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Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor

The War on Conservative Populism

May 19, 2016 --

What is all the anti-Trump commotion about? LPR believes it is all about the war on conservati ve populists waged by the neo-aristocrats desperate to continue their raison d’etre—as expressed in Federalist No. 57 by Madison: the “ambitious sacrifice of the many to the aggrandizement of the few.”

It is, LPR believes, a matter of Us – the People – against Them, the Neo-Aristocrats who are uncomfortable with the essence of populism, as expressed by Lincoln, commemorating the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863: …government of the people, by the people, for the people….” Lincoln concluded his remarks with the hope that such government “shall no perish from the earth.”

The anti-Trumpistas seem intent on ending such government in favor of the older form: government of the insiders, by the insiders, for the insiders.

Yet another shrill column from David Brooks, New York Times April 29, suggested that people who voted for Donald J. Trump “will be tainted forever after for the degradation of standards and the general election slaughter…. “Brooks went on to admit he has spent his life with people just like himself and then blurted out (in writing): “It takes an act of will to rip yourself out of that and go where you feel least comfortable.”

Michael Gerson, in his Washington Post column, May 10, surpassed the haughty airs of Brooks, declaring that the Trump voters “have crossed a moral boundary.” He would not require “a vote for Hillary Clinton, but he would forbid a vote for Donald J. Trump.

 

If this were 1776, “conservatives” like Brooks and Gerson would be engaged in a desperate effort to maintain the ancient regime, so as to continue living the life of comfort to which they were aristocratically accustomed.

The Washington Post and The New York Times editorial writers seem to be in fierce competition to come up with anti-Trump disparagements. The May 3 Washington Post editorial mentioned that Sen. Marco Rubio and Trump had been “trading crude insults.” This in an editorial with anti-Trump slurs, calling Trump’s nomination for president a “quite entirely odious prospect” and referring Trump as “the most repugnant political phenomenon in recent American history.”

Note from LPR:  Gerson,  according to the transcript of  the May 15 Face the Nation (FtN) panel, was never asked by moderator Dickerson about his May 10 column forbidding a vote for Donald J. Trump. Another May 15 FtN panelist, Jamelle Bouie of CBS New, could have been sent from the Democratic National Committee, given her zealous support for Hillary Clinton and her fervent demonizing of Trump.  Moderator Dickerson did end the program noting that Ben Rhodes, a senior aide for President Obama, is the brother of CBS News president David Rhodes.