Here are the last 3 paragraphs before the final paragraph:
The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.Civility! I never believe it when they say "civility."
Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap...I spent yesterday watching the Kavanaugh hearings, and I can tell you that the Democratic Senators and the shouting protesters they brought into the hearing room blithely do their own incivility whenever it suits their political interests. It's not a special Trump thing. Trump is just more straightforward about speaking his mind or lying to us or whatever's going on with him.
... with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.Sorry, I don't need another funeral oration. That sort of thing is okay within a death-ritual context, but in ordinary political discourse it's fusty, gassy blather. And I'm not buying the repackaging of McCain the Dead Man as the Anti-Trump. McCain was the feisty maverick who didn't lean in hard enough to get elected. Trump is the man who got elected President of the United States. That's a fact, no matter how hard it is to swallow.
We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them.McCain was a real person. He was not a paragon.
Back then McCain was too crazy to be President, but now that he's dead, he's a symbol of the virtue everyone wants for the other guy: civility.
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.. with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation. with, of course, the Democrats in charge of all branches of government.
The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.
This is utter crap. Trump didn't strip us of "civility". Trump is the result of how McCain and Romney were treated by the press and the left (BIRM). Trump is the result of how McCain and other GOP establishment types viewed the conservative base and blue-collar workers. Civility left when Memories Pizza was attacked and driven out of business over a hypothetical by a left-wing journalist playing gotcha games. Civility left when a baker was sued to bake a cake, and Colorado Human Rights Commission used it as a chance to attack all religion. Civility went away when protesters smashed Starbucks stores in protest of the WTO. Civility went away with the Democrats' treatment of Robert Bork.
Civility left a long time ago, which is why conservative voters and blue-collar voters decided to choose someone like Trump who wasn't part of the establishment that hates them.
You just don't get it Mr Wibble. The Kavanaugh hearings are a beacon on the hill to the rest of us lowlifes. Where the Democrats show us how civil discourse is carried out.
Tribalism is the mantra of today’s Dems. Any conservative with a brain knows there is no way to “reach across the aisle “ and compromise with these socialist loons. They want to destroy America.
Watching Dem Senators yesterday only confirms what I wrote above.
If they could, those protestors in the hearing room would harm Judge Kavanaugh. They are that insane.
The author of the op-ed is sooo full of shit I suspect an OBAMA speechwriter.
The NYTimes Op-Ed sure generated a lot of clicks for them. It's like the Kapernick Nike ad in that respect.
This adoration of McCain by the Times is laughable. Even their most loyal readers must remember how the Times treated McCain back during his Presidential run.
The last thread said it- this is NYT agitprop unless and until we know who this mythical figure is identified and allows us to judge ‘his’ credibility.
Playing the Civility card? Do they not read the Althouse blog and know what a weak hand it is?
This brouhaha is meant as a distraction.
Something big is going to happen soon (FISA information?) and it needs to be drowned out.
Talk about pretzel logic- this anonymous source doesn’t reveal their identity for fear of losing their job in a full employment economy. This precious job where the boss is crazy and you have to do all his work for him
The author of the op-ed is sooo full of shit I suspect an OBAMA speechwriter
Its that guy that wrote Elf!
For years I noticed, noticed that it's Democrats doing these uncivil, ugly acts. The D leaders doesn't do these distasteful things as such, but they nod in approval. All done to force more and more government on us.
Democrats and the press have been pissed ever since the Republicans learned how to win in 1994. The headline from Time Magazine at the time? "How the Gingrich stole Christmas" What Democrats want is the old Washington Generals Republicans.
Are they confusing civility and snively? McCain could be a snively little prick.
I am amazed at the number of people who assume this "official" actually exists.
smeech.
"Back then McCain was too crazy to be President, but now that he's dead, he's a symbol of the virtue everyone wants for the other guy: civility."
That pretty much sums it up.McCain is a paragon of virtue NOW because he's no threat.
And, I suppose screaming and disrupting Senate hearings is a prime exemplar of the Left's civility.
On second thought, the article is not precisely by "anonymous" since it was published as a NYT op-ed. That makes it The NYT's.
As for who wrote it, it is quite well and smoothly written, so we are looking for a professional writer with quite a bit of output. He/she should not be that hard to identify whether he/she indeed is a White House employee, or not. Perhaps at The NYT itself?
As for "civility," what with "antifa" and other antics I am reminded of Remarque's "The Black Obelisk" and other such descriptions from Germany 100 years ago, when the Nazis and Communists were battling it out in the streets.
"Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation."
So diversity, identity groups, BLM and RAZA are not examples of tribalism?
And protesting the American flag, the Star Spangled Banner and the Pledge of Allegiance are now signs of shared values?
McCain was not a paragon of virtue - I'm old enough to remember the Keating Five scandal. I knew he wasn't a paragon of virtue when I voted for him instead of Obama - I though McCain was the lesser of two evils.
Does Bill Kristol work at the White House?
What Wibble said:
""The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility."
This is utter crap. Trump didn't strip us of "civility". Trump is the result of how McCain and Romney were treated by the press and the left (BIRM). Trump is the result of how McCain and other GOP establishment types viewed the conservative base and blue-collar workers. Civility left when Memories Pizza was attacked and driven out of business over a hypothetical by a left-wing journalist playing gotcha games. Civility left when a baker was sued to bake a cake, and Colorado Human Rights Commission used it as a chance to attack all religion. Civility went away when protesters smashed Starbucks stores in protest of the WTO. Civility went away with the Democrats' treatment of Robert Bork.
Civility left a long time ago, which is why conservative voters and blue-collar voters decided to choose someone like Trump who wasn't part of the establishment that hates them"
"The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility."
We "allowed" him to do something to us? No, the Left was pretty screwed up before he came along, from nonsensical support for anti-science ideas and pseudoscientific concoctions to outrageous rhetoric and Janet Jackson's boobs, the little cult that could has always come through. That it's turning violent is just part of the evolution some go through at crunch time.
Althouse needs a tribalism tag. It is used in the same cynically selective way as civility.
Of course, as in the case of civility, the targeted deplorables recognize the bullshit for what it is, and stop caring about what anybody else thinks. If we are gonna be benighted racists no matter what, and actual lefty tribalisms get a free pass, might as well embrace the "tribe." Downside: you are playing progs' game, allowing division that enables them to conquer. But we are not powerful enough to change the game, therefore we must play it as ruthlessly as needed.
What's civil about openly hating Deplorables and Christians as irredeemable trash people to be re-educated or killed? Enquiring voters want to know.
The only good Republican is a dead Republican. When will you guys understand that?
If the author turned out to be Jeff Sessions would we be surprised?
If the author is unwilling to directly criticize President Obama, Secretary Clinton, Senator Sanders, and others on the left for lack of civility and violation of established norms, while criticizing his or her boss, President Trump, by name, then the author is simply another establishment character who fails to realize just how tired so many people are of the utter hypocrisy and theater of our politics the last 30 or 40 years.
We got Trump as President in large part because Hillary Clinton said that anybody who supported Trump was "deplorable," and Barack Obama dismissed a large swathe of the country as bitter people clinging to our guns and our religion.
Those insults were at least as divisive of our country as anything that Donald Trump has done. And while Obama and Clinton were roundly criticized for their insults, they were never written off as "beyond the pale" or "far outside the mainstream" or simply unacceptable. Until the Democrat Party's leadership is held accountable for their insanity and insults and hatred toward everyday average Americans, few on the Trump-supporting side will care much for the "resistance," whether it's within or without the White House.
The best line about McCain was, "He never met a war he didn't like."
Of course, linking civility and McCain in the NYT is ironic, since the NYT rather non-civilly smeared him with an affair accusation late in his campaign.
This adoration of McCain by the Times is laughable. Even their most loyal readers must remember how the Times treated McCain back during his Presidential run.
For the Left, history always begins tomorrow. Ask them about when Russia/USSR became the bad guys...they'll tell you the Left has always been opposed to them.
We got Trump as President in large part because Hillary Clinton said that anybody who supported Trump was "deplorable," and Barack Obama dismissed a large swathe of the country as bitter people clinging to our guns and our religion.
That and the way they treated Mitt Romney.
The anti-Trump hysteria also allow the DNC to escape accountability for the way it treated Sanders.
Ann, you know you are lying when you write that Democratic Senators brought in the protesters. Why do you feel the need to lie?
This NYT piece is less OpEd than it is Psych-Ops, part of the ersatz campaign being run by Brennan and others to reclaim the legacy of the Obama administration.
Beside deflection on the FBI/DOJ front, the point is to elicit a prescribed response:
1.) A search for dissenters within the administration.
2.) Spying on the press, like Obama did.
That and the way they treated Mitt Romney.
Yes. GOP to Democrats, “Remember when we said no more Mr. Nice Guy?”
No more McCain. He was the greatest prisoner of war in American history
Ann, you know you are lying when you write that Democratic Senators brought in the protesters.
So you know the name of the guy who is on video paying them to raise hell ?
He was probably paid by the same people who pay the Democrat Senators.
Maybe Feinstein's Chinese spy.
Yeah, St. John the Maverick. Shoulda burned his corpse at the stake there in Arizona, distributed bits of teeth and bone as relics to his "friends" in the media, flushed the ashes into the Severn.
I loved that! I lmao when he sang it.
How the hell McCain ever got to be paragon of civility is anyone's guess.
He was a hothead, who delighted in publicly calling his senate colleagues profane names.
He called them "dumbshits" when they voted to get rid of the filibuster. He called Paul a "wackobird". He insulted Ted Cruz. In a “heated dispute over immigration-law overhaul” 1999, McCain screamed at Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), “F— you!” He added, “This is chickens- - - stuff. … You’ve always been against this bill, and you’re just trying to derail it.
When he was called on it, he would just smirk and say "I'm not going to win any Miss Congeniality Awards".
And someone writing a anonymous editoral stabbing the POTUS (his boss) in the back, shouldn't talk of "honor".
Men of "Honor" - resign and attack and make their names known. They don't cower in the shadows and take pot shots.
Of course, this is Trump's mistake. Like Reagan he let too many squishes and moderate Republicans (or in his case, Never trumpers) into his administration.
McCain is now the perfect symbol for the civility they desire: he's dead.
Of course, this is Trump's mistake. Like Reagan he let too many squishes and moderate Republicans (or in his case, Never trumpers) into his administration.
Sorting out the squishes would take years. I hope he has someone trustworthy (Is there such a creature in DC?) recording performance.
He will have to clean house in the second term.
Dilbert was correct. McCain didn't want Trump at his funeral, his doughter brought Trump along anyway.
Sad.
Of course, linking civility and McCain in the NYT is ironic, since the NYT rather non-civilly smeared him with an affair accusation late in his campaign.
@Sebastian (8:32), I had forgotten about that — didn’t the Times run front page articles with pictures showing McCain and the female lobbyist and then a year or so after the election run a “retraction” that said, in so many words, there was no affair and we never meant to imply that there was?
Of course Ann Althouse still holds out hope that the Times maintains some sense of journalistic integrity.
Methnks the Op-Ed was written by St. John the Maverick hisself. All part of an elaborate pre-departure planned scenario.
Democracy dies in darkness.
Dems: When logical arguments are not present, or just not liked, yell, scream, and go crazy. That ALWAYS works...
This adoration of McCain by the Times is laughable. Even their most loyal readers must remember how the Times treated McCain back during his Presidential run.
This , along with mention of anything to do with Clinton administration means nothing to newer voters. McCain was eighteen years ago, when current young voters were toddlers or babies. Clinton stuff was before they were born.
Although most young voters do not read NYT, or much of anything else for that matter, it is NYT and Washington Post that sets the tone. Local TV and radio news and late night talk shows gets their soundbites from them and that is where most voters get their info, whether they are intentionally seeking it or not.
McCain is now the perfect symbol for the civility they desire: he's dead.
Exactly, Freeman. 'The only good Republican is a dead Republican'.
I'm glad the deceased McCain will now keep his mouth shut so that real Republicans can have a little rest in peace.
For the Left, history always begins tomorrow. Ask them about when Russia/USSR became the bad guys...they'll tell you the Left has always been opposed to them.
Orwell knew them well.
I think the op-ed is a nobody. Otherwise, why remain anonymous?
McCain is safely dead. In 2008 they hated him. I remember. Why do they think we all forget what happens 10 years ago?
A conservative is someone who remembers yesterday.
"Exactly, Freeman. 'The only good Republican is a dead Republican'."
Or, "the only good Republican is an utterly passive, speechless one."
"Lie down quietly and don't move. ... That's the way. Now don't talk. ... There you go. The very picture of perfect civility!"
Clinton stuff was before they were born.
I teach high school seniors in my Government class. I can attest they have no knowledge of Clinton's sins and crimes. They really freak out when I get to the blue dress.
This post is a perfect example of what keeps many of us reading Althouse.
Brilliant.
I teach high school seniors in my Government class. I can attest they have no knowledge of Clinton's sins and crimes. They really freak out when I get to the blue dress.
When I was in 8th grade I read, cover to cover several times, my cousin's high school "World History" textbook. He graduated the year I was born. It read like a novel, beginning with the Doric invasion of Greece, through the Punic Wars and on through the 30 years war to 1918.
That was long before Social Studies eviscerated history for kids. I have tried to find a copy of that textbook for years.
"When I was in 8th grade I read, cover to cover several times, my cousin's high school "World History" textbook. He graduated the year I was born. It read like a novel, beginning with the Doric invasion of Greece, through the Punic Wars and on through the 30 years war to 1918"
Wow! I would love to find a history book like that.
Schumer: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you're walking into the Senate Hearing with Kavanaugh where you belong.
GOPe: But, Senator Schumer, no, I... I...
Schumer: Now, you've got to listen to me! You have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we'd both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn't that true, Woodward?
Woodward: I'm afraid General Kelley would insist.
GOPe You're saying this only to make me go
Schumer: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Kavanaugh. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If the hearing begins and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
GOPe: But what about us?
Schumer: We'll always have the dossier. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to McCain’s funeral. We got it back last night.
GOPe: When I said I would never leave you.
Schumer: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. The confidential documents I’m leaking, you can't know. The unsourced op-eds I have to write, you can't be any part of. I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of you quasi-deplorables don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that.
[Jeff Flake lowers his head and begins to cry]
Schumer: Now, now...
[Schumer gently places his hand under his chin and raises it so their eyes meet]
Schumer: Here's looking at you kid.
McCaine was a Soviet-era maverick who provided bipartisan cover for Obama's global social justice adventures from Niger to Libya to Syria to Ukraine.
MK had a good point.
Years ago, I found a used HS text book on US History published in 1956. I couldn't believe the wealth of detail and patriotic tone. The thing must have been 500 pages.
Now Commie Zinn's history is used. Its crap as history, but the dumbo Lefties like it.
Wow! I would love to find a history book like that.
I have tried for years. He graduated from Hirsch high school in Chicago. I have tried and tried to find it. It was 6 inches thick.
Now Commie Zinn's history is used. Its crap as history, but the dumbo Lefties like it.
I'm on the textbook adoption committee for Social Studies in my district this year. My prime goal is to make sure they don't buy Zinn for the A.P. classes.
"I'm on the textbook adoption committee for Social Studies in my district this year. My prime goal is to make sure they don't buy Zinn for the A.P. classes."
If you succeed, you deserve knighthood or sainthood or something.
How did that ever become the go to book? Did a bunch of school bureaucrats watch Good Will Hunting and assume that because a smart, fictitious person loved it, it must be good?
Any chance this is the book? (Probably not, but figured I'd ask.)
https://m.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-HTF-RARE-Mans-Advancing-Civilization-by-Clarence-Perkins-1934-Rand-McNally/
Kevin at 5:23: Nice job! :-D
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