Posted on 03/06/2016 6:15:02 PM PST by Innovative
Republican front-runner Donald Trump continued his pivot toward general-election language this weekend, saying in an interview airing Sunday that he's "very much a unifier."
"I mean, I get along with people. I'm a unifier. I'm very much a unifier," Trump said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "And maybe people don't see that. But they will see that."
The comments come after a noticeable shift in Trump's tone following his big victories on Super Tuesday. Since then, the candidate has suggested he's be a deal-maker who can be "flexible" and compromise with his opposition if he's elected.
Trump also insisted he's the party's strongest option against likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the fall, pointing to polling to suggest he'd be less of an easy target for Clinton than generally believed. "Look it's highly competitive. The last person she wants to run against is me," he said. "I can tell you that, I know that ... I've won numerous polls against Hillary and I haven't even started on Hillary."
"Well, I'm very surprised by it," he said. "And I'm very surprised to hear about a third party because I'm going to appoint conservative judges. And a third party would mean that Hillary would win or whoever is going to be running."
As for Republicans who may leave the party and vote for Clinton if he's the nominee, Trump said the party should stick together and people should be "unified."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I’m concerned that he will be vindictive toward those states that didn’t approve of him if he gets elected. Narcissists are that way. Hillary would do that too.
Trump can pull Conservative Dems ...a must for a general election win ...no other Repub can do it
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/us/politics/michigan-primary.html?_r=0
you just have to unify one big group. He has already done that. Have to motivate the lazy bastards to vote
“Trump can pull Conservative Dems ...a must for a general election win ...no other Repub can do it”
I agree. We either support Trump to be the Republican nominee or we get President Hillary Clinton.
I understand where the Cruz folks are coming from, but the dynamics of a general election beg to differ ...Trump is the best chance to win
Him saying he is doesn’t make it so. If he is, then let’s see him unify this party. His earlier threats to bolt the party are not going to help him. And his penchant for insulting people won’t either.
“I’m concerned that he will be vindictive toward those states that didn’t approve of him if he gets elected. “
Valid concern, but I think he is smarter than that and won’t be.
That’s why they don’t want Trump. Those in D.C. have absolutely no desire or appetite for a united America like we once were. They’re all about dividing the once united.
Only when men and women are bound by its limits will liberty be secured.
With that premise in mind, the following excerpt from President George Washington's Farewell Address becomes a meaningful passage for our consideration as we select a Presidential candidate for 2016.
Excerpt - George Washington, Farewell
"To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.
However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?
Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened." (End Excerpt)
“..then let’s see him unify this party.”
“This party” hasn’t picked a winner in a looooong time. The last time it did, it had plenty of help from Reagan Dem defectors. Which is what is happening again.
Obama does it every day to the American People.
“And his penchant for insulting people won’t either.”
Exactly. It’s like he can’t help himself. Last night I tried to listen to his speech. It started out okay but then immediately turned to so and so is a liar, etc.
Turned it and him off.
The GOP has not been this divided in my lifetime. And I’m almost 60.
I understand where the Cruz folks are coming from, but the dynamics of a general election beg to differ ...Trump is the best chance to win
As an initial Cruz supporter, I have come to agree on that.
http://www.trump.com/real-estate-portfolio/
http://www.trump.com/hotel-collection/
http://www.trump.com/golf/
In accepting his wins and thanking Louisiana and Kentucky, he also graciously thanked those who voted for him in Kansas and Maine.
All men have egos. Trump's is strong, obviously.
But that's not the same as narcissism. The question is whether the man who has an ego is himself larger than his own ego. Stated more roughly, does he believe his own bullsh*t.
Trump is more conscious act that we think, even those of us who know he's acting. This presidential run has been in the works far longer than the past year or couple years.
Trump is not angry at any state. If he loses, he looks at where he failed, not where the people failed.
Thats one signal that Trump is not a narcissist. A fundamental defining aspect of a narcissist is that he externalizes failure. Trump doesn't. He may rail against opposing forces, but when he goes to bed, if he lost, he asks where he went wrong.
In a way, it's an absence of both pride or humility ... unless we're talking about the real meaning of humility which is not 'acting humbly' but 'seeing things as they actually are.'
So, the signs aren't there that Trump is a narcissist, as popular as it is to call him that. Big ego - yes. That is in itself not a problem, and it's a good thing, so long as it's subject to the man himself, and that the man is humble in the sense of seeing things as they really are.
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