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Grow Up!
Townhall.com ^ | January 30, 2016 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 01/30/2016 5:29:18 AM PST by Kaslin

Of all the many things said about Donald Trump, what was said by Roger Ailes, head of the Fox News Channel, said it all in just two words: "Grow up!"

It is amazing how many people have been oblivious to this middle-aged man's spoiled brat behavior, his childish boastfulness about things he says he is going to do, and his petulant response to every criticism with ad hominem replies.

He has boasted that his followers would stick by him even if he committed murder. But is that something to boast about? Is it not an insult to his followers, if it is true? Moreover, his cockiness is misplaced, because he still does not have a majority among Republican voters, while you need a majority of all the voters to win any state in the general election.

Trump has a showman's talent for telling people what they want to hear. But you can listen in vain for a coherent argument from him, based on facts and logic, much less an understanding of the inherent limitations of the office of president.

More than two centuries ago, Edmund Burke said: "Constitute government how you please, infinitely the greater part of it must depend upon the exercise of the powers which are left at large to the prudence and uprightness of ministers of state."

In other words, the personal character of the people to whom you entrust the powers of government matters even more than what kinds of government institutions there are. There have been some good kings and some bad presidents, as well as vice versa.

In a world where the future of this country is threatened from within by increasingly angry polarization, and where external threats can become nuclear, are we really going to entrust the safety or this country to a man who still needs to grow up?

Is the fact that he loudly expressed our own disgust with the political establishment a sufficient reason to gamble the whole future of the country by putting him in the White House?

The White House is not a place for on-the-job training. You are supposed to be ready, or at the very least grown up, before you walk in the door. Aging happens automatically, but maturity is optional -- and it is an option that Donald Trump has not yet chosen to exercise.

The issue that Trump raised about Ted Cruz's having been born in Canada is not the first time he has tried to challenge where someone was born. "The Donald" was among those who tried to say that Barack Obama was not born an American citizen, and who disgraced themselves, while undermining other critics of Obama who had serious objections to his policies.

On the other hand, messianic demagogues have often spoken at least part of the truth. But they have also often led their followers to their doom, whether at Jonestown, Stalingrad or innumerable other places. That is a very high price to pay for an exhilaration of the moment.

Donald Trump is not the only one who needs to act like an adult. With this country starting to unravel from within, while ruthless enemies overseas are developing both nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles to deliver them, we face problems that cannot be solved by candidates with glib words or by voters who vote for whoever meets their emotional needs.

If you don't understand the issues, but want to do your patriotic duty, then stay home on election night, whether in the primaries or in the national election in November. Uninformed voters turn elections into a game of playing Russian roulette with the future of America.

Conservative candidates will also have an opportunity to show their maturity and their patriotism. This is not the first primary season in which the conservative vote has been split among so many Republican candidates that it virtually guarantees that someone who is not a conservative will win the Republican nomination.

At some point during the primary season, it becomes clear that some candidates have no real chance of winning the nomination, much less the general election. At that point they can either continue hanging on, keeping the conservative vote split, or they can withdraw and throw their support to some other conservative candidate who has a chance.

A lot of people need to grow up, and to do something for this country that has done so much for them.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cluelessrant; growup; lilliputian; thomassowell
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To: Kaslin

Almost every President this country has ever had had on the job training when entering the White House.

I will agree that Trump has broken every rule in this campaign and I say fine. He’s been like a Guerrilla Leader leading an insurgency that needed to be lead.

Our country’s political parties have become so corrupt and our nation has veered in a direction that ultimately it may face a default and/or collapse if we do nothing. In addition we have allowed these so called “Elite’s” that have sway over is to move our country to a Semi Fascist Police State.

Do I think Trump can single handily change all of this, no I don’t, but he is a start. If he can act as the wrecking ball to tear down the cozy corrupt atmosphere of the Inside the Beltway Crime Organization that so be it.

At this point I will take my chances with Trump, I just don’t think he can any worse than anything we have had before.


201 posted on 01/30/2016 8:39:04 AM PST by Captain Peter Blood
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To: nathanbedford

Spare us the sanctimony...Trump does quite well with all voter demographics, including older voters.


202 posted on 01/30/2016 8:40:01 AM PST by mac_truck (aide toi et dieu t'aidera)
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To: Resettozero

You know there was a story that JFK was with some woman during the crisis and smoking pot or something and told her they needed to quit as he might have to blow up someone.


203 posted on 01/30/2016 8:41:09 AM PST by Captain Peter Blood
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To: detective
Trump would be a great Commander in Chief.

I have to respectfully disagree with you. Maybe he would be, but I have seen nothing in his track record to support this statement.

I've been around NYC and seen enough of Trump to understand what this country would be getting into if he gets elected. It's not going to be the end of the world, but after his first six months in office I can easily see 90% of the Freepers who are supporting him now either disappearing from this site or changing their screen names out of embarrassment.

My biggest concern with him is that he has never struck me as a serious man. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think it's very telling that he's so arrogant, pompous, and self-aggrandizing for a man who has no notable accomplishments to his name in any matter involving something other than money. I wonder if the guy has ever even been involved in a fist-fight ... let alone won one.

204 posted on 01/30/2016 8:42:29 AM PST by Alberta's Child (My mama said: "To get things done, you'd better not mess with Major Tom.")
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To: Kaslin
The Trump followers are following him blindly like the children did when he led them to their death out of revenge against the mayor of Hamelin

OK. Instead of keeping this between Cruz and Trump you have now made this personal. This is no longer an argument about your boy.

We are calling you out personally, You are a little punk trying to use Town Hall as your bully to beat up on those with different views.

Give it up. You can't tell us why you support Cruz, what he stands for what he will deliver. All you can do is call him a "true conservative." Well you are a little whiney whimp.

GROW UP. Stand up for yourself and argue like a man.

205 posted on 01/30/2016 8:42:52 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: House Atreides

Good one!! :)


206 posted on 01/30/2016 8:49:08 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (Proud bitter clinger)
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To: MayflowerMadam

Well, since you broached the subject of “man hands”, his hands look exactly like a guitar player boyfriend I had in the early 80s.

“Like a fire hydrant”, I believe were his words.

I had absolutely *no* complaints, *whatsoever*.

Hubby has relatively short, thick fingers.

Size 13 1/2 ring.

I married him, didn’t I?

;D


207 posted on 01/30/2016 8:52:06 AM PST by Salamander (I made friends with a lot of people in the danger zone...)
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To: kanawa
Your "what ifs", while interesting fantasies, are only that.

I have hardly indulged in "interesting fantasies", these are not my "what if's" because, after all, you are the one who wants to put Donald Trump in a place where his finger is figuratively only inches away from the nuclear button.

You are the one who wants to impose on us and our children this risk of a man of such dubious moral character who can get us all killed.


208 posted on 01/30/2016 8:53:23 AM PST by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
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To: nathanbedford

well, perhaps not fantasies, but certainly unwarranted speculation


209 posted on 01/30/2016 8:55:01 AM PST by Thibodeaux (leading from behind is following)
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To: Kaslin

210 posted on 01/30/2016 8:56:38 AM PST by gg188 (Ted Cruz, R - Goldman Sachs)
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To: Thibodeaux
Speculation? Unwarranted?

Did you live through the Cuban missile crisis?

Are you aware of the Baltic confusion which might have put us closer to nuclear war than even the Cuban missile crisis?

Do you want Donald Trump standing between you and death? Because that is what it comes down to and he is not the man for that job.


211 posted on 01/30/2016 8:58:08 AM PST by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
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To: AndyJackson

Cruz has kept every promise even when the work was hard and he was alone


212 posted on 01/30/2016 9:01:05 AM PST by mylife
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To: mkjessup
Bonaparte's Retreat
213 posted on 01/30/2016 9:01:57 AM PST by gg188 (Ted Cruz, R - Goldman Sachs)
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To: nathanbedford
Do you want Donald Trump standing between you and death?

After 8 years of being "protected" by a mole of the Islamic Caliphate, I'm used to it. You have your opinion about Trump. It's not fact based, it's style based.

Beats the thought of being represented by Ted Uriah Heep Cruz. "I'm so umble Mr Putin."

214 posted on 01/30/2016 9:05:28 AM PST by Stentor ("Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." Robert Goodloe Harper)
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To: Leto

So which candidates aren’t narcissists in you opinion?


215 posted on 01/30/2016 9:20:09 AM PST by SubMareener (Save us from Quarterly Freepathons! Become a MONTHLY DONOR!)
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To: Stentor
It's not fact based, it's style based.

You could not be more wrong, is based entirely on the factual biography of Donald Trump which reveals him to be a scurrilous human being-who not surprisingly also has a disreputable "style".

I do not understand the resort to relativism made so often by Trump supporters. If we had the country at risk for eight years under Barack Obama that is hardly a reason to extend that risk by another four years with some other unqualified man.


216 posted on 01/30/2016 9:20:25 AM PST by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
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To: nathanbedford
If we had the country at risk for eight years under Barack Obama that is hardly a reason to extend that risk by another four years with some other unqualified man

Cruz supporter here, yet with an eye cast on Trump. Other than your negative personal opinions of DT, in what way is he unqualified to be President? I think he is, if nominated and the people elect him. And yes, I believe Barry was not legally qualified except by virtue of forged papers.
217 posted on 01/30/2016 9:27:15 AM PST by Resettozero
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To: SubMareener

I think anyone who runs for President is a bit of a narcissist. However sometimes they have principles that are important that they have developed through a process of self reflection and thought.


218 posted on 01/30/2016 9:28:07 AM PST by Leto
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To: Popman

My life was talking about Trump, not Sowell.


219 posted on 01/30/2016 9:29:00 AM PST by RedWhiteBlue (Mama tried)
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To: Leto
I think anyone who runs for President is a bit of a narcissist

Yep, it's created a kind of "Catch-22". The fact that a person actually wants the job shows they are too mentally unstable to have the job.

220 posted on 01/30/2016 9:29:36 AM PST by dfwgator
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