"Trump voters are pro-military. Why are Trump and Carlson attacking the military?"
But the attack is on "woke generals," the "brass," and disloyal civilians in charge. It's an attempt to appeal to aggrieved troops and vets, and to divide the military and subvert civilian control.
It's a classic move from the authoritarian playbook.
Or from the fascist playbook.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Flynn becomes ever more central to the Trumpist movement. Military man, killed terrorists, fired by Obama, persecuted by the deep state, Trump loyalist, and QAnon. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he ran if Trump doesn’t in 2024.
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1. Short thread on TX-06.
Of the vote for Republican candidates in TX-06 (a bit over 60% of the total), about 20% of it went to candidates who were hostile to or expressed reservations about Trump, about 25% to super-Trump enthusiasts, and about 55% to the two front-runners...
2. ...one of whom was endorsed by Trump (Susan Wright), while the other wouldn't say a critical word about Trump (Jake Ellzey). You might say the GOP primary voters seem to have been (very roughly) 20% in line with Liz Cheney, 25% with Jim Jordan, and 55% with Kevin McCarthy.
3. One might note that Susan Wright, though leading in the first round, got less than 20% of the vote. And she'd been slightly ahead even before the Trump endorsement. Maybe a Trump endorsement isn't quite what it's cracked up to be?
2. "Kipling is a jingo imperialist, he is morally insensitive and aesthetically disgusting. It is better to start by admitting that, and then to try to find out why it is that he survives while the refined people who have sniggered at him seem to wear so badly."
3. "But because he identifies himself with the official class, he does possess one thing which ‘enlightened’ people seldom or never possess, and that is a sense of responsibility. The middle-class Left hate him for this quite as much as for his cruelty and vulgarity."
1. Hamilton in Federalist #22, on, in effect, the filibuster:
"To give a minority a negative upon the majority (which is always the case where more than a majority is requisite to a decision), is, in its tendency, to subject the sense of the greater number to that of the lesser.
2. "This is one of those refinements which, in practice, has an effect the reverse of what is expected from it in theory. The necessity of unanimity in public bodies, or of something approaching towards it, has been founded upon a supposition that it would contribute to security.
3. "But its real operation is to embarrass the administration, to destroy the energy of the government, and to substitute the pleasure, caprice, or artifices of an insignificant, turbulent, or corrupt junto, to the regular deliberations and decisions of a respectable majority.
1. Since you may have more time to read and ponder this tonight than when the week begins tomorrow, here's the famous impromptu discussion of the Declaration of Independence by Abraham Lincoln in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, on February 22, 1861--160 years ago tomorrow.
2. "I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here in the place where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which sprang the institutions under which we live.
3. "You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring peace to our distracted country. I can say in return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated...
160 years ago today. President-elect Lincoln speaks to the New Jersey Senate in Trenton, N.J.:
"I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that those men struggled for. I am exceedingly anxious...
2. "...that this thing which they struggled for, that something even more than national independence, that something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to come; I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution...
3. "...and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made; and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people...
1. A short thread addressed to my fellow Never Trumpers:
Cheer up!
2. We're all a little down. Conviction in the Senate seems unlikely. The Republican Party seems unsalvageable. Conservatism seems uninspiring. Even our new Democratic friends seem a bit uncertain about the path ahead.
3. But. Trump is gone. The operation was--barely--a success. We don't know if the patient will fully recover or when his health will truly be restored. But there’s at least a possibility. We have a chance.