Odd admission by National Review

Rich Lowry, editor of National Review and co-founder of Never Trump, made an odd admission that President Trump is accomplishing a major conservative goal.

A hint: Trump is beating up the successor to the Evil Empire.



Cannot stand the suspense?

Well, here it is:

The Media Is Trump's Evil Empire

Lowry likely thinks he is mocking President Trump by assigning President Trump an inferior enemy.

But while Stalin and the Soviet Union were evil, sided with Hitler at the start of World War II, and slaughtered 50 million of his own people over time, that Evil Empire never really posed an existential threat to the United States.

Khrushchev wisely backed off in the Cuban missile crisis.

We fought that evil because we were the only ones who could. We were never in peril.

But the refusal of the national media -- including Lowry -- to accept the results of the election last November does imperil the nation.

Fake News about urinating hookers and the like undermine the ability of Americans to make the peaceful transition of power, which is a hallmark of our democratic republic.

The one notable exception being 1860 when Southern elitists refused to accept President Lincoln.

Lowry's publication is part of the vanguard of reckless belligerence that takes far to lightly the possibility of violence.

From Lowry:

The media has become for the right what the Soviet Union was during the Cold War — a common, unifying adversary of overwhelming importance. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, religious conservatives and libertarians could agree that, whatever their other differences, godless communism had to be resisted. This commitment was the glue of the GOP coalition, and the basic price of admission to conservatism.

Now, a policy of containment, preferably rollback, of the mainstream media occupies that central role. Trump may not know how to get anything done, may not have a well-developed philosophy, may not be delivering on his agenda, may not be an admirable person, but he's a righteous, unyielding warrior against the media. And this is the one non-negotiable. To put it in terms of the famous Isaiah Berlin essay, the fox knows many things; the hedgehog knows one thing — CNN sucks.

I find his blithe dismissal of Reagan benighted.

His purpose in standing up to the Soviets was not to unite "religious conservatives and libertarians," but to stand up to evil.

Likewise, President Trump is both developed philosophically and delivering his agenda on time and under budget.

His batting average for Supreme Court justices may be the highest ever. Reagan gave us Scalia, true, but also O'Connor and Kennedy. Likewise along with Thomas, Bush 41 gave us Souter. Lastly, Bush 43 gave us Alito -- and Roberts.

Standing in the wings awaiting retirements are a score of the best judicial conservatives in the land.

Trump also disposed of 860 regulations in his first six months. That is the best use of the bureaucracy of any president in my memory (going back to Nixon).

Lastly, Trump has slashed regulatory budgets and staff.

In short, he has done all those things Lowry and his staff have bitched about for years.

But of course, as we have seen since Trump began his campaign, National Review is Establishment.

Trump threatens them by accomplishing all those things used to raise money for National Review and the various think tanks that employs so many of its writers.

A liberal court provides a steady flow of Fake Issues that National Review and its staff can use to dupe donors in Dummysville to donate again.

Did we ever overturn Kelo?

No. The boys in DC complained and moved on to something else.

And yet, there was National Review last year railing against Trump for trying to use eminent domain to against a widow in Atlantic City. (She won the case.)

All talk, no action.

Consider the threat the liberal media poses. National Review built its niche in part by taking on the media.

Finally, a champion for the cause dares to challenge the media.

Lowry winces.

From Lowry:

Some in the media are happy to play along with the role Trump allots them, as long as it serves the twin goals of self-referentiality and ratings. CNN at times appears to be a network devoted to covering things that the president says about the network. Prior to Trump’s rally in Phoenix, CNN relentlessly promoted the event. Then it took the whole thing, and devoted the rest of the night to blow-out coverage of commentators pronouncing themselves outraged and dismayed. At the end of the day, what had really happened? Nothing much, but at least something entertaining had filled the air.

Trump might well have been hate-watching much of it, pleased somewhere beneath his anger and disgust that he had, once again, proved to have the right enemy.

That enemy includes National Review because it refuses to acknowledge that President Trump is getting the job done.

Lowry wrote his piece in Politico. How telling. Politico serves his true audience: liberals. He wants to be their go-to conservative. Tough, but eventually rolled.

***

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