Posted on 01/22/2016 7:51:23 AM PST by conservativejoy
Those of us who like to believe that human beings are rational can sometimes have a hard time trying to explain what is going on in politics. It is still a puzzle to me how millions of patriotic Americans could have voted in 2008 for a man who for 20 years - TWENTY YEARS - was a follower of a preacher who poured out his hatred for America in the most gross gutter terms.
Today's big puzzle is how so many otherwise rational people have become enamored of Donald Trump, projecting onto him virtues and principles that he clearly does not have, and ignoring gross defects that are all too blatant.
There was a time when someone who publicly mocked a handicapped man would have told us all we needed to know about his character, and his political fling would have been over. But that was before we became a society where common decency is optional.
Yet there are even a few people with strong conservative principles who have lined up with this man, whose history has demonstrated no principles at all, other than an ability to make self-serving deals, and who has shown what Thorstein Veblen once called "a versatility of convictions."
With the Iowa caucuses coming up, it is easy to understand why Iowa governor Terry Branstad is slamming Trump's chief rival, Senator Ted Cruz, who has opposed massive government subsidies to ethanol, which have dumped tons of taxpayer money on Iowa for growing corn. Iowa's Senator Charles Grassley has come right out and said that is why he opposes Senator Cruz.
Former Senator Bob Dole, an establishment Republican if ever there was one, has joined the attacks on Ted Cruz, on grounds that Senator Cruz is disliked by other politicians.
When Senator Dole was active, he was liked by both Democrats and Republicans. He joined the long list of likable Republican candidates for president that the Republican establishment chose - and that the voters roundly rejected.
With both establishment Republicans and anti-establishment Republicans now taking sides with Donald Trump, it is hard to see what principle - if any - is behind his support.
Some may see Trump's success in business as a sign that he can manage the economy. But the great economist David Ricardo, two centuries ago, pointed out that business success did not mean that someone understands economic issues facing a nation.
Trump boasts that he can make deals, among his many other boasts. But is a deal-maker what this country needs at this crucial time? Is not one of the biggest criticisms of today's Congressional Republicans that they have made all too many deals with Democrats, betraying the principles on which they ran for office?
Bipartisan deals - so beloved by media pundits - have produced some of the great disasters in American history.
Contrary to the widespread view that the Great Depression of the 1930s was caused by the stock market crash of 1929, unemployment never reached double digits in any of the 12 months that followed the stock market crash in October, 1929.
Unemployment was 6.3 percent in June 1930 when a Democratic Congress and a Republican president made a bipartisan deal that produced the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. Within 6 months, unemployment hit double digits - and stayed in double digits throughout the entire decade of the 1930s.
You want deals? There was never a more politically successful deal than that which Neville Chamberlain made in Munich in 1938. He was hailed as a hero, not only by his own party but even by opposition parties, when he returned with a deal that Chamberlain said meant "peace for our time." But, just one year later, the biggest, bloodiest and most ghastly war in history began.
If deal-making is your standard, didn't Barack Obama just make a deal with Iran - one that may have bigger and worse consequences than Chamberlain's deal?
What kind of deals would Donald Trump make? He has already praised the Supreme Court's decision in "Kelo v. City of New London" which said that the government can seize private property to turn it over to another private party.
That kind of decision is good for an operator like Donald Trump. Doubtless other decisions that he would make as president would also be good for Donald Trump, even if for nobody else.
Fine. I can see fame being an influence. If it were Tom Selleck, or Phil Robertson (as instances), I'd probably be endorsing them too.
It is the principles that matter. Fame means nothing without the principles we stand for, else the principles we stand for are not principles.
Confusing great deals with the greatest bunglings, Sowell is slipping.
BIG puzzle plunder
19T BIG
The political class DID debt slave us TS.
FUBO
FUCONgre$$
Oboma Care was considered one of the greatest deals ever. Trump gave a maximum donation to Harry Reid when it passed. A great victory for them both! One step closer to the nationalized health care they both support.
Correct. It's about television. It's about c..e..l..e..b...r..i..t..y.
Like the oboma campaign, the recient past doesn't matter. The next episode of Apprentice is what people care about. Who will Trump fire if elected?
Oooooooo! The suspense is building.
Some Freeper recently posted that we need a “head ripper” this time around and I agree. Trump is a head ripper.
I now look at Thomas Sowell in the same way I’ve looked at Andy Griffith ever since he was bulls**ted by Ron Howard into doing a commercial supporting Hussein the monster in his first election run. The memory of Griffith will forever live in shame because of that lapse of judgment. Now Sowell, too, has become a deluded and senile old fool.
People who support Cruze feel the same way about Sara these days.
It really doesn't matter who buys who's support. Why not look at a candidates FRUITS and decide who is the real conservative?
What has Cruze believed and supported all his life? What has Trump believed and supported all his life?
It's not what a person SAYS that matters. Words are easy and can be deceiving. ACTIONS always speak louder than words.
If you want to know who a person really is - look into the actions of their past. THAT'S who you'll voting for.
For Liberals.. emotions ARE facts
I think, at this point, we are beyond the persuasion stage of any debate we might have been having and we’ve entered the visceral, phlegmatic stage, where people’s deepest emotional attitudes are brought forth and put to the test. It seems clear that the Cruzers are willing to go down to utter defeat at the hands of the Marxocrats, as they continue to pursue their quixotic quest for “purity”, even as the candidate is revealed that can lead us to victory, evidenced by the millions of voters that have turned out en mass to support his project for the restoration of America. I now put Cruzers in the same wasted camp as the Libertarians, who navel gaze and ruminate about intellectual arguments and waste their votes, all the while enabling the evisceration of the Republic through their puerile detachment. Such idiocy is not for me. There is a Republic to save! TRUMP 2016!
The pendulum has gone so far to the left, the only way to achieve balance is to go hard right. It's the only thing that will save the country at this point. Fight, or die trying.
We're being given a choice. A right wing, knuckle dragging neanderthal conservative who's sticking to his Bible and his guns, or man who was farther to the left than oboma up until he decided to run for the presidency (and is willing to say anything our angry little hearts want to hear to win.)
We have a choice. Let our anger and celebrity worship blind us into electing nothing short of another oboma, or follow our Constitutional principles.
Hate and vengeance will get us a NYC progressive who knows how to tickle our ears, because we'll be thinking irrationally. Wisdom will get us someone who's going to do his best to bring our liberties back.
Choose. I believe this is the countries last chance to redeem itself.
...a man who was further to the left than obama...
That is a flat out lie and you know it.
Look it up. Oboma Care wasn't enough for Trump. He supported universal health care. He also supported nationalizing the banks. The bail outs weren't good enough. Trump is farther left than oboma.
Look it up yourself. Trump has a long history of being a far left wing NYC progressive. He was a registered democrat until the black guy got elected in 2008.
The only reason he's running as a Republican this time is because the election is ours to lose.
Check out something called "mirroring." It's a sales trick all good salesman use. Trump is "mirroring" us, or holding a "verbal" mirror in front of himself, so all we see in this mirror is .....us. Who can be against ....us? Who could not vote for.....us?
If you take a minute and look behind the mirror (the manufactured "verbal" reflection of ourselves), you'll see the real man hiding behind it.
Used car salesman use this trick every time. If you cross your legs, he'll very subtly cross his legs. If you scratch your nose, he'll scratch his nose. If you tap your finger, he'll very subtly tap his finger. He'll be a perfect, subconscious reflection of ....YOU. By the time the wheeling and dealing is over, you'll think the guy is the most honest, trustworthy guy you ever met. Why, you'd have to distrust YOU in order to distrust him because you're two peas in a pod - or so he got you to believe. He used the "mirror" technique.
That's why Trump all of a sudden is just like us. If we want borders closed, he wants borders closed. If we want lower taxes, he wants lower taxes. If we want to stop abortion, he wants to stop abortion. It's a 180 from all his past beliefs, but you won't notice that unless you take the time to notice the guy hiding BEHIND the mirror.(And you'll be shocked at what you discover).
OK, great. You vote for Cruz. I’ll vote for Trump. I’ll see you at the barricades.
Your comments are very well put!
It's a deal. If Trump wins, though, will you promise to apologize to all Cruze supporters when he turns out to be the best snake oil salesman you ever met?
Remember - he's trying to sell Americans a product, and not all salesman are honest about the item they're trying to sell. They just want to make that sale! Once the item is sold - they're free to be themselves again.
Do we have a deal?
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