David Horowitz Diagnoses Jonah Goldberg and the NeverTrumpers' Cowardly Positioning

Goldberg attacked Horowitz nastily on Twitter; if you care about that, see the link.

In this new column, Horowitz discusses the NeverTrumpers' focus-grouped ploy of claiming they support Trump's conservative policy actions while still hating him -- some, like Bret Stephens, even admitting they "still wish Hillary Clinton were president" -- due to Trump's character defects.

Funny, they never seem to have much to say about Hillary Clinton's character.

Also funny: they seem much more emotionally traumatized by President Trump than they ever were by President Obama. One senses, rather acutely, that they rather liked Obama, but were required for careerist reasons to pretend they didn't.

But anyway, as to this supposedly-I-support-his-policies-but-I-hate-his-character posture: it is strange indeed that they spend so little time or effort or emotion talking up these conservative policies they allegedly support. I guess you'll just have to take their perfunctory word about that.

Horowitz criticizes this stance as cowardly and calculating, for maximum career protection and even career advancement:

The posture of these NeverTrumpers is transparently self-serving. It preserves their intellectual credentials as "conservatives," and simultaneously takes them out of the line of fire from an increasingly vicious Left whose goal is to destroy Trump and his presidency, and--incidentally--conservative America. Sitting on the fence affords them new career opportunities -- appearances on CNN and MSNBC and columns in the New York Times.

All that's required is that they avoid taking sides in the political war that is engulfing the country.

All this reminds me of a memorable Trotsky sneer about liberals, whom he accused of being reluctant to step into the stream of political conflict because they were afraid to get their moral principles wet.

He also says:

The nastiness of [Goldberg's personal attack on me] sentence shocked me. Evidently the hatred of Trump is so fevered it can burn through two decades of cordiality and acquaintance. I wonder if Jonah would be so hostile to someone who shared his view of Trump's character but thought Trump's policies were racist, and tyrannical.

No, he wouldn't be. He was never this purple-facedly enraged at Obama and was one of the guys you could count on to chide you if your criticism of Obama offended the sense of propriety of his liberal friends.

posted by Ace of Spades at 03:55 PM

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