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Nov 2, 2020Liked by Michael David Cobb Bowen

Please let us know what you think about this article related to the topic: https://americanmind.org/post/a-former-nevertrumper-casts-her-ballot/

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The author should, consistent with her past, cast her vote for Tucker Carlson. There are at least a thousand conservatives, most certainly Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz among them, who would be equally apt and capable. Part of the great fears of the Left was that Ted Cruz, especially, would take the Culture Wars into overdrive. But what nobody seemed to realize, Right or Left was that it just took the right kind of social media jabber to send our populist soap opera into hyperspace. Don't bring a stickshift into a starship battle.

The last grownups on the field from my perspective were Nikky Haley, John Bolton and Gen. Mattis. If whatever it is that Trumpists have determined to be his legacy to be is worth honest Conservatives to completely forget and bury those three, then why even bother having a Republican Party?

Either the Republican Party stands for something other than a popularity contest in an escalating Culture War or it shouldn't exist. To the extent that I care, I'm happy to listen to the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. There's nothing Trump has invented that they hadn't already thought of and isn't boilerplate Right. Americans should expect the leaders of our Republic to be a little bit better than that. I wish I had captured his original campaign website. It was just as boring as anyone else's.

At some point, the Right has to consider the real fact, as Geib has written in his comment, that the American Left are making the radicals of the 60s like Chisimard and Davis into their mainstream idealists. How ironic that Conservatives can't or won't point to any elder statesmen for the briefest moment of respect in defiance of Trump's opportunistic position. How do you think that makes George P Schultz feel?

I see the trend that has tossed 'fiscal conservatives' into non-existence. The GOP has now danced in the dark with engineered elective pluralities like 'the Christian Right' and unexpected grass roots like the Tea Party like a dunken sailor. It's time for the GOP to man up, settle down and stay married to its faithful base because quite frankly Trump has cucked the shit out of it.

As I've said before, this gameshow has taken all of the intellectual oxygen out of the air of political debate. The empty symbolism of Left talking points cannot be countered by simply waving flags and singing anthems at attention or matching stupid point by stupid counterpoint. Politics has to be about policy, and I for one, as much as I can represent scientific discipline and dedication to solving real problems, cannot imagine one thing Trump has done that would make me want to work for him. I suspect most engineers and scientists feel the same way about both him and Biden. Why work for NASA when you can work for Elon Musk? Hell, even T-Mobile and Sprint. "The authoritarian, speech-chilling, and overtly anti-American direction of the left has been decades in the making." And it hasn't stopped one rocket, one electric motor or one medical equipment supply chain. So who's going to make America intellectually capable again? We are, because we never stopped. When there comes a candidate who will pull us out of the basements into the sunshine, let me know.

Then again, we're cranky and we don't roll over for high-falutin' rhetoric, and we're apt to be disloyal to populist narratives. So yeah, there's that risk that we know Trump won't take. This is precisely why he lost Haley, Bolton and Mattis. One would think to be wary of a RINO who has made the GOP into his RINO bitch, but who's brave enough to say so?

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Nov 2, 2020Liked by Michael David Cobb Bowen

Internet links might not be as "weak" as you think, Michael... Think much the same as you. Cheers! And good luck to our country tomorrow. https://www.rjgeib.com/one-week-until-the-election-time-to-make-up-my-mind-and-vote/

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I read this before when this was first posted, so you have gotten two check marks from me, Mr. Geib. You came up with the same solution Peggy Noonan did, except she's writing in Edmund Burke and she's a blonde.

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I wish I had seen this video before I wrote this piece. It fits perfectly to describe a lot of what I'm seeing. Even though I can afford the price of the ticket, I'm walking. I'm not riding on the crazy train. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0wp0cLdqTs

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I'm following up on George Schultz and blondes. That's how my mind works. To quote my husband, who worked under him at the Treasury a long time ago, George Schultz was "a fine economist in his time--the 1960's." By this century he was taken in by (blond) Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos fame and also involved his friend, General Mattis. Mattis may have had more noble incentives than just making a lot of money. Most unforgivably, Schultz took sides against his own grandson, according to the WSJ expose. The Cobb of 2008 would not have liked that, I think. We can't turn our lonely eyes to George Schultz-- we can hope he quietly retires.

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I picked Shultz for being a great old man - the sort of grownup we expect to be consulted owing to his extensive experience. I didn't know he was duped by Theranos. And I also did positively associate himself with Bechtel, the kind of company we don't seem to build any longer, witness Theranos (and Solyndra).

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