The GOP Finally Has a Fighting General

And, despite what George Will says, Trump is winning.

January 21, 2019 David Catron

In November, 1863, the New York Herald reported that a temperance committee had asked President Lincoln to dismiss Ulysses S. Grant. They told him the general was an imbiber of strong spirits, to which Lincoln replied: “I wish you would tell me the brand of Whiskey Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel to my other generals.” This story is probably apocryphal, but it captures the contempt with which the socially awkward Grant was viewed by the eastern establishment. This came to mind when I read the following about President Trump by a little old lady named George Will:

By his comportment, the president benefits his media detractors with serial vindications of their disparagements.… For most Americans, President Trump’s expostulations are audible wallpaper, always there but not really noticed.… And as balm for his base, which remains oblivious to his likely contempt for them as sheep who can be effortlessly gulled by preposterous fictions.

Will contends that Trump’s “deportment” is what drives the abuse and lies to which the President is subjected by the frauds of the Fourth Estate. Likewise, Grant’s exaggerated drinking was an excuse the northern press employed to denounce his tactics during the Civil War, as well as the necessity, when he was President, to keep troops stationed in the southern states. Will, in his dotage, has evidently forgotten that the media has relentlessly savaged any and all Republicans. To blame Trump for his treatment by CNN, MSNBC, et al. is like blaming a woman for her own rape...........

[Trump voters] wanted someone to take the fight to the Democrats and keep fighting......They wanted to win and they knew something the fastidious George Will didn’t — Trump was the fighting general for whom they had all been waiting. A few here at TAS also understood. Ironically, even the execrable Michael Moore got it:...........To Read More.....