November 2, 2016

"Donald Trump (or any candidate) may not be a solution in himself, but an outsider at least can be an instrument to dislodge an elite and replace it, for a while..."

"... with an elite less habituated to using public power to favor and enrich itself. With Mrs. Clinton, as with Mr. Obama, a voter naturally struggles to understand what the overarching vision is. There isn’t one. They exist to deliver the wish-list of Democratic lobby groups for more power over the people of the United States. Period. A few weeks ago Mrs. Clinton was the 'safe hands' candidate. If she wins, it now appears hers will be an embattled and investigated presidency from day one. Moderates will flee. Republicans will find it hard to cooperate with her. She will be forced back on the hard left of her party. The same who already are drawing up 'blacklists' of potential appointees suspected of sympathy for the private sector. The same who hesitate least about using government power to attack enemies (see Exxon). The same who are most comfortable relying on administrative diktat to impose policies the public doesn’t support and never voted for."

Writes Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. at The Wall Street Journal, in "Hillary Clinton Becomes the Unsafe Hand."

29 comments:

Bad Lieutenant said...

Welcome to the party, pal! This could have been written months ago and be no less true.

BTW some of you thinking, "Well, Kaine's all right," no. Just no.

Kaine is not Hitler or Big Brother/Sister, that's Hillary.

Kaine is the Joker without makeup.

Molly said...

It doesn't seem to be an exaggeration to say that Secretary Clinton's already accomplished acts are more corrupt than those of the Nixon Administration in Watergate.

shiloh said...

"with an elite less habituated to using public power to favor and enrich itself."

Indeed, describes narcissistic, pathological liar, accountable to no one, sexual predator, insult laden Trump perfectly!

Bay Area Guy said...

Bravo, Mr. Jenkins! Cutting through the fog of politics is quite refreshing.

Owen said...

Rise of the Administrative State has facilitated --requires-- the elites we observe. Trump may disrupt their game a little. Clinton will not. She is their creature, the nearly-human representation of the system itself. The meat puppet grafted onto the Borg.

buwaya said...

Well, yes.
Been saying so forever.

buwaya said...

Owen has it right. Clinton is a figurehead.

Sydney said...

My favorite passage:
It pays to recall that the federal machinery trying so hard to give her a pass is the same federal machinery that writes millions of rules for the rest of us. It doesn’t give us a pass. The IRS can’t make sense of its own regulations yet expects us to abide by them under pain of criminal prosecution.

Mrs. Clinton’s every plan involves only complicating America’s life with more rules, more legal pitfalls for citizens, more mandates for business. The tax code is not complicated enough for her. ObamaCare is just a down payment on fixing health care with more regulation and government mandates.


A thousand times this!

traditionalguy said...

This is a bad way to understand a vote against The Clinton Crime Family. The Dems were way to overconfident in a believe the MSM could cover her crimes up so long as the GOP cooperated.

Well Trump took NO DONOR CORRUPTION money, and thereby alienated the Bush/ Kassich/ Ryan GOP but won the trust of the country.

Sebastian said...

Slight contradiction here: outsider is supposed to dislodge elite -- but loses to a weak prog whose reliance on progs in fact consolidates left elite control. Thanks, Donald!

Henry said...

From the article: It might seem far-fetched now that President Obama, after Election Day, would try to clear President Clinton’s path by issuing a pardon for offenses committed while secretary of state, but crazier miscalculations have been made by the players in this drama.

Doesn't seem farfetched to me. I'm still waiting for Huma Abedin's Scooter Libby to take the fall for Hillary's Richard Armitage.

chickelit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chickelit said...

Welcome back, shilho! Did Soros cut you one final check to wreak havoc for a week?

Henry said...

That's a lot of assertions without logic in that article. If Clinton is weakened, her ability to use executive privilege to rule is also weakened. One of President Obama's great strengths is the perception that he is middle-of-the-road type of guy, just looking for common-sense solutions. Clinton would take power stripped of every veneers. If she is forced to succor the hard left, her ability to govern is weakened, not strengthened.

Plus, if she goes hard left, she loses what is most important to her. A revenue stream.

Birkel said...

Yes, Henry, because every Leftist leader who goes hard Left gives up lots of opportunities for money. That's why all those leaders are dead broke and also why they pursue power so diligently.

/sarc

dreams said...

I heard him on Squawk Box this morning. I use to read his column before the paywall, he seems to have his head screwed on straight.

Darrell said...

I was going to vote for Hillary until Shiloh turned me on to Trump. I bet thousands of readers feel the same way.

Henry said...

Birkel, I think Hillary knows exactly who signs her checks.

Brando said...

Anyone thinking we're facing some apocalypse with these candidates is being hysterical. Anyone thinking either of these candidates will get us on the right track is delusional.

tim in vermont said...

Her vision is clear as day. To become the first billionaire just from her jobs in the government. She will never catch Castro, which galls her no end, I am sure.

damikesc said...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3897406/New-York-Times-reports-95-7-percent-fall-quarterly-profit.html

This is pleasant news indeed.

buwaya said...

Brando,
Disaster is baked in.
No avoiding it I think.
The current and upcoming generations are simply too decadent and useless.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

shiloh said...
"with an elite less habituated to using public power to favor and enrich itself."

Indeed, describes narcissistic, pathological liar, accountable to no one, sexual predator, insult laden Trump perfectly!


Public, shiloh, public. As in the power of the State, dig? Government? You know, the "other name for things we do together?" The thing Trump isn't a part of and hasn't been a part of, but that the Clintons and their pals have used to make themselves fabulously wealthy and seemingly beyond the reach of the law? The thing we all fucking pay for from our taxes?

Why is this a difficult thing for Leftists to grasp? There are lots of sins, lots of bad things people do, sure. It's MUCH WORSE when people do bad things using State power. It's bad to act unethically and profit from it. It's MUCH WORSE to do so using the State--a businessperson who profits from cheating is bad, a government employee who uses their position to cheat and profit is very bad. Very very bad, even. Corrupt politicians using the government institutions I pay for to enrich themselves and attack me is worst of all--I get the privilege of paying for Lefty IRS agents to suppress non-Left groups, etc.

That's what we have now, shiloh. If you think Trump's a crook, fine, but at worst he's a crook using his own money and power. Hillary is a crook, and she's used the State--our government--to enrich herself (and avoid legal punishment for herself & her friends, etc). That's worse!

Birkel said...

HoodlumDoodlum:

Absolutely correct and completely wasted on shiloh. Like most collectivists, shiloh believes the bad "others" will be punished but he will not.

History teaches that the first against the wall are those who collaborated.

shiloh is stupid.

Howard said...

Clinton = Figurehead
Trump = Façade

Yancey Ward said...

I wrote several months ago in reply to another article that sometimes it is a wrecking ball that you need. I hope Trump is that wrecking ball, fingers crossed. The present path of the country is on is dangerous, and Clinton only promises to keep it on that path.

The country is rotting from the head down, and from the inside out. Only fools and knaves are denying it at this moment.

Chuck said...

Holman Jenkins -- as I think I have opined to Professor Althouse in email -- is the best columnist in America.

Don't expect Jenkins to go all pro-Trump now. Jenkins operative theory all along has been that Trump was never terribly serious about running in the first place. That Trump wouldn't personally invest in his campaign, and that he'd cut his losses when it came to it.

I expect that Hillary has turned into an even worse candidate than the Never Trumpers imagined. I'd say that she is worse than I imagined, except that I wrote months ago that she is the worst Democrat nominee since Al Smith.

Chuck said...

traditionalguy said...
This is a bad way to understand a vote against The Clinton Crime Family. The Dems were way to overconfident in a believe the MSM could cover her crimes up so long as the GOP cooperated.

Well Trump took NO DONOR CORRUPTION money, and thereby alienated the Bush/ Kassich/ Ryan GOP but won the trust of the country.


Trump has been begging for money for the last three or four months. The RNC loaned him their lists, including a couple that obviously include me. I've gotten daily emails for weeks. Trump hasn't gotten more large donations and PAC support, because the biggest donors don't like him and don't believe in him. Which is no mark of trustworthiness on Trump's part. If you think that Trump would be turning down large donations and major fundraising at this point, I have a tower to sell you in Manhattan.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Chuck, Michigan is tied. Momentum still appears moving Trump's way. How much do you really think you know?