David Azerrad is an assistant professor at Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Government in Washington, D.C. He did an amazing thing. He wrote an 1,100-word essay on What Is American Conservatism without mentioning President Donald John Trump once.Other than that, it is a spot-on column -- for 2015.
Azerrad (without naming names) knocks the conservative establishment.
He wrote, "Conservatism is the seven cheers for capitalism and the deafening silence on demographic change, feminism, and corporate malfeasance. It’s the same tired cast of speakers blathering about limited government almost a century after the New Deal. It’s the platitudinous Reagan quotes and the worn-out Buckley anecdotes. It’s the mindless optimism and the childish exhortations—if something can’t go on forever, it won’t!"
All that was true.
5 years ago.
President Trump has reached out to black people and Hispanic people -- which is what the professor means by "demographic change" -- without pandering. Jack Kennedy's tide which lifts all boats has done the same in the Trump presidency, which brought record low unemployment to all demographic groups.
His daughter raised $1 billion for the World Bank to lend companies begun by women worldwide.
And President Trump is riding on companies to quit using slave labor in Red China.
Azerrad wrote, "But conservatism is also the endless wars, the nation-building, and the outdated alliances. It’s the free trade fetish. It’s the foolish libertarianism that hates the government more than it loves America. It’s the unconscionable refusal to clamp down on immigration.
"Worst of all, conservatism is the cowardice and accommodation in the face of leftist hegemony. It’s the long list of enemies to the Right. It’s the court eunuchs and other members of the controlled opposition who offer an echo, but never a choice. It’s the faux grandstanding while living in fear of being called a racist."
1. President Trump is ending endless wars, eschewing nation-building, and challenging NATO.
2. President Trump has clamped down on immigration.
3. President Trump has faced every weapon the left has -- often alone -- and ignored taunts of racism and far worse, and prevailed. Bigly.
Where the hell has Azzerad been?
I read the piece and was tempted to leave a sarcastic but sincere comment, "President Trump has done all this."
But how do you educate an educator?
More at the link