The boy who cried “Wolf!” eventually had a serious credibility problem. Now, according to Talking Points Memo editor and publisher Josh Marshall, so do anti-Donald Trump conservatives as a result of the right’s frequent over-the-top allegations regarding President Obama. Marshall thinks it’s fair for conservatives (or anyone) to call Trump a “demagogue and potential strongman,” but argued in a Monday post that “when you're saying Obama is a ‘tyrant’ you've basically flushed your credibility for ominous 'dictator rising' warnings about Trump down the drain.”
As for wariness of Trump among members of the staunchly righty House Freedom Caucus, Marshall finds it odd: “In the beginning was the Freedom Caucus. And then the Freedom Caucus became flesh and walked among us. And his name was Donald Trump…It will be a profound struggle or at least take several working groups for the Freedom Caucus to figure out why they're actually against Trump. Since he embodies everything they've ever stood for.”
From Marshall’s post (bolding added):
Donald Trump is the Freedom Caucus. You might even say, in the beginning was the Freedom Caucus. And then the Freedom Caucus became flesh and walked among us. And his name was Donald Trump.
With more mainstream conservatives you can at least argue that there is a difference in temperament if not ideology or policies. But the Freedom Caucus is the bomb-throwing wing of the right-wing of the GOP House conference. Bombast, government shutdowns, endless rage at party leaders who want to defy gravity to do things their constitutional powers give them no power to do - that's the Freedom Caucus. They eventually deposed John Boehner because they were convinced that if he and the leadership had let the shutdowns and debt default crises go on just a little bit longer, Obama would have folded…
…Spending years spouting nonsense about the cerebral and temperamentally cautious Obama being a "tyrant" and other such nonsense is a significant contributing cause of Trumpism. When you're saying Obama is a "tyrant" you've basically flushed your credibility for ominous 'dictator rising' warnings about Trump down the drain.
It will be a profound struggle or at least take several working groups for the Freedom Caucus to figure out why they're actually against Trump. Since he embodies everything they've ever stood for.
