Replies

Trump’s Virtues - Tom Klingenstein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-GAw1lLWJA&t=2s

652,739 views Jul 6, 2022 Many leading Republicans and conservatives want someone other than Donald Trump to run for President in 2024. But this judgment requires an assessment of Trump’s vices and virtues in the context of our current political and cultural circumstances, as well as an assessment of other prospective Republican presidential candidates. Tom Klingenstein, Chairman of the Claremont Institute, explains Trump’s Virtues.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
We are still in need of the qualities of great leadership.

Many leading Republicans and foreign conservatives want someone other than Donald Trump to run for President in 2024. They say, “We need someone with Trump’s virtue, but without his vices.” Fair enough. But this judgment requires an assessment of Trump’s vices and virtues in the context of our current political and cultural circumstances, as well as an assessment of other prospective Republican presidential candidates. Among the talked-about alternatives to Trump, I have not yet seen anyone who possesses either his virtues or his backbone. I am not suggesting that everyone make way for Trump; rather that it is too early to throw him overboard.

I regularly ask Republican politicians what they think of Donald Trump. The most frequent response is some version of, “I like his policies but don’t like the rest of him.” But this gets it almost backwards. Although Trump advanced many important policies, it is the “rest of him” that contains the virtues that inspired a movement.

Trump was born for the current American crisis: the life and death struggle against the totalitarian enemy I call “woke communism.” The “woke comms” have seized every political, cultural, and economic center of power in the country from where they ruthlessly push their agenda.

The “Woke” clutches the Democratic Party by the scruff of its neck. They tell us lies and they silence those who challenge the lies. Like most totalitarian regimes, they have a scapegoat. The White male. They have a narrative that America is systemically racist, thoroughly bad, and must be destroyed. They push a utopian vision of society where all identity groups are equal in ALL areas of American life.

As Trump once said, “Their goal is not to make America better, their goal is to end America.” Make no mistake, we are in the midst of a cold Civil War. Trump awakened the public to to the dangers of woke communism and, as good leaders do, gave his supporters the breathing room to voice their discontents. This may have been his most important achievement, made possible by qualities independent of policy. You cannot win a war unless you know you are in one. Trump’s critics say he caused or exacerbated The Divide in this country. No. He didn’t. He revealed The Divide [that was already there.]

In war, we must make a stand. For that, we need strong men. Weak men do everything to avoid admitting the hardest truth, because they lack the resolve to do what truth demands of them.

Trump is a manly man. In present times when manhood is being stripped of its masculinity, traditional manhood, even when flawed is absolutely essential.
Trump ripped apart people he thought were weak. Sometimes he went overboard. But his supporters excused his excesses because strength is in such short supply. Trump plays to win. When you’re in the right, you have a moral duty to not just fight, but to win. And sometimes that means doing distasteful things. There are no clean hands in a fist fight.

Trump is also comfortable in his own skin, a prerequisite for independence and courage. And he knows that in war, reaching across the aisle is usually a sucker’s game.

If there is one thing that patriotic Americans know about Trump it is that he, like them, is unreservedly, unquestionably, unequivocally pro-American and willing to fight to defend the American way of life.

He makes no apologies for America’s path. Trump is a refreshing break from the guilt and self-loathing that marks our age. The America Trump wants to recover is the America of his youth. Not out of nostalgia, but because this was an America guided by relentless optimism and supported by grit and determination.

An America that had done great things in the past and was eager to do more. An America that was properly confident. Trump is still confident in America in this time of national doubt. This, too, is just what the doctor ordered. Trump thinks we can vanquish all comers – if we just put our minds to it.

And, he’s right. Trump has the courage to defend his own people, a large and impressive political fact. And, courage never demands perfection.

When Colin Kaepernick and his ilk knelt before the American flag, Trump called them “sons of bitches.” As always, he was being forceful, authentic, and unmistakably clear.

Trump stood up for America every time he violated the strictures of political correctness. Trump has said over and over exactly what political correctness prohibits one from saying: “We have our culture, it’s exceptional, and that’s the way we want to keep it.”

Trump has made it clear that we have no duty to allow anyone to come into this country and no one has a right to come here. This is our country and whenever we do allow foreigners the privilege to come here they must support our values and love our people.

Trump’s contempt for political correctness showed patriotic Americans that its ever-tightening grip could be loosened. As Trump and his supporters know, political correctness cripples our ability to think clearly and act decisively.

Trump said Haiti is a “shithole” and that Representative Maxine Waters has a low IQ. These were not racist lies but uncouth, politically incorrect observations that most people would agree with but not dare say. Most of us, conservatives no less than liberals, are reluctant to criticize black Americans for fear of being called a racist. Trump, on the other hand, is an equal opportunity criticizer. This is what we used to call “colorblindness.”

Trump treated the woke media with the same contempt he treated political correctness, provoking their outrage and revealing their utter corruption.
It seems that only Trump understands that the media can neither be negotiated with nor reformed. It must be defeated.

Unlike most politicians, when Trump sees a problem he goes out and fixes it. He fixed our porous borders, he moved our Israeli Embassy to Jerusalem after decades of inaction, he eliminated the ‘Hate-America’ Critical Race Theory [CRT] in his administrative agency.

He developed a vaccine in record time. He achieved energy independence and much, much more.

Trump is a man of action, guided by facts and common sense. He has no use for theories. He knows that slavish devotion to theory can lead to nonsensical beliefs; for instance, that children should be able to undergo “gender confirmation”; that police forces should be defunded; or that biological boys should be able to compete against girls in athletics.

In politics, most find it almost impossible not to be a phony. Not Trump. He taught a crucial thing in that China is a mortal enemy.

Before Trump, the public did not realize that. Likewise, free trade is now highly contested when previously it was accepted as dogma.

Trump smoked the rats out of their hiding places! Because of him, we know our intelligence agencies are corrupt. We know also that the mainstream media is not just biased, but is the propaganda arm of the Democratic party.

A large part of Trump’s appeal was that he is a bona fide outsider who distrusted the expert class, who believed they ‘know better’ than the average American how to run the country. This ‘expert class’ comprises much of “the swamp.”

Trump’s distrust was appealing to his base, who believe and with good reason that it is the ‘experts’ who have created this despotic mess in which we find ourselves.

Although his own administration sometimes made it difficult for him to get done everything he promised, his supporters knew he was on their side and was trying his damnedest not to let them down. Against the advice of some in his party, Trump has not let go f the claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. His base backs him and well they should. They know the Republicans will lose all future elections unless they get to the bottom of the last one.

Trump connected to his audience as Reagan did because each spoke as a citizen to fellow citizens without a trace of condescension. It wasn’t an act and Americans knew it. Trump may not have worked on a construction site, but he knew his way around one. One can imagine him trading bawdy jokes with a construction worker. Other presidents have represented the middle class, but none with Trump’s common touch.

Culturally, Trump, fueled by Big Macs, understands, as does the outsourced American worker, that a cheap smartphone is not a replacement for a meaningful job and a life that it supports. Trump also understands that what Americans of all races and creeds desire are stable communities, and the opportunity to raise their families in a culture that values industriousness, self-reliance, patriotism, and freedom.

Some people say that Trump is a bad man, and this disqualifies him. I do not think that Trump is a bad man. But for those who do, I remind them that a bad man is some circumstances can be a good president.

If you are dying of thirst and there is only one person offering you water, you accept the water gratefully without much concern for the character of your rescuer.

This enumeration of Trump’s virtues does not fully capture his uncommon courage and firmness of purpose. Trump is the most towering political figure in living memory. He has, like it or not, defined the politics of our age. In 2016 and 2020 he was the political leader most fit to lead in our war-like circumstances. Yes, he has vices; even so, we should pause before we move on to someone else.

Trump inspired a movement. If properly deployed, this movement might challenge the woke ‘comms’ [communists] and God willing, save the country. Republicans however should not forget that it is his support and the spirit they embrace that has become the life force of the Republican party.

If Republicans do choose another candidate, they must do so in full confidence that he will embody Trump’s virtues. If not Trump himself, his positive qualities must be the standard by which we judge other candidates.

Thank you.