Writes Ross Douthat in "Why Can’t Biden Triangulate Like Trump?"
I laughed at Douthat's notion that it would be politically effective to use the slogan "If you like your gas-powered car, you can keep your car." It's precisely patterned on "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor," Obama's famously broken promise. If we're cynical, will Douthat say we've got "dark places"?
Democrats and the anti-Trump media will continue to critique Trump for making the 3 Supreme Court appointments that led to the overruling of Roe v. Wade. And Republicans will continue to push for legislation restricting abortion as much as possible.
But Trump is offering to mediate, to bring both sides together to come up with a number — a number of weeks within which women can freely obtain abortions — probably not 6, something like 10 or 12.* Yes, it's triangulation, beginning with 2 strong, highly idealized positions. The column headline ["Donald Trump Is Not of Two Minds About Abortion"] is correct, because to want the compromise is not to be "of two minds." It's one position, and Trump clearly stated it.**
I like seeing Trump opponents engage on the substantive merits of issues (as opposed to demonizing Trump, the man). I can see why there is hesitancy to engage him on the merits, and not just because it undercuts the demonization strategy — "normalizing" him. It may reveal that his positions on the merits are better than any alternatives his opponents are capable of articulating.
ADDED: Notice that Douthat equated "Catholic faith" with "personal qualms." What is the place of religion in politics? Is it something to be identified and extirpated? Is it actively wrong to allow your religion to affect your politics? It is at least theoretically possible to have religious faith and to find the values that can be shared with people of all religions and of no religion. If you do that, the part of your religion you exclude from your politics may be regarded as a set of "personal qualms." You didn't have to be a politician.
What exactly is a "qualm" anyway? Yeah, I looked it up in the OED. There's a mindless physicality to it: "A sudden fit, impulse, or pang of sickening fear, misgiving, despair, etc.... A scruple of conscience; a pang of guilt; a doubt, esp. as to the rightness of one's actions.... A sudden feeling or fit of faintness or sickness. In later use: esp. a sudden feeling of nausea."
I have qualms about this analogy:
qualm:faith::embryo:baby
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68 comments:
If it is written by Ross, it is safe to DoubThat.
I’m surprised your post is from last September…perhaps I buried it since it was the boring right to an abortion thing…
The ‘demonization strategy’ would be amusing if it weren’t to wasteful and destructive of civilization…
…and someone paid to observe such things is just now observing the white house us being run by leftist radicals, anarchists, and open society zealots?
The fact that you have to come up with a new word indicates you aren't doing what the old word meant.
Triangulating is not compromising. If that's what was being done, that's what it would be called.
Triangulating is the process of convincing people your opponents hold the most extremely opposite position possible from the nutters on your side so that a position two-thirds of the way to your nutters looks like a neutral middle ground. Bill Clinton looks like a master of this but that's partially because in the 1990s Democrats had not shifted so far left. Obama sucked whenever he tried to do it because nobody believed anybody actually held the positions he ascribed to Republicans (sorry, 'some people'.)
Trump is not triangulating on abortion because the position he is taking is the natural compromise both in allowing states to fashion their own regulations as well as suggesting a restriction that seems to be a common position.
On further reflection (and a little more covfefe) I had more thoughts on Mr. Douthat's piece.
It must be hard to write articles for the NYT when you are one of the few more middle of the road journalists since the wolves are always nipping at your heels.
Also, how do journalists ascribe a devout Catholic faith to Biden when he has never shown any indication of this trait? In fact, whenever Biden's name is evoked, I see a picture of Teddy Kennedy and Sloe Joe sitting together plotting their almost successful High-tech lynching of a black man that wasn't content to stay on the plantation. Not Catholic (or Christian) in any sense of the definition.
Biden’s faith is like his stutter—it exists when the narrative needs it to.
Shorter NYT: Why can't Biden just be someone else?
The majority goes on whether the fetus can be portrayed as cute.
This is maddeningly stupid.
Donald Trump has always been, still is, a DEMOCRAT
Now do you see how insane todays Democrat party realy is?
TDS is strong in Douthat. What a wildly selective memory and twisted sense of reality.
* Biden agreed to be the face of the Party after the circular-firing-squad Democratic debate of 2020 where Kamala skewered him. The Party put the "safe old white guy" out as their face, and his bargain was to do exactly what every back room activist and moneyman wanted. This includes Bill Gates (anti-cars; environment), Michael Bloomberg (finance monopoly; gun control), aggressive profit-driven medical lobbyists (COVID vax mandates; transgender surgery), the very old race agenda of the Congressional Black Caucus, etc. This included the pet projects of all Deep State players left over from the Obama administration (Ukraine, China, EPA, etc.). There has never been a more obvious empty puppet president in the history of the country. Biden very very very closely resembles the late Roman emperors, as installed and removed at the whim of the Roman Deep State Praetorian Guard.
* Trump is not and never was a conservative. He was a middle-of-the-road big city real estate developer with middle-of-the-road 1990s Clintonian politics. You don't build things in deep blue locations without being friendly with the local governments and local unions. They thought they had him in their pocket as non-political, and didn't care about his personal life any more than they cared about Harvey Weinstein's behavior. Trump came down his escalator as extremely naive about Obama's foreign messes and primarily patriotic/nostalgic. A guy with multiple women, multiple divorces, casino owner, movie cameos, TV host, not gun-friendly, entertainer...for most of his life Trump was a typical distracted and fuzzy Hollywood "happy, generous" soft lefty...
The core tension is that naive Trump walked into D.C. trying to "drain the swamp" and to "lock her up" without understanding race and sex public politics and without realizing that 99% of the D.C. establishment created, loves, and manipulates the swamp. Trump had no effective allies inside or outside the Republican party, so his "friends" worked with his enemies to toy with him. Biden $old his $oul several decades ago, and had a complete pay-to-play reputation as a senator. So, Biden uses Catholicism only for image and advantage. He has no faith at all, and his brain is only as coherent as Hunter's brain.
Danno said...
Also, how do journalists ascribe a devout Catholic faith to Biden when he has never shown any indication of this trait?
I think he attends Mass every week. Keeping Holy the Sabbath is one of the more important commandments.
His cafeteria Catholic faith. He's a hypocrite like Piglosi.
Is it actively wrong to allow your religion to affect your politics?
Yes, yes, by all means, look down from on high, sighting down your long skinny Karen nose, and and suggest my spirituality requires some severe trimming, where it concerns killing babies.
Might I suggest a little mind game. Turn the question around.
Is it actively wrong to allow you politics to affect your Faith?
Or is that not fair. Pointing out you have to moral guidance? Just situational ethics. The most personally convenient shall rule the world?
"Biden" doesn't actually do anything. He is simply the public face of his very progressive staff, and perhaps some power behind the scenes. Articles like this one are just silly. Does anyone believe that Joe Biden is busily crafting his administrations policy positions? The man is barely coherent from what I can see of him. I don't like the style of gotcha journalism where isolated clips of presidents behaving stupidly are played to "prove" how inept and moronic they are. That strategy can be used against anyone, and Trump got it in spades. But with Joe Biden, there just isn't any other public face anymore. He's either confused and physically frail or weirdly angry and dishonest or wrong on the facts.
If I were Trump, I would say that Roe's overturning has left abortion decisions to the states per the tenth amendment and I would not sign any legislation coming from congress. I would explain that would never happen anyway because the people in the congress are too prudent and practical (or some might say spineless and cowardly) to pass any such legislation. State legislatures are no different. I, Donald Trump (your favorite president), therefore support the idea of 50 ballot initiatives in 50 states.
I'm more interested in the word extirpate.
The word should be spelled with an "s" -- as exstirpate.
The word's Latin root is stirp, which means a stem or root. The word means to pull a plant out of the ground by its stem or root out of the ground.
"Biden's Catholic faith should make him a natural middle-grounder ..."
Why? Catholicism should make him a radical. Unless it's Biden's version of Catholicism, which is cafeteria style, and therefore his politics should also be cafeteria.
What Enigma said.
I fell away from the church in 1962 and am still more Catholic than Pedo Joe.
Triangulate? POTATUS Biden can hardly order a milkshake!
https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/1781045127609233903
Biden is about as catholic as the pope is black.
Trump is again just saying what the vast majority of people in the country think because they don’t really care about politics.
10-20% of the country gets its jollies off arguing about abortion.
The rest of us have lives.
Pretending to be a Christian is required to be POTUS. The moron W Bush was the last real believer since Calvin Coolidge.
Trump is triangulationing by appeasing the religious fanatics with abortion bans, going hard on deregulation and tax brakes for the corporate and business classes and legitimizes "toxic" masculinity to the dope smoking gun owning F150 driving blue collar families.
Ah the wonder of the occasional token conservative column in the NYT. It's no wonder that I hear "doubt that!" in my mind when I read Douthat's name. As in "I doubt that premise" and "I doubt he's wondering why Biden can't do that" and "I doubt that Douthat believes 'somehow the Biden administration has ended up with' any outcome featured by Ross's column."
"Somehow." Riiiiight, Ross. Shit just sort of happens in this administration, doesn't it. Here Ross demonstrates the difference between educated and credentialed. Ross has the "right" credentials for the Times.
Fuckin' Danno wittily and pithily beat me to the punch.
Kudos, Sir.
Biden and Myorkas GIDDILY removed Trump's border policies with 90+ executive orders that killed Trump's strong border constraints.
3+ years of D-hack media insisting the "Border is Secure" was all a grand lie.
(Similar to Schitt-Maddow-Hillary planned lies about Trump being a Russian asset etc..)
The left lie about Open Southern Border on every network. In unison.
The left's loyal hivemind base buy the lies. Hook. Line. Sinker.
Biden is also to the left of secular Europe on abortion.
FLASHBACK, 2021: DHS Secretary Mayorkas Brags About Rescinding "Too Many Trump Immigration Policies To List"
Again - loyal leftist democrats buy the media's lies - without question.
but - we have the receipts.
does ANYONE actually think resident Biden has ANY influence on this administration's policies?
Seriously.. ANYONE? Any one at all?
Want to watch a documentary on the Biden Whitehouse? Try this one: Weekend at Bernies
wendybar said...
“His cafeteria Catholic faith.”
Considering all of the dementia gaffe videos, we have the Sede Vacante presidency.
And considering the 2020 election irregularities, Sedevacantism applies, too.
“Is it actively wrong to allow your religion to affect your politics?”
—————
For,the devout one’s faith should influence every aspect of one’s life.
Biden is only as strong as his corrupt puppet masters.
Talk to them.
Many people support the performance of human rites as a model of political congruence ("=") or selective exclusion under the Pro-Choice religion (i.e. behavioral model or protocol) for social (keep women affordable, available, reusable, and taxable), clinical (profitable cannibalism, redistributive change), criminal (sequestration of the "burden" of evidence), political (steering, selective-child, DEI), and climate progress (net-zero population control, fair weather ethicists), or a wicked solution to a hard problem (demos-cracy can indeed be aborted in darkness). That said, six weeks to legal viability in all 50 states, but not DC where Capitol punishment is celebrated as a forward-looking scheme.
If Biden was truly guided by his Catholic faith he would understand James 2:14-26.
I’ll judge Joe by his works.
Immigration reform is a violation of human rights, federal law, and the Constitution for purposes of labor arbitrage and Democratic gerrymandering. Emigration reform to mitigate progress at both ends of the bridge and throughout.
I'm not buying that Joe is a devout Catholic until I see photo evidence of his dash board Jesus displayed appropriately in his Corvette.
The Vault Dweller:
I think he attends Mass every week.
Because there, if he catches a nap, it looks like he's praying.
Over-compensating Non-combat "vet" Howitzer Howard: "Trump is triangulationing by appeasing the religious fanatics with abortion bans, going hard on deregulation and tax brakes for the corporate and business classes and legitimizes "toxic" masculinity to the dope smoking gun owning F150 driving blue collar families."
You have been repeatedly warned that posting anything over 5 words will only lead to your continued embarrassment since your only actual "skillset" (LOL) appears to be stringing together disconnected moronic superficial talking points force fed to you by your democratical masters.
But, then again, thats precisely what makes you a perfect little foot soldier for the wokies that guide you.
Biden is a devout Catholic?
LOL.
Burisma Money Laundering for personal profit above-the-law Joe is a Devout Catholic! Another "please buy our hot crap - from the hack press/White House talking point machine"
What is hilarious about the left is how they HATE Christians - but somehow they demand we all buy that their dear leaders are good quality - high quality fake Christians.
lololololol.
"a populist indifference to policy detail"... Where was this democrat party propagandist when Party members were praising the Inflation Reduction Act by cheering that they just passed the Green New Deal?
By the way, how is Inflation these days, and how much did the policies of the Green New Deal relieve it?
Does Ross Douthat shit in the woods?
Does Ross Douthat shit in the woods?
Biden's Twilight faith and Pro-Choice religion.
BillieBob Thorton said...
“I'm not buying that Joe is a devout Catholic until I see photo evidence of his dash board Jesus displayed appropriately in his Corvette.”
Or better yet, St Mary. With a rosary hanging from the rear view mirror.
"Is it actively wrong to allow your religion to affect your politics?"
No. We all let our beliefs influence our decisions. They don't have to be religious beliefs as long as they are practiced like a religion.
It would be refreshing if any of your commenters on the left would argue anything on the "merits".
"Why Can't Biden Triangulate like Trump"
I can't get behind the paywall, but does Ross Douchebag ever admit that Biden isn't the one setting the policy positions of his administration? Or does Douchebag simply carry on with pretending Biden is in charge of anything?
stringing together disconnected moronic superficial talking points
Drago's right Howard. Your comments are beginning to border on the incoherent. If you don't start trying a little harder I'm going to skip over what you write.
Thanks for confirming that I hit center mass.
Why is it that conservative columnists for liberal papers always have good things to say about liberals but never about conservatives? Where is Biden's "roots in dark places" comment? In politics you dance with the devil that will get you there, but only Republicans seem to have devils.
One of the more powerful statements on Roman Catholicism in the media, was the scene in The Godfather, where Michael Corleone and his wife stood up as godparents for his sister’s kid. The scenes of Micheal renouncing Satan, etc, are overlaid with his settling of all the family debts, including the deaths of other Mafia Dons, and even the father of the kid that he just stood up as the godfather to. The contrast between his promising to be a good Christian, and the violent executions he had ordered is what made the scene so powerful.
As an outsider, Catholicism has long looked to me like two faiths. For my partner, life is black and white, good and bad. Her ex called her the “moral police”. If the Pope said no abortions, then no abortions. Ditto with premarital sex - she didn’t. That ex though was the type of Catholic who sinned on Wednesday, and confessed that sin on Thursday. Rinse and repeat for the decade of their marriage. Confession was seen by them essentially as a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card. Males seem to predominate in this side of Catholicism, while females in the other. I think that they also tend to predominate in the Cafeteria Catholics, who pick and choose which tenets of their faith to obey. It doesn’t help having a clergy that has long protected certain sins within its own ranks, including homosexuality, and esp the recruiting and diddling of boys. They are the ones telling their parishioners that their sins are forgiven, and to go out and sin no more, knowing that they will.
So, is Joe Biden a Roman Catholic? Not mine to say. Is he a good Catholic? Probably not. But, again, not mine to say. I think that his Catholicism is a mantle he dons for convenience and advantage, and not a goal to better himself. He has lied like a rug the entirety of his political life - most of a half century. No lie is too big or too venal for him. He lies even when everyone knows that he is lying. He has also gotten wealthy by accepting bribes for official favors. Etc. He has long used protestations of his faith, no matter how hollow, for political advantage - though that knows no religious boundaries.
One of the weaknesses, in my view, of Roman Catholicism is that condemnation for sinning is left to the clergy. That means that the laity cannot do so, by, for example, shunning. Yes, effectively still a real thing in many Protestant churches. My partner was told by her priest to forgive her ex for his sins, since he had confessed them and had been forgiven. She replied that she could forgive, but not forget them. Trust has to be earned, and not bestowed from above, and every time he went to 7/11, or the shop in the middle of the night, she would wonder what he was really doing.
Back to Biden. This all is probably now irrelevant. I think, in his senility, he is beyond sinning or considering the tenets of his faith. He is cranked up on drugs, trotted out, and propped up, to say what his puppeteers want him to say. With the latest O’Keefe revelations, they appear to be a collection of Obama and Clinton stalwarts, combined with some outright radicals. Which is to say, that arguing about his faith is irrelevant - because it doesn’t affect the decisions being made in his name.
Howard said...
"Thanks for confirming that I hit center mass."
Do you want us to call you a medic for that self-inflicted chest wound?
I think he attends Mass every week.
My what a strong yet speculative endorsement. I think Trump's an honest businessman for the most part. Honesty is also big on God's list of things to be.
'If you like your gas-powered car, you can keep your car' is a simple, politically effective formulation.
Yeah that's never gonna work. Not after the "if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor" line of bullshit Obama (and the Media) fed everyone.
If you don't start trying a little harder I'm going to skip over what you write.
Why wait? Skipping is the best part of comments sometimes.
Oligonicella said...
Because there, if he catches a nap, it looks like he's praying.
Possibly, but I think it is hard to get a good nap at a Catholic Mass with the frequent shifts between sitting, standing, and kneeling. Maybe the father does him a favor and gives a 30 minute plus homily for good nap time.
Howard,
When you constantly snipe at caricatures and strawmen, center mass is meaningless.
"Why is it that conservative columnists for liberal papers always have good things to say about liberals but never about conservatives?
I am sure you know that he who pays the piper calls the tune. Brooksie and Douchebag probably don't like performing fellatio for the progressives that own the NYTimes, but they need the ability to buy food and keep the lights on, and neither apparently has any other talent.
Howard with his Victory Mince™…
Just another Manic Friday.
"Why Can’t Biden Triangulate Like Trump?"
Biden can't do anything as well as Trump. Trump, whatever your personal opinion may be, is a major-league player in American society. Certainly an All-Star, maybe a Hall-of-Famer. He has succeeded in several highly competitive sectors of that society. In his newest field, he has won two Presidential elections and is leading for a third.
Biden is a minor-leaguer at a level that used to be class D. Grade inflation changed minor-league ratings and now we must acknowledge Biden is a class A player. He has won enough reelections, even though in Small Wonder Tiny World Delaware, that he is on the A roster. But AA and AAA have always proved out of his reach. One flukey day, late in his playing career, he even hit a home run. But he could never function for long in the big leagues. His cup of coffee is down to the cold dregs.
The cannibals ate Biden's "Catholic faith" which has just about as much substance in fact as Joe's story about his uncle getting eaten by cannibals.
Biden's Catholic faith, like Pelosi's, deserves ridicule, not references in supposedly serious analysis of its impact on political ideology.
"For anyone with sincere and absolute convictions on abortion, pro-life or pro-choice, Donald Trump’s attempts to reposition himself this week should be somewhere between depressing and infuriating."
- Ross Douthat
Well, that's a take. God forbid we should seek compromise.
I was complementing Trump on his winning strategy with a slaughter ght bit of sarcasm and you people get upset because you are permanently hypersensitive because insecurities. You are become snowflake.
“I was complementing Trump on his winning strategy with a slaughter ght bit of sarcasm and you people get upset because you are permanently hypersensitive because insecurities. You are become snowflake.”
Howard has some sort of “panic” thing accompanying his usual gnashgabbing.
Trump’s lack of professed religion makes him a natural middle ground.
Religious people have to entangle themselves with the contradictions of their religion.
Picking & Choosing which religious precept prevails in a given situation.
It’s an ugly business.
Abort, sequester, and let evolution redistribute the carbon in a new green deal.
How do students, past, present, and future, feel about the Bidencares redistributive scheme?
Much of the left's coalition is unsteady and based on a thirst for power. Take Gays for Gaza (please). Biden - or rather the sentient players behind Biden - apparently believe they must not lose a single member of any of the fragments. That leads Biden to mumble out of both sides of his mouth.
Not a great look.
Biden is catholic like I'm Marilyn Monrow (hint, he isn't).
He's the most radical president in our history and I don't think his policies would be this crazy if he wasn't senile.
Others are running the entire show...
Funny title.
“Middle Grounder.” What does that even mean? Moderate?
In the context of a system where independent moral reasoning isn’t encouraged but instead subordinated to a single infallible leader?
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