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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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I really want Trump to get out of the fucking way. He had his shot at being the hero of the populist right, he failed comprehensively. Somehow his enemies were stronger than ever after his tenure, with an even tighter grip on the culture, the levers of power, and the minds of our youth than ever before. His entire presidency was the perfect examples of one step forward, two steps back. He simply was not the guy.

He appointed an unprecedented three SCOTUS judges in a single term and others. I would not call that a failure. Did other stuff too. Did he make the left worse? Possible, but correlation not causation. Of course, this was not contingent on Trump per say.

Is Desantis the guy? 70% chance he's not in my estimation. But I'm willing to give him a shot.

He seems even more of an 'establishment guy' than Trump.

My only hope is that he has too much pride to come slinking back to Twitter without Elon issuing a personal apology for the terrible way Twitter treated him, and begging him on his hands and knees to please grace Twitter with his genius and insight again. I guess I have to further hope Elon doesn't then go and do just that.

Why would he ask or expect an apology when both he and Elon know it was the old management who banned him.

He appointed an unprecedented three SCOTUS judges in a single term

That's congress's doing, not Trump's. All he did was sit in the chair. Any old stooge could have done that, and for less!

What do you mean? The president does nominate the person.

Right but any conservative president would have done the same. It's congress that made sure he got to nominate three instead of two.

any other "conservative president" would have lost in 2016 making this whole point moot anyway

"if only Trump didn't have X, Y, Z, and was A, B,C, he would be great" or "he just did stuff another GOP person would have done" counterfactuals as reasons to discount things he did or put space between things you like and things you don't like aren't strong arguments because other "conservative" president or GOP nominee would have lost in 2016 and the US would have been in the 2nd term

you would prefer a nicer, polished Trump? you think another guy in his place woulda done something he did you like anyway? okay, well that guy would have lost and it would be the 2nd term of Hillary Clinton right now

any other "conservative president" would have lost in 2016 making this whole point moot anyway

I disagree. If Trump hadn't run, we could have ended up with a boring normal republican who would have almost certainly won against doomed candidate Hillary Clinton. Of course no candidate in 2016's primary was equipped to deal with his shenanigans or frankly live in the meme economy at all.

you would prefer a nicer, polished Trump?

There are things I wish he'd done differently, even adjusting for our obvious political differences. I wish he'd kept turnover lower and cultivated effective leaders he could delegate to. I wish he'd handled Covid differently rather than deferring to states and letting the CDC go off on adventures. I wish he'd had a more pragmatic plan to deal with China. I wish he'd thought more carefully about his responsibility as a leader to set the stage for future leaders who aren't him.

A boring normal Republican would have been railroaded and lost because he wouldn't fight, just like Mitt Romney did in 2012 and John McCain did in 2008. And just like Mitt Romney was so mediocre the GOP couldn't take the Senate despite maybe the best metrics and seats to do so in decades, a normal Republican would not have won healthy majorities in Congress either.

If you look at the other likely Candidates in the absence of Trump, they would have lost the midwest. If they lost the midwest, they lose the election. Which one do you think would have turned unlikely voters who voted Obama in 2008 and 2012 into GOP voters? Certainly not Ted Cruz or Jeb Bush.

I wish he'd handled Covid differently rather than deferring to states and letting the CDC go off on adventures.

Trump was being impeached at the start of covid. He was regularly being threatened by his own party with removal if he changed the leadership at the CDC. Because of that, what he did was create a parallel group which oversaw stats reporting to stop the CDC from lying about it.

You may wish he did X, Y, or Z, and I certainly do, but we must remember what really happened during the COVID hysteria.

Romney and McCain were both up against the incredible charisma of Barak Obama. Either could have won handily over Clinton. Remember, Clinton lost to Obama and never really became a more compelling candidate afterwards.

Because of that, what he did was create a parallel group which oversaw stats reporting to stop the CDC from lying about it.

So in other words, dick-all.

we must remember what really happened during the COVID hysteria.

The rudderless response of a people with no leader.

Which one do you think would have turned unlikely voters who voted Obama in 2008 and 2012 into GOP voters

Rubio?

Romney and McCain were both up against the incredible charisma of Barak Obama

the tea party came storming in to take back the house in 2010 because of how disastrously bad Obama's policies were and this was even more true in 2012

Either could have won handily over Clinton

based on what? the only single thing you've said is Hillary was unlikeable

okay, so what?

So in other words, dick-all.

doing "dick-all" would have been far better than 99% of other GOP who were active participants in the covid hysteria

The rudderless response of a people with no leader.

the "leaders" were going full steam ahead to hysteria; almost every single one across almost every institution in western society

Rubio?

rubio couldn't even do it in Florida, so no