Centroids Re: Daniel Pipes essay BR Note: Understandable but suicidal. This does underscore the need for a third party or at a minimum, some kind of effective voice for people who do not regard either the Democrats or Republicans as working for their best interests. This means not only political Independents (full disclosure, I am an Indy) who now are about 40% of the electorate, but by one count, as many as a fourth or more of both Democrats and Republicans this year. As for the strategy of conceding defeat to one's enemies in order to see better days in the future, what a crock of sh*t. The damages that can be done "in the meantime" while you wait can be incalculable and irreversible. "Waiting for a new beginning" isn't a strategy it is an excuse for not having a strategy. Far better to seek to wreck -somehow, completely legally but somehow- BOTH candidacies in the months ahead. What is needed are politically lethal scandals that destroy the viability of Hillary Clinton AND Donald Trump and throwing the political process open to something radically new. We can't do worse than the utterly sick choices before us now. Billy -------------------------------------------------------- Why I Just Quit the Republican Party by Daniel Pipes _Philadelphia Inquirer_ (http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20160722_Daniel_Pipes__With_Trump_as_nominee__time_to_quit_the_GOP.html) July 21, 2016 The Republican Party nominated Donald Trump as its candidate for president of the United States – and I responded ending my 44-year GOP membership. Here's why I by bailed, quit, and jumped ship: First, Trump's boorish, selfish, puerile, and repulsive character, combined with his prideful _ignorance_ (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/donald-trump-policy-2016-hillary-clinton-214058) , his off-the-cuff policy making, and his _neo-fascistic tendencies_ (http://www.danielpipes.org/16606/there-a-name-for-trump-brand-of-politics-neo) make him the most divisive and scary of any serious presidential candidate in American history. He is precisely "the man the founders feared" in _Peter Wehner_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/opinion/campaign-stops/the-man-the-founders-feared.htm l) 's memorable phrase. I want to be no part of this. Second, his flip-flopping on the issues ("_everything is negotiable_ (http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/29/politics/ted-cruz-new-york-times-immigration-tape/) ") means that, as president, he has the mandate to do any damn thing he wants. This unprecedented and terrifying prospect could mean suing unfriendly reporters or bulldozing a recalcitrant Congress. It could also mean martial law. Count me out. Third, with honorable exceptions, I wish to distance myself from a Republican Party establishment that made its peace with Trump to the point that it unfairly repressed elements at the national convention in Cleveland that still tried to resist his nomination. Yes, politicians and donors must focus on immediately issues (Supreme Court justice appointments) but party leaders like GOP committee chairman Reince Priebus, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrongly acquiesced to Trump. As columnist Michael Gerson wryly notes, Trump "attacked the Republican establishment as low-energy, cowering weaklings. Now Republican leaders are lining up to surrender to him – like low-energy, cowering weaklings." Fourth, the conservative movement, to which I belong, has developed since the 1950s into a major intellectual force. It did so by building on several key ideas (limited government, a moral order, and a foreign policy reflecting American interests and values). But the cultural abyss and constitutional nightmare of a Trump presidency will likely destroy this delicate creation. Ironically, although a Hillary Clinton presidency threatens bad Supreme Court justices, it leaves the conservative movement intact. Finally, Trump is "an ignorant, amoral, dishonest and manipulative, misogynistic, philandering, hyper-litigious, isolationist, protectionist blowhard" in the words of Republican donor _Michael K. Vlock_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/us/politics/donald-trump-republican-fundraising.html?smprod=nyt core-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share) . That charming list of qualities means supporting Trump translates into never again being able to criticize a Democrat on the basis of character. Or, in personal terms: how can one look at oneself in the mirror? And so, with Trump's formal nomination, I bailed. For the Republican Party to recover its soul, Trump needs to be thumped in November. Purged of his influence, the party of Lincoln and Reagan can rebuild. In the meantime, I shall support other Republican candidates, notably Pennsylvania's excellent Senator Pat Toomey. As for president? Either the liber tarian Gary Johnson, a write-in candidate, or no one at all
-- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
