Your story is something like mine in that I really thought he would not govern as a conservative at all. I thought the list of potential justices was just BS, for example. But he has surprised me that way.

However, I think he actually has gotten more conservative while in office. If he can be said to have a political philosophy/belief, it is conservative. Not wholly conservative or consistently conservative, but conservative nonetheless.

His personal style is not the least bit “conservative” however, except for his being a teetotaler.

But I digress. After supporting Bobby Jindal and then Ted Cruz in the primaries, I thought that Trump was going to ruin the party. I thought that he would trash the Republican brand and that he didn’t believe in anything he was saying – and that people would see through his BS.

Then he got elected. I have to admit, I was elated that Hillary wasn’t President, but I still didn’t trust Trump. I was afraid that he would sell out the Conservative movement and be a New York liberal squish. I was afraid that he was all bravado and no substance.

But then he picked his cabinet. And damn it, it’s working. I still don’t think he is ideologically conservative. I think he is a performer and just wants to cut deals to make things work. He obviously knows a lot about business and wants to make the government run more efficiently, so that’s a plus!

And the biggest thing we have going for us is that the Left hates him with the heat of a billion stars. It means they will never work with him. And he realizes he can feed off it by trolling them, which makes his base more supportive and more right-wing and damn it, things just keep getting better!

So far, I’ve been proven wrong and I’m thrilled! I still fear what might happen if the Progs get enough power and sense that they want to cut deals with him… perhaps that will never happen… or perhaps they will try to work with him and he will prove me wrong again.

For now, I will just be happy with what we’ve got. As Vukdawg said, it’s very enjoyable to watch the left and deep state implode.

Anyway, I understood and agreed with your analysis of Trump’s “Ballerism”. I was a Cruz supporter during the primaries. But I have enjoyed the heck out of watching The Donald toy with the media and the Democrats (BIRM), because every time he does it I know what he is doing.

These people have been dealing with spineless Republicans for so long that they honestly do not know how to respond to actual opposition. It is driving them insane, and it is all on full public display. (Not just opposition… but “IN YOUR FACE” opposition.)

To everyone on this thread, I hope you are all well. I also hope you come to enjoy the sport of watching the left and the deep state implode.

I understand, but remember, every age has its own reality and that reality looks artificial from the point of view of any subsequent age.

As an example, think about 1950s science fiction showing interstellar travel with analog rocket controls (Commando Cody, Rocky Jones Space Ranger, even the much respected Forbidden Planet). It looks almost comical from today’s point of view of integrated circuits, touch screens and advanced electronics. It didn’t look comical seventy years ago, however, because that was the prevailing technology through which the future was seen.

This also works socially and culturally. It’s tautological. What looks unacceptable now was acceptable then because it was then, and unbeknownst to us, we will be looked at in the same way by future generations (although not necessarily for the same reasons).

Interesting point you make about the 50s.

As someone who remembers the 50s well—although I was a child—I never got a stifled feeling at all. The music was great, although I’m sure if I went back now I would find it stifling—the entire society, probably—because I’ve gotten used to something very very different.

But you know what? When I think back on my parents and their friends during that time, my sense is that they had a lot more fun than most people today. They got together a lot, had many parties, went on trips they seemed to enjoy, worked hard but not incredibly hard, and had a large circle of friends who had mostly known each other for life and supported each other in a pinch. People got dressed up just to go downtown. My parents used to get together with friends at least one night a week and usually more often, and they’d play cards or dance or something like that and then have cake and coffee and really heated, interesting discussions. I know about the discussions because as a little girl I was allowed to sit at the table and listen (and even say something if I felt like it), if my homework was done. They were a very lively fun-loving bunch of people, real characters.

The worst thing about those times was the discrimination. Some of the women worked, however—some of them at very good jobs, I might add—although it wasn’t the majority. The position of black people was quite bad. We were very aware that that had to change. Things were far from perfect.

But my memory of people’s general affect was that there was a lot more happiness around then than there is now.

I sometimes think of what happens to free societies when they go over the ledge as like those pictures you see of kids with chocolate smeared on their face, standing there with their finger in their mouth, looking like, “uh oh… look what I did.”

Every human has a strong temptation or urge that is very hard to resist, and in a free society the line between taboo and indulgence is much thinner than would be the case in either an oppressive state of natural scarcity or a panopticon/totalitarian system.

At first one hand goes in the cookie jar – and damn that cookie tastes good. Then someone else says, “look, it’s not hurting anyone. It’s a cookie. Just don’t overdo it and we’ll be fine.” More hands go in. Yummy yummy. Then it incrementally becomes clear that if we’re going to ensure everyone gets their “cookie” guilt- and shame-free, we have to remove the taboos.

I’m going to be very honest here – and some might find this interesting – and say that if I, as I am right now, imbued with the permissions and licenses and vulgarities I’ve been imbued with (and to be fair – consciously adopted in some cases)… if this “Me” was to go back to the ‘50’s and try to live there, I would find it intolerably restrictive. I’d feel suffocated. Not just by the norms of decency but by the music and popular entertainment. It would feel too “stuffy” to me.

Notice I’m not talking about my rational response here but about how it would feel. That’s how deep it goes.

As to the question of cursing, it’s not only that. We have become more coarse as a culture. Not every man and every woman, but generally in the public sphere. Look at the more sexually provocative casual dress of many women, or many men wearing their pants so low as to reveal their boxers. IMO this is in great part because the movement of the last 50 years has been to despise and deconstruct traditional life. Bourgeoisie values have been deemed restrictive, outdated, and unnecessary and are seen as useless traditions rather than a sum total of ages of human interaction.

As I said above, not for everyone, but enough in the public sphere that it has come to typify our current society. C’est dommage.”

I have referenced Trump in the mode of George S. Patton several times (remember Trump attended a military academy), and an appropriate Patton quote is: “When I want them to remember it, I give it to them good and dirty.” Trump’s trash-talking follows the same pattern, although somewhat sanitized for national Twitter consumption. Patton, it seems, was either loved or hated with little middle ground. Trump follows that same pattern, too.

Furthermore, Patton, a cavalry officer, saw fixed fortifications as monuments to the stupidity of mankind and, to the consternation of his superiors, used former Nazi bureaucrats to staff post-war offices because the allies were not sending him qualified individuals who could do the job. Fixed fortifications? Just work your cavalry around them. Rebuilding the German civil structure under the Allies? Use people who can do the job. Is this any different than Trump departing from the ineffective foreign and domestic protocols of past administrations much to the consternation of the bien pensant?

A commenter above wrote that, while they are pleased with Trump’s performance, they would prefer that performance be from a Trump who isn’t a “trash-talker”, a “baller”. I suggest, however, that Trump, especially with his brash approach, is precisely the perfect solution in the perfect place at the perfect time.

I was talking to a friend (a member of my generation) the other day and we decided that we are officially old, because we feel increasingly out of touch with so many things that are happening that are changes that don’t seem for the better. One of them is that coarsening of language to which you refer.

When I was young you really didn’t hear cursing from anyone; it was so rare! Maybe in the home when your parents were arguing; maybe. But nowhere else. I still remember the first time I said a forbidden word aloud. I probably was 15 or 16 at least. Now from the mouths of practically babes, the foulest expressions emanate. You can overhear it just walking down the street—there is no reticence and no shame.

I think it’s an awful development. But that horse has left the barn, I’m afraid.

This early post of mine is about this subject, by the way, or at least related to it.