Jeffrey Lord & I Have Taken Very Different Paths Since November 2012

If you look at the front page of The American Spectator, you will be greeted by the goofy grin of Jeffrey Lord.


Frankly, he can look as goofy as he wants. He was arguably the first person aboard the Trump Train. Along the way and now there will be gravy for him to collect whether he gets back into the White House or stays at CNN.


Suffice it to say, we've taken very different paths since November 2012. A week after President Obama's re-election, I travelled to D.C. to attend The Robert L. Bartley Dinner which is the The American Spectator's annual gala. Then Oklahoma GOP Senator Tom Coburn was the keynote speaker.


In any case, it was my first time in D.C. & virtually everyone there was a stranger to me and I to them despite having written for them since 2009. But I saw a familiar face in the crowd. I struck up a conversation with Jeffrey Lord. Naturally, we spoke about the election and he commented on my election post-mortem "We're Not in 1980 Anymore". It was, in part, a critique of his assertion that Obama could be beaten handily in 2012. Jeff told me he had critiqued my assessment and argued(speciously in my view) that my argument was like saying the law of gravity is irrelevant because Newton has been dead nearly 300 years. Of course, the law of gravity is axiomatic and can be tested over and over again. People, however, are not so immutable. Despite the term political science, politics is more art than science. I told him this and added that he didn't fully appreciate the gravity of the situation.


As it turned out, we happened to be assigned to sit next to each other during dinner. Jeff was very pleasant company indeed. He told me there was a long way to go and plenty of time to determine where we would go from here.


Well, we've gone there and Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States in 72 days. Jeff, of course, might be the most enthusiastic Trump supporter in the entire country and has become a major media figure. The sky is the limit for him.


Alas, I could not and still cannot abide Trump. My displeasure with Trump became a source of contention at The American Spectator until the publisher Bob Tyrrell told me back in August to stop criticizing Trump (something he did not do with Romney). I found edict unacceptable and I resigned as a matter of principle.


I have tried to hook on with National Review, The Weekly Standard and Commentary. But they are not interested. Certainly not now that Trump has won. But that's fine. If I never get paid to write again I can live with it. I wasn't about to go around telling people how great Trump is when I think he is a boil on the ass of humanity.


As it stands, I have begun a new career as a paralegal and that will keep me plenty busy. But so long as I have the freedom to speak my mind in some forum then that's alright with me. Perhaps my assessment of Trump will be vindicated and perhaps it won't. Right or wrong, I shall write on my terms and my terms alone.