The resident frat boy of the rightwing blogosphere, Jonah Goldberg, is disturbed, because the sublime beauty, seriousness, and perfection that is modern conservatism is being unfairly sullied by the most popular man among today’s conservatives, Donald Trump. Conservatism is so great, but those damn conservatives come along and ruin everything!
“Trump’s Cult of Personality Is Corrupting Conservatism”
Goldberg is worried because today’s conservatives just aren’t being serious, you see.
In the past, conservatives could be seen “making a serious argument based upon some serious principle.”
But, alas, no longer:
But we’re seeing now [sic] is not a continuation of that tradition. A lot of people are making the case that what they like is conservative simply because they like it. The “it” I have in mind is Donald Trump and whatever noxious fume comes out his mouth at any given moment.
Yes, Trump is just not consistent or serious enough about his conservative principles:
Trump has jumped from one position to another, rarely offering anything like an argument, and his supporters have followed him. It’s been like one long Benny Hill chase scene. He’s for the Iran deal! He’s against it! He’s for letting in Syrian refugees! He’s against it! He’s for single payer! He’s against it! Higher taxes! Lower taxes! For stimulus! Against stimulus! Tomaytos! Tomahtos! Less filling! Tastes great! None of it matters! All that matters is, Trump!
Yet, on the other side of the big top, you’ve got this joker flinging a different flavored pie:
The tendency in Washington is not to take Donald Trump seriously. To describe him as a clown, as someone who will drop out, as someone whose beliefs are non-ideological. I believe that to dismiss him is a mistake. Since declaring his candidacy in June, Trump has been consistent on issues of immigration and trade and security. He has not deviated from building a wall on the southern border, slapping tariffs on imports, criticizing the 2003 Iraq war, praising Vladimir Putin, describing Ukraine as Germany’s problem, not ours, and saying peace in the Middle East depends on Israeli concessions.
This clown fight might be funny, if it were more Bozo and less John Wayne Gacy.