term that will apply nicely to…
Press, Trump, Twitter
Blaming the Press Won’t Slake Trump’s Thirst
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
CNN Money’s Jill Disis writes that Trump attacks ‘fools’ at The New York Times. There’s a short self-life to attacks on the press. Admittedly, the attack’s good for a headline, and similar insults probably helped in his campaign. Yet, all campaigns blame the press, and the blamecasting is like a narcotic to which addicts slowly become…
Federal Government, Trump
Eliot Cohen’s Wise Advice: Don’t Serve Trump
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Conservative foreign policy scholar (and member of the Bush Administration) Eliot Cohen admits, “I told conservatives to work for Trump. One talk with his team changed my mind” — Nemesis pursues and punishes all administrations, but this one will get a double dose. Until it can acquire some measure of humility about what it knows,…
Politics, Trump
Forget the Tactical (For Now)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This year hasn’t been a great one for polling, data operations, or vaunted GOTV efforts. If it had been so, then Hillary Clinton would now be president-elect. So much conventional tactical analysis (much of which I accepted) has proved erroneous. There’s no gain, and much harm, in focusing on the tactical now. Even if one…
Freedom of Speech, Politics, Trump
Of Course Most #NeverTrumpers Will Capitulate
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Thousands who (admirably) devoted themselves to the #NeverTrump movement have already (sadly) begun to second-guess their opposition now that Trump’s heading to federal power. Ben Terris nicely describes the impulse – the natural reaction to yield to power – in Welcome to NeverTrump Grief, Stage 3: GOP skeptics bargain with Trump — and themselves. One…
Cato, Environment, Federal Government, Trump
The Next Secretary of the Interior?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Embed from Getty Images While there is much talk about high-profile cabinet posts like State, Defense, and Justice, there are lower-profile posts that will still attract both interested parties and occasional controversies. The Department of the Interior is among them. Prospects for that cabinet secretary include oil baron Forrest Lucas (a big contributor to Mike…
History, Law, Liberty, Politics, Presidential race 2016, Trump
Kevin Drum on Trump and the End of Reconstruction
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Blogging at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum – like many of us, of whatever politics – seems uncertain about the consequences of a Trump Administration. (In fairness, much has happened in a short time, and it’s hard to make sense of it all.) Still, Drum’s thinking has shifted significantly over the last few days, in ways…