Squirrel-Hair: in trouble or doing just fine?

The Trump phenomenon has served metaphorically as a sifting device for the conservative movement, with the silt of the converts to populism-nationalism slipping through the tiny holes to form little piles on the countertop, while nuggets of real principle remain behind, glistening in the light of objective fact. The two categories are pretty much entirely distinct now, and see the world in completely different ways.

Kurt Schlichter, for instance, in his latest Townhall column (titled "Does Anybody Understand What These Never Trump Republicans Think They're Achieving?"), makes a token gesture at acknowledging the basic problem most of us have with Trump:

Some of them are truly shocked and upset by Trump's rough edges. He's not your grandfather’s Republican. He's more like your grandfather's buddy who got Pops drunk and took him to a brothel long before he ever met grandma. Trump’s rude and crude, and that rubs a lot of Republicans the wrong way. His cheerful vulgarity and vindictiveness, which many find his most attractive qualities, offends some people because they're decent people of moral character who just can’t go there. It rubs others the wrong way because they're hopeless wusses who would rather be loved by the WaPo than kick liberals in their Harry Reids.

Nice touch, that "some." You see, he then goes on to enumerate another type of Republican who doesn't much care for Trump, the legislators, staffers and wonks who bristle at the thought of their DC power base being threatened.

It's pretty clear that Schlichter wants to portray the second group as being bigger and more important than the first group.

It must be acknowledged that he is pointing out a legitimate issue regarding the entrenched Beltway types protective of their turf: They have done nothing to achieve the aims they promised voters they'd pursue vigorously and successfully. He's not wrong that that led to the Tea Party movement, and that the inert squishes in Washington still didn't listen. I'm not sure that that fact adequately explains the rise of Trump and Trumpism. He is such a different animal, and any positions he's spoken of that could get conservatives enthused are contradictions of positions he's had on those issues in the past.

But then Schlichter goes full Trump-is-an-alpha-male-deal-with-it, acknowledging that Trump behaves more boorishly the more power he gets, and that that's just how it is:

But what's the end game? What are they thinking is going to happen? Do they think that one morning Trump is going to wake up and think “Gosh, all these people telling me I'm wrong and mean and crude and tweet too darn much must be right. I'll change, because I always take the advice of people who I've already broken and humiliated.”

Unlikely, because Trump doesn't respect you. And he doesn't respect you because he's already beaten you. He's not a gracious winner, but to be fair, you've hardly been gracious losers. Oh, how it must gall you to be so utterly defeated by someone you consider your moral and intellectual inferior.

So if you're not going to change Trump, what do you think you're going to do? Do you think you're going to somehow drive Trump out of office? 

He goes on to say that, even if that were achieved, it would just further fire up the "normals," as he calls the group he identifies with, and they'd take further measures, such as primarying every politician in the land who had a disparaging remark about Trump on his record.

It's a disgusting attitude, and it makes me think back to pre-Trump times and wonder how many signs there were that Schlichter was a law-of-the-jungle bonehead.

And then there's the omission of what is plain to see, such as the unnecessary damage Trump has done to relationships with an increasing number of legislators, the focus of a Red State piece by Susan Wright this morning:

In the couple of weeks John Kelly has been chief of staff, he’s attempted to exert some control over Trump’s unscheduled interactions with lawmakers. The president is said to have a habit of seeing a senator on television, getting a wild hair, and then having an assistant call that senator up.

Kelly has asked that there be a senior White House aide present whenever Trump make these calls, and that Trump be briefed on the topic he’s planning to call about.

That sure speaks volumes.

Embarrassing, cringe-worthy volumes.

The president needs to understand that he’s likely never going to get the approval of Democrats for anything he’s hoping to push. He needs the Republicans. He needs actual allies in Washington, and not just clingers.

He’s really not off to a good start.

And for all this bluster from the likes of Schlichter about fed-up "normals," the fact is that, as of yesterday, Squirrel-Hair's approval numbers were decisively headed south and disapproval numbers headed upward.  He's losing support among independents.

So the idea that S-H is the embodiment of an unprecedented groundswell doesn't seem to jibe with the actual facts.

Yes, there is and has been for some time a very real pent-up frustration in America, but the water-carriers' idol is no addressing it.

They keep telling us it's time to admit that it's a new day and our reliance on some core principles is an obsolete premise from which to proceed.

It would seem that they are the ones who need to take another look at the real lay of the land in 2017 post-America.

Donald Trump isn't leading us anywhere. He's tweeting and holding incendiary rallies and making counterproductive phone calls.

So far, the balance sheet for the Squirrel-Hair era looks pretty dismal.