Dennis Prager Responds

Today, Dennis Prager, conservative writer, talk show host, and religious Jew, published an interesting piece at Townhall.com entitled A Response to my Conservative Critics About Trump. I will get into it in a minute, but first if you missed it, you will need to read what the hubbub is all about. What it is about is this piece, published last week at National Review: Why Conservatives Still Attack Trump. Prager gives a variety of reasons, among which is that Trump is not a movement conservative, which is true, Trump's character is not that of a moral man, and that these people do not really believe we are in a war with the Left in this country.  Prager answers his critics in his follow on column.

Now, I can say personally that all of the criticisms of Trump have echoed my own misgivings about the man.  He is not a movement conservative, as is Ted Cruz, and he does not articulate conservative principles in a voice I recognize.  He is a flawed individual, as are we all.  But, and Prager makes the same point, God often chooses flawed individuals to do His Work.  Indeed, God often chooses men because of their flaws to show what mighty things He can accomplish.  Now, I do not know if Trump is God's will or not, but it would not surprise me learn that indeed he is.  On the last point though, I have always been clear that we are in a life and death struggle with the left.  It is a cold war, to be sure, but a cold war the left is winning.

Thus, while I may  personally have misgivings about Trump, and indeed I watch him like a hawk, I so far find few things to criticize.  Neil Gorsuch was a brilliant pick for the Supreme Court.  We will see if Trump has chosen the best strategy to achieve his travel ban, but he so far is acting as a President, and not a dictator or king.  And pulling out of the Paris "Accord" was a good move as well.  It was in the best interests of the United States.  Congress, on the other hand, has been acting like fools.  Here is their chance to undo a lot of the Democrats proposals, and they are fighting on the margins.  It makes me sick

Dennis Prager offers a well thought out response to his critics in this piece, and particularly takes apart Jonah Goldberg in this matter.  Goldberg is one of my favorite authors and commentators.  Prager is  right to praise his book, Liberal Fascism, and it should be in every conservative's library. But Goldberg is wrong here, if he thinks we are only in a cultural war. Prager:

Nevertheless, what most disturbs me is his second argument -- articulated in various ways by most of those who disagreed with me -- that there is simply no civil war. And many repeated the universal belief among Never-Trumpers that a Hillary Clinton victory would not have been a catastrophe.

My response is that "culture war" is much too tepid a term for what is going on now. Maybe anti-Trump conservatives are fighting a "culture war," but the left is not. The left is working to undo the American Revolution. It's very close to doing so.

Of all people, one would think Jonah Goldberg would understand this. He is the author of what I consider to be a modern classic, "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Change.

Despite what Goldberg seems to think, we are not in a debating society. While civil relations remain to us, the truth is that few on the left are our "friends." The days of going out and having a beer with members of he left and hailing our excellent opponents is over. They have been showing their true faces, and those faces look tyrannical to me. We are in a cold war, a struggle to the death. As Prager says:

So, shouldn't the primary role of a conservative be to vanquish leftism? To me, that means strongly supporting the Republican president of the United States, who has staffed his Cabinet with conservatives and already won substantial conservative victories. As I suggested in my previous column, conservatives would have been thrilled if any Republican president had achieved what Trump has at this point in his administration.

Yes, it should. and as David Codrea says, "any chair in a bar fight." Trump may be flawed, but his instincts seem right.