Posted on 03/09/2016 11:53:07 AM PST by Kaslin
Donald Trump's candidacy is scary.
Trump isn't frightening because he's anything special personally. He's just a warmed-over mash-up of Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot, a spoiled brat billionaire eccentric with a history of position flipping and bullying foolishness. He has authoritarian tendencies on a personal level, and no awareness of the Constitution or its importance. In other words, he's Barack Obama if Obama weren't ideologically driven and suddenly experienced a precipitous drop in IQ.
So what's so scary about Trump?
First, the idolatry of a certain segment of his following. Trump has drawn some of the worst elements of American life to his campaign. To be sure, most of his supporters are decent Americans who find his approach to politics a revelation: He's an outsider, someone who will "get things done." Some of his followers identify with his hard-line position on illegal immigration and his dislike of free trade, even though Trump could flip those positions in a heartbeat if he felt the political necessity to do so.
But some of Trump's supporters go beyond that. Some are driven by the pure worship of the strong man. Like Obama's cultish support base, some Trump supporters are willing to follow him anywhere, to justify any misbehavior, to view any opposition to Trump as a sort of irreligious disloyalty. When Trump asked voters to hold up their right arms and pledge their allegiance to him, media mocked him as a Hitlerian figure. He's no Hitler -- he's not nearly as smart, as ideologically consistent, or as dangerous. He's a barroom prince. Instead, we should be concerned with the increasing tendency of Americans, both left and right, to hero-worship politicians to the point of blindness.
Which leads to the second reason Trump should concern conservatives: his appeal to nasty causes. Trump desperately wants popularity. He gauges his success by the size of his crowds, his success in the polls, and the compliments he receives in the press. He'll talk up Russian dictator thug Vladimir Putin so long as Putin calls him "brilliant." And he'll go easy on former KKK leader David Duke if Duke endorses him. Trump's lack of moral principle makes him an easy mark for some of the worst people on the planet. Combine the fact that he is drawn to those who would manipulate him with the fact that he has a worshipful crowd following him, and it's not difficult to see how the Trump movement ends in tragedy.
Finally, conservatives should oppose Trump full-throatedly because he's perverting conservatism. Even as he cultivates idolatry and massages white supremacists and global tyrants, Trump proclaims that he's a conservative. Many of us who have spent a lifetime fighting against the false notion that conservatism is a toxic brew of secret racism and fascism; Trump's rise provides easy fodder for the opposition. And his followers refuse to acknowledge that Trump has little to do with conservatism. Instead, they allow him to use the mantle of Lincoln and Reagan and the founders to shield his own egocentric rise from criticism.
Trump's no conservative -- he's a leftist at heart, a man convinced of his own power, a man willing to abandon all principle to serve himself and his allies. His followers think they're his allies, but that only lasts so long as they follow him. Yes, conservatives should fear Trump's rise. And they should resist it however and wherever possible.
Shapiro dweeb
So Fordham and Wharton indicates a real dumbass compared to wonk Shapiro?
You guys play the same play book over and over
I wonder what he thinks of amnesty and the wall?
Thanks.
I would measure success by accomplishment more than by IQ
IQ is not attained
It’s final the last gasp of desperation left leaning rightly neocons like Shapiro claim Obama is brilliant and Trump is mentally retarded
You just can’t make this kind of crap up
This is our establishment saying this shite
Steve Bannon pick up your phone
More applicants is a particular kind of competitiveness, but it doesn't mean that being admitted in the 60s was easier. Today, law schools tend to graduate everyone too. Back in the early 60s, a surprisingly small percentage of us actually finished. Most washed out after first year.
Every word of this article is true, including the ‘ands’
The Donald doesn’t scare me, he creeps me out and disgusts me.
I’ve never seen any documentation. Just guesses.
I think Trump is at least as smart as Obama.
The big reason is, if the whiny little anti-Trump nutjobs are conservatives, we'll need a new name for actual conservativism.
Many, many fallacies:
How does Shapiro know that Trump has no regard for the Constitution? Talk about not giving specifics!
Of what utility is being a pure “conservative” when THERE IS NO CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT? I.e., every previous candidate who has run as a “conservative” has been a traitor.
As if Ben Shapiro knows anything about conservatism.
He is making fools of not only his competition, but also the Ben Shapiros of this world. That is why the overly educated dullards are so riled. They can't wrap their minds around it. They are frustrated and angry that this boisterous idiot is playing them like a harp from hell.
Their over inflated sense of self superiority blinds them to a very simple fact... Trump's Campaign is pure genius. He purposely speaks in a sixth grade vernacular calling from an eighth grade lexicon so as to be able to communicate effectively with nearly 100% of the population.
It may not sound eloquent, but everyone understands him. He is so successful, he does not have to inflate his ego with the fine nuances of proper articulation.
There will books about his campaign, and it will serve as a case study in modern political dynamics.
We are witnessing the work of a Michelangelo,a Mozart, or a Leonardo.
Cheney was dangerous around an open mike.
While I liked the guy a whole lot back then I said he needed to be a little more careful.
Question for you: Is he the type of person you’d vote for now?
“I think Trump is at least as smart as Obama.”
I can’t tell weather that’s praise or an insult...
NO because now I can see he is for ‘New World Order’; globalists; CFR; TTP; TPA; and things I don’t like...and if I knew then what I know about the Bush Crime Family and being linked to the Clinton Crime Family with drug cartels and money laundering, I wouldn’t have voted for Bush either...
There is ONLY one vote left for me, and that is Trump, if he doesn’t make it, I’ll never vote again...
Trump says he has a werry, werry high I.Q. but how can we know?
He has a limited vocabulary and very simplistic ideas.
Does anyone know how to find out?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.