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Trump Doesn’t Represent the Conservative Base
National Review ^ | December 11, 2015 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 12/11/2015 10:35:06 AM PST by Steelfish

Trump Doesn’t Represent the Conservative Base Jonah Goldberg. Dec 11

There’s a tendency in politics to mistake personal animosity for ideological animosity. Consider Bill Clinton. His staggering dishonesty, tackiness, and scorn for the rule of law aroused a lot of anger from the Right. But he wasn’t really that left-wing. Oh, he was certainly more liberal in his heart than he let on, but he also worked from the assumption that this was a center-right country, and that limited what he could get away with. Clinton ran for president the first time by “triangulating” against the base of his own party. He took time off from the campaign to oversee the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a man so mentally disabled, when he left for the electric chair, he told the guards that he was saving the pecan pie from his last meal “for later.” Clinton signed welfare reform (reluctantly), the Defense of Marriage Act (less reluctantly), helped to balance the budget, and proclaimed that “the era of big government is over.”

And yet, many conservatives insisted he was a no-good hippy left-winger. George W. Bush ran on a platform of “compassionate conservatism.” Once elected, his first order of business was to work with Ted Kennedy on education. He passed the biggest expansion of entitlements in this country since the Great Society (Medicare Part D), increased the federal workforce, and increased federal spending per household. And yet, during his presidency — even before 9/11 — he was routinely called a heartless right-winger.

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


TOPICS: Politics
KEYWORDS: 2016trump; jonahgoldberg; thinskinned; trumpanzees; trumpettes
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To: greene66

But what if Trumps negatives are so high that Hillary wins and we have a left-wing Supreme Court for life. Shouldn’t this scare us?


41 posted on 12/11/2015 11:08:41 AM PST by Steelfish
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To: elcid1970

I think it’s always vote for the most conservative candidate who’s likely to win


42 posted on 12/11/2015 11:08:50 AM PST by Jeff Vader
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To: Steelfish

The ‘conservatives’ in Congress have become, once elected a J.V. team.

Trump is a rabid American, which means ‘no party’.

The so-called ‘Americans’ in Congress have gone along to get along, schtuping the everyday American, for a long time. Even those who think they are running for, but really losing, President, have spoken things contrary to the Constitution, and now THEY are to be believed to be correct???????


43 posted on 12/11/2015 11:09:55 AM PST by Terry L Smith
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To: Steelfish

Neither does Jonah Goldberg represent conservatives!


44 posted on 12/11/2015 11:11:34 AM PST by zerosix (Native Sunflower)
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To: Steelfish

It doesn’t scare me. I don’t even care anymore. With things like faggot-marriage spread across the land, the survival of this nation is no longer of intrinsic value or importance to me.


45 posted on 12/11/2015 11:18:15 AM PST by greene66
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To: Steelfish
Jonah Goldberg doesnt represent the conservative base.
46 posted on 12/11/2015 11:18:45 AM PST by hotsteppa
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To: TTFlyer

Damn the facts, full speed ahead!


47 posted on 12/11/2015 11:20:50 AM PST by traderrob6
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To: TexasCajun

YUP!

I hope the fool keeps on paying and paying for that.


48 posted on 12/11/2015 11:22:35 AM PST by Aria (Abortion = murder, the taking of a human life.)
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To: Raycpa

you already know the answer, don’t you ?


49 posted on 12/11/2015 11:23:41 AM PST by Patton@Bastogne
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To: Steelfish
Trump Doesn't Represent the Conservative Base

And many of them don't care.

50 posted on 12/11/2015 11:26:06 AM PST by EveningStar
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To: Steelfish

Jonah GOPe Goldberg


51 posted on 12/11/2015 11:28:39 AM PST by stocksthatgoup (Trump and Cruz are not attacking each other. Why don't their follows take note)
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To: woofie
FR has degenerated into a room of 12 year olds throwing spitballs

Very accurate description.

52 posted on 12/11/2015 11:29:08 AM PST by FourPeas (Tone matters.)
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To: Steelfish

He represents what we want much more than any of the establishment candidates do.

Cruz excluded.


53 posted on 12/11/2015 11:31:34 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Islamophobia? It is not irrational to fear evil)
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To: Steelfish

Only you, Tintuna, only you.


54 posted on 12/11/2015 11:31:56 AM PST by RightGuy
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To: Steelfish
Agree that Trump is not a Conservative, or a Constitutionalist. And neither Libertarian or Social Conservative labels would fit. He is a Republican to the same extent that he was once a Democrat and a member of the Reform Party, because he says he is. So at the core how can one define Trump as a political animal?

Certainly he is patriotic and loves this country. That alone places him outside the borders of the modern Democratic Party. Business acumen and personal wealth alone don't do it. The Democrats are now the party of rich white globalist stock market manipulators who want to drive socialism down the throats of everybody else. But except for shameless jingoism (and I mean that in the most positive sense) Trump is hardly representative of main street, Midwest, cloth coat Republicanism either.

So when you add together the brash rhetoric, George M. Cohan Yankeeism, military metaphors, knee jerk viciousness toward anyone even politely questioning his bona fides, and stream of consciousness speaking style the only word I can come up with is demagogue. Like any effective demagogue he presses all the right buttons to evoke a "Hell yeah!" response from his audience. It's just that some of us, even as we're cheering what he says, have this nagging sense that we are being taken for suckers by a third generation descendant of P.T. Barnum.

55 posted on 12/11/2015 11:35:31 AM PST by katana (Just my opinion)
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To: moehoward

Well, when I get his column in my email, I will be sure to respond .. and I’m not sure he’s like it .. but sometimes the truth hurts.


56 posted on 12/11/2015 11:37:08 AM PST by CyberAnt ("The fields are white unto Harvest")
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To: The Final Harvest

Maybe ask Jonah who is buying his pants for him.


57 posted on 12/11/2015 11:42:30 AM PST by moehoward
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To: bigbob

I will not cede more power to the state. I will not willingly cede ore power to anyone, not to the state, not to General Motors, not to the CIO. I will hoard my power like a miser, resisting every effort to drain it away from me. I will then use my power, as I see fit. I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, suservient to the wisdom of my ancestors, NEVER to the authority of politcal truths arrived yesterday at the voting booth. WF Buckley Jr.
Miss him!


58 posted on 12/11/2015 11:43:58 AM PST by Uversabound (Our Military past and present: Our Highest example of Brotherhood of Man & Doing God's Will)
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To: Steelfish

Another Jonah anti-Trump hit piece


59 posted on 12/11/2015 11:45:14 AM PST by MichelleWSC3
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To: Steelfish

As usual Jonah applies his selective filter of Trump. The Trump derangement syndrome is strong in him. Trump is doing yeoman’s work in deconstructing the media and has did more to nuke the media in his short run for the White House than conservative naval gazers like Goldberg who made his name on the back of his Momma and a blue dress scandal.

I really have no idea what in the hell is wrong with these guys. We know who Trump is and for every specific example of him being a “liberal” there are countless counter examples where he is not. If people had no problem with Romney governing from the center left while he was governor then why would they have trouble with a business man like Trump who tried to appease those in government in order to keep them off his back in business? Also if Romney can “evolve” after having attended fundraisers with planned parenthood why can’t Trump change his positions?

That is the real problem I have with the type of attacks from Goldberg and Glenn Beck and others. They have failed us as much as the Washington DC establishment. They have been content to write books and make millions off conservatives while just letting the left win on issues like gay marriage, like immigration, like stupid “religion of peace” bs. I even like a lot of what both of these guys have done for the movement but they seem not the least interested in all out war on the political class.

They instead seem interested in appeasement as if they’d rather lose than vote for a straight talking successful candidate from Queens York who speaks extemporaneously. They act as though being “Presidential” is to be phony and attached to a teleprompter with a legion of speech writers and consultants to tell you what to think. I’m sorry but it is exactly that failed approach that has gotten us so deep into the mire of debt, inaction, and failed social and foreign policy.

The real reason they seem angry is because their game of pretend is being interrupted ironically by a premier showman in Trump who says what he happens to think at a given time. Its like those guys who have their wives so fearful that they might see her as she is that she won’t go to bed without makeup on. These idiots actually think they have the right to presume that “Its not who we are” to secure our borders and keep Islamic radicals out. The reality is we live in an America where no amount of pomp and circumstance and makeup will hide the ugliness and failure of our government and Trump even with his flaws is doing a beautiful job of ripping what’s left of the façade covering that nasty reality to shreds.


60 posted on 12/11/2015 11:45:46 AM PST by Maelstorm (America wasn't founded with the battle cry "Give me Liberty or cut me a government check!".)
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