I think I finally pinpointed the bulk of Trump’s support.
From what Goldberg mentioned, I’d say there’s about 10-15% of real conservatives that support Trump under the guise of “giving him the benefit of the doubt” even against their better judgement, but are upfront and honest about it.
The vast (and I mean VAST) majority of Trump supporters as evidenced in this thread and elsewhere appear to be Ron Paultard retreads. They act like a-holes, are anti-free trade, usually anti-Israel and pro-isolationist, and behave in a totally unacceptable manner, very similar to Paul’s minions that scoured the internet trying to rig every online poll. Trump’s emotional maturity level matches their own, they can dish it out, but they can’t take it.
These people have lost all sense of reality and couldn’t win a debate on the issues if they tried. I read what both Bobby Jindal and Jonah Goldberg stated. What they said about Trump can be backed up by facts. The Trumpsters are totally clueless in their idol worship. They resort to attacks and pointing to polls, all Paultard tactics from the previous elections. Only this time, they’ve managed to manipulate a small segment of actual conservatives in. My argument has been, like Jindal and Goldberg and others have said: If we’re going to take the GOPe down, can we at least get solid conservative leadership to replace them? Otherwise, what is the point? Trump fails on all aspects of the issues that matter and Goldberg is right that Trump would cave on immigration once the illegals lawyer-up and get the SCOTUS the stop potential deportations, after which Trump would call it “The law of the land”.
But these days, if someone points out the obvious (Trump’s not a conservative) they get labeled as a GOPe/RINO hack. It’s the same faulty reasoning used on other issues such as climate change where if one doesn’t believe the lies,er,science, then that means one wants the planet to be engulfed in a solar apocalypse brought on by global warming. Or if one doesn’t believe in Universal Health Care, it means one must want grandma to get pushed over the cliff.
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You could not have said it better. Reason appears to have flown out of the window.
These are not the positions of a liberal
There are two types of people on the right, one group thinks that the USA is being invaded by foreigners both legally and illegally and it needs to stop now or the USA is doomed. They "get" Trump and he is a God send, warts and all. And there are a lot of warts for sure.
The other group doesn't not see the existential threat(stupidly so) and so does not "get" Trump.
Conservatism is, and has always been, about preserving heritage; about preserving the historic verities of your people. But the priorities that one Conservative may have, may differ from those of another. A clear example would be some of your comments--your insulting comments--directed at people whose Conservatism is directed more at preserving the value system of the Founding Fathers, as opposed to an over emphasis on aspects of personal safety, etc.. What you ridicule, is more truly Conservative than some of the things that your ridicule implies that you take for granted.
Your own arrogance reminds one a bit of Trump's; but his arrogance is tempered by being better keyed to an understanding of the actual dynamics of the current American debate.
Goldberg's piece, like much that is written on the subject, today, appears more calculated to look intellectual, rather than actually achieve any appreciable level of true analysis. It was not, in my opinion, something that really requires counter-analysis, as I can not see it changing anyone's opinion.
Trump & Cruz are the best shots we have at present to save the heritage that has been so severely eroded during the Clinton/Bush/Obama era. That is not an easy task; but it will not ever be achieved by endless fluff pieces, like that at the head of this thread.