Saturday, November 14, 2020

Ann Coulter muses: How about "Trumpism without Trump"?

I don't read Ann Coulter a lot, because I find her books and columns somewhat lightweight. And I've never heard her speak. Perhaps I should start paying attention, for it seems she delivered a thought-provoking speech Thursday night to the University of Texas at Austin's Young Conservatives of Texas.

Breitbart News reports that she strayed way off the announced topic of immigration, and argued that what America needs, in four years, is "Trumpism without Trump". Since most of the Breitbart report is quotes from Ms Coulter's speech, I trust they (and she) won't mind if I repost them, with just a few edits for brevity.

In Ms Coulter's opinion, the 2020 presidential election has produced "the best of all possible outcomes" for conservatives. "The reason I’m very happy that [President] Trump lost – and lost narrowly – is that a second term of Trump would have killed us," she said. "What we want, and what I think we can get in four years, is Trumpism without Trump."

What would that look like? Ms Coulter defined "Trumpism" as America taking care of its own people first. "The left behind, the working class, the middle class — they want jobs, they want safe neighbourhoods. They don't want to have to keep paying taxes for English as a Second Language classes and to pay for emergency rooms with a lot of illegal immigrants coming in with many...health problems. We have to take care of our own first. That's Trumpism. And it hasn't been tried. It certainly hasn't triumphed."

Why not? Ms Coulter explained, "[Trump would] say these wild things that we'd get blamed for, he'd get attacked on, and then actually did nothing. Trump thinks, 'I tweeted it. Therefore, it's done.'... It's ironic...that he lost this election, very possibly because of cheating. Democrats cheat all the time. … Trump has been talking about 'mail-in ballots are dangerous, they're gonna steal this election.' He’s been talking about it probably all year. [But] talking about it isn’t the same as doing it."

"Much like as he tweeted out, 'Law and Order'," she added, "and yet cities are still burning across the nation. [He] didn’t do anything about it. It's like he didn't know he was president.... So, I think the Republicans' position [in the next four years] has to be: This is the new Republican Party. It will be Trumpism, but we're getting rid of the eight-year-old."

Ms Coulter advised Republicans to remain focused on populist issues. "But we're going to have someone who speaks well, who is articulate, who hates the media, hates political correctness.... It'll be a lot easier to push Trumpism without Trump."

"I'm glad he lost," she continued. "I'm glad it was very, very narrow. And I'm glad we seem to have held the Senate. … And we have definitely held the House [of Representatives]. That means they [Democrats] couldn't do anything terrible.

"My friends in California were warning me when I was totally, totally on the Trump bandwagon, actually in 2015, after he announced [his candidacy for president]. In California they were all saying, 'Ann, he’s gonna be like Arnold Schwarzenegger. He talks a good game, he'll get in, he'll become a liberal,'" Ms Coulter recalled. 

She speculated that a Trump second term would have been like "Arnold Schwarzenegger's second term, except even worse. Jared Kushner would be out releasing criminals, passing the amnesty.... It would have been an unmitigated disaster, and we'd never be able to get the MAGA agenda back."

Ms Coulter's conclusion? "Trumpism without Trump — that is the winning formula!" That's a great debate topic -- something Republicans and conservatives need to think about and discuss, starting on the day Still-President Trump concedes defeat. It would be nice if that day never comes, and I would be on board if The Donald decides to take another shot at the presidensity in 2024, but, as Ms Coulter suggests, there must surely be other options.

Note from Ed.: Am I the only one who sees the resemblance between Ann Coulter and Canada's Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson? Is that calculated, do you think?

Further reading: "Will Georgia Halt the Radicals' Revolution?", by Patrick J. Buchanan, in Taki's Magazine, 10/11/20.

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