On January 22, 2017 I wrote a column that made clear that the claim 17 intelligence agencies agreed that Russia was responsible for the interference in the election was a lie. Last week, both the NYT and AP retracted their statements and stated only three intelligence agencies were involved in the issue. Only the NSA, FBI and the CIA were involved. Nice to know the Coast Guard was protecting our coast and not reviewing Hillary’s emails.
You might have thought that once the election was over that the Never Trumpers would have wised up and at least have abided by the old rule, “If you cannot say something nice, then don’t say anything at all.” It seems that at least some of them have not wised up at all and realized they are enabling their own political adversaries by besmirching a Republican president.
Their misguided thinking was recently exemplified by Jonah Goldberg, one of the leaders of the Never Trump movement. On May 26th, Goldberg wrote (in his stream of consciousness published by National Review every Friday): “I have no problem with the President firing Jim Comey. I have no objection, in principle, to Trump declassifying information. I loved his counterprogramming to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. But the way Trump does these things and so many others is counterproductive precisely because he doesn’t know how to do them to his advantage — and that’s because he doesn’t know where the lines are. The Invisi-Fences are like the security lasers in some ridiculous heist movie. Every time Trump crosses one, he gets cut and bleeds a little more political capital, in part because his missteps undercut his image as a mastermind who thinks six steps ahead.”
Jonah, don’t you get it? It is not the manner he does it, it is that he does it, period. Goldberg apparently is unaware of the Left-Right Principle. If Trump says left, they will say right. If he says blue, they will say red. They hate him and they hate what Republicans and Conservatives stand for. They feel (and I use that word precisely) that after eight years of Obama they have a birthright to lurch this country toward socialism, single-payer health insurance and confiscation of all guns owned by citizens. Trump by any other name (Kasich, Rubio, Bush) would get similar treatment, just with a little different coloring.