I take some pride in having pegged David French as a nutter as soon as he started turning up in so-called conservative publications. In all candor, I came to that conclusion before there was hard evidence to support the claim. He just reminded me of every fanatic I have ever met. He had the crazy eyes and the fanatic’s tendency to go overboard. The lack of an internal governor is the hallmark of the fanatic. Now, of course, French is well known as a NeverTrump loon, with a bad habit of wrapping himself in the flag.
In addition to being a crank, French is a good example of the soulless bugman that is now a feature of Conservative Inc. These are establishment men, who stand for nothing, because they traded away whatever integrity they possessed for a small salary and place in the system. In addition to peddling conspiracy theories about President Trump, they are now tasked with convincing conservative voters to vote against their own interests. Now, that means voting for Doug Jones over Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race.
The trouble is there has never been a starker choice for conservative voters. Roy Moore is staunchly pro-life, while Doug Jones wants to put abortion mills in the nation’s grammar schools. Moore is an immigration patriot, while Jones is an open borders absolutist. Moore is a social conservative, while Jones embraces the Progressive social agenda. Of course, the big issue is that Moore will be a reliable vote for Trump’s judicial nominees, while Jones will be another vote against anyone to the right of Chuck Schumer.
This glaringly obvious set of facts presents a problem when trying to convince conservatives to not vote for Moore. The first card played by the bugmen is always to dismiss the target as unqualified. That was the game they played with Trump, dismissing him as a reality TV star. In the case of Roy Moore, they keep insisting that he has wacky ideas about the law and government. Unsurprisingly, that is the first point in that French column. David French is not clever enough to be anything but ham-handed in his work.
If they cannot use their claims to authority as a means to dismiss the target, they resort to character assassination. This was the tactic they tried on Trump, by trying to paint him as a sexual predator and abuser of women. Somewhat comically, the bugmen played this card on Moore, planting absurd stories about him from 40 years ago. Bugmen lack a spine, as well as a soul, so they just assume everyone is as weak-willed as they are, when it comes to standing up to pressure. They always get this wrong.
In the end, the only thing left for these guys is to lie, and that is the one thing that comes naturally to them. Somewhat amusingly, French finishes his column with:
Anyone who tells you that your choice is limited to pro-abortion Doug Jones or an incompetent, unfit apparent child abuser like Roy Moore is simply lying to you. If you are a faithful conservative, you can write in a different name or stay home. You can reject the choice served up by the plurality of Alabama GOP primary voters and simply say, “If you want my vote, you have to do better.”
Elections in America are almost always binary choices. This election is a binary choice between the Democrat and the Republican. If conservatives listen to the bugmen and stay home, Jones will win. That is how it works. The inescapable logic of French’s argument is that he wants Jones to win. He lacks the guts to say it, but that is what he is doing. The whole point of his effort against Moore, and the work of other bugmen his handlers have deployed, is to damage Moore so that Jones is able to win the election.
That is the irony of these efforts. Conservatism is, if nothing else, a practical acceptance of the world as it is. The choice in an election is between two less than ideal options. If there is ever a time when you have the perfect candidate in a race, it means you are dead and are in heaven, where you get to vote for Jesus Christ. On this earth, the choice is always between two flawed men. French’s argument, in addition to being childish and stupid, is the exact opposite of the conservative position with regards to political choices.
Moral nullities like French like to bang on about their principles. He has the habit of posting pictures of himself from when he was a rear echelon guy in Iraq. It is a cheap tactic he learned from John McCain. He is the type of guy Ralph Waldo Emerson had in mind when he wrote, “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.” That is because the talk of principles from bugmen like French is just another tool of the trade. His job is promoting the interests of his masters. That is the life of every soulless bugman.
#Nevertrump’s hallmark is shameless lying, but I despise the goy members far more than the Kristols/Podhoretzs. These neocon jews are deeply focused on advancing their ethnic interests. French, Sloppy Williamson, McMuffin et al are traitors. Period. If you have the opportunity to communicate with any of them via twitter, email, etc – call them a traitor. Point blank. Do not make credible threats, but let them know that they are likely to face judgement for their treason. Ryan, McCain, Graham should also be waking up at 3am with nagging fears. These people despise us in exchange for shekels. Despise them… Read more »
The GOP leadership has basically backed itself over a cliff in this race. If Moore does lose tomorrow, the GOP will not have saved itself anything at all, and you will see it in full display during the coming year as every Republican running will be hit with the same 20-40 year old charges, and what is the leadership going to say at that point? Having torpedoed Moore, how can they argue against future ones with any chance of being listened to?
Leadership?
Moore is not going to lose. And that will damage the GOP establishment and leadership even more. A good thing.
Sorry, Gabby, Moore lost. 🙁
I can pretty much predict at this point that if Moore loses, the GOP will default back to “Well, if we only had more votes in the Senate, we could keep our promises.”
If Moore wins…duck…because they’ve gone full-on character assassination with him, and he doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who is going to get to D.C. with a “forgive and forget” attitude about it.
I think if Moore loses, the GOP uses it to go after Bannon. They will try to get Trump to denounce Bannon and the populist insurgents. This tactic largely worked against the Tea Party after 2010 when Christine O’Donnell was made into the face of the Tea Party. Now, if Moore wins, things get complicated for the GOP. They really don’t want a primary fight with their base, but Bannon is determined to bring the fight to them. They may just lock arms with the Democrats and forget about the whole #MeToo thing and pretend it never happened. Franken will… Read more »
The GOP is already going after Bannon. All the usual suspects are saying he hasn’t any money, can’t really produce a winner, etc….targeting his fundraisers. If he loses, they’ll be vindicated. If he wins, they’ll say Bannon is over-rated, and it really was local issues and stupid rednecks not Bannon, and gosh what a disaster that the GOP had defend a “safe” seat… …from its own voters, no less. If Moore wins, Katy bar the door. That’s why the eGOP has gone just batshit crazy trying to beat Moore. They’ve bet it all on trying to beat him. The problem… Read more »
At some point this arrangement will have to end. Either a new party forms and the Republicans split between that and the Democrats or a coup happens and all the toads running the Republicans get ejected.
I think we’ll see a new party bust out of the GOP in the next 10 years. It’s incredibly tough to start a 3rd party because the Dems and GOP have rigged the state elections to the point that 3rd party candidates have a huge uphill battle. It’s going to take 20-25 Senators to decide to caucus separately from the GOP and Dems, and the House Freedom Caucus would have to do the same. Since neither side would have a majority, it would give them a huge amount of leverage over who gets to be the Speaker of the House.… Read more »
A key WF Buckley principle was to always vote for the most conservative candidate who is electable. That is Moore. French is an idiot.
What I find most infuriating about French, Hewitt, and so many others in that particular vein with regard to the Moore story in particular is how willing they appear to be snowed. Moore has been a public figure for decades; he’s been the topic of stories covered nationwide on several occasions in the last 20 years. If French and Hewitt had any brains at all, their bullshit detectors should be flitting into the red simply because none of these stories had surfaced between 1977 and now, yet they caterwaul about “child molestation” and how the yearbook “evidence” was “overwhelming,” despite… Read more »
They need a ‘For Sale’ sign tatooed on their ass– er, forehead.
“Sexual predator”, “child molester”-
Don’t forget “murderer”!
Trump shot somebody in Times Square, you know!
That’s how you know it’s a hit job, and not legit. Trump, similarly, has been in the public eye for decades. He’s been given awards by the official guardians of acceptable thought for decades. Then he runs for office, and suddenly he’s a sex abuser who doesn’t pay taxes and is a racist to boot. Straight out of pages 12, 72 and 155 in the Government Party’s Official Political Manual. Step 1: Unqualified Step 2: Where are your tax returns? Step 3: Rumors about some woman Step 4: Roll out the “people of color” Step 5: Because of steps 1->4,… Read more »
They are willing to be snowed because they are anti-Southern bigots. They like the narrative presented to them. Just like the Romneys and Bushes.
French actually lives in TN. Not quite the deep south but close enough. It takes a special kind of disconnect to live there and think like that. That paycheck must mean quite a lot to him. Gotta make that monthly nut.
They aren’t snowed – I seriously doubt they believe any of it.
They are establishment and Roy Moore isn’t – so he is to be destroyed. It’s that simple.
Immigration has become my single issue. Either I can have locks on my door, call one place home, and rest easily, or I have no home and no right to peace or even the most fundamental, minimal right of citizenship. I get why Obama as a “world citizen” didn’t like borders; he was a guy without a home, a kid raised by a single mother who gave birth to him to prove a point to the white world rather than out of love. His black dad abandoned him and he bounced from Hawaii to Indonesia to life as an alienated… Read more »
The Donor Class love damaged politicians. They are easy to control.
I doubt that very many Alabama voters will read French’s column, let alone be influenced by it.
The latest trend in virtue signaling around here has been putting up pictures on Facebook of the postcards you’ve written and sent to lists of Alabama voters urging them to vote for Jones. Resisted the urge to suggest that instructions from NY on how to vote might not be the most compelling argument.
Oh encourage that sort of idiocy. Encourage it.
Same reason Trump won – he wasn’t talking at or down to the voters – he talked TO them. Only one talking to AL voters is Moore. I actually haven’t heard Jones talking to anyone at all, let alone the people who will be voting today. You’d think maybe they could use their massive national propaganda organs to give Jones a voice? They seem more interested in hating Moore though for some strange reason. They love to hate him. They get off on it.
The most deliciously ironic and amusing thing about this, is that National Review is supposed to be stuck in the Conservative 80s. Well, now they’ve got a conservative candidate that’s also stuck – in the 80s. You’d think rationally, they’d be overjoyed at this prospect, but the absolute opposite is happening. Basically at this point, they stand for nothing, not even the past. And anyone who takes them seriously still at this point is also in this no-man’s-land that they’ve put themselves into. I guess like a lot of already dead institutions, it’ll take a while for them to rot… Read more »
If NR hangs on long enough, we will see some paid shill write a column about “The Conservative Case for the Destruction of the White Race”. We might not even have to wait very long.
When they purged Derb and Steyn, I was done with them. Hanson will be next, just watch.
We need to meme this into existence. We must bring the National Review to their logical conclusion.
Hanson has remarked that NR became an alien place for him last year. My guess, it always was but Trump Derangement Syndrome finally woke him up. It woke a lot of people up.
Yes, NR is now simply beyond belief. Buckley was never the rock-ribbed conservative that he pretended to be, but he looks like the second coming of Joe McCarthy compared to Lowrey and the crew that they have over there now. There are honestly people at “Slate” or “Salon” who are now to the right of your average NR contributor on some issues.
To beat the Globetrotters/Generals analogy into the ground, these guys want to be the Generals, who lose on purpose to the Globetrotters. Trump is ushering in an actual basketball game, where achievers get the contracts and the underachievers end up working at the 7-Eleven. These guys don’t want to give up their gig and actually compete for a living.
I wish that I still lived in Alabama so I could vote for Moore as a way to say F*ck You to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the rest of the MSM.
French is attempting a clever tactic to help bring about Moore’s defeat. His tools are deception and misdirection, and his intention is to prey upon the weak within the Alabama electorate. Is this the kind of man you ever would want to befriend or do business with? Men like this should be ashamed to openly demonstrate such low character. That they do not feel shame is a sad commentary on our current culture.
If Moore loses in Alabama, I’m giving up hope on the USA turning itself around: the bugman infestation will only grow until it’s incurable.
Moore lost by less than a percentage point at last count. The voter turnout was low. The GOPIncMSM tactics worked like a charm. Throw up enough mud, smoke and BS as to discourage voters from turning and bam!! the candidate loses.
BTW FoxNews bears some of the blame. They couldn’t stop bringing up Moore in the same sentence as Franks or Conyors. It was character assassination by associating.
How the hell do you get a Bronze Star for being a lawyer?
Paper cuts can be quite painful.
A Purple Hurt would seem appropriate.
Cal; Same way john F’n Kerry got all his medals: Type the citation up yourself, con some busy superior into signing it. Ordinarily all awards have to be vetted by a board, though. There are *two* variants of the Bronze Star, one for ‘achievement’ and one for valor. The one that counts is the ‘Bronze Star with V Device for Valor’. Pretty sure his was for REMF achievement. All that said, he didn’t *have* to do any of it. So he should get props for his service and chops for his politics. Not actually ‘stolen valor’ unless he claims his… Read more »
Recall there was an admiral that committed suicide after being outed for wearing the “V” on his “achievement” Bronze Star though he had never been under fire. As my dad (a Navy man) used to say, in the service you wear your resume on your chest every day.
Samnl; What a memory you have_! It was Admiral J.M. Boorda. His tragic end fits well with the current post in that the Progs. used his sense of honor to bring him down. Roy Moore is being vilified, in part, for refusing to fall for this hoary dirty trick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Michael_Boorda In his case it was two Bronze Stars. He was brought low by yet another Clinton dirty op in the press because he was standing in the way of the feminist take-over of the military. Wikipedia, of course, skips this aspect of his story. Slightly OT: Your Dad is quite… Read more »
I hear they hand them out when you’re confused about which bathroom to use.
Not so. This is a common misperception since most people don’t understand the difference between ribbons and medals. See above.
Otherwise one is tempted to think that there’s way too much stuff on the chest. This is an arguable position. Other militaries (e.g. UK) make do with less, some have slightly more (Russia) and some vastly more (Norks).
His job is to sell copy. First and foremost. As the old media is displaced by the new, dinosaurs like French and Goldberg are increasingly less relevant and mor desperate to maintain their place in a dying establishment. Trolling their own readers is actually their way of trying to generate discussion and controversy; unfortunately these days all it generates is ridicule and derisive laughter from the shrinking readership. Their days are numbered. French is just one more media slob who’s more than happy to trade his reputation and integrity for clicks and ratings. That will go on only for so… Read more »
Like in _Moneyball_ they need to find “the new direction for the Oakland A’s” but unlike Bean, they don’t have the courage to take risks.
I’d like to know what the actual readership of NRO is, and what their contribution levels are. I used to read, and contribute, and boy, has that ever stopped. Tim
Subscribed to NR from the early 1990’s to 2016 and dropped them after all of the anti-Trump stuff. Will only go on thier site to see if Victor Davis Hanson has posted anything new.
re: “Subscribed to NR from the early 1990’s to 2016” Al in Georgia
Myself took too long to see the light as I subscribed from 1968 until Gulf War II. I even bought and read some of Chairman Bill’s forgettable Bradford Oaks spy novels. Oh, the sins of youth.
Dan Kurt
I first subscribed in 1988, and also was a regular web visitor until last year. No more. BTW, you can find VDH here: https://amgreatness.com/2017/12/11/fake-truth/
The print publication was at 140K the last time they revealed numbers. My guess is the number is below 100K now and how much of that is actual readers is hard to know. Mags like NR would get on the institutional lists, like libraries. I would imagine that even libraries are dropping magazines. The median age is 70, so mother nature is pruning their readership. The site has seen its traffic collapse since they nuked their comment section. My posts get more comments than most NRO posts now. Readership does not mean the same thing to them as it does… Read more »
That was the first time I’ve looked at anything on NRO not written by VDH in a long time. Wow that place has gone to hell.
Before the great comment-purge, that article would have been destroyed in the comments.
I only read three sites for the comments, now two.
What’s truly sad is that once again the Democrats playing the ole “sexual abuse” card at GOP candidates and once again we get cucks like French ready to bend over to yell “Guilty until proven innocent!”
Bottom line is if you’re not on the list for the Washington Cocktail Party Circuit, you’re not invited to be in the club. Moore is not somebody the “club” wants mingling with them.
I think some of it is he’s an unfrozen caveman lawyer, but I think the majority of it is – they have nothing on him they can use to control him. He’s uncontrollable, a loose cannon on their precious deck. Remember these are people that hate risk, hate it hate it hate it.
After the greatest scrutiny we can only conclude with any certainty that Moore appears to have been a choir boy for going on forty years, which makes him Saint of the Senate. Maybe that’s why they hate him.
Good article. French might be the worst of the polite right, up there with Ed Driscoll and Andrew Klavan. These guys stand in the back of the battle formation, stabbing their supposed allies in the back.
I don’t mind that they are always stabbing Right, so much as the smug, self-righteous way they do it. Ben Shapiro may be the worst of the bunch. The slimy little punk waddles around acting like he is the most righteous man on earth. Meanwhile, he finks on everyone who ever trusts him.
It seems part of Shapiro’s problem is optics. If the guy hid behind an avatar of Ragnar the Terrible and changed his last name to Shrapnel, he’d probably be more acceptable. The fact that he looks like a sniveling little beta (you know who) with a nasally voice doesn’t help.
Driscoll is just as smug and smarmy looking, but to his credit he stays out of the camera’s eye.
They are on the right like a communist is on the right of a bolshevik. It may be important to stop permitting these types identification with the right.
The alternative to Trump and Moore is not and never was a purer, more refined “conservative”. It was and is Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer.
It is no longer possible for anyone with a functional brain to accept David French as anything but an extreme Left sleeper.
David French is a Pharisee. Pharisees went around policing the slightest violations of made-up rules so as to virtue signal to their peers and sit at places of honor. Pharisees never forgave, showed mercy, or had a single kind word about Jesus, even after all those He helped, healed, and forgave. Because Principles.
If French lived in A.D. 33, he would be devising trick questions about healing on the Sabbath and paying taxes.
And his prayer would be “God, I thank You that I am not like the other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.…”
I like that, I really like that. “Republican Pharisees.” We need to work that up. Grand Old Pharisees, indeed.
With their defense of Bill Clinton, the Democrats taught us the only thing that matters is whether a politician will advance your beliefs through legislation. The Dems supported a violent rapist to keep abortion unregulated. Dems actually like crooked politicians because they know they will use any means necessary to advance their agenda. I have no illusions about the morals of any politician. I play the percentages and assume they are all crooks and liars. If the candidate who supports my views is not in prison, I will vote for him over one who doesn’t. And even then…
People who routinely go tribal seem shocked when others decide to do so as well.
They justify their tribal tendencies as being “on the right side of history”, yet when others go tribal, they are “succumbing to evil”.
Who pays for the bugmen’s rent?
The Prince of Darkness.
Good Lord, if this guy doesn’t look like an evil mastermind from a 1960’s spy movie, I don’t know who does. Shouldn’t Jame Bond or Derek Flint be shoving this guy into a tank of sharks or something?
“If you want my vote, you have to do better.”
I do that whenever I see the name “Bush” on the ballot. Did it with Romney too.
As I mentioned once before, the desecration and destruction of Confederate war memorials earlier this year has opened a deep and visceral wound with Southerners, and that mortal insult is going to be redressed in Alabama later today. That is the fruit of Progressive over-reach and thuggery.
Whiggers.
The current witchsteria might be spiraling thru the pawns now, but the ultimate target will be “the Pussygrabber in Chief”.
They’re clearing some deadwood, preparing a Hail Mary play.
This is their Trump card.
(Sorry, couldn’t resist)
Its the only shot they have left. Everything else has failed. Their playbook is empty.
One small quibble: “small salary.” I have no way of knowing what French makes, but NR’s Form 990 shows Jonah pulls down $250K/year, Williamson > $200K and even Lopez is in the six-figures. Most folks making those kinds of salaries work their arses off in results-oriented jobs. (If anyone can point me in the direction of a cushy six-figure, results-optional gig, please respond in the comments. Thanks!)
True, but $200K in DC in NYC is not that much. Don’t get me wrong, they are not starving. It’s just that relative to the donor class, these are the salaries paid to servants. Hilariously, these guys all think they slave away for their salaries.
Let’s say Moore is guilty as charged.
The Republican move is still to get him elected, and if convicted, the AL Republican governor can appoint a Republican replacement.
Unless you want a Democrat controlled Senate. Then see French strategy. He’s an asshat.
“Convicted”? I stopped paying attention once it was clear that it was all just ginned up nonsense, but has he been accused of anything criminal – or at least criminal that isn’t a couple of decades past the statutes of limitation?
French really does his best to ignore the Dems. They would have won if they had found a Sam Nunn type moderate Blue Dog (if any still exist).
Instead they nominated a guy who ought to be running in New York or San Francisco then went with the character assassination strategy.
Although I have had a passing acquaintance with David French over the years and respect his service in Iraq, I parted with him politically when he supported Romney and other establishment R’s. His family would be great neighbors, but I would not take his political advice seriously.
It wasn’t like he was in the infantry in Iraq, he went as part of the JAG. I doubt he ever had to eat (or excrete) an MRE or be truly worried about losing a limb to an IED. This guy is another “box checker” Ivy League mandarin. Maybe this is what he wanted to be when he grew up, but I suspect like a lot of “box checkers” he was slotted into this role by his parents who chose for him and by the time he got his hands on the controls, well, that’s the plane he’s flying and… Read more »
JAG in Iraq at an FOB on the border with Iran is not exactly a Brentwood law practice or the life of silver spoons. So I will accept Mr. French’s description of his time in Iraq versus your conjecture.
Medal inflation has been an issue for a long time. Probably since Vietnam. I forget who it was, but a former Marin officer wrote a book on the subject. The generals want a chest full of ribbons and medals.
I’m sure he served honorably, but I’m always suspicious of people who wrap themselves in the flag or wave around their service. Not for nothin’, but Hitler served with distinction. That does not make him less Hitler.
Neocons need conservatives to think everybody in the military is some kind of irreproachable moral paragon so they can attack your character if you start having second thoughts about their wars.
It’s now quite possible for a soldier to get a Bronze star for pushing paperwork and never seeing combat or even be the war zone. (The AF was giving them out to clerks on the B-2 program – that’s were I first heard about it) For most officers a Bronze star is a automatic gimme. Put the fella in a combat zone for a day or so and there you go. Their buddies do the paper and they get the medal. In general, officers don’t participate in direct combat unless they are 1st or 2nd louies in a rifle or… Read more »
My g uncle had to survive from D+6 to the end of the war commanding a platoon of Shermans for the first one. Then back into Pusan perimeter and the breakout in the same role as an unhappy recalled reservist to get the second.
I think that’s a bit of a stretch. Two friends of mine were killed, one in Afghanistan by a “friendly” who executed him and three others in an office well inside the fence, one by an IED (along with the airman who was driving) as he was inspecting roads as part of his civil engineering mission.
Is he Sgt Stryker at Iwo Jima? No, but I don’t think he oversells what his mission was or the dangers there.
It doesn’t really matter if French was a combination of Sgt. York, Audie Murphy, and Rambo in Iraq. He’s still an idiot. Hell, a lot of the members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain were physically brave. They were still deluded Commies serving an evil cause.
The Company I served with in Iraq in 2009 was allotted 4 Bronze Star Awards (BSA’s) to give out. We were a support company not involved in what anyone would describe as combat. Just about everyone was ‘awarded’ an Army Commendation Medal. The presentation ceremony was akin to High School Graduation, everyone gets a diploma, with a few honorable mentions for Class Pres, Valedictorian and 100% Attendance. My father in law got one for saving people from from a burning helicopter in Vietnam. I was in the running for one for serving as a Jiffy Lube manager in Iraq. No… Read more »
JFC, what exactly do you think JAG officers do? The vast majority of military officers are careerist hacks with nothing respectable whatsoever about their service. Don’t be a cuck.
Bugmen is a much better name than the alternatives (variously GOPe, Buckleyites, Conservatism inc., Establishment, Movement Conservatives).
And we get to have fun almost talking in code. “The Hobbit is a typical bugman in that he supports losing on principle.”
If “None of the Above” was allowed on the ballot it would win most elections.