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What Makes Donald Run?
National Review ^ | 9/1/2015 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 09/01/2015 4:26:24 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross

He’s giving fed-up Republicans something other candidates are not.

Donald Trump has at least three things going for him. (snip)

What fuels his candidacy is attitude — in particular, disdain for those who undeservedly believe they warrant deference. Behind the bombast and the waving hands, he gives the impression of having contempt for the ruling class, (snip)

After nearly seven years of Obama, the public is worn out by sanctimoniousness — by all the Professor Gates/Trayvon Martin/Ferguson lectures on race by an abject racialist, by all the sermons on climate change by a global jet-setter, by all the community-organizing banality by one who always has preferred the private school and the tony neighborhood, by all the us-versus-the-1-percent warfare by one who feels at home on the golf course only with celebrities and stock hounds. Given all that, the Republican base, at least for a few more weeks, wants someone to be unapologetically unacceptable — both to the liberal establishment that Obama ushered in, and to the wink-and-nod elite Republican opposition.

It is said that Trump appeals most to the pissed-off white man of yesteryear. Perhaps. But in the age of a multiracial United States it is more proper to say than he appeals to the infuriated targets of elite disdain, people who are tired of Democratic slurs about “tired old white men” — as the exempt white and (most of them) old Sanders, Biden, O’Malley, and Webb wait for a mature white woman to fade, while hoping that other old white men like Kerry, Gore, and Brown don’t wade in.(snip)

Another person I quizzed about Trump is a seasoned, though cynical, PhD. His take? Trump is Maximus, and the primary campaign is his arena: We are all thumbs-up/thumbs-down spectators who enjoy the blood sport.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: donald; run; trump; trump2016; vdh

1 posted on 09/01/2015 4:26:24 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross
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To: Deb; Sir Napsalot; Kaslin; neverdem; EXCH54FE; 2ndDivisionVet; Rummyfan; smoothsailing; Hojczyk; ...

VDH ping ...


2 posted on 09/01/2015 4:27:21 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: C. Edmund Wright; CatherineofAragon

Ping to an interesting article ... which has been severely edited.


3 posted on 09/01/2015 4:48:00 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: Servant of the Cross
WHAT MAKES ... or ... WHY DOES ... ?

I never know with modern journalists

I think the "What Makes" is the inate Americanism he enjoys as a successful business man and his ability to see tragedy all around him that belies that Americanism and he believes he can do something about correcting the situation


The "Why Does" is infinitely more interesting, not the least could be .... it IS fun to something good.

4 posted on 09/01/2015 4:51:30 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: Servant of the Cross

-——on the golf course only with celebrities and stock hounds-——

one wonders if the invitation to the golf course is received with glee or disdain


5 posted on 09/01/2015 4:52:29 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, .. Iran deal & holocaust: Obama's batting clean up for Adolph Hitler)
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To: knarf

Good answer.


6 posted on 09/01/2015 4:56:17 AM PDT by Guenevere (If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do....)
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To: Servant of the Cross

I think Hanson gets it.
Trump is every thing we should dislike or even hate except as the Latino barber said, “He is a Jefe” and unafraid.
He reminds me of past American leaders like Andrew Jackson, George Patton and even Eisenhower and Truman. To the literalist here, the key word is “REMINDS”.
I think I am going try to hang on to this horse.


7 posted on 09/01/2015 4:57:39 AM PDT by Tupelo (Trump is no Reagan, but he is a fighter.")
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To: Guenevere
Thanx ... even though we both missed the "do" ...

it IS fun to ... DO ... something good.

8 posted on 09/01/2015 5:00:53 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: Tupelo
There is gradually emerging a momentum that invogorates the pedestrian

The kind that, though that suckah be buckin' we be hangin' ON.

(I like your phrase)

9 posted on 09/01/2015 5:05:22 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: Servant of the Cross

Happy Warriors Unite

10 posted on 09/01/2015 5:12:52 AM PDT by Company Man (Honestly awful beats dishonestly wonderful --Opus endorses Trump)
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To: Tupelo
I think Hanson gets it.

Well said about your reasons for "hanging onto this horse" (Trump).

I like Hanson. He doesn't get Trump though. I strongly disagree with him on Trump and I intentionally left a lot of the article out in my excerpt. While he does see the "Why?" to Trump's popularity and can articulate that well, he is really no different than Krauthammer or Will on his disdain for the man (Trump). On that, he is just flat out wrong. He is blinded by his disdain for that type of flamboyant personality that pokes "conventional wisdom" in the eye and says what are you going to do about it?

I do believe that Trump has the El Hefe stature and the other more conservative candidates would do well to emulate that more within their own style. This is what is needed for POTUS 2016. Not another 0bama, just an El Hefe who will beat back the pretend brute with a symmetrical or even more shock & awe level of force.

11 posted on 09/01/2015 5:13:50 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: Company Man

Nice graphic. I could certainly get behind this team of “Happy Warriors”. A Trump VP would have much responsibility/value.


12 posted on 09/01/2015 5:17:10 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: Servant of the Cross

“Rank-and-file Republicans are worn out from being lectured that no one can win without the Latino vote (10 percent of the electorate), the black vote (12 percent), and the Asian vote (5 percent ) — all on the premise that to speak in similar terms about getting a large chunk of the white vote (70 percent ) would be somehow racist.”

Take-away line and matches my tag line and profile page PERFECTLY. Good good Victor...you’ve always been with us (until Trump) and now it looks like you’re coming back to be with us again. We love you.


13 posted on 09/01/2015 5:18:07 AM PDT by BobL (REPUBLICANS - Fight for the WHITE VOTE...and you will win (see my 'profile' page))
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To: Servant of the Cross

Thanks for the ping


14 posted on 09/01/2015 5:19:32 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Servant of the Cross

I did read the entire article and still think Hanson gets it. He gets it, but does not like Trump. I do not remember him saying but, I think he is on the Cruz wagon.
The key is; We are fed up.


15 posted on 09/01/2015 5:19:57 AM PDT by Tupelo (Trump is no Reagan, but he is a fighter.")
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To: Servant of the Cross

Swiped from Day By Day, tidied up with very little effort on my part using good ol’ MS Paint..


16 posted on 09/01/2015 5:24:27 AM PDT by Company Man (Keep on Trumpin')
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To: Servant of the Cross

Hanson doesn’t have to like Trump, but at least he ‘gets’ him and doesn’t attack his supporters as “crazies” or “low-information voters”. There are plenty of reasons to be suspicious of Trump, given his past, a few things he’s said recently (such as “deal with it” the Supreme Court has spoken on gay marriage, and he could have done better on the reporter shooting...although he did ok on it). In my case, it’s not even close - I have to take Trump at his word and he is the ONLY CANDIDATE capable of turning around this supertanker that the left has created. And immigration wins over everything else - repopulate this country and none of the other issues matter, as we become like California - in that it doesn’t matter whether Republicans are against gay marriage and abortion...they will NEVER have the votes to do a damn thing about either.


17 posted on 09/01/2015 5:25:18 AM PDT by BobL (REPUBLICANS - Fight for the WHITE VOTE...and you will win (see my 'profile' page))
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To: knarf

“What makes” makes a better headline. Taken from “What Makes Sammy Run?” a fictional account of a screenwriter’s rags-to-riches life. There was a Broadway version in the ‘60s. No one would want to be compared to Sammy, though who knows if VDH is familiar with the story.


18 posted on 09/01/2015 5:30:31 AM PDT by Buttons12
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To: Servant of the Cross

yeah, VDH makes some valid points - while clearly not being sold on Trump. He has a very good paragraph early on stating that Trump often contradicts himself minute to minute. Which he does.

And of course, we get called RINO’s or elites for simply exposing third grade logic errors......when we point this out.


19 posted on 09/01/2015 5:42:22 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (WTF? How Karl Rove and the Establishment Lost...Again)
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To: Servant of the Cross
We can safely say that VDH is totally not sold on Trump. Plenty of good analysis, but VDH failed to point out one major factor in Trump.

His unabashed (I don't know what/how to put it) ‘slogan’ to make America great again. The American spirit had been beaten down for the last 8 years or so, relentlessly and mercilessly, from all sides. The Trump phenomenon is not only the well-deserved comeuppance to the elites, it is also an outlet for the true grits of this country.

Like everybody else, I don't know where/how Trump campaign ends, but that train (true Americans) has left the station/reservation.

20 posted on 09/01/2015 6:20:28 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = CCCP; JournOList + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey!)
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