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Why we are so lucky to have Trump as President


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2019 Feb 10, 11:49am   5,005 views  65 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/01/28/dennis_prager_i_was_wrong_donald_trump_is_a_great_president.html

“My opposition to Donald Trump was wrong,” said Dennis Prager, describing Donald Trump as a “great president” whose political successes are connected to a disregard for the left-wing and partisan Democrat news media narratives.

Prager’s comments came during Thursday’s episode of his eponymous radio show. While Prager has said that Trump was his last choice during the Republican primaries, he supported him vigorously in the general election against Hillary Clinton.

“The only way to govern [while advancing] the principles of conservatism,” said Prager, was to disregard left-wing and partisan Democrat agitation pushed across the news media landscape. Prager said:

I was wrong. My opposition to Donald Trump was wrong, in retrospect. I was wrong. I had friends who supported him, and I didn’t understand them. I said, “Are you not aware of what he said about John McCain? Isn’t that enough to disqualify the guy?” They perceived in him what I did not perceive in him, that these over-the-top statements – as objectionable as the statements themselves may be, and none of them defended the statements – nevertheless, what they perceived was accurate: a man who doesn’t give a damn about what the press says about him. That is the only way to govern. It is the only way to advance the principles of conservatism in the United States is to not give a damn.

“[Donald Trump] is so much better a president than Mitt Romney would’ve made,” said Prager, describing Romney as “tepid” and concerned with appealing to news media outlets such as The New York Times.

A president’s actions are a more important metric of presidential success than a president’s demeanor, said Prager:

Would I like Donald Trump to have Mitt Romney’s temperament, or for that matter Barack Obama’s temperament? Yeah. So what? I would like a whole host of things. People are packages. What a president does is more important to me than a president’s demeanor. He is so much better a president than Mitt Romney would’ve made. Mitt Romney would’ve awakened every day to read The New York Times editorial page to see how he’s covered. Mitt Romney gave us Romneycare in Massachusetts. I campaigned for Mitt Romney, he would’ve been a better president [than Barack Obama]. Any Republican is better than any Democrat, that’s just the way it is. Having said that, Romney would’ve been a tepid president. Nothing comparably conservative compared to Donald Trump.

Concerns with a president’s demeanor should be secondary to broader analyses of a president’s impact, said Prager.

“He has turned out to be a great president with big communication flaws, in the way he tweets and some of the things he says and his temperament,” said Prager. “My temperament is the opposite. I love dignity. I love understatement. Okay, so be it. So what? I’m not sure I’d be as good a president as he. How do you like that? That’s how good he’s been.”

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1   Al_Sharpton_for_President   2019 Feb 10, 12:00pm  

I listen to Prager when driving around. Pretty sensible dude.
2   Patrick   2019 Feb 10, 12:05pm  

I never heard of Prager before.

But I think he's spot-on. Trump gets instantly rejected by a lot of people just because of his style, but he's actually accomplished a great deal and we are all safer and more prosperous because of Trump.
4   marcus   2019 Feb 10, 12:28pm  

personal
5   marcus   2019 Feb 10, 12:37pm  

Patrick says
It is the only way to advance the principles of conservatism in the United States is to not give a damn.


Really ? Conservatism ?
6   Shaman   2019 Feb 10, 12:52pm  

This is what I’ve been saying about Trump. His personal style can be pretty abrasive, and his motives might be self-aggrandizing or shallow, but his ability and purpose is to do those things which cause the greatest benefit for the citizens of the USA. We haven’t had a POTUS with that goal in my lifetime. He’s the first, and he’s been able to get a surprising amount done with a hostile government and media arrayed against him. His headwinds were incredible, but he keeps tacking back and forth and keeps making progress against the Leftist Storm.
7   Patrick   2019 Feb 10, 1:05pm  

Amen.
8   Patrick   2019 Feb 10, 1:24pm  

No trolling intended. I mean it all.
9   FuckTheMainstreamMedia   2019 Feb 10, 2:23pm  

Patrick says
I don't care much about conservatism per se, but I do think traditional values became traditional exactly because they helped us survive into the next generation. Pretty much everything the current identity-politics left promotes is fatal to humanity in the long run: feminism, homosexuality, Islam, relentless division by race, promotion of grievance studies, open borders.

Trump's presidency is a massive win for freedom from an ever-more-oppressive thought police. It gives me hope that the left will not actually succeed in killing off humanity "for the sake of the planet".


This is very true. I still have no idea how the left continues to hang the Nazi/facist tag on President Trump. There is literally not one single thing that President Trump has advocated or enacted that indicate President Trump is a Nazi or Facist.
10   FuckTheMainstreamMedia   2019 Feb 10, 2:28pm  

Patrick says
I never heard of Prager before.

But I think he's spot-on. Trump gets instantly rejected by a lot of people just because of his style, but he's actually accomplished a great deal and we are all safer and more prosperous because of Trump.


https://860amtheanswer.com/radioshow/171

Don’t know what time though in SF.

He’s on 9am-noon in LA.

I really think you’d also like Larry Elder.

https://860amtheanswer.com/radioshow/138
11   curious2   2019 Feb 10, 2:34pm  

Patrick says
I mean it all.


Patrick says
fatal to humanity in the long run: feminism, homosexuality, Islam, relentless division by race, promotion of grievance studies, open borders.


@Patrick, you've suddenly claimed 6 different things are "fatal to humanity in the long run." I'll grant you #3, Islam, is potentially fatal to humanity. In contrast, your new comment about 1&2 seems to contradict your prior "theory" about women and men and what they are "wired" to want: if all men are "wired" to want t&a, and all women are wired to want bearded alpha men, then how could feminism and homosexuality even exist, let alone prove "fatal to humanity in the long run?" Can you see that different people want different things, and that some sort of natural balance evolved? Similarly, regarding #6, national borders did not exist for most of human history, so it is difficult to see how open borders would suddenly prove "fatal to humanity." Are you perhaps asserting a Malthusian argument? As for #4 & #5, which are closely related, your prior comments that such divisions hinder cooperation and promote mistrust had evidence to support them, but how do you make the leap to your new conclusion?

You commented previously that you had rejected the core premise of Vatican doctrine, but you seem now to be advocating many of its conclusions with no foundation. (Some exceptions: the Vatican supports open borders and the Pope demands that Europeans must support the spread of Islam.) That comes from somewhere, and depends on maintaining a level of ignorance. I took a break from PatNet after your comment about wanting "traditional education," whatever that means. Did you mean Spartan education, for example? Sparta prospered for longer than all of American history. You might find Spartan traditions very interesting. Those would be facts, though. I can see that marcus prefers ignorance for emotional reasons, but I don't see why you seem now to want to create a "safe space" away from facts that you might not like or understand. If AF runs for POTUS on a platform of returning to Spartan traditional education, it would probably make border control unnecessary, especially in the context of cannibal anarchy. Otherwise I see people coughing up unfounded 'truthiness' from some pervasive institute of ignorance, which would be an unfortunate direction for PatNet.
12   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Feb 10, 2:43pm  

Traditional Education: What is The Good, The True, and the Beautiful? Learning how to think. Reading the time proven classics, by which I mean thousands of years, like Aristotle and Homer and Plato - yes, even under 17 as was true for the educated in most of the past. Phonics and Rote Memorization of basic math, rather than sight reading (which comes anyway) and Whole Math (Most under 8 years old don't have mathematical abstract reasoning, so it's pointless child torture). Shakespeare and the Bible, Basic Mechanics, etc. No Akabe Fufumo "How Whites Oppress us in the Congo 60 years after Independence". Actual building of windmills/turbines, bridges, etc.

Classic Education would definitely include Sappho and Ovid and Horace, which is nice and inclusive. Sappho was recognized as the greatest Poet by the Ancients.

That's how I see Classical Education.
13   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Feb 10, 2:50pm  

As for Feminism, women want both Alpha and Beta Traits. However, with the Welfare State, Beta Traits (Building Shelter, Material Provision, Security) among men have been utterly devalued.

Since women can be supported via taxes on all, they don't appreciate or reward Beta Behaviors, which disincentivizes heterosexual males from building and maintaining production and society.

That's extremely bad for society.

I don't think Homosexuality is bad for society, they've always been with us, and even when it was naked and permitted, Humans flourished. Indeed some of the greatest men in Western Civ were Gay. Feminism combined with a Welfare State, however, is extremely dangerous.
14   curious2   2019 Feb 10, 2:52pm  

MisterLearnToCode says
That's how I see Classical Education.


I would agree with all of that except Shakespeare and the Bible. I like Shakespeare, but this being America, I'd favor American authors who wrote in American English, including especially the founders; Ben Franklin should be read more widely than he is. Similarly, having read the entire KJV, it's mostly a snooze. Reading Numbers is like reading a phone book. Also, if a public school requires reading the bible, then it would need to set that in a context of multiple religious texts, e.g. Koran and Bhagavad Gita, so it would mean devoting more time to religion at the expense of other topics. I think it's better to promote a shared American heritage.
15   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Feb 10, 2:54pm  

curious2 says
I would agree with all of that except Shakespeare and the Bible. I like Shakespeare, but this being America, I'd favor American authors who wrote in American English, including especially the founders; Ben Franklin should be read more widely than he is. Similarly, having read the entire KJV, it's mostly a snooze. Reading Numbers is like reading a phone book. Also, if a public school requires reading the bible, then it would need to set that in a context of multiple religious texts, e.g. Koran and Bhagavad Gita, so it would mean devoting more time to religion at the expense of other topics. I think it's better to promote a shared American heritage.



Agreed with most of this, what makes the Bible important is a Cipher for pre-modern art and literature. References and so forth. It would be less important than in previous eras, but still of utility. It's also inseparable from American Heritage (Puritans, Anti-Slavery, so-called Temperance)

Greco-Roman Mythology is equally important not just for the Ancient Writers/Artists, but once kids start getting into the Renaissance.
16   curious2   2019 Feb 10, 2:55pm  

Patrick says
I don't want to argue with you.


It's difficult to reconcile that comment with your previous comment.

Patrick says
I just don't think homosexuality is a good thing for humanity in the long run.


That sentence contains two independent clauses. The first, about thinking, is consistent with your previous comment. As for the second, about homosexuality, consider the evidence: Sparta prospered mightily for longer than all of American history. The only way to maintain the combined sentence is to insist on the first clause, while ignoring the second.

Insisting on a falsehood, and wanting not to see it disproved, is the sort of trolling I would expect from marcus, not you.
17   curious2   2019 Feb 10, 3:01pm  

MisterLearnToCode says
It's also inseparable from American Heritage (Puritans, Anti-Slavery, so-called Temperance)

Greco-Roman Mythology is equally important not just for the Ancient Writers/Artists, but once kids start getting into the Renaissance.


Those are good points. The founders had read Greco-Roman tradition, and the KJV, so it would make sense to combine those as part of understanding American heritage. Likewise they are part of western art and literature, including the Renaissance. So, it wouldn't be about telling people to believe in Zeus and Mars or Jehovah and the saints, it would be about providing a grounding to understand the political and artistic heritage of western culture.
18   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Feb 10, 3:09pm  

curious2 says
Those are good points. The founders had read Greco-Roman tradition, and the KJV, so it would make sense to combine those as part of understanding American heritage. Likewise they are part of western art and literature, including the Renaissance. So, it wouldn't be about telling people to believe in Zeus and Mars or Jehovah and the saints, it would be about providing a grounding to understand the political and artistic heritage of western culture.



Exactly. There are wayyy too many competing theologies to teach the Bible as Religion, but as Literature and Quasi-History - the same as the battle of Troy which was based on a real place and possibly actual war but was distorted over time/for storytelling purposes. Same with the Bible which does the same with Real Events.
19   marcus   2019 Feb 10, 3:44pm  

Patrick says
I don't care much about conservatism per se, but I do think traditional values became traditional exactly because they helped us survive into the next generation


I'm relatively conservative which is why TRump and TRumpism is repugnant to me. Todays right wing is not conservative.





MAGA should mean these things. IT doesn't not even close.

Patrick says
the current identity-politics left promotes is fatal to humanity in the long run: feminism, homosexuality, Islam, relentless division by race, promotion of grievance studies, open borders.


None of that fits me all that much. I hate identity politics, including the racist identity politics that captured such a significant fraction of the Trump voters.. I'm somewhat on the same page as you regarding homosexuality being a bad choice, the times that it is a choice, but it often isn't a choice.At the same time I also believe in freedom and tolerance. I don't care for the SJW far left, but they are going to probably be needed in the future, more than the right wing nuts that worry too much about their guns being taken away, or about estate taxes and taxes on billionaires being too high.
20   marcus   2019 Feb 10, 3:49pm  

Patrick says

Why we are so lucky to have Trump as President


The biggest thing you got is right wing scotus picks and lower taxes on the rich and corporations.

THe massive decrease in world standing, royally messed up institutions, extreme political polarization (far more than with Obama), and racial tensions, were all just icing on the cake for the Trumpeters.
21   curious2   2019 Feb 10, 4:20pm  

The first two comments below are false, but the last two reveal the truth:

marcus says
I'm relatively conservative which is why TRump and TRumpism is [sic] repugnant to me.


marcus says
I'm a liberal.


marcus says
I'm trolling the Trump defenders....


marcus says
Can't you let me troll them for a minute ?


Thus, in the final comments, we see the motivation: trolls just want to keep on trolling. It generates attention, in the form of page views. It can sometimes be funny, but other times the lack of self-awareness or memory results in obvious contradictions.
22   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Feb 10, 4:38pm  

Great Conversation:

Adler sponsored the next two volumes, "The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon", as a way of emphasizing the unity of the set and, by extension, of Western thought in general. A team of indexers spent months compiling references to such topics as "Man's freedom in relation to the will of God" (Predestination vs. Free Grace; Nature vs. Nurture) and "The denial of void or vacuum in favor of a plenum" ("There is no Nothing")

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World

For those who don't think a classical education in K-12 is useful:

Similarly, in China, the fulcrum of a classical education was the study and understanding of a core canon, the Four Books and Five Classics.

In Taiwan, Classical Chinese takes up 35% of Chinese education in junior high school (7-9th grade, compulsory), and 65% in senior high school (10-12th grade).

Taiwanese students are significantly better in Science and Math than American Students.

The Greatest Defender of the Western Tradition in the 20th Century, a Secular Jew who very late converted to Catholicism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer_J._Adler

Through the Vehicle of Encyclopaedia Brittanica:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World
23   GNL   2019 Feb 10, 5:20pm  

Trump is not good on the 2nd and 4th amendments.

He is a big proponent of civil asset forfeiture and he said "Take the guns first then go to court"
25   Tenpoundbass   2019 Feb 10, 5:23pm  

If a Red Hat defends you. Then there are thousands of Parents out there that needs to defend their Children from you.
26   FuckTheMainstreamMedia   2019 Feb 10, 5:30pm  

marcus says


Care to post anymore figments of your imagination?

I swear its hilarious how much the left projects.
27   Tenpoundbass   2019 Feb 10, 5:33pm  

If this red hat triggers you. Then you are the danger to society. Society owes you nothing but our safety from you. The unhinged Lunatics.
28   clambo   2019 Feb 10, 6:13pm  

Trump is a good president, and he is as "insensitive and crude" as the idiots who attack him. Trump is only fighting fire with fire.

We can't have a guy like Romney in there because Romney would not fight back when Harry Reid lied about him not paying tax. We don't want a punching bag as a leader.

We can't have a guy like George Bush for this reason and others; he didn't recognize the value of money. Why in the fuck did the USA spend so much money in Iraq, including an embassy for a gazillion bucks?

I liked Reagan's style and demeanor but the press and the Democrats were not all foaming at the mouth then, and Carter didn't sic the spies on to him before the election.

Trump's "crude" demeanor is a direct reaction to the abuse of the FISA wiretap warrants set up to fight foreign terrorists; Obama and others abused the system to stop Trump.

If Donald Trump were half as mean as he is supposed to be, he would begin to have Hillary, Comey, McCabe, Brennan and their ilk investigated then prosecuted. Maybe someday he will.

Nobody who has a job can argue against limiting foreign workers coming into the USA illegally.
29   marcus   2019 Feb 10, 6:22pm  

CovfefeButDeadly says
I swear its hilarious how much the left projects.


You can swear whatever you want to. But there are literally many tens of millions of literate, intelligent, politically moderate, and objective observers of reality, that see it more or less this way. And yes, another 10 million or whatever on the far left that see it this way too.

CovfefeButDeadly says
marcus says
32   curious2   2019 Feb 10, 6:36pm  

HeadSet says
"Asylum for Refugees" does not mean unfettered illegal immigration....


It also did not mean Islamic migration. In 1956, the small number of refugees arriving here were mostly fleeing communism and were deeply pro-American. In 2016, the much larger number of "refugees" were Muslims bombed out of their home countries by Hillary's War, which she extended into Syria, and they were committed to Islam, which hates us. She campaigned on spreading Islam at American expense, on behalf of her Saudi and corporate clients. President Trump campaigned on pausing Muslim immigration; once inaugurated, he reduced Muslim "refugees" by more than 90%, and total Muslim immigration by a quarter, and he would have done even better if he had more cooperation. The left betrayed liberalism and embraced Islam. Some "elite" DC menshaviks colluded with KSA to make that seem the 'responsible' policy, but it was was only responsible from KSA's POV. To understand any policy, you must look at it in context: Hillary's War drove Muslims into Europe, and Hillary's campaign promised to bring more to the USA; that combination was not a coincidence, and was not in the interests of the USA.

There was much discussion of "refugee" terrorists. Many on the left denied the existence of such terrorists, despite multiple examples including convictions and fatalities. By denying the existence of "refugee" terrorists, leftists avoided seeing a fact that would have made them feel uncomfortable: literally every "refugee" terrorist was Muslim. 100%, every time, no exceptions ever in the whole history of America's many refugee programs. Leftists did not want to see that fact, and so chose to ignore it by denying the obvious.
34   marcus   2019 Feb 10, 6:48pm  

I thought Alex Jones wasn't on anymore. Does he still have his program on a website or something ?
35   Bd6r   2019 Feb 10, 7:43pm  

Patrick says
I just don't think homosexuality is a good thing for humanity in the long run. It's just one more vice like many others.

I think homosexuality is completely irrelevant to humans in long run. It was fine in Ancient Greece, and they in many ways formed the basis of our civilization.
36   curious2   2019 Feb 10, 10:15pm  

Patrick says
traditional values became traditional exactly because they helped us survive into the next generation.


Consider Islam, for example, which you call "fatal to humanity." Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, and may become the largest within 50 years. That does not make Islam desirable. Consider also the Guinea worm, which persists only in Africa precisely because Africans insist on "traditional" practices involving water and ancestral spirits. What helped a previous generation might harm the next.

Patrick says
is a modern invention.


Not really. See for example the Kama Sutra, which is more than 2,000 years old. Western documentation goes back to at least the 14th century, along with a record of same-sex marriage in pre-modern Europe (see also here) and ancient Rome. The modern term "homosexual" was invented in 1879, in response to legal prohibitions that had not existed for most of human history.

PatNet has another user from Indiana; you both have Catholic backgrounds, and you both seem to share the same counterfactual opinions on this topic. That makes me wonder where it comes from. Perhaps the writings (mis)attributed to Paul, though you reject his premise and most of his conclusions.

Patrick says
Mostly....


Not exclusively; see, for example, Sparta and Thebes.

See also other species. "Homosexual behaviour has been observed in 1,500 animal species... Animals that live a completely homosexual life can also be found. This occurs especially among birds that will pair with one partner for life, which is the case with geese and ducks. Four to five percent of the couples are homosexual. Single females will lay eggs in a homosexual pair's nest. It has been observced that the homosexual couple are often better at raising the young than heterosexual couples." None of these species has gone extinct.
37   FuckTheMainstreamMedia   2019 Feb 11, 5:24am  

I’m just gonna propose a possibility.

I will note that Patrick has evolved politically partially as a result of the unreasonableness of the left. This is very consistent with what I have noted over the past 30-40 years, starting with my parents and grandparents in the early 80’s(the Democrats left me behind) to an acquaintance who was very liberal, attended UC Santa Cruz in the early 2000’s, was appalled at the intolerance of the leftists, and had the straw that broke the camels back moment when he was attending a picnic on campus and a lunatic grabbed the steak off his plate, threw it in the garbage, and berated the guy for eating meat.

Personally I have had this moment. At one point in time, I felt we had an obligation not to deport illegal aliens who were already here in the US since we had basically given them an invitation to stay by not enforcing our own immigration laws. However, because the Democrats are so unreasonable on the matter and because the leftists are flat out nut jobs to the point that they are trying to destroy the US, I now advocate a hard line build the wall, arrest visa overstays, and deport everyone.

Similarly I think it’s possible that patrick is having an overreaction to the unreasonableness of the left where they want kids to be groomed to be gay and transgendered(notable by the morons who refuse to designate gender on birth certificates). The biggest issue is probably including education at very early ages on homosexuality. So I think that you may continue to see Patrick’s position continue to evolve.
38   Tenpoundbass   2019 Feb 11, 6:29am  

CovfefeButDeadly says
I’m just gonna propose a possibility.


I think everyone is a Liberal Democrat in spirit at first until they understand Politics.
What the Democrat machine is selling vs what flavor of Socialism or Communism has to offer, is a huge disconnect from the reality of what you are getting.

Most people honestly think that Republicans are meanies trying to take hope away from them, and want to have every penny available. And only the Democrats can save them from that eventuality.
But once you understand politics, you realize nothing could be further from the truth. The Democrat's whole game is making their constituents believe that, while they partake in all kinds of graft that keeps their constituents broke and stupid.
39   Patrick   2019 Feb 11, 8:14am  

CovfefeButDeadly says

I will note that Patrick has evolved politically partially as a result of the unreasonableness of the left.


@CovfefeButDeadly Yes, I think you're right about that. I feel driven away from the left. Like Reagan said, I didn't leave them, they left me. I started out from an exclusively Democratic family, but that was all about labor. My immigrant ancestors all just wanted a better deal for themselves as farmers or working people. It was just about wages vs profits for owners. Nothing about race, gender, gays. Both parties were about the same with respect to those issues.

But now the Democrats have substituted race, gender, and gays for the labor issue. They not only gave up the fight, they actively betray labor daily by supporting the biggest banks, globalization of manufacturing, and importing literally millions of illegals to keep wages down at the low end.

I don't think I'm overreacting. The Democratic Party has become a basket of deplorables joined only by their grievances. I wish they would get back to issues that really matter.
40   NDrLoR   2019 Feb 11, 9:14am  

Patrick says
feminism, homosexuality, Islam, relentless division by race, promotion of grievance studies, open borders.
Partial birth abortion

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