Posted on 11/20/2015 11:30:00 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
As has been made abundantly clear by his incessant mewling and pathetically thin skin, Donald J. Trump is not in fact an unwaveringly resolute tough guy of the type you would hope to find standing next to you in the trenches, but an insecure attention seeker who cannot help but pander to his audiences' prejudices. In the past few days, Trump has been asked variously whether, if elected, he would use his power to close mosques; whether he believes that Muslims should be registered in a special government database; and whether or not it would be a good idea to suspend the Fourth Amendment for anybody who prays to Allah. In all cases he has either demurred completely or eschewed the more traditional "yes" and "no" categories in favor of some choice hedging. "That may have to be done," Trump says. "There's no doubt." "We'll look at that." "We'll consider all the options." "We're going to have to look at a lot of things very closely."
So painful has this tendency become that I have begun to hope his interviewers will get a little surreal, just to see what he says:
"Will you replace your hair with spaghetti and your fingers with soup spoons?"
"Sure. We're going to look at everything."
"As president would you consider taking suspected burglars and parachuting them naked into lava?"
"That's something we'll consider. You can't have all this crime. Terrible."
"Do you think it's fair to say that you are the egg man, that you are the egg man, that you are the Walrus?"
"We're going to examine a range of possibilities."
"GooGooGooJoob?"
"I'll be looking into that."
Perhaps the only thing that is worse than Trump's silence is what he does say.
The most common defense of Trump's perpetual acquiescence has been that he did not explicitly say "yes" to the more controversial among the questions, and that he cannot therefore be accused of endorsement. In truth, this isn't quite right; speaking to NBC last night, he did seem to suggest affirmatively that Muslims would be required to sign into his hypothetical database or face consequences. Either way, I'm struggling to see how this defense can be acceptable to his admirers. Trump, recall, is supposed to be courageous. He's supposed to be steadfast. He's supposed to be a no-holds-barred badass who will make great deals and stare down enemies and Make America Great Again. How, one wonders, does a chronic inability to say "no" fit into that mien?
If there is one quality we need in a president, it is the ability decisively to say "no" - especially, I would venture, if that president hopes to advance conservative goals. When a sane person is asked whether he would institute a tracking database for Muslims or force one religious group to carry special ID cards, he says, "Of course I wouldn't." If Trump is unable to manage even this, how would he rein in spending or limit illegal immigration? More to the point, as Trump might ask sneeringly of others, how would he deal with Vladimir Putin?
Perhaps the only thing that is worse than Trump's silence is what he does say. Even if we are generous and assume that the man does not actually believe any of the specific proposals to which he has given his tacit consent, the attitude he is exhibiting is positively Wilsonian in character. In Trump's world, America will be restored to glory when his handpicked team of experts is permitted to experiment upon the public outside of the usual constitutional limits. Nowhere in his rhetoric will you find any reference to America's pre-existing cultural and legal traditions, or to the necessary bounds that free men insist be imposed upon the state. There is no talk of "freedom"; no reflexive grounding of ideas in the Declaration and the Federalist Papers; no conceptual explanation or underlying philosophy. There is nothing, except will to power. By his own admission, Trump's are the politics of doing enthusiastically what works in the moment; of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt; of the administrative state and of bureaucratic expertise; of the Prussians and the French and the Singaporeans. Whatever he might claim before his adoring crowds, Trump is not in fact an antidote to Barack Obama. He is his parallel.
Calvin Coolidge said "no" over and over and over again because he understood that the federal government existed for a handful of specific reasons, and that any action it took outside of its carefully delineated tramlines was inherently suspect. Donald Trump's only visible constitutional opinion is that someone strong ought to make sure the trams run on time. There's a word for men like that, and it sure as heck isn't "conservative."
Why bother? You'd just keep pushing out stuff like this without realizing it doesn't matter. People are not looking for detailed issues candidates. No, they are looking for leadership, people with the right big picture values, goals, and so forth. Someone will to say it like it is and to H31l with political correctness.
So, who are you aligning with now? Bush, Rubio?
Yes we all know it was a hit piece. The problem is Trump seems to think he has to respond to every question, and he is not adept enough yet to notice every little trap they set for him. In this case, he gave the news media 2 or 3 days to moan on about closing down mosques and creating a secret database for Muslims. Which gives his opponents 2 or 3 days to hammer him and paint him as a racist. And notice how Obama’s terrible response to the Paris attacks isn’t getting much attention anymore?
Trump needs to understand, while he is generally very media savvy, he is not perfect, and every media outlet, and the leadership of both parties, are out to get him and will do anything to take him down.
As well as here, re the anti-Trump posters.
We have always had a safety net...and it was NOT universal healthcare.
Your argument is that Trump can win if he is the nominee.
If you go by polls, and Trump definitely does, you’re in error.
And by the way, Trump is VERY willing to say No and the article is simply playing cute with this to try and score some points. No intelligent person would really think he goes around only saying Yes.
“He agrees with Kelo “100%”; he supports government-paid-for universal healthcare.”
Sigh, He doesn’t. He made statement YEARS ago about the Canadian system but he has talked about his plan to replace Obamacare and it is NOT a single payer system. If he supported single payer he’d have proposed it.
All that said - I have used both the NHS in the UK and the HK Public Heath system. They are both better than Obama Care
I would not be quite as critical as this author..
I tend to be more critical of the Trump admiration society then Trump himself..
I like the guy. He’s brash, he’s a quintessential New Yawker! He’s a Nor’easter law and order guy and that too is typical of the more rational in the metropolis.
But all that brashness and what looks like it’s supposed to be common sense, does not appear to have any substance because he never explains how he came to these opinions or how he will make America great again, for that matter.
I want the answers and the reasons for the answers...the footnotes, if you will. (and I want it from the man, not some campaign policy writer)
So for me, he’s shallow water. Interesting ripples but you can’t see through to the bottom. You have to take his word for it. Then I always ask myself, word for what?
We have a better candidate. His name is Cruz. He’s got all that Trump has plus what is missing.
FOX and those here from GOPe are the main front against Trump, Cruz or any other anti establishment candidate.
No...you are and the polls are off, because it is still too early to predict much.
It’s her job.
She’ll deny it, but she’s a paid hack.
What specifically are you referring to.
it was NOT universal healthcare.
But that is what Trump supports.
I hope the Trump-Cruz ticket takes a flamethrower to the Republican party establishment (even better, to the National Combiner Big Gubmint Uniparty). Those must be destroyed as surely as the Mohammadan scourge.
“Trump needs to understand, while he is generally very media savvy, he is not perfect, and every media outlet, and the leadership of both parties, are out to get him and will do anything to take him down.”
I actually agree with that statement
OK, so Trump is too brash and abrasive, yet when he gives the standard cocktail party “Uh-uh” agreement to a nobody with a wacky idea (in this case a reporter with an agenda) then he’s a bad guy for not berating him on the spot. Got it.
The writer is an vocal supporter of homosexual marriage and finds Trump a false conservative. I sense somebody lobbying to take over for George Will when he finally gets too old to opine without coming across like Grandpa Simpson with John Lennon spectacles.
Color me unimpressed. I expect Trump to be the target of set-up after set-up. It was only a little while ago that team Jeb sent a girl to paint Trump as part of the bogus “war on women” and stare him down, all indignant and arms akimbo as he answered her planted questions at a public forum. This latest nonsense is just a variation on the theme.
It’s going to get much nastier. His family will be targeted. Outright lies and smears are in the works. He’ll be falsely tagged as not being able to win against Hillary when he is ahead in every poll matching Trump up with that old grifter.
Oh, and the Dems won’t be launching these attacks. This is coming from the GOP establishment, those same folks who suckered us with Boehner, McConnell and now Ryan. The same bunch who won’t put up anything other than a show fight on Obamacare, amnesty and TPP, and who surrendered on homosexual marriage.
Frankly, I’m sick of polished, glib “conservative” politicians who know all the right things to say on the campaign trail and then go all Benedict Arnold once they get elected. The GOPe is going Kamikaze on Trump because if nominated by popular demand he will beat Hillary and that’s a GOPe disaster. Hillary speaks their language, they can deal with her. Trump, not so much.
We should be careful. Trump says he’ll bomb the s**t out of ISIS, and the next day Paris gets the ISIS treatment. If the GOPe and Libs make too much hay out of the manufactured tracking muslims kerfuffle, we are liable to see one of our cities get hit with a dirty bomb, or a chem or bio attack that has everyone screaming that we should have been tracking all the muslims in the country.
This was a hit from that “Journalist “.
And that rat ka sic is on the hunt for trump with a big handout from the gop.
So this goes...I love trump and media is out to get him.
You are so misinformed. How about you go your misguided path?
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