How the Right Lost Its Mind
Page 29
—Michael Knowles, “An Actual Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right: 8 Things You Need To Know,” Daily Wire, September 26, 2016
* There were, however, apparently limits even for the Breitbart editor. One faction of the Alt Right that made many hangers-on uncomfortable was the group known as 1488. The “14” referred to the fouteen-word slogan “We Must Secure the Existence of White People and a Future for White Children.” The “88” (referring to the eighth letter of the alphabet, H) is code for “Heil Hitler.”
“Not very edifying stuff,” Yiannopoulos admits. But he then attempts to draw a moral equivalency between the Hitler fan boys and movements on the Left. “1488ers are the equivalent of the Black Lives Matter supporters who call for the deaths of policemen,” he insisted, “or feminists who unironically want to #KillAllMen.” (Milo Yiannopoulos, “An Establishment Conservative’s Guide To The Alt-Right,” Breitbart, March 29, 2016.)
* “The ADL Task Force study shows that a small cohort of journalists bore the brunt of the online abuse. The Task Force identified that some 19,253 overtly anti-Semitic tweets were sent to at least 800 journalists in the U.S. during the 12 month study. The top 10 most targeted journalists—all of whom are Jewish—received 83 percent of those 19,253 tweets. The top 10 includes conservative columnist Ben Shapiro, Tablet’s Yair Rosenberg, the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg and the New York Times’ Jonathan Weisman, and CNN’s Sally Kohn and Jake Tapper.” —“Anti-Semitic Targeting of Journalists During the 2016 Presidential Campaign; A report from ADL’s Task Force on Harassment and Journalism,” ADL, October 19, 2016.
* Ioffe was later fired by Politico after posting an offensive tweet about Trump and his daughter Ivanka. Iofee later apologized: “It was a tasteless, offensive tweet that I regret and have deleted. I am truly and deeply sorry. It won’t happen again.” (forward.com/fast-forward/357126/julia-ioffe-fired-over-obscene-ivanka-trump-tweet.) She is now a writer for the Atlantic.
* Full disclosure here: I have known both Bill Bennett and Dennis Prager for years and have frequently appeared on their shows (and they have appeared on mine). I consider both of them to be friends. I regard Victor Davis Hanson as one of the foremost conservative thinkers and writers of his generation. He is on the board of directors of the foundation that formerly employed my wife. So, yes, this broke my heart.
* The screed’s author, Michael Anton, was later rewarded with a position on the staff of the National Security Council in Trump’s White House. (Michael Warren, “The Anonymous Pro-Trump ‘Decius’ Now Works Inside the White House,” Weekly Standard, February 2, 2017.)
* Greg Weiner noted that Anton/Decius was exaggerating a sense of catastrophe to make his point:
Consider: Decius warns that “the tsunami of leftism that still engulfs our every—literal and figurative—shore has receded not a bit but indeed has grown.” This is absurd. The Speaker of the House is a thoughtful conservative with an operating majority. The Senate is in Republican hands. Several major countries have governments somewhere right of center.
…
Consequently, even granting arguendo that the cliff awaits, the essential question Trump presents is whether injecting an already inflamed presidency with political growth hormone is the answer. If that is the answer, the Constitution of the United States is not. It divides authority among three branches of government, led by a deliberative Congress whose will the President executes. Decius, apparently, would deepen the corruption of that regime by handing it to a strongman whose devotion to the Constitution stops at its phantom Article XII. Decius’ Constitution is thus far more Wilsonian and Progressive than the original. (Greg Weiner, “The Flight of Fancy Election,” Library of Law and Liberty, September 8, 2016.)
* It was Roger Kimball, the editor of the New Criterion, who first cited Hayek’s warning in connection with the Trump campaign. “For many of us, what is most troubling about Donald Trump is not his particular views or policies—much though we might disagree with them—but rather the aroma of populist demagoguery and menace that surrounds him.” (Roger Kimball, “How Hayek Predicted Trump with His ‘Why the Worst Get on Top’” PJ Media, May 5, 2016.)
* Dobson’s full statement is notable for how low he sets the bar for Trump:
Only the Lord knows the condition of a person’s heart. I can only tell you what I’ve heard. First, Trump appears to be tender to things of the Spirit. I also hear that Paula White has known Trump for years and that she personally led him to Christ.
Do I know that for sure? No. Do I know the details of that alleged conversion? I can’t say that I do.
But there are many Christian leaders who are serving on a faith advisory committee for Trump in the future. I am among them. There are about 45 of us that includes Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, Jack Graham, Ben Carson, James Robison, Jerry Johnson, and many others whom you would probably know.
We’ve all agreed to serve. How will that play out if Trump becomes president? I don’t know. It is a good start, I would think.
If anything, this man is a baby Christian who doesn’t have a clue about how believers think, talk and act. All I can tell you is that we have only two choices, Hillary or Donald. Hillary scares me to death.
And, if Christians stay home because he isn’t a better candidate, Hillary will run the world for perhaps eight years. The very thought of that haunts my nights and days. One thing is sure: we need to be in prayer for our nation at this time of crisis. (Dr. James Dobson on Donald Trump’s Christian Faith; drjamesdobson.org/news/dr-james-dobson-on-trumps-christian-faith.)
* For years former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee had rushed to the defense of Christian leaders who were under attack from politicians. But when Trump slammed his fellow Baptist preacher, Huckabee fell notably silent, which was consistent with his political and moral evolution over the past few years. Consider the progression of Huckabee’s book titles over the last decade: In 2005, he published Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork: A 12-Stop Program to End Bad Habits and Begin a Healthy Lifestyle; ten years later, in 2015, he wrote God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy, which seemed more designed to strike a populist political note than offer sound dietary advice. In 2007, his message was Character Makes a Difference: Where I’m From, Where I’ve Been, and What I Believe. However, he spent much of 2016 making the case for Trump.
This naturally led to some awkward moments. Huckabee had criticized the parenting skills of Barack and Michelle Obama because they had allowed his daughter to listen to Beyoncé. But clearly he held Trump to a different standard, offering up fulsome praise: “Donald Trump broke the code, owned the media, and inspired the masses.” As Francis J. Beckwith noted in a column in the American Conservative, “This comes from the pen of the same hand that published these words just eighteen months ago: ‘Most people exhibiting crude behavior or language aren’t doing anything illegal, but they’re contributing to a culture that is abrasive, rude, obnoxious, and just plain mean.’” (Francis Beckwith, “Huckabee Changes His Tune—He Used to Defend Christian Values, But These Days He Only Sings the Praises of Trump,” American Conservative, May 13, 2016.)
* The story also quotes me: “But don’t expect Milwaukee’s other top talker, Charlie Sykes, to join the ranks of Trumpkins. ‘#NeverTrump means never Trump,’ said Sykes, whose show airs on WTMJ-AM (620). ‘But I am also #NeverHillary. So I’ll probably be spending a lot of time this fall talking about the Packers.’” (Daniel Bice, “Mark Belling Endorses Donald Trump—Reluctantly,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 13, 2016.)
* The assault on Flores also shed light on an account from former labor secretary Robert Reich, who reported a conversation he had with a former Republican congressman who explained why he was reluctant to criticize Trump publicly. Although Reich is a partisan Democrat and an outspoken liberal, his account of the conversation seemed credible:
ME [Reich]: What do you think of your party’s nominee for president?
HE: Trump is a maniac. He’s a clear and
present danger to America.
ME: Have you said publicly that you won’t vote for him?
HE: (sheepishly): No.
ME: Why not?
HE: I’m a coward.
ME: What do you mean?
HE: I live in a state with a lot of Trump voters. Most Republican officials do.
ME: But you’re a former official. You’re not running for Congress again. What are you afraid of?
HE: I hate to admit it, but I’m afraid of them. Some of those Trumpistas are out of their fu*king minds.
ME: You mean you’re afraid for your own physical safety?
HE: All it takes is one of them, you know. [In mid-June a gunman targeted several Republican congressman including House Whip Steve Scalise, who was seriously wounded. The shooting came six years after the shooting of Democratic congresswoman Gaby Giffords.]
ME: Wait a minute. Isn’t this how dictators and fascists have come to power in other nations? Respected leaders don’t dare take a stand.
HE: At least I’m no Giuliani or Gingrich or Pence. I’m not a Trump enabler.
ME: I’ll give you that.
HE: Let me tell you something. Most current and former Republican members of Congress are exactly like me. I talk with them. They think Trump is deplorable. And they think Giuliani and Gingrich are almost as bad. But they’re not gonna speak out. Some don’t want to end their political careers. Most don’t want to risk their lives. The Trump crowd is just too dangerous. Trump has whipped them up into a g*ddamn frenzy. (Available at: www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/1349621041717155.)
* I responded, “Ah, Breitbart being Breitbart.” As far as I know, Breitbart did not pursue the story, which was apparently farmed out to an even darker corner of the fever swamp, a site known for its close ties to Trump adviser Roger Stone. The experience gave me a small taste of what was to become routine for many folks in the media.
* Here is a transcript of what I said that night:
MEGYN KELLY (HOST): My next guest got national attention when he took on Donald Trump in a fiery radio interview just ahead of the Wisconsin primary. Joining me now, Charlie Sykes. Charlie, good to see you. And sure enough, Trump went on to lose the state of Wisconsin but win the GOP primary. And nonetheless you say you remain never Trump. Before I ask you about Paul Ryan, why? Because you know the argument against that is that’s a vote for Hillary Clinton.
CHARLIE SYKES: Yeah, well Donald Trump is a serial liar, a con man who mocks the disabled and women. He’s a narcissist and a bully, a man with no fixed principles who has the vocabulary of an emotionally insecure nine-year-old. So no, I don’t want to give him control of the IRS, the FBI, and the nuclear codes. That’s just me.
KELLY: Tell us how you really feel. It doesn’t sound like there’s a lot of wiggle room there, Charlie.
SYKES: I do see the rats swimming towards the sinking ship. But at some point—if you understand, and this is not just ideological, it’s not just the fact that he’s abandoned one position after another or that he has the penchant for internet hoaxes or conspiracy theories. I mean a week ago tonight, remember, he was peddling the notion that Ted Cruz’s dad had something to do with the JFK assassination. So there are people who say that just because of party loyalty we’re supposed to forget all of that. I just don’t buy that. Because I’ve cautioned my fellow conservatives, you embrace Donald Trump, you embrace it all. You embrace every slur, every insult, every outrage, every falsehood. You’re going to spend the next six months defending, rationalizing, evading all that. And afterwards, you come back to women, to minorities, to young people and say, that wasn’t us. That’s not what we’re about. The reality is, if you support him to be president of the United States, that is who you are, and you own it.17
* When officials learned of his activities, a judge revoked his bail and Wessel was sent to prison to serve a fifty-five-month sentence on other charges.
† The targets of the catfishing expedition included Wilson, Liz Mair, and Cheri Jacobus, all of whom had been outspoken in their criticism of Trump. None of them believed that Wessel had acted alone. In August 2016, Politico reported that Jacobus, who said she believes Wessel was working in concert with allies of Trump, renewed her efforts to get the FBI to investigate the scheme. (The Trump campaign has denied any involvement in the episode.) Adding another ominous wrinkle to the story, Jacobus’s emails appear to have been hacked by person or persons unknown. As Politico was preparing to publish its article on Wessel’s fraud, and after the publication began asking for comment about the article, “Jacobus said thousands of emails disappeared from her personal account and that her Internet provider, AOL, told her the account had been hacked. Jacobus said the hack targeted only emails she has received, not those she has sent, and she believes it was an attempt to prevent her from tracing the origins of more emails sent to her as part of the scheme.” The hack was reported to the FBI’s Cyber Division on her behalf.19