Posted on 09/01/2015 5:06:30 PM PDT by Steelfish
Trump Has Succeeded in Convincing Conservatives to Discard their Principles Overnight by CHARLES C. W. COOKE. September 1, 2015.
Since he jumped self-confidently into the political limelight, Donald Trump has been quite the upside-down man. Customarily, primary seasons permit each party’s voters to indulge in a rational process of elimination: First, they discover which candidate most closely agrees with them on policy, and then they ask themselves whether that person is capable of representing their ideas in public. This time around, however, this process has been disastrously inverted, a solid portion of the Republican party’s balloters having decided first who they want to speak on their behalf, and then, as if t’were a mere afterthought, wondered what he might end up saying.
That their pick lacks any sort of conservative message at all does not seem to have mattered in the slightest. “We want that guy,” a host of voters have determined. “Whatever he believes, he says it so well.” If you have in the last few years become vexed and frustrated by the Republican base’s penchant for political purity, you should perhaps be breathing a little easier. A handful of months ago many of those who now make up Trump’s rank-and-file were ideological perfectionists who hated the GOP’s leadership, believed to their souls that the country was becoming a socialist hell-hole, and insisted vehemently that they had sat out the 2012 election because Mitt Romney was such a terrible squish. Today, by dint of some dark and unholy magic, these wannabe purists have hitched their wagons to Donald Trump, the greatest shape-shifter of them all. ......................... .......................................
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
I think most of them are Rubio guys, but really, deep down, they are losers. They want to lose gracefully so no one will say bad things about them.
Unless we stop illegal immigration, anchor babies and (most importantly) amnesty, we will be guaranteed a permanent Democratic majority...FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES.
Please tell me how well we will do on the following issues with a permanent Democrat majority: abortion, gun control, lowering taxes, reducing regulations, cutting back the EPA, national defense, defending religious liberties, reducing the growth of the nanny state, etc., etc.
Nick, when you figure out that answer (hint: the answer rhymes with “we will be totally hosed and come to not be able to recognize our own nation”), please remember the words of General George S. Patton, Jr.: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
OK, at least we agree that Trump is no “phony conservative”. The trouble is that he has no conservative credentials to begin with, and his past liberal positions are forgotten or forgiven. At least he will not turn into a RINO, as he already is one.
You can only hope he rules as a conservative once in office. That exceeds my definition of faith. I want to know beforehand.
Conservatives have grown sick of being led on by the GOPe and then stabbed in the back. The current crop of candidates are deliberately constructed to give Yeb the nomination with maybe 20% of the vote. Trump doesn’t fit into their scheme.
Trump is showing he can fight and beat the GOPe. He speaks some conservative principles. But, because he is choking the GOPe with their own hands, he enjoys conservative support.
The enemy of one’s oppressors can sometimes be one’s friend.
I am not a Trump supporter, BTW.
Trump is our only hope of taking control of the GOP
“Trump Has Succeeded in Convincing Conservatives to Discard their Principles Overnight”
STE=Q
So you should just support Hillary if your true intention is to destroy the republican party.
Trump is a winner.
You are wasting your time. Trumpeters are impossible to talk to. Either you agree that Trump is the best guy since Washington or you are a ‘Yeb’, a GOPe or as I was told when I said I wouldn’t support a person that was a true follower of Christ a Jimmy Carter supporter.
None.
Cause and Effect. The GOPe is the Cause, Trump is the Effect. Republican Politicians, and yes that includes Cruz, have burned a lot of Bridges with their Conservative Base.
That being said, nobody is abandoning Cruz. Not one person has Voted for any of the 17 Candidates yet, but Cruz is not gaining much traction with Republicans outside of places like FR.
We have a long Row to Hoe, so I wouldn’t make such blanket accusations quite yet. It appears a lot of Trump’s support is coming not only from Conservatives, but Moderates and Independents, people that Cruz isn’t currently attracting.
A Year is a Lifetime in Politics.
He may also be the only way to beat The Cheap Labor Express
They control the GOP currently
Ha! How would Hillary being elected “destroy” the Republican Party? The GOP-E leadership would be just as happy and contented under Hillary as they are under Obama, with Boehner and McConnell continuing to fund the Dem agenda and backstabbing conservatives.
As long as the GOP keeps funding big-government, supporting amnesty, and quietly embracing the sick depravity of homo-marriage, I want nothing less than the steps of every DC office running red with their blood.
Yes, if only I would vote for Yeb. Then my conservative principals would be in tact.
The problem is Congress has to send him the legislation that does what he wants. Otherwise there's very limited stuff he can do by EO.
As much as we complain Obama's executive amnesty is still being blocked by the courts. Trump won't fare any better.
Obama had the entire Democratic party fully behind him. Don't forget, whatever happens with Trump the congressional situation won't be radically different after the election and he's going out of his way to alienate the establishment types that will still control the Republican caucus. Again, I'm not sure he's cut out for this whole co-equal thing.
National Review is whining about principles? What principles?
As a winning president who ran on a ‘signature’ issue he- like anyone else who did that- would have the needed support.
That’s just politics.
Most of his immigration reform is what is already law. The congress hasn’t funded it!
That is the legal rationale Obama used for his amnesty: he hasn’t the money to enforce the laws hence he’s justified in using prosecutorial discretion.
Of course every issue can’t be a signature issue. On immigration, though, he can deliver.
I can spend an hour (or more) parsing just about every line in this piece, but I won’t give that clown the honor of wasting my time. But I will say a couple of things:
1) I, like I suspect most of you people out there, really didn’t give a crap about Trump. We looked at him as a rich person that got off entertaining people on the lower rungs of the economic ladder. When he did get into the race, most of us yawned. THIS IS NOT IDOL WORSHIP.
2) But I, like virtually every person out here (i.e., the ENTIRE Republican base, including people that are still against Trump) did care about Immigration, especially ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. But (other than Cruz) NONE of our candidates seemed to care AT ALL about the issue, and NONE of our candidates (Cruz included) made it the centerpiece of their campaigns. Instead about all we heard were things like “my economic policy will only grow food stamps at 5% per year, not 10% like the president has been doing - therefore I’m a hard-right conservative - vote for me”. But Trump DID ADDRESS IMMIGRATION and that’s when our ears went up...and the other candidates (most of them) still cannot even figure out where they’re permitted to stand on the issue, and yet still get the big checks from Rove’s money-men.
That’s about all I’m going to say - we moved to Trump because Trump, AND TRUMP ONLY, was willing to take on Illegal Immigration HEAD ON, and if Illegal (and to some extent, legal) Immigration is not STOPPED, then our party, and our country is FINISHED. Bottom line, we don’t really care where he stands on food stamps, taxes, funding erotic ‘art’, education, or anything else, because IT WON’T MATTER if the Democrats are allowed to get this country flooded with Illegals that will then vote Democrat. It won’t matter at all.
So I hope YOU IDIOTS at National Review read this, because this is how 80% of the Republican base feels (or at least 80% of this site feels). So tell your Big Money friends that they can spend their money any way they wish, but THEY WILL NOT STOP US from choosing the only candidate who really seems concerned about the long-term survival of this country.
You can make your last stand fighting for the perfect conservative who, if he even exists, won’t get the support of the establishment types in the GOP, and won’t win the election. Alternatively you can try to understand that Trump is 100% correct on the single most important issue of this or any other election: immigration. I do not understand how it is somehow I liberal or moderate thing to stand opposed to a set of policies that will ensure a permanent Democrat majority. Understand that a permanent Democrat majority means that we conservatives will always and forever lose on every other single issue that we care about.
It is your choice, but I choose to abide by General Patton’s dictum that the perfect is the enemy of the good.
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