Blame Anybody but Trump

For the president, self-love means never having to say you're sorry.

White House

For the last decade, Jacob Sullum has been writing an end-of-the-year column recalling memorable examples of blame shifting during the previous 12 months. At first these compendiums featured various public figures, including Barack Obama. But then Donald Trump took up residence in the White House, providing such a rich trove of examples that no one else could compete.

Although Trump had never held public office before he was elected president, Sullum says, he outdoes professional politicians in his obstinate refusal to accept responsibility for any problem or failure. For Trump, as these highlights from 2018 show, self-love means never having to say you're sorry.

Comments

[WJack]

Trump is, of course, the last best hope for the greatest country ever . . . victims of progressive educators are unable, or unwilling to understand this simple truth.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Trump is, of course, the last best hope for the greatest country ever

Then America is truly screwed

[Jerryskids]

You have to realize that some of the Democratic-Socialist Libertarians here worship Top Men and favor collectivism over individualism, they prefer making America great over making Americans great. Liberty is okay in small doses, just don't forget the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and the fewest few is you.

[colorblindkid]

Like with everything, Trump is just an exaggerated caricature of every other president, who's hilariously bad at putting on the facade.

[brec]

The "View this article" link gets a 404. In it, "blog" should be "archives".

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, the link is broken so we can't read the article.

The first bit makes it sound like the point of the article is to hurt Trump's feelings.

I'm more of an issue guy. There aren't any truly libertarian politicians, and even if there were, I wouldn't be voting for them so much as for where they stand on the issues. If Rand Paul opposes a bill that cuts $772 billion from Medicaid because of what the bill doesn't do, then I'm not about to take his side because he's Rand Paul. I'm not about to oppose Trump on any issue because of who he is either.

Trump's great on these two issues: deregulation, pragmatism in foreign policy.

Trump's okay on these two issues: gun control and the legalization of marijuana in the states.

Trump is terrible on these two issues: immigration and free trade.

On those issues, I score Hillary Clinton as okay on two of those six issues and terrible on the other four.

I score Liz Warren great on one of those issues, okay on one issue, and terrible on the other four.

Therefore, I rank the three of them in this order:

Trump
Liz Warren
Hillary Clinton

The important thing is to make sure we're ranking the people by the issues rather than subjecting ourselves to bad policy stances because we like or don't like the people. If Trump is an asshole, I don't see why that matters.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

If Rand Paul opposes a bill that cuts $772 billion from Medicaid because of what the bill doesn't do

Where was the bill that *actually* cut $772 billion from anything?

[SQRLSY One]

I agree with you about the issues thing. However...

"If Trump is an asshole, I don't see why that matters."

I have dealt with assholes in corporate politics and in local (Homeowner's ASSociation) matters. Being an asshole matters, because you piss everyone off, preventing anything from getting done, and causing HUGE wastes of time, effort, and money! You can argue that obstructionism is good in Government Almighty, because Government Almighty does mostly evil things, and the more that we obstruct evil, the better. I respect that argument highly! However, (I hate to admit it) Government Almighty does a few good things now and then, like protecting life and property. When the assholes obstruct those functions, the assholes are bad.

A mixed picture, yes... But non-assholes are generally to be preferred over assholes, MeThinks... Assholes make everyone's blood pressure go WAAAAY up!

Happy New Year!

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Not only that, SQRLSY - this particular asshole demonizes and scapegoats the most powerless people in the hemisphere, illegal immigrants and penniless migrants from Central America, in order to achieve power. That by itself is disgusting and appalling, and why I can never support Trump no matter his position on anything. I cannot reward such disgusting behavior. He legitimizes the worst of the xenophobic behavior among his supporters.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

The important thing is to make sure we're ranking the people by the issues rather than subjecting ourselves to bad policy stances because we like or don't like the people.

You're right! Much better to cherry-pick the issues, give politicians credit for something that they don't have control over (e.g. state level marijuana legalization), or downplay politicians' terrible positions on certain issues (e.g. bump stock bans) in order to rig the ranking to achieve a pre-determined outcome!

[Jerryskids]

Don't blame Sullum for that !!!!