The Daly Weekly (6/5)

Victor Davis Hanson, Susan Collins, Graham Platner, and more.

Hi everyone.

Welcome to this week’s Daly Weekly, where I answer whatever questions you throw my way.

Before we get started this week, I’d like to invite you all to Reagan Caucus Action’s new Substack. I co-host their weekly podcast, on which we feature a different guest every week to discuss numerous issues from a Reaganite perspective.

It’s totally free, and you can sign up here (I hope you do):

Now, let’s get to your questions…

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John, You are easy to fundamentally agree with. But your assessment of Trump and that of Victor Davis Hansen’s is widely different and I’ve been curious about that for quite some time. Can you comment on that difference? — Al

In order to be totally fair to your question, Al, I’d have to listen to more of Hansen’s analysis of Trump than I have, as well as better familiarize myself with his political ideology (I know he’s a rightie, but he strikes me as more of a populist than the type of conservative I am).

What I will say is that on the occasions when I have caught a video clip of him talking about Trump, he seems to be doing what I’ve seen a number of other Trump-friendly commentators do: Start with their audience’s preferred conclusion (that Trump’s a genius), and then twist and shape Trump’s decisions and conduct into artificial alignment with some ideological or intellectual framework… until that conclusion is reached. It’s a form of that whole “Trump is playing 3-dimensional chess while everyone else is playing checkers” shtick. Lots of MAGA-folks love that stuff (especially when it’s presented by an articulate person with an academic background), but it almost always falls flat on its face, when Trump ends up doing or saying exactly the opposite of what those people insist he’s doing.

And when the happens, neither the commentator nor the audience ever seems to acknowledge it. They just casually move on to the next topic, and go through the same routine.

Since I view that type of analysis as highly flawed, and akin to fan service, I don’t offer or subscribe to it. Again, I’m a conservative, and I have no interest in romanticizing politicians, ignoring or avoiding hard facts, or entertaining thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories to connect with an audience.

Again, this may not be entirely fair to Hansen. What I’ve seen from him may not be representative of his broader analysis of Trump, but it’s consistent with what I have seen of him. Incidentally, I saw somewhere that Hansen is having health problems, so my best wishes go out to him.

John, I love this quote from John Cleese: “There are people just sitting there, who are deliberately waiting, for the thrill of being offended.” His quote points to how some actively look for reasons to feel outraged. Remind you of anyone(s)? — Sharon H.

It reminds me of a lot of people, Sharon. It’s a common part of our grievance culture, including our political-grievance culture.

As I read the questions sent to you, I am continually amazed at how the critics of Trump conveniently dismiss all the good he has done in favor of rudely attacking his personality. Even as you invoke his “malignant narcissistic “ methods, I read you saying deep down within yourself, “I wish that I was more like him”.

Also, democrats are bemoaning the fact that they do not have a leader has one percent the charisma and policies of Trump. They can only count on a leftist media to misguide an ignorant and apathetic populace into voting for more incompetence and anti American policies. — Craig S.

Well, there’s a lot to unpack here, Craig. I’ll take it one piece at a time.

First of all, I don’t understand your complaint that people who ask me questions “conveniently dismiss all the good Trump is done.” This is a weekly Q&A, mostly on political topics. It’s not a Donald Trump fan-appreciation page, and people don’t need to “conveniently” pretend otherwise.

Trump’s the president of the United States, and he regularly does things that are objectively worthy of criticism. When a subscriber asks me to comment on one of those things, do you expect them to begin their question with “Trump’s totally awesome, but…” or “Trump has done amazing things as president, but…”? Or do you just want them to ask me questions like, “John, Why is Trump so awesome?” If those are the types of questions YOU want to ask me, Craig, feel free to do so (I’ll respond to them). But other subscribers obviously have no obligation to, and it would be kind of weird if they did.

To your next point, you (and many other Trump loyalists) are insistent that every criticism of Trump comes down to people having a problem with his “personality.” I think that’s very wrong. Do a lot of people dislike Trump’s personality? Sure, and for good reason. But most criticisms of him are tied to tangible actions — things he’s actually done.

Now, to be clear, there’s often a connection between the two, and you brought up a good example that I’ll use: the description of him as a “malignant narcissist.” Trump is absolutely a narcissist, and not just some run-of-the-mill one (I think even you would agree with that). But if he were somehow able to separate that personality trait/disorder from his governance (aka presidential actions), it wouldn’t be nearly as big of a problem for people. Unfortunately, he’s shown that he has little capacity to do that.

Trump’s narcissism drove the “stop the steal” stuff, which ruined lives and careers, damaged people’s faith in our democracy, and led to the January 6 attack (that people are dead because of). A lot of his political retribution stuff stems from his narcissism, and his belief that he should be entitled to whatever he wants (regardless of the Constitution or rule of law). It’s behind his need to rid the Republican Party of anyone who doesn’t completely prostrate themself for him (which has driven many good people out of office). It was/is behind much of his terrible trade policy (which has made life much more expensive for Americans). And, as was brought up in last week’s Q&A, it’s behind all of these taxpayer-funded vanity projects (like putting his face on buildings, passports, park passes, $250 bills, etc), at a time when Americans’ cost of living is through the roof, and our national debt is racing toward $40 trillion.

Now to my favorite part of your comment, Craig: That “I wish that I was more like” Trump. I literally laughed out loud when I read that, in part because Bernie and I used to joke about the funny responses we’d get in the comment section, back in 2015/2016, about our criticisms of Trump being motivated by personal jealousy. And reliably, when I’d look up those specific commenters’ IP addresses (the old comment section allowed for that), they’d turn out to be foreign bots. Since I don’t think you’re a foreign bot, Craig, I’ll take the time to explain where I’m coming from on this…

I don’t envy people with poor character. I aspire to be more like people who have good character. Neither money nor power makes me want to be “more like” an individual, and there are plenty of rich and powerful people (along with non-rich and non-powerful people) who I admire a lot more than Donald Trump. You may aspire to be more like Trump, Craig, but I assure you that millions and millions of American absolutely do not.

To your last point, charisma is always a valuable asset for a politician. We saw it with Obama, and we’ve seen it with Trump. So, I’m not surprised the Dems want more charismatic leaders in their party.

John, I know you’re rooting for Susan Collins to beat Graham Platner in Maine, but what do you think are the chances that she will beat him? — Ben G.

Hi Ben. First, I think it’s worth reminding people that Platner hasn’t even won the Democratic primary yet. The primary election is next Tuesday. It’s easy to forget (since Platner’s been getting all the attention), but there are other Democratic candidates that primary voters can choose from. No one’s forcing Platner to be their nominee).

Anyway, unless Platner is pressured to drop out of the race at the last minute (due to the latest, horrific revelations), I think he’ll unfortunately win the primary. My general-election prediction is that, despite Trump’s unpopularity, Collins will win. I could end up being wrong about that, of course, but Platner’s been losing ground in the polls, and I suspect even more damning information than what we already know will come out about him between now and general-election day.

I watched your interview with Paul Miller, and I wonder if you agree with him that China will invade Taiwan in 2028. — Alex D.

Hi Alex. Miller is a highly credible foreign policy expert who worked for two presidential administrations. I am not. I do, however, listen very closely to experts like him, and I think he makes a lot of sense, including on the timing. I hope to God that doesn’t happen (and never will), but with Trump offering recent indicators that he wouldn’t have Taiwan’s back if China did invade them, it could very well happen as Miller predicted.

Sir John—This video depicts UK protesters angry over a young white man named Henry Nowak who was stabbed several times by an Indian immigrant who falsely accused Nowak of calling him racist slurs. As Nowak lay dying from his wounds, the British police handcuffed him and placed him under arrest because apparently in the UK, accusations of using racist language is a much more serious crime than stabbing somebody else over a dozen times because he said something offensive, which as it turned out, was a lie anyway. I know The UK doesn’t have free speech, but I would like your opinions on this case just the same, and do you fear that the American left would ever try and perhaps succeed in turning the USA into what the UK has become? —“Brittania Rues Its Politically Correct Bobbies” regards from The Emperor

Emperor, you left out some significant details, and misstated others.

First of all, the “Indian immigrant” was not an immigrant at all. He was a British-born man of Indian descent, named Vickrum Digwa, who was raised in the UK.

Second, Digwa didn’t simply lie about racist slurs. He also lied to police on the scene that Nowak had pursued him and physically assaulted him. Officers initially handcuffed Nowak because they thought he was an assailant (not because an accusation of racism is a more serious crime than murder). In other words, as bad as the UK is on free speech, and as valid as other criticism of the responding officers may be, this wasn’t a speech matter.

By the way, it took me about ten seconds to look up those details online, Emperor. I’m begging you to adopt a similar practice, rather than accepting what you see in short YouTube videos as the full or real story. Lots of that type of content is designed to generate clicks, not inform people of matters.

And in case anyone’s wondering what happened to Digwa, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

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Thanks everyone! You can send me questions for next week by leaving a comment in the comment section.