Have Republicans Grown Tired of Supporting the Rule of Law?

National Review ^ | August 28, 2015 | MONA CHAREN

[Steelfish]

Have Republicans Grown Tired of Supporting the Rule of Law?

by MONA CHAREN August 28, 2015

Among a very long list of harms inflicted upon the United States by Barack Obama and his party, perhaps the worst was Caesarism. Obama relished the worship of millions in 2008. From his star turn at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he was treated not as a political candidate but as a savior. Progressives fell into a swoon, typified by Newsweek editor Evan Thomas’s 2008 comment that “I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above — above the world, he’s sort of God.”

Now, a similar kind of unreasoning adulation is greeting (improbably enough) Donald Trump. Fred Barnes reports that a focus group of Trump supporters is swept up in a kind of worship, too: “He’s not just their favorite candidate. Their tie to him is almost mystical. He’s a kind of political savior, someone who says what they think.” If Obama had accepted the reverence of the crowd but governed as a normal president, his sin would have been merely aesthetic. But he did not.

Contempt for law and tradition has been the hallmark of his presidency. His lawlessness makes Richard Nixon’s look penny ante. In addition to his blatantly illegal grant of legal status to 4 million illegal immigrants — a move Obama himself declared he lacked the authority to make — Obama has acted as an autocrat in dozens of other instances. Without any legal basis, he imposed a fine on BP after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and unilaterally suspended offshore drilling. He bypassed the plain language of Obamacare multiple times, whenever enforcing the unpopular or unworkable aspects of the law would be politically inconvenient.

[nathanbedford]

his borderline pathological narcissism, his arrested emotional development, and his nearly incoherent ramblings

The hard but inescapable truth is that Trump has demonstrated these elements of character, narcissism, arrested emotional development and his ramblings have been indisputably incoherent. Trump supporters do not deny these truths they attack the messenger or they say that Trump's victims deserve it or they say the people don't care.

But Charon jumps to another conclusion which is not warranted:

The message from a segment of the Republican party is: “Okay, we’re an autocracy now. So let’s have this guy govern by fiat.”

There is no evidence that Trump would govern as an autocrat. Actually, Mona Charon's criticism is not directed precisely at Trump but at his supporters and not without some justice because they have demonstrated an imperviousness to the obvious when it comes to Donald Trump's character failings but there is nothing to suggest they are calling for autocracy. That is unfair.

Nor has Trump given us any warrant to believe that he is not a patriot. I think he has a very shallow understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law which ensues from it, I think he would govern ad hoc untethered from a conservative philosophy that I at least would approve of, but I have no warrant to believe that he is not a patriot.

Mona Charon documents the case of tyranny laid against Barack Obama. Barack Obama and his acolytes in the Democratic Party who have elevated him beyond impeachment and nearly beyond criticism do not share Donald Trump's patriotism. Obama in particular is a Marxist, actually a real communist, who despises America and certainly despises a Constitution which inhibits them transforming the system into socialism or something more extreme and even worse. I use the word "despise" in all its senses: He both hates America and its Constitution and he has no regard for America or its Constitution. He does not respect them.

Trump may have a host of misconceptions swirling around in his head but he loves his country and would do his incoherent, rambling patriotic best-whatever that might prove to be.

[zerosix]

Yawn!

Another "useful idiot" speaks and quotes another from the DC cesspool for the once late, great conservative NR.

Their writers need to get out more. Maybe they can apply for Visas to travel to Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, we'll let them cross the borders without going through metal detectors, etc. They can stop at a local gas station, Walmart, grocery store, or even a Bob Evans and chat up regular folks going about their business, ask what they think about the upcoming election. Don't ask whom they're for, they'll tell them quick enough.

They can arrange for tickets to attend a KC Royals game, KC Chief's game, or high school football game on Friday night. Watch opening ceremonies, though they might find them awfully patriotic for their tastes. Catch up with someone buying a hot dog or beer and ask if that person has heard of Trump or what they think of say "Anchor Babies," this if they value holding on to their establishment views, they might find no one agrees with them, maybe not.

Then they can apply to reenter the DC area and get back to their real lives - thankfully.

Glad I put that membership money to good use, I now purchase yard waste bags with it.

[EternalVigilance]

What you describe is lawlessness, not the rule of law.

[TexasFreeper2009]

The left started the lawlessness, and the right cant fight with both hands tied behind our back anymore or we will lose and if we lose the whole world goes down with us.

Sorry, but drastic times call for drastic actions.

It’s past time for a strong leader on the right to do whatever is necessary to fix all the damage the left has done. Heck stack the courts if we have to, I dont care but fix this before it’s too late.

[rellimpank]

—and any Constitutional transgressions during a Trump presidency would have immediate repercussion by the
watchdogs of the press and from the opposotion party, unlike the present syncophantic press and the spineless present Republidum “opposition”—

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

A ridiculous argument is no argument at all. It is just irritating.

[Little Ray]

Don’t often agree with Mona Charen. She’s one of those lukewarm “conservatives” that give the GOP-E a bad name.

But the Trump cult of personality is getting downright scary. Everybody seems to think he’s some sort of super-conservative, when, in fact, he was a Democrat until 2008, supported gun control, and has generally flip-flopped in a way that we’d forgive a normal ‘Pubbie politician.

It isn’t that I don’t like what I’ve heard him say against illegal immigration (barbarian invasion, actually), it is just that I don’t really trust him on that (as somebody pointed out “It is a negotiating stance”) or any other issue.

[sportutegrl]

What a misleading headline. Obama was popular, then he ruled like a dictator. Trump is popular, therefore: Republicans don’t support the rule of law?

[kidd]

I couldn’t have said it better.

Good reply.

[Pollster1]

I am a strong believer in the rule of law, however . . . and that’s a phrase I never expected to follow with any “however” . . . I can see a need for drastic steps to restore freedom.

I would be okay with a real president taking drastic steps to dismantle Obama’s legacy. That includes refusing to spend money appropriated by Congress in the course of transitioning to a post-Obamacare world.

I would be okay with a real president enforcing immigration law through executive order if the courts were too slow, including using the military or national guard to patrol the border and to control camps for illegals awaiting a fair hearing before being sent home.

I would be okay with a real president granting a blanket pardon to all Americans for any past, present, or future violations of the National Firearms Act or of other unconstitutional restrictions on the God-given individual right of the people to keep and bear arms.

It’s time to restore freedom, and minor irregularities in the transition are just fine with me.

[Note: I am not going to elaborate on how large an irregularity I would consider reasonable. I would just note that all men are . . . endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights . . . that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.]

[jaydee770]

“...The message from a segment of the Republican party is: “Okay, we’re an autocracy now. So let’s have this guy govern by fiat...”

Not even Evel Knievel made a leap so gigantic. And just out of the blue with no supporting statements.

It’s so... so... Liberalish

[5th MEB]

Hail Caesar, those who are about to die salute you.
Now come on down here into the arena and we’ll see who dies first.

[notdownwidems]

Not sure the GOPe was ever, at least in recent decades, enamored of supporting the rule of law!

[5th MEB]

Any job CAN BE DONE; you do it one nail (illegal alien) at a time, one brick (psychopathic murders at PP) at a time,
one yard of poured concrete (the wall) at a time.
Kind of makes me wonder what happened to the balls and ovaries of Americans; the American Rosie the Riveter BUILT the ships and planes which were manned by American men that defeated the Third Reich and Imperial Japan, “couldn’t be done”.
Americans took over a failed project that the French said “couldn’t be done”, because of the remoteness of the area, the terrible terrain, and the diseases; The Panama Canal.
“Put a man on the moon and bring him back safe, can’t be done”; hello Trinity Base and Apollo.
“Defeat a political/military monolith like the Soviet Union, can’t be done”.
Once again my thanks for the victory Mr. President Ronald Reagan.
All of these “IMPOSSIBLE THINGS” were done with 19th and 20th century technology, just think about what we could do today.
Getting things done just requires leadership and the DRIVE TO DO IT.
MAN and WOMAN up America, We can DO ANY THING WE PUT OUR MINDS AND HANDS TO.

[Steelfish]

Trumpoonery appears to be a virus affecting many of us who are disaffected. But this guy is a carnival barker who will never be able to capture the nomination and then we’ll have Hillary. Time to say enough and work hard to put our bets on Ted Cruz.