The Blame Game (The Trump Ascendancy)
http://american-rattlesnake.org/2016/09/the-blame-game/
Quote:
One of the arguments which has preoccupied American journalists-and I’m being generous when I use that term-since Donald Trump’s nomination revolves around who is ultimately responsible for his political ascent. Likewise, conservativeNever Trump pundits have spent the last few months assigning blame for his capture of the GOP-offering culprits which range from Barack Obama to the seemingly ubiquitous scapegoat, the social justice warrior.
The shared conceit among these two very different groups being that the rise of Trump is a regrettable, even horrifying, political development. While it’s perfectly understandable why someone who works for The Weekly Standard, Commentary or National Review-or online bastions of never cons like The Federalist and Red State-would believe this to be so, that doesn’t mean it’s a correct assumption. Beyond exposing the foregoing publications for the shallow, utterly worthless institutions they are, Trump has managed to accomplish some things which are equally admirable, regardless of what you may think of him as either a politician or person.
He’s decoupled, perhaps permanently, the Republican Party from the neoconservative/nation-building impulse which has brought discredit not only upon the GOP but the philosophy of conservatism, to say nothing of the cost in lives and treasure to the United States. If the only thing Trump’s campaign accomplished this election cycle was to consign the opinions of John McCain and Lindsey Graham to political irrelevancy, and to force the likes of Robert Kagan and Max Boot to become standard bearers for the Democratic Party, then I would count it a success...
