3 Stupidest Reactions To David French’s Possible Candidacy

Source: The Federalist | June 1, 2016 | Mollie Hemingway

The reaction to news that the conservative attorney might launch a presidential bid explains a lot about why good people don’t run for office.

During Memorial Day weekend, The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol got under Donald Trump’s skin by announcing, “Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate–an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.”

It worked. Trump fired off three tweets decrying the possibility of an independent run, including one that referred to Republicans — members of the party he is aiming to lead — in the third person. “f the GOP can’t control their own, then they are not a party. Be tough, R’s!,” he wrote.

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French, for his part, hasn’t announced a candidacy or said anything on the matter as of press time. He’s a man of impressive pedigree — a constitutional lawyer, an expert on religious freedom, author of a book on how to defeat ISIS, an Iraqi War veteran with a Bronze Star — and beloved by all who know him as a charitable and gracious family man. He broke the story on politicized prosecution run amok in Wisconsin, among many other excellent pieces he’s written on culture, philosophy, religion and the law.

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He’s not a candidate, but the media reaction to the mere mention of a possible candidacy explains much about how the country has become saddled with such embarrassing representatives of their respective parties. It’s even more illustrative of why good people don’t run for office in this media environment.

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1) ‘But He’s Happily Married!’

Politico’s Ken Vogel came out of the gate with the declaration that the idea of the outsider candidate was “crazy.” But that was the high point of Politico tweeting on the story. One Kevin Robillard’s immediate journalistic instinct was to go gotcha-hunting. And boy wait until you see what he found!

Politico's Tweet

Except this is the stupidest critique imaginable. It’s about how French and his wife Nancy came up with boundaries for their marriage while David was deployed. They would avoid temptation found on social media. What Puritans!

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I know journalists are ignorant about most of what they cover, but let’s just go ahead and add “Why do my marriages keep failing?” to the list. It’s not that people in good marriages would cheat with everyone they encounter if there were no rules on how to encourage fidelity, but how to protect one’s self from cheating with just one person. A faithful marriage takes a ton of work and even in happy marriages, one is at risk of failing to be faithful in thought, word, and deed. The best guard against it is to build a culture of trust and to institute practices to avoid temptation. One good word for a marriage without mutually agreed upon rules is “divorced.”

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As for the media coverage of the twice-divorced, thrice-married Donald Trump, it’s mostly been cowering in fear that he might be mean to them if they bring up character issues or that he might force them to cover the Clintons’ exploits, to their shame.

So it is in this milieu that attacking the Frenches for having a good marriage comes off particularly disgusting.

2) ‘I’m Not Well Read Enough To Know Him’

First place in this category goes to Dylan Matthews of Vox, who made the publication’s ignorance of French the literal headline. I’m not joking:

Vox's Headline

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3) ‘He’s Written Stuff I’m Not Smart Enough to Consider!’

Matthews of course parroted Robillard’s big scoop on how marriages work. But that’s not all. He also surfed the internet long enough to declare that French’s views do not pass muster with the geniuses over at Vox. A thoughtful piece on women in the military that deviated from the groupthink in the media elite was described as French being “very afraid” of putting women in combat (sigh).

Should French actually run, his nuanced arguments will sail over the heads of a good chunk of our media that are ready at any moment to revert to a “what about your gaffes?” posture with any and all conservative candidates.

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Further, I know it’s major news now that mainstream journalists are being harassed with racist and anti-Semitic insults on Twitter for not submitting to Donald Trump, but David French wrote about the alt-right movement all the way back on September 17. In response, his multi-racial family was treated to insults and threats. Nancy French wrote on the experience in The Washington Post on September 18, 2015. “What it’s like to be a white conservative on Twitter when you have a black child” simply must be read. It’s horrifying.

French hasn’t committed federal crimes. He’s not facing litigation over fraudulent businesses. He’s not thrice married or in a dysfunctional relationship. He has a coherent political philosophy and is an outsider in every sense. Perhaps most importantly for our purposes, he has not declared a candidacy. Of course the insecure and juvenile Twitter and journalism mobs (but I repeat myself) can’t handle thoughtful engagement with such a man. Far easier for many of them to mock in an effort to feel better about themselves and their failing moral and intellectual frameworks.

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