A Principled Conservative On Trump
In an interview at Fault Lines with Scott Greenfield and David Meyer-Lindenberg, OC Prosecutor and longtime blogger Patrick Frey explains:
A. I do not think that support for Trump, by itself, reflects a betrayal of limited-government principles. Plenty of my readers, like me, supported another candidate in the primary, and don't care for Trump. Many of those people voted for Trump just because he is not Hillary Clinton. That was not my decision, but I understand it and can't criticize that point of view.However, on May 3, 2016, the day Ted Cruz bowed out of the race, I instantly saw that the Republican party was going to start conforming itself to Trump's vision more than I knew I would be comfortable with. Republicans were going to support big government initiatives, worry less about state sovereignty and the Constitution, and defend any number of outrageous Trumpy statements and positions. I wanted no part of it, and I wanted to disassociate myself from a Trump-led Republican Party in a very public and clear way.
My abandonment of the GOP, and my personal distaste for Trump, have been very disturbing to the part of my readership that is more partisan and less concerned with limited government principles. It's difficult to watch some long-time readers view me as a "leftist" and treat me contemptuously, as if I were the enemy, simply because I can't stand the demagogue that has seized control of the Republican party. But I don't change my views to suit my readers. I suspect some other bloggers have -- especially those who are dependent on their blogs for income. In that sense, it's nice to have a day job. It makes it easier to say what I really think.
I despise Donald Trump as a person. I liked that state senator's description of Trump as a "loofa-faced shitgibbon." He's obviously a vindictive, nasty, narcissistic, dishonest clown who has probably never read a book in his life. He is the best argument for the irrationality of the American voter we have ever seen. That said, I wasn't looking forward to Hillary Clinton being in office, and I think Trump has done and will do some good things. His selection of Neil Gorsuch to replace Justice Scalia was brilliant.
You asked about immigration. I'm very sympathetic to Trump's concerns over an influx of refugees from war-torn Muslim nations. I don't think that accepting those refugees in large numbers with insufficient screening has worked out very well for Germany. The Nordic countries have seen their very successful cultures threatened by an inordinate number of immigrants with a murderous ideology and a desire to inflict Sharia law on everyone. All that being said, I am a fierce critic of runaway executive power, and I think Trump should be working with Congress on this issue. It's also beyond debate that Trump's rollout of this particular executive order was hasty, slipshod, and illegal as applied to green card holders and other visa holders.
Patrick blogs here.
Obviously, "principled conservative" means something different to you than it does to me. It would never occur to me to claim that someone who has engaged in hundreds of entrepreneurial ventures and controls over $4 billion of personal wealth had never read a book.
Just another hater.
Radwaste at February 16, 2017 5:48 AM
Yeah another "open" mind there.
Bob in Texas at February 16, 2017 5:56 AM
I got what I wanted out of a Trump presidency
Liberals suddenly care about the rule of law and executive overreach again.
The shrill bitching and flagrant hypocrisy as they lose their shit over Trump doing exactly what Obama did is a fucking hilarious bonus
lujlp at February 16, 2017 6:23 AM
Trump:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-doesnt-read-much-being-president-probably-wouldnt-change-that/2016/07/17/d2ddf2bc-4932-11e6-90a8-fb84201e0645_story.html?utm_term=.cffeb3b08e92
More:
Do we believe this? In the same story in which he says he's never had time to read?
Amy Alkon at February 16, 2017 6:34 AM
Reading gives you a view of the other side, other people's points of view. Even if you think they're wrong, it tends to advance your thinking.
Wanting to believe Patrick is wrong about Trump doesn't make him wrong.
Amy Alkon at February 16, 2017 6:35 AM
> Just another hater.
It's like Trump supporters are having the teenage quarrel they've been wanting to have their whole lives, ever since they got shot down by the pretty girl in the lunchroom or the football sidelines or whatever.... They've been practicing and practicing and now that they have a fellow 8th-grader positioned in national attention, they're just going to suck every last drop of his candy-candy goo. Facts (Trump's personal wealth?) matter no more than do his absent principles (immigration?).
> Just another hater.
That's a thing that you said in a blog comment just now. You are sincerely operating at that level of interaction with opposing (and merely divergent!) political opinions. "Hater"... As if they never gave the little guy a chance.
Crid at February 16, 2017 7:03 AM
> Just another hater.
Kinda like this. Two different military raids. Both planned by Obama analysts. One done during Obama. One done during Trump. Both have civilian and American military deaths.
But the "news" analysis. Nonexistent on one.
The other: "Reuters quoted anonymous military sources who placed the blame for any losses or failures squarely on Donald Trump."
Haters driving the "illusion" desired by MSM, Dems, and "I want Hillary". No other explanation possible on this as I see it. Where am I wrong.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444766/yemen-raid-donald-trump-barack-obama-john-mccain-sean-spicer-media
Bob in Texas at February 16, 2017 7:54 AM
"Haters." Because their hearts are full of hatred.
Unnecessarily.
As of 9:04AM PST (17:04 UTC) 16Feb2017, it's unlikely that I'll ever trust a Trump voter to deploy such rhetoric ironically.
Crid at February 16, 2017 9:05 AM
Mine is the last generation to have taken Time magazine more seriously than it deserved to be taken.
(Though there were many before ours!!! Many!!)
(!!)
But this is indisputably the funniest cover they ever had.
Crid at February 16, 2017 9:19 AM
Sigh. "Wanting to believe Patrick is wrong about Trump doesn't make him wrong."
Wanting to believe he is right doesn't make him right.
Go ahead. Tell me the illiterate and uninformed control billions, involved in hundreds of entrepreneurial contracts entered into by other, very interested parties.
Chances are, you tried to tell me that personal friend of the Clintons was an idiot, even though he qualified to and flew F-102s.
Now, I am not nuanced extensively enough for some of our regulars. Don't care. The initial assertion hasn't really been made, and I am also not surprised at this because so many people are still fixated on what is SAID, as opposed to what is DONE.
Radwaste at February 16, 2017 9:59 AM
I would never call Frey a hater. He has his principles and they aren't unreasonable. That said, I think he and a lot of other anti-Trump people on the right don't understand why Trump got elected. And no, it's not due to "ignorant American voters". Indulge me here as I go all sports-analogy on you... it's hackneyed, but it still illustrates the point.
Trump's election was basically Middle America throwing a Hail Mary pass. As they see it, there's five seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Marxist radicals are up by four points, and Team America has the ball on its own 40-yard line. You have to try something; if you don't, you concede defeat. You can't run a safe play because the opponent has fielded a really good defense, and three yards on an up-the-middle handoff won't help. A field goal won't help because that's only three points, and besides, you're too far away. There's only one thing to do. You have to air out the ball.
The GOP has run "safe" candidates ever since George H. Bush. It worked for a little while, but then the defense got smart. Dole and McCain were handoff-up-the-middle candidates, and much of the field in this year's primary were the same. Cruz maybe was a double reverse, but a defense that stays home and sticks to its game plan will stop that too. The Hail Mary is the disruptor, the play that has a poor average of success, but on any one attempt, you never know. It forces the defense out of its game plan. And if you're out of other options, why not. Trump was the Hail Mary candidate.
So now the ball's in the air. Who is going to catch it? Remains to be seen. It could turn out badly. But a low-probability play is still better than a zero-probability play.
Cousin Dave at February 16, 2017 10:04 AM
"I despise Donald Trump as a person. I liked that state senator's description of Trump as a "loofa-faced shitgibbon.""
Regardless of what *I* say, this is not the speech of a "principled conservative" unless and until he shows me he has gained this opinion from other than watching TV. Is it OK for senators to say that now all over, or only if the President is white?
Further:
"It's also beyond debate that Trump's rollout of this particular executive order was hasty, slipshod, and illegal as applied to green card holders and other visa holders."
Obviously, the man has not read the law on the matter; I doubt that he has read the actual EO because of its numerous citations of existing law.
He's simply not in Trump's clique, or he identifies with those who are not, and resents it.
By the way, although I do not work in the facility out here which handles special nuclear material, *I* am required to undergo screening when I return from any nation not on a whitelist - and I have had a security clearance of some kind since 1979.
Radwaste at February 16, 2017 10:17 AM
That said, I think he and a lot of other anti-Trump people on the right don't understand why Trump got elected.
I wrote this for people on the left who didnt understand why Trump got elected in response to a few frinds posting articles about how shaming Trump voters wanst as effective as they thought it would be
-------------------------------------------------
They wont change, liberals have had a 25 year run where all they did was scold and its all they know at this point.
The years of Clinton was scolding, when Bush won liberals didnt see it as a rejection of their ideology, they saw it as a combo of Gore being a robot and people not understanding.
They chalked Bush winning again to a war boost and Kerry getting screwed by the press (which he was)
When Obama won they thought the scolding had worked, it never occurred to them that the majority of white people weren't racist and would vote for a black guy without constant hectoring.
Of course they voted for someone [Obama] they thought was an outsider, I kept asking how a junior senator became a front runner with the largest war chest in history if he were an outsider, but no one listened.
The thing those on the left dont get is voters are sick of the partisanship and hypocrisy.
It really isnt a wonder that those who voted for Obama also voted for Trump, race was never an issue for them, nor was identity politics, they wanted an outsider who could break the status quo.
They didnt get it with Obama who was never the outsider he portrayed himself as - so those on the left went with Sanders, who they viewed as an outsider, and was outsider enough to get screwed over by the DNC.
But they dont understand WHY people really voted for Obama, they believe it was their SJW bullshit and moral hectoring.
They've been pushing it for twenty five years never noticing that it was being rejected at every turn, its all they know at this point
Its why they cant believe an odious un-PC troll like Trump won, its why they are all losing the effing minds now
lujlp at February 16, 2017 12:07 PM
"Haters," you call them.
Crid at February 16, 2017 3:47 PM
> Sigh.
Rhetoric!
(Don't be butthurt, Raddy. I hate that when collegepeople do it, too.)
Crid at February 16, 2017 3:50 PM
"This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine." — President Donald J. Trump, February 16, 2017
Crid at February 16, 2017 8:19 PM
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