Read on Twitter
This piece, which celebrates trading the ability to DO conservative things for the ability to TALK about them without thinking of Trump, is the purest statement you will ever find of how demented the thinking of pundits like @BaseballCrank and publications like @NRO truly is. https://twitter.com/NRO/status/1352013089932247043
This passage is especially idiotic, in large part because @BaseballCrank doesn't define "play ball with him" in any way that would make clear why playing ball is a bad thing.
Obviously, lying on Trump's behalf or ignoring his bad acts would be negative forms of ball-playing...
Obviously, lying on Trump's behalf or ignoring his bad acts would be negative forms of ball-playing...
...but it's obviously possible to work with Trump without falling into those traps; to varying degrees, Cruz, Cotton, Hawley, Jordan, Paul, & even @NRO's beloved McConnell all managed it.
They broke with Trump on issues from time to time, but (with the eventual exception of McConnell) they just didn't take the added step(s) of exaggerating his flaws, pandering to the MSM narrative of the week, or obsessing about how triggering they found him (like Sasse or Flake).
What really upsets these people is that sometimes statesmanship -- real statesmanship, not magazine/think-tank playacting -- requires a degree of diplomacy in working with people you might dislike for a common good.
They cannot abide that for Trump, not out of any regard for "principle," but because they're so insecure they simply can't stand what proximity to Trump might make people think about *them*.
What they want, essentially, is to be able to vent any time, any place, any amount, in any manner for the sake of themselves and their petty self-image, without consequence, with no regard for the consequences.
It's childish narcissism dressed up as principle, nothing more.
It's childish narcissism dressed up as principle, nothing more.
In the real world, this would never fly -- if you doubt it, start causally badmouthing coworkers and bosses in the open and see what happens.
Indeed, I bet a few @NRO interns over the years kept their true feelings about, say, Kevin Williamson to themselves for the same reasons.
Indeed, I bet a few @NRO interns over the years kept their true feelings about, say, Kevin Williamson to themselves for the same reasons.
