Jonah Goldberg: Trump was right, the election was about him

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Let the post-mortems begin! This is a take from a noted conservative columnist:

"One reason many of Mr. Trump’s biggest fans love him is that he “owns the libs.” As Donald Trump Jr. said on election night, “We cannot only keep making America great again, but we can make liberals cry again!”

Among the myriad problems with this juvenile attitude: It invites a backlash. Democrats turned out in massive numbers not to vote for Joe Biden but to vote against Donald Trump. Mr. Trump energized the Democratic base.

Just as important, Mr. Trump gave Republicans and independents who prefer Republican policies (or who dislike extreme Democratic policies that have tainted the Democratic brand) an excuse not to vote for him.

One of the defining features of pro-Trump apologetics is to hold everybody but Mr. Trump to standards of decorum, honesty and good character. If you complain about Mr. Trump’s unreasonableness you’re the one being unreasonable. “Get over it. That’s just who he is.”

One problem with this argument is that it assumes Mr. Trump is owed loyalty from those who don’t like his behavior or many of his policies, while Mr. Trump owes nothing to them. Mr. Trump said many times that he could act presidential if he wanted to, but that would be “so boring.” Heaven forbid a president be forced to do something boring for the good of the country or his party.

This attitude, both on Mr. Trump’s part and among his boosters, served him better than many of us expected. He attracted new voters to the GOP and kept most of the party with him. But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to counteract the backlash from Democrats and independents, and it wasn’t enough to hold on to the Republicans who were happy to vote for other Republicans but not for four more years of a man who believed that the presidency was only about him.

The lesson of this election: Americans just weren’t that into him."

 
So did Trump do poorly with independents, as Jonah claims? If so, why was the vote so close? I saw an exit poll the evening of the election that said that independents were breaking for Biden, but have not heard or seen anything confirming that since.
 
Jonah Goldberg is a" Never Trumper" so no one is going to pay any attention.
 
Oh, I didn’t see the ‘Never Trumpers Need Not Apply’ sign hanging in the front window of CAF! 😉
 
Correction…a noted conservative never Trumper ,let’s not kid ourselves that ajG speaks for those who support and voted for PresidentvTrump
 
gam197 said:
Jonah Goldberg is a" Never Trumper" so no one is going to pay any attention.
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Because he’s anti-Trump no one will pay attention? There’s a problem with only being willing to hear one side.

Goldberg takes Trump apologists to task. I particularly liked this part:

“One of the defining features of pro-Trump apologetics is to hold everybody but Mr. Trump to standards of decorum, honesty and good character. If you complain about Mr. Trump’s unreasonableness you’re the one being unreasonable. “Get over it. That’s just who he is.””
 
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There’s a problem with you trying to pass off as objective opinions by a Conservative ,as speaking for the party as a whole,it’s disingenuous. All these never Trumpers from politicians to the likes of J G to Brett Baehr Martha McCallum ,Chris Wallace,are just those of elitists who resent President Trump for having the nerve to try and break into their exclusive club.
 
Jeanne_S said:
There’s a problem with you trying to pass off as objective opinions by a Conservative ,as speaking for the party as a whole,it’s disingenuous.
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Jonah Goldberg, while a noted conservative, never adhered to GOP mainstream required rhetoric. He was one of the few to call out the Republican party for its history of racism.

He is a noted conservative nonetheless. Since he is not strictly a journalist, I would not think that his writings are objective. However, the truth is the truth no matter who speaks it.
 
You are entitled to your own opinion just not your own facts.
 
You know, whatever, Biden and Trump may have the two highest popular vote totals ever, Trump had high approval in the Republican party. A blue wave never materialized. I don’t know much about Goldberg, I’ve heard of him but someone like Bill Kristoll is totally out of it, he’d be called a Neo-Con.

It sounds like Goldberg is called a Neo-Con, may want aggressive US foreign policy meaning possibly war and things like that. One can research it for themselves.
 
Jeanne_S said:
All these never Trumpers from politicians to the likes of J G to Brett Baehr Martha McCallum ,Chris Wallace,are just those of elitists who resent President Trump for having the nerve to try and break into their exclusive club.
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What a bunch of nonsense.
 
To me calling someone a never-trumper, just like calling someone a neo-con, is simply name-calling and a way to shut down conversation. For the record, Jonah does not identify as a ‘never-trumper’; he has always said he will praise Trump when he deserves it but he also won’t change his principles just because Trump has taken over the party. Which is precisely how I feel.
 
tomarin said:
To me calling someone a never-trumper, just like calling someone a neo-con, is simply name-calling and a way to shut down conversation.
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Except neoconservativism was a real idea that was pushed through the likes of Irving Kristol and the devotees of Leo Strauss, and which involved into such organizations as the PNAC, and subsequently had a hand in the foreign policy of the Bush administration and beyond.
 
I’m quite familiar with the evolution of the term. At some point though it became a pejorative that was flung at people who never identified with it to discredit them. In the old iteration of this forum it was not allowed to call people ‘neocons’ for that reason. Here on this forum the term ‘never trumper’ has come to fill that same role and it’s often applied to people who do not consider themselves part of that group or movement.
 
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I have yet to hear you praise Trump,if I am wrong correct me
 
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I praised him for killing the Iranian spymaster. (I know no one can read all of my posts.) And I think he’s done a good job with SC judges.
 
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