Opus 2023-023: Nice Guy, But...

I wonder if substance will ever win over style in our modern culture.

I ask this question after watching an interview on Uncommon Knowledge.  Peter Robinson was interviewing Bill Barr.  I had watched an interview by Ted Cruz on Verdict a while back and my initial reaction to both was that Bill Barr is a stand up, ethical kind of guy.

Then my brain kicks in.  I take things in, they percolate a while.  Discrepancies emerge.  My take away after some thought is that Bill Barr is one of those nice guys who has some principles but at the end of the day he wants to fit in rather than make a difference.

He laid the groundwork well.  He had a lot of good things to say about Donald Trump.  In fact, if my memory serves me well, he came close to saying he was a great president.  He and Robinson went down the long list of major accomplishments that Trump had and they acknowledged that it was all achieved in the face of unprecedented attacks by the left wing megaphones from Pelosi to the Times.  You would have thought he was a Trump fan.  He even said he would support him if he is the nominee of the party in 2024.  

So why did I have a problem?  Because he damned him with style issues.  “He has a chip on his shoulder.”  He is very charming when he wants something from you.  He did everything but make the issue mean tweets although his criticisms were on that level.  On substance, Trump was awesome, but Orange Man bad.  

All that was bad enough but when they turned to the stolen election and January 6 he fell into elite mode.  He said there was no evidence the election was stolen.  All of the “evidence” of fraud and illegal activity was false.  Then he really started getting slick.  He acknowledged that the Democrats changed the rules and totally ignored that they did so after the fact and often just plain ignored the rules when convenient.  He said the Republicans could have countered but didn’t.  He then hedged his bets with some weasel talk, I paraphrase, none of the cheating was enough to sway the election.  In other words, there was cheating but not enough to count.  Of course not if you won’t start counting.

He then went into full Establishment Mode.  He decried the extreme partisanship and said that we need to reach out to include the middle.  We need to stop being so extreme.  Those are true words but it seems that the establishment takes a page from the Progressives* in always wanting the tranditional Americans to be the ones to give up half the loaf.  Then the want half of what is left.  When we are outvoted we are supposed to let them have their way.  When we have the votes we are still supposed to let them have their way.  I will believe these people when they start saying things like, “Okay.  We will put McCarthy aside and try to find someone who is agreeable to both of us.”  It didn’t happen.  I doubt if it will happen.  Why?  Because Uniparty.

I guess because Rinos have thick skin, big feet and poor eyesight they think that makes them elephants.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri