JON GABRIEL: Yes, Anti-Trumpism Is a Failure — And It Was Always Destined to Be One.
As any longtime reader knows, I was a Never Trumper throughout the election. But when the nation selected him, I laid down that label and accepted reality. Trump was my president for the next four to eight years, I earnestly hoped for his and my country’s success, and I would praise or criticize him based on his actions.
But if I were one of those dead-enders who kept fighting reality, the last thing I’d do is rehash the same failed strategy that didn’t stop him in 2016. What is obvious to any Army captain or novice entrepreneur was utterly lost on several of our most celebrated pundits and political strategists.
With Trump’s election, the political landscape changed, just as it did when Obama was elected. Declaring either presidency invalid — due to a Russian conspiracy or a forged birth certificate — was doomed to failure since the voters chose both of them. And mocking a president is easily blurred with mocking the millions who selected him.
It isn’t so much that the line is blurred, as it is that there is no line. Obama denigrated many who would become voters as “bitter clingers.” Clinton spoke openly of “deplorables” and “irredeemables.” And the chattering classes largely share those assessments.
The difference between Obama and Clinton is that he had the political skills to ride it out, and she did not.