Don Boudreaux Quotes From George Will’s New Book
- Thread starter Ponca Dan
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Keep in mind George Will is NOT a Trump supporter. He’s a classical small government conservative.
Will, Jonah Goldberg, William Kristol and others are never Trumpers. They all probably voted for Hildebitch too.
Aliabedi, I started to suggest you ignore the comments, but then I realized they are exactly what you should be looking for. George Will is a traditional small government very principled conservative, and has been for upwards of 50 years. Rush Limbaugh has praised him as the one man alive from whom he has learned the most about what conservatism stands for.
Donald Trump is a nationalist, not a conservative. Nationalism is practiced in stark contrast to the tenets of conservatism. A principled conservative like George Will cannot sit by while he watches the Republican Party become a party of nationalism.
Because he refuses to stand mute and watch DJT wreck the basic conservative principles the Republican Party has advocated since at least Barry Goldwater, the Trump sycophants feel compelled to destroy his reputation. They cannot bear the thought that someone might oppose their “man on the white horse” based on principle. No, anyone who opposes their godlike savior must be a swamp rat who wants nothing more than to destroy this country. What’s really weird about it is they probably actually believe what they say.
A nationalist is a person that views his country as superior to all others, practices an “us against the world” outlook. The core of nationalism, the notion that other countries and cultures should bow to the superiority of “our” country and culture has led to many if not most wars of the last 200 years. Nationalism preaches hostility to others. This is the opposite of Will’s conservatism (actually classical liberalism), which promotes peace and harmony and tolerance.
So if you want to get a picture of what has become of the Republican Party today you need look no further than this message board. Your country along with countless others are described as “shithole countries,” your people considered almost subhuman; certainly it is permissible, even preferable to bomb them in their homes if they don’t bow down before our obvious greatness.
I think you would find Will’s book to be very enlightening. It might even persuade you to reconsider your slightly leftist tendencies.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonexaminer.com/heritage-foundation-64-of-trumps-agenda-already-done-faster-than-reagan?_amp=true
Heritage Foundation: 64% of Trump's agenda already done, faster than Reagan.
And that was just in the year 2018 alone.
Will is simply a bitter never-Trumper.
"With unprecedented speed, the Trump administration has already implemented nearly two-thirds of the 334 agenda items called for by the Heritage Foundation, a pace faster than former President Reagan who embraced the conservative think tank’s legendary “Mandate for Leadership”blueprint.
"Thomas Binion, director of congressional and executive branch relations at Heritage, said that Trump has implemented 64 percent of the “unique policy recommendations” from the group.
"At this stage of his presidency, Reagan had completed 49 percent of the Heritage policy recommendations."
Ponca, we get it that you don't like Trump. But your obsessive, incessant anti-Trump posts have become pointless, most without merit and, worse, boring.
Heritage Foundation: 64% of Trump's agenda already done, faster than Reagan.
And that was just in the year 2018 alone.
Will is simply a bitter never-Trumper.
"With unprecedented speed, the Trump administration has already implemented nearly two-thirds of the 334 agenda items called for by the Heritage Foundation, a pace faster than former President Reagan who embraced the conservative think tank’s legendary “Mandate for Leadership”blueprint.
"Thomas Binion, director of congressional and executive branch relations at Heritage, said that Trump has implemented 64 percent of the “unique policy recommendations” from the group.
"At this stage of his presidency, Reagan had completed 49 percent of the Heritage policy recommendations."
Ponca, we get it that you don't like Trump. But your obsessive, incessant anti-Trump posts have become pointless, most without merit and, worse, boring.
Hence the moniker, Badger.
Yes, I completely agree, Will is a never-Trumper. He is a never-Trumper because he’s a man with deep set conservative principles, and Trump violates those principles on a daily basis. It is SOP for many always-Trumpers to accuse people like Will as has-beens, swamp rats, etc. It must be easier for them to attack the man’s character than offer a reasoned refutation to his arguments. What’s ironic, in the original quote Will was harpooning progressivism.
Was that like 20 years ago? 30? I assure you, Rush's opinion of G. Will has diminished greatly.
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/06/13/george-will-mortified-by-what-trump-says-out-loud/
Let's see, shall I believe the Heritage Foundation, probably the foremost conservative think tank of the last 40 years, or PoncaDan?
Hmmm.
I've got your George Will, right here. The real George Will.
Link: https://www.fitsnews.com/2018/07/28...l-does-not-have-his-finger-on-americas-pulse/
“Conservative” commentator George Will has occasionally drawn praise from this news site … but not today.
Today, we’re disappointed in him … and honestly a little bit surprised he managed to cross our radar for the first time in years.
During the 1980s, Will was proclaimed as “the most powerful journalist in America” by none other than The Wall Street Journal. But again … that was then.
Today, the 77-year-old pundit is a has-been. A fuddy-duddy. A curmudgeon. And increasingly … irrelevant.
Sure, Will is brilliant. And has a Pulitzer. And has made bank. But more and more, it seems as though his views don’t matter … like the only widespread acknowledgment headed his way in the future will come via his obituary.
You know who he is … but only because of who he was.
He’s one of those bygone Beltway creatures raging from the recliner. Raving in seersucker and a bow tie. Lofty in his vocabulary and elocution but lacking in real substance. Oh, and transparently impure in his motivations (which at the moment consist of attempting to push the United States into a second Cold War that its people do not want and its taxpayers cannot afford).
It’s not that Will is old – it’s that he is antiquated. His tone and his worldview have simply never evolved. And while that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, in Will’s case it is. On the one hand he embodies the “better-managed time” for which many of us are rightfully nostalgic. You know … order, prosperity, pledges of allegiance and the veneer of absolute truth.
On the other? His incessant sanctimony reminds us of why we rebelled against those days in the first place.
On paper, the Illinois native seems conservative enough. And he has actually trended more libertarian in his sunset years … which we appreciate (especially as it relates to his views on the issue of warrantless surveillance).
But lately, Will is taking himself out of the national conversation with his shrill establishment shilling … putting the “legacy” into America’s legacy media. It’s not that he is reflexively #NeverTrumping (we, too, have been harshly critical of U.S. president Donald Trump at times). What baffles us is the sinking sand upon which he has chosen to make his last stand …
“I’m hearing redundant evidence that Mr. Trump is a seedy man whose incontinent sexual appetite gets him into seedy women,” Will said earlier this week on MSNBC. “At the end of the day we have good decent Americans listening to not John Quincy Adams or Roosevelt or Eisenhower, but listening to this low-life from Queens talking about paying off his low-lives from Playboy magazine.”
Will went on to say Americans were “embarrassed” and “sad” over Trump – and that “at the end of the day embarrassment and sadness are more explosive than anger.”
Really?
With all due respect to Grandpa McGrump, Americans don’t care about Trump’s mistresses. At all. They care about one thing and one thing only: The economy. Or more particularly, they care about the extent to which they can participate in it.
You know … the bank accounts these Washington insiders want to drain in order to fund the New World Order.
Honestly, the only thing Americans care about less than Trump’s mistresses is the “Russian meddling” narrative Will and other establishment hacks are continuing to peddle on them at the expense of their diminished audiences (and diminishing credibility).
Will is “all in” on the Russian meddling claims, too, speculating wildly as to their roots …
“A more ominous explanation might be that his redundantly demonstrated incompetence as a businessman tumbled him into unsavory financial dependencies on Russians,” he wrote recently. “A still more sinister explanation might be that the Russians have something else, something worse, to keep him compliant.”
Something worse?
Ah, yes … this is a reference to the infamous Trump pee tape that has become the lynchpin of Democrats’ 2018 election hopes.
Does such a tape exist? We don’t know. Did the Russians meddle in the 2016 election? Again … maybe? We don’t know.
But there was election meddling that year …
Thanks to the late progressive icon Margot Kidder (and former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile), we know for a fact that Democrats rigged their election.
But no one wants to talk about that …
More importantly, the last time we checked Russia allegedly keeping Trump “compliant” consisted of him issuing a long-overdue repudiation of the notion that American taxpayers should subsidize the national defense of European liberals and socialists.
They shouldn’t …
We haven’t been simpatico with Trump on a lot lately, but we are 100 percent behind him on that front …
Which again brings us to that word: “Meddling.”
Never forget our nation recently participated in a coup d’état in Russia’s back yard – and continues to engage in all manner of assassinations, invasions and propaganda campaigns all over the world (often partnering with some very unsavory sorts in the process).
Which is one reason our national debt is bigger than our nation’s economy.
In other words, we need to “check ourselves before we wreck ourselves.”
Will won’t get that reference, obviously … but he needs to understand the underlying truths. All of us do.
Link: https://www.fitsnews.com/2018/07/28...l-does-not-have-his-finger-on-americas-pulse/
“Conservative” commentator George Will has occasionally drawn praise from this news site … but not today.
Today, we’re disappointed in him … and honestly a little bit surprised he managed to cross our radar for the first time in years.
During the 1980s, Will was proclaimed as “the most powerful journalist in America” by none other than The Wall Street Journal. But again … that was then.
Today, the 77-year-old pundit is a has-been. A fuddy-duddy. A curmudgeon. And increasingly … irrelevant.
Sure, Will is brilliant. And has a Pulitzer. And has made bank. But more and more, it seems as though his views don’t matter … like the only widespread acknowledgment headed his way in the future will come via his obituary.
You know who he is … but only because of who he was.
He’s one of those bygone Beltway creatures raging from the recliner. Raving in seersucker and a bow tie. Lofty in his vocabulary and elocution but lacking in real substance. Oh, and transparently impure in his motivations (which at the moment consist of attempting to push the United States into a second Cold War that its people do not want and its taxpayers cannot afford).
It’s not that Will is old – it’s that he is antiquated. His tone and his worldview have simply never evolved. And while that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, in Will’s case it is. On the one hand he embodies the “better-managed time” for which many of us are rightfully nostalgic. You know … order, prosperity, pledges of allegiance and the veneer of absolute truth.
On the other? His incessant sanctimony reminds us of why we rebelled against those days in the first place.
On paper, the Illinois native seems conservative enough. And he has actually trended more libertarian in his sunset years … which we appreciate (especially as it relates to his views on the issue of warrantless surveillance).
But lately, Will is taking himself out of the national conversation with his shrill establishment shilling … putting the “legacy” into America’s legacy media. It’s not that he is reflexively #NeverTrumping (we, too, have been harshly critical of U.S. president Donald Trump at times). What baffles us is the sinking sand upon which he has chosen to make his last stand …
“I’m hearing redundant evidence that Mr. Trump is a seedy man whose incontinent sexual appetite gets him into seedy women,” Will said earlier this week on MSNBC. “At the end of the day we have good decent Americans listening to not John Quincy Adams or Roosevelt or Eisenhower, but listening to this low-life from Queens talking about paying off his low-lives from Playboy magazine.”
Will went on to say Americans were “embarrassed” and “sad” over Trump – and that “at the end of the day embarrassment and sadness are more explosive than anger.”
Really?
With all due respect to Grandpa McGrump, Americans don’t care about Trump’s mistresses. At all. They care about one thing and one thing only: The economy. Or more particularly, they care about the extent to which they can participate in it.
You know … the bank accounts these Washington insiders want to drain in order to fund the New World Order.
Honestly, the only thing Americans care about less than Trump’s mistresses is the “Russian meddling” narrative Will and other establishment hacks are continuing to peddle on them at the expense of their diminished audiences (and diminishing credibility).
Will is “all in” on the Russian meddling claims, too, speculating wildly as to their roots …
“A more ominous explanation might be that his redundantly demonstrated incompetence as a businessman tumbled him into unsavory financial dependencies on Russians,” he wrote recently. “A still more sinister explanation might be that the Russians have something else, something worse, to keep him compliant.”
Something worse?
Ah, yes … this is a reference to the infamous Trump pee tape that has become the lynchpin of Democrats’ 2018 election hopes.
Does such a tape exist? We don’t know. Did the Russians meddle in the 2016 election? Again … maybe? We don’t know.
But there was election meddling that year …
Thanks to the late progressive icon Margot Kidder (and former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile), we know for a fact that Democrats rigged their election.
But no one wants to talk about that …
More importantly, the last time we checked Russia allegedly keeping Trump “compliant” consisted of him issuing a long-overdue repudiation of the notion that American taxpayers should subsidize the national defense of European liberals and socialists.
They shouldn’t …
We haven’t been simpatico with Trump on a lot lately, but we are 100 percent behind him on that front …
Which again brings us to that word: “Meddling.”
Never forget our nation recently participated in a coup d’état in Russia’s back yard – and continues to engage in all manner of assassinations, invasions and propaganda campaigns all over the world (often partnering with some very unsavory sorts in the process).
Which is one reason our national debt is bigger than our nation’s economy.
In other words, we need to “check ourselves before we wreck ourselves.”
Will won’t get that reference, obviously … but he needs to understand the underlying truths. All of us do.
I confess I’ve never heard of Fitsnews, but in a way I agree with the headline. I say “in a way” because I think Will does have his finger on America’s pulse, he just disagrees with it and has the courage to battle against it. I do not argue that Trumpism is the newest fad for many Americans that would say they lean to the right. It’s winning!
Guns calls me out for hating Trump. And he’s right, I thoroughly despise the man. I despise him because he assumes a power over my life I don’t want him to have. I despise all politicians for the same reason. It’s not personal, it’s business, as they say. You people would love me if Hillary had won.
What fills me with dread is to see so many of you follow the man with such devotion. I swear I think some of you slobber when you hear his name. No citizen should feel that way about any politician. When politics is involved your “cynic meter” should be set at ten. Don’t trust your enemy and don’t trust your friends even more. The nature of politics is violence, the threat of violence and betrayal. Trump has lived his entire life betraying people who trusted him. You know that but ignore it. Trump is counting on you ignoring it. You’re setting yourselves up for a huge shock one of these days. Just once try to put your emotional hatred of your political enemies aside, try to think objectively, ignore the spin from Fox News, think for yourselves. When Trump says or does something ask yourself what you would think if Obama had said or done it. Sermon over, let ‘er rip!
Dan, what you don't understand is that we all think that about Trump too. But he's far far better than Hillary or any of the 2020 field of Democrats.
That’s an excellent find. Yes, it was years ago, probably during the Clinton years that Limbaugh praised Will highly.
Limbaugh is an interesting character. He was probably the highest profile conservative there was. He told us repeatedly - countless times - that conservatives win elections. Then for 2016 the Republicans had multiple true-blue conservatives in the race and Limbaugh backed Trump. He obviously doesn’t back Trump for his conservatism. Trump’s not conservative. The only thing I can think of is Limbaugh is like so many of you, you love to see the Democrats and the Left be so incapacitated.
Anyway, I didn’t read through the whole transcript, but the part I did read Limbaugh bashed Will’s character (like you guys have done) and not his principles.
It's Nationalism vs Socialism. Nationalism needs to win and I think will, easily at least once more
I have extreme difficulty in believing that. I don’t think you’re lying to me, I think you’re lying to yourselves. We ALL think he’s 1000 times better than Hillary would have been. But Hillary lost, she’s no longer part of the picture. It’s time to turn your cynic-meter on the guy that won, the guy that has undeserved control over a major portion of your lives. I don’t see that happening on this board. I see looney lefties that criticize him for breathing. And the rest defending him no matter what he says or does. It’s not right, I say! The man makes mistakes, but few of you are willing to acknowledge them.
You do understand, I hope, that Nationalism and Socialism are the two major branches of Authoritarianism. They both lead us down the same path to the same destination. And that destination is not a happy place.
The actual struggle is between Authority and Liberty. If you’re backing Nationalism because you think it will be better than Socialism your are in serious error. Our country’s Founding was based on Liberty. Neither of the Authoritarian branches deserve a place at the table.
Undeserved? He won. How's it undeserved?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.da...economic-freedom-has-risen-significantly/amp/
Under Trump, US Economic Freedom Rises Significantly
"The U.S. economy is roaring like no other time in recent memory. The job market is hot, unemployment is down to record lows, and small business optimism is soaring.
"But this newfound dynamism didn’t come from nowhere. It required a package of market and consumer-friendly reforms passed by Congress and adopted by the Trump administration. These reforms have boosted economic freedom.
"According to The Heritage Foundation’s 2019 Index of Economic Freedom, America’s economic freedom has seen a dramatic boost—from 18th place in the world to 12th place in the span of just one year. America’s score ticked up by more than a full point from last year, reaching the highest level in eight years."
Under Trump, US Economic Freedom Rises Significantly
"The U.S. economy is roaring like no other time in recent memory. The job market is hot, unemployment is down to record lows, and small business optimism is soaring.
"But this newfound dynamism didn’t come from nowhere. It required a package of market and consumer-friendly reforms passed by Congress and adopted by the Trump administration. These reforms have boosted economic freedom.
"According to The Heritage Foundation’s 2019 Index of Economic Freedom, America’s economic freedom has seen a dramatic boost—from 18th place in the world to 12th place in the span of just one year. America’s score ticked up by more than a full point from last year, reaching the highest level in eight years."
Another swing and a miss. Limbaugh never endorsed any candidate, including Trump until after the nomination. And for you to say that "He was probably the highest profile conservative there was" just shows your level disconnect. I'm not surprised, actually.
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He won. He deserves to be president. He does not deserve to have the power over our lives he so clearly enjoys. No one does. As a people we have meekly relinquished one little piece of our liberty, drip, drip, drip so often we don’t even notice (or seem to care) that we have managed to give a politician almost dictatorial control over things. Politics has become sport, we pick a team and willingly ignore any malfeasance perpetrated by our team because the goal is for our team to win at all costs, even when the cost is borne by us, the guys rooting. Just win, baby. You can turn us into slaves as long as we can say our team won.
Essentially that’s what people like George Will are trying to get us to understand. He’s ruthlessly being vilified for it, which is a shame. We are willingly walking down the path toward serfdom, too caught up in the game the leaders of both teams have addicted us to.
That’s what I mean by undeserved.
Yes, Guns, Trump has done some good things. He’s not the devil incarnate. He’s a middlingly good president. He’s a politician. Politicians lie, scheme, betray, do things that hurt innocent people, get people killed and more, all in our name. When a politician does things that are wrong, whether morally or legally, it is our duty as a supposedly free people to raise hell about it. That applies to all of them, including Donald Trump. DJT is a human being, not an infallible deity. The way so many people on this board act about the man it seems they don’t understand that.
Can you point to any actions taken by Trump that would show he's going beyond his constitutional or legislatively granted authority? If not, your problem is with the Constitution or past congresses and administrations.
Also regarding this post. Yes Hillary lost (thank God). But I also pointed out that he is better than any Democrat in the 2020 field. If the Democrats trotted out someone not in the extreme of their party I'd consider them. But no, the Dems cast off any centrists like Howard Schultz.
Here is what you fail to grasp. It isn't about supporting Trump. It's about opposing the totally off the rails craziness that is the modern Democrat party.
I was a daily listener to Rush almost from his beginning. I didn’t agree with everything he advocated (he often advocated Big Government conservative solutions to things in opposition to Big Government liberal ones), but I loved to hear him skewer the Left. The country owes him a HUGE debt of gratitude for opening so many eyes to the evils promoted by the Left.
You are right in that Rush never formally endorsed a candidate. But if you paid the slightest bit af attention it was clear Trump was his man. When he got called out on it he did just what you are doing: “What, me? I haven’t endorsed anybody. I just love watching Trump play the media for the fools they are.”
As regards my use if the past tense “was” is concerned I was speaking of events from the past. So maybe I’m not quite as disconnected as you hope to believe. I have ceased listening to Rush, however. So I would argue if he continues to defend everything Trump is doing today, as you do, he has ceased being a conservative and has become the highest profile Nationalist today.
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Some undeniable truths: Trump is not a plantation cracker. Pastor Scott tells me Trump may be the best president for black America in his lifetime. I've never seen the smiles I now see down on 11th Street.
Trump only became our nation's leading racist and woman abuser when he announced his running for president. At an early age, I learned baseless racist charges is MO for the left.
My black American paternal school teacher auntie once told me one day the Africans would catch on to the Democrats' mountain of empty promises. Blexit? I'm holding my breath.
Trump only became our nation's leading racist and woman abuser when he announced his running for president. At an early age, I learned baseless racist charges is MO for the left.
My black American paternal school teacher auntie once told me one day the Africans would catch on to the Democrats' mountain of empty promises. Blexit? I'm holding my breath.
No, I DO grasp your attitude. What I am saying is you should support yourself, your individual liberty, not a team, and not one man. They all make mistakes, even Trump. When a president makes a mistake it can become catastrophic. We need to protect ourselves from potential mistakes politicians make. Even Trump. It’s fine to support him when he’s right about something (deregulation, for example), but he needs to hear from us loud and clear when he does something stupid (like hiring John Bolton to run his foreign war making policy). In Trump’s case as long as he knows he has your support no matter what he says or does he will never know he’s doing something wrong. And with a man like Trump (actually ANY politician that becomes president) he needs to have someone whispering in his ear every minute of every day that the people are watching and they don’t trust him.
I think what you don’t understand is I would say this no matter who was president. This isn’t me hating on Trump because he’s Trump. This is me hating on Trump because he’s the guy that won.
Seems like if Will were true to his conservative beliefs he wouldn't be going on MSNBC or CNN to lambast Trump. In that regard, he is no different than Brennan or Clapper.
I agree with the sentiment of your post, but it has nothing to do with the topic of the thread. Race hasn't been mentioned, and needn't be mentioned as part of this discussion.
The thing that springs instantly to mind is his insistence the War Powers Act gives him authority to go to war with any country at any time. The War Powers Act gives him no such authority, it was never intended to be used so cavalierly.
You are correct that my problem is not just with presidents claiming powers clearly not granted by the constitution, the cowardly congressmen are just as much to blame.
This makes no sense. Will blasts Trump for his Nationalism, pointing out that Nationalism is contrary to Conservatism. He goes anywhere they will have him to say so. That Brennan and Clapper blast Trump does not mean Will should remain quiet. Will's differences with Trump's Nationalism is VERY different from Brennan and Clapper. For you to suggest otherwise is just proof of your unyielding support for Trump, and unwillingness to actually listen to principled criticism of some of the man's actions and declarations. In that regard you are no different from Brennan and Clapper. You're just like them, only on the other side.
Can you cite an example of him saying or doing anything that wouldn't be in accordance with the War Powers Act?
Some in the Senate, most notably Rand Paul, have lectured Mike Pompeo that the WPA does not give the administration authority to go to war with Iran. Pompeo has said many times the administration believes it has authority to go to war with anyone. And between Pompeo and Bolton the neocons are doing everything they can think of to push Iran into war. I know you think Trump will stop them, and I hope you are right. But considering the circumstances from the last month or so it shouldn't surprise anyone if they manage to blunder Trump into war.
So that's a no, you can't cite any specific instance of Trump saying or actually doing something that is beyond his authority as granted by the War Powers Act.
I stopped listening to Will long before Trump, Brennan or Clapper appeared on the scene. George Will is a creature of DC and that's his primary allegiance. He should stick with baseball. Your posts here and in other threads may also suggest your Never Trumpness since very little he does fits your idea of what should happen. BTW, there are several things Trump does which I don't like nor agree with him about. But, I give him some leeway since he wasn't and isn't a recycled politician like Jeb or Kasich, or worse, Hillary.
This, absolutely. Take Trump out of it, if these are the two platforms we are having to choose from, we’ve already lost. That is terrifying to think we only have those two choices. Like you said, both lead to the same destination and have shown to repeatedly through history.
