The Missing “Buckley-Factor” in Publius Decius Mus’ Historic Essay

Tags

2016 Election, Ben Shapiro, Buckley-Factor, Donald Trump, Flight 93 Election, NeverTrumpers, Publius Decius Mus, William F Buckley

While it appears that some NeverTrumpers may vote for Donald Trump in the coming presidential election, whiffs of desperation permeate the air from those doubling down on their anti-Trump and damn those illiterate Trump supporters aka the “alt-right” aka “basket of deplorables” attacks, determined to take a nation over the edge of the cliff by any means necessary, not for love of country or conscious, but to legitimize their self-worth and enrichment.

Unified Patriots by Vassarbushmills

If you haven’t heard, a fellow (I assume) named Publius Decius Mus penned an anonymous, 10-page essay at the Claremont College website, entitled the “Flight 93 Election“ It’s a near-masterpiece, even historic.

It’s also long, but not above anyone’s head, even millennials, if they only put their whole minds to it. It’s what you might call a 4-dotter, where paragraphs are connected by the author with logic, one to the other, completing a nearly complete picture of the Trump candidacy and what it means to the nation and conservatism, and finally, with William F Buckley’s assistance, the constitutional position of the average American.

The essay is an explanation, more than an attack, on the position held by the #NeverTrump crowd, but as you can imagine, many took offense anyway. Clearly, Publius Decius Mus’ logic isn’t shared universally.

Nor was it, for my conservative tastes, complete. As a unified theory, it missed a point, which I will raise below, after I’ve dispensed with the teat-fittery, for you see, whether intentional or nor, Publius Decius Mus’ arguments are generationally based, between a group that has largely been around, and have the benefit of experiences millennials, and most Gen Xers, can’t claim. That’s a pure statistical reality. We’ve been around more.

So, when Rush Limbaugh brought this essay to the general public’s attention last week, it caused a firestorm of controversy, while also possibly producing an unstoppable wind-change in the election itself, in that it depicted the reality of a Hillary Clinton victory in November in stark, even harsher terms than anyone (other than me) has portrayed to them. So while some have complained loudly and bitterly I believe that many anti-Trumpsters are edging closer to voting for him anyway, based on PDM’s Flight 93 metaphor.

(While I have argued virtually every point raised by PDM for several years, his presentation is immaculate, chalkboard perfect in connecting dots; a thing I could never do as well, especially without lapsing off into profanities, which explains why I understand the teat-fitter of the NeverTrumpsters as well as I do.)

But amidst this sea-change, there is some cause to believe that Ben Shapiro may have shifted course in the other direction, against Trump, which is teat-fittery writ large, and why I detour to mention him. He may be arguing against his own logical inclinations. At least, my son, who follows Ben more closely than I do, and, being closer to the same age…32 to 45…believes, and Ben has led him to think, that he will hold his nose (God, how many times have we been asked to do that since 1992?) and vote for Trump anyway….

Continue Reading – The Missing “Buckley-Factor” in Publius Decius Mus’ Historic Essay