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babylonsister

(171,068 posts) Fri Apr 13, 2018, 05:31 PM Apr 2018

Pierce: I'd Like to Offer This Sanity Quiz to All #NeverTrump Conservatives

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19808876/never-trumpers-republican-party-conservatives/

I'd Like to Offer This Sanity Quiz to All #NeverTrump Conservatives
Nicolle Wallace, David Frum, Joe Scarborough, Bill Kristol: Step right up.
By Charles P. Pierce
Apr 13, 2018

I am told regularly by people I admire and respect to hold my cynical tongue about all the career conservatives and television flotsam from the late and unlamented Avignon Presidency who now are all over the airwaves deploring the terrible things being done to the Republic by the president* and his dwindling band of loyalists down at Camp Runamuck. Be nice, I am told. These are valuable allies.

Try not to say so loudly that, as soon as the Republican Party casts off the First Millstone, these people all will be right back to promoting the ideas and the policies that made him possible in the first place—voodoo economics, wars of choice based on deceit, ticking-bomb excuses for torture, and night sweats over the impending rise of the liberal power elite. Keep that stuff to yourself, they say.

snip//

So, Nicolle, and Steve Schmidt, and Michael Steele, and Rick Wilson, and Joe Scarborough, and Butcher’s Bill Kristol, and Andrew Sullivan, and David Frum, and the rest of you. Please take out your No. 2 pencils, open your test booklets and begin. We start with an easy one.

1) Many of you have expressed your dismay at how Sinclair Broadcasting forced its local anchors to read a canned statement about the curse of “fake news,” divining, correctly, that this was the company’s way of delegitimizing serious coverage of the many and varied corruptions of the current administration*. In 2004, when Sinclair forced its local stations to run a meretricious fake documentary slandering John Kerry’s service in Vietnam, were you as offended as you are today? Were you public with your disapproval? Did you take your concerns to upper echelons in the Bush campaign and the Bush White House? To whom did you take them?

2) Please provide an example of how you pushed back against the entire Swift Boating of Kerry? Did any of you upbraid the people who were peddling Purple Heart Band-Aids at the 2004 Republican Convention?

3) Please explain in detail how you, because of your deep concern for political civility and an open marketplace of ideas, pushed back against the vicious attacks by Bush administration officials, and conservative journalists, who were critical of Americans who doubted the phony case for the invasion of Iraq. Please explain Andrew Sullivan’s famous “Fifth Column” essay in light of how Donald Trump talks about his political opponents. Bonus Question: Please discuss the Bush Administration’s assaults on the UN weapons inspectors in the context of the Trump Administration’s assaults on the credibility of the FBI?

4) In one sentence or less, please describe the political style and impact on the nation of the following: Newt Gingrich, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Richard Mellon Scaife, the Mercer family, the Koch Family, the Bradley Family. Please include details of the positive contributions of each of these to the political life of the nation.

more...

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19808876/never-trumpers-republican-party-conservatives/

7 replies

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Pierce: I'd Like to Offer This Sanity Quiz to All #NeverTrump Conservatives (Original Post) babylonsister Apr 2018 OP

Fantastic! Leith Apr 2018 #1

Wouldn't you love to see their answers? sinkingfeeling Apr 2018 #2

Good reminder to folks here that these are RW hacks oberliner Apr 2018 #3

Damned good, Charlie! longship Apr 2018 #4

For now, though, can't we call a truce? Mr. Ected Apr 2018 #5

Incredible. K&R. madinmaryland Apr 2018 #6

I'd add one more question: hvn_nbr_2 Apr 2018 #7

Leith

(7,809 posts)

1. Fantastic!

Reply to babylonsister (Original post)

Fri Apr 13, 2018, 05:50 PM

Apr 2018

I groan whenever I read somebody here praising Nicole Wallace, Steve Schmidt, etc. for what they recently said.

That has to stop!

Wallace and Schmidt worked their asses off to make Sarah Palin the VP in spite of knowing what an idiot she is. I don't remember any rethug telling people not to smear Democratic candidates during elections. Did a single one of them say "Democratic party" at any time in their lives before signing their MSNBC contracts?

Sure, they're nice and cuddly now, but when the wilder specimens of their species run off into the mountains to howl, they will revert to their true natures and tell each other horror stories of when they were forced to be PC (meaning civil to "demoncRats" ) just to pay the bills and "thank Jesus that's over!"

They have a hell of a lot to atone for. Mouthing memorized phrases to Rachel and Chris isn't enough. They need to admit to their parts in building today's (as Rick Wilson called it) shitshow. Until then, they are like zoo exhibits: fun to look at but there is no way in hell I would want one of them in my house.

sinkingfeeling

(51,457 posts)

2. Wouldn't you love to see their answers?

Reply to babylonsister (Original post)

Fri Apr 13, 2018, 06:08 PM

Apr 2018

oberliner

(58,724 posts)

3. Good reminder to folks here that these are RW hacks

Reply to babylonsister (Original post)

Fri Apr 13, 2018, 06:10 PM

Apr 2018

longship

(40,416 posts)

4. Damned good, Charlie!

Reply to babylonsister (Original post)

Fri Apr 13, 2018, 06:36 PM

Apr 2018

Recommended click-through!

Mr. Ected

(9,670 posts)

5. For now, though, can't we call a truce?

Reply to babylonsister (Original post)

Fri Apr 13, 2018, 06:43 PM

Apr 2018

We are not allies, but we share a hatred for the Trump administration. One thing at a time. We'll resume our former postures after the impeachment.

madinmaryland

(64,933 posts)

6. Incredible. K&R.

Reply to babylonsister (Original post)

Fri Apr 13, 2018, 06:45 PM

Apr 2018

hvn_nbr_2

(6,486 posts)

7. I'd add one more question:

Reply to babylonsister (Original post)

Fri Apr 13, 2018, 07:05 PM

Apr 2018

During the seven decades of non-stop vicious dishonest Republican McCarthyite red-baiting of Democrats and liberals, when, where, and how did you speak up for civility and honesty?

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