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Douglas M. Parker

Blog No. 99. Donald Trump as Aaron Burr: Where Is Alexander Hamilton When We Need Him?

The meeting last week between Donald Trump and Paul Ryan was something of a milestone in Donald Trump’s march to the nomination and perhaps the White House. While the meeting did not yield an endorsement by the Speaker, it produced a widespread expectation that one would be forthcoming in due course. Despite the media attention the meeting drew, the indication of a detente between Trump and Ryan was a relatively minor development, disappointing but not surprising. There are, of course, abundant grounds on which Ryan could withhold his support from Trump. Apart from issues of character and temperament, Trump’s expressed positions are at odds with Ryan’s on a variety of issues—immigration, free trade, banning of Muslims, entitlement reform, to name a few. But while we would have applauded a Ryan rejection of Trump and his candidacy, any hope for  Ryan’s doing so was unrealistic. Such an action would have seriously jeopardized Ryan’s own position as Speaker with little or no likelihood of its having a serious impact on the Trump bandwagon.Read More »Blog No. 99. Donald Trump as Aaron Burr: Where Is Alexander Hamilton When We Need Him?

Special Bulletin. After the Fat Lady Sang: What Now For Responsible Republicans?

With apologies for invoking that rather shopworn cliche, the fat lady sang this week and the curtain came down on the tragi-comic opera of the Republican presidential primaries. The fat lady’s aria was a sad one indeed. To Donald Trump it doubtless sounded triumphal, but to many of us it conveyed the mournful tones of a funeral dirge. The dirge reflected not merely the prospect of a Republican defeat in November, but the painful fact that such a loss, distasteful as it might be, would be preferable to a victory for Trump.  If Trump suffers the devastating defeat in November that he deserves, the vital task of cleaning up and rebuilding the Republican Party can begin immediately. If he should somehow win, however, that task will be deferred indefinitely, perhaps forever.Pic Donald Trump as Fat Lady PICRead More »Special Bulletin. After the Fat Lady Sang: What Now For Responsible Republicans?

Special Bulletin. Is It Over?

Is the contest for the Republican nomination over? Well, not quite, but it’s on a very thin edge. If the results of the New York primary were depressing, the results of this week’s primaries were devastating. Trump won every one of five states amassing a vote of more than fifty per cent in each. Senator Cruz was shut out, winning no delegates and finishing behind Governor Kasich in all but one. For his part, Kasich won a handful of delegates and had the distinction of finishing second in four states. Unfortunately, however, finishing second at this point is something like being given the Miss Congeniality title in a beauty pageant—it may provide a passing boost of morale but it gets you no closer to a tiara. The margin of Trump’s victories showed that, for reasons we still find baffling, his support within the Republican Party seems to be broader than many of us had assumed and hoped.Read More »Special Bulletin. Is It Over?

Special Bulletin: Donald Trump: Helpful Reminders from The Washington Post

We suspect that there are not a great many supporters of Donald Trump among readers of RINOcracy.com, but we all have friends, neighbors or relatives who may be. If you should engage them in the kind of quiet and civil conversation that RINOs favor, we thought it might be handy to have in your pocket a brief catalog of Trumpian statements that have convinced us that Donald is unfit for the presidency. As it happens, The Washington Post provided just such a catalog, and we reproduce it here in its entirety.Read More »Special Bulletin: Donald Trump: Helpful Reminders from The Washington Post

Special Bulletin. After New York: What To Do About the Weevils?

Although the result of Republican primary in New York was unsurprising, that made it no less unpalatable. Donald Trump was widely predicted to do well and he did indeed. At last count he had captured at least  89 of New York’s 95 delegates. That does not guarantee that he will command a majority of delegates before the convention but that goal is certainly in sight. The Trump ego was sufficiently assuaged that in his Tuesday evening remarks he seemed determined to focus on attempting to “sound Presidential” and hence he passed up the ritual insulting of rivals that has been his regular practice. For our part, we were quite unmoved by the newly applied patina of civility.Read More »Special Bulletin. After New York: What To Do About the Weevils?

Special Bulletin. Slouching Toward Cleveland

                                    Turning and turning in the widening gyre                                     The falcon cannot hear the falconer;                                     Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;                                     Mere… Read More »Special Bulletin. Slouching Toward Cleveland

Blog No. 97. #NeverCruz (and why John Kasich MUST stay in)

Ted Cruz’s decisive victory in Wisconsin is a key building block in the Trump Wall—the wall to prevent Donald Trump from becoming the Republican nominee. It must not, however, be taken as evidence that Cruz himself is someone around whom the party should now rally. That, we believe would be a disastrous mistake. Thus, while a good deal of ink has been spilled in assessing the #NeverTump movement, it is now past time for a #NeverCruz movement to rise and take hold.Read More »Blog No. 97. #NeverCruz (and why John Kasich MUST stay in)

Blog No. 96. Brussels and Raqqa: A Tale of Two Cities

The terrorist attack in Brussels exposed the inadequacy of the Belgian security forces, the need for much better sharing of intelligence among European countries, and the unique challenges that confront cities with neighborhoods of densely concentrated Muslim populations. Sponsorship of yet another attack by ISIS also underscored the fact that its threat extends far outside the Middle East.Read More »Blog No. 96. Brussels and Raqqa: A Tale of Two Cities

Blog No. 95. Donald and his Enablers in the Media.

The terrorist attack in Brussels commands the attention of us all, and we will comment on its significance in the next few days. In the meantime, the presidential race in the United States moves relentlessly on with no timeout for crisis or tragedy. We have already written more about Donald Trump than we ever expected or wanted to. Yet there is no other issue that is more important to the country than the destructive path down which the Pied Piper of Demagoguery seeks to lead us. And only now is the mainstream media beginning to awaken to the fact that it has played an important role in his ascent. It is too late for them to take back the billions of dollars of print and air time given Trump, but perhaps it is not too late for journalists to begin acting like journalists.Read More »Blog No. 95. Donald and his Enablers in the Media.