“Fleece Vest” or “MAGA Hat”: Which one are you?
Gerard Baker for the Wall Street Journal:
Sometimes, if I listen very carefully, I can hear in my head the fragments of a dialogue between two voices that capture the ambivalence felt by thoughtful conservatives about their current policy choices. Yes, I’m hearing voices, so maybe you don’t want to take anything I say seriously. But before you demand my immediate institutionalization, at least listen to the conversation, and as Donald Trump builds an unassailable lead in the just-started-but-seemingly-over Republican primaries, ask yourself if maybe you’re not listening the same things It goes like this:
Conservative in fleece: “How can you vote for Trump?”
Conservative in MAGA hat: “How come you’re not voting for Trump?”
Fleece: “Sorry, you’re going to have to explain yourself.”
MAGA hat: “You go first.”
Here’s what the curator of the “MAGA hat” had to say:
Barret MAGA: “Well, for starters, you’ve acknowledged that Mr. Trump has been the victim of an unprecedented level of institutional obstruction, denigration, and even prosecution. That alone excuses much of his behavior.
“And I’m not so sure the 2020 election wasn’t stolen. Maybe the fraud stuff didn’t go through the courts, but the whole way the election was conducted; the Covid emergency voting provisions; the media manipulation of history; the ongoing background threat of a repeat of that summer’s street violence by far-left mobs if Trump won. Are you sure it was a free and fair election?
“But here’s the most important thing now:
“People voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 (and again in 2020) because he was the most plausible advocate for those of us who are no longer prepared to tolerate the destruction of our culture and nation by an elite that despises us. During decades, conservatives sat back as the progressive revolution swept away our institutions, substituting open borders for controlled immigration, global economic opportunity for national interests, a green orthodoxy and a reawakened for traditional values and faith.
“It was Mr. Trump who led the counter-revolution. In this electoral cycle it is more important than ever that we prevail. Counter-revolution is igniting around the world in places as diverse as Argentina and the Netherlands, while left-wing soldiers around the world are in the streets supporting Hamas.
“Do you really think anyone other than Donald Trump is capable of this? He has transformed politics, turning the GOP into a multi-ethnic coalition of Americans committed to defending conservative values.
To see what the “polar vest” had to say in this hypothetical exchange, rread it all Archive link here.
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