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.
That article does not mention curse words.
Curse words ... we might not like but we could forgive if that’s all there was.
Everybody, please.
Please stop using Ronald Reagan to support Trump.
The two people are not in the same league or the same galaxy.
He laughed at his son when the boy wanted to go to Hawaii.
Why go there when we’ve got this swanky thing down in Florida.
No, Trump will not go far from New York. He has to sleep in his own bed every night.
Yeah, simplistic ideas. Enforce immigration law. Curb abused legal immigration programs that harm American workers. Simple stuff that the GOPe always avoided because they were part of the cheap labor express.
Trump doesn't have to be a dictator or fascist to carry those out. All he has to do is enforce the laws as they are currently written.
He was a white guy that got into Wharton (albeit after two years at Fordham) and then graduated, so he’s probably reasonably smart.
Beyond that point, IQ isn’t that important, it’s savvy and motivation and chutzpah and hubris that gets you to the top.
That’s a nice list.
But he’s only been pro-life since 2011 when he decided to run for president.
And all the other stuff is just things he throws out in his speeches.
We have no solid reason beyond blind faith that he will actually do any of those things.
He’s not strongly pro-life for example, because he knew nothing about Planned Parenthood. Most of us who are pro-life are very familiar with the horror of Planned Parenthood.
Take your list to the store in Trumpville and see what it will buy.
Conservatism is a word that’s kinda been corrupted by trumpers. It’s a swear word now because Ted Cruz is conceded to be the only true conservative.
Another word that’s lost its meaning is ‘establishment.’
That now means anyone who is against Trump.
Breitbart may change his mind about your boy, Trump, after a trump muscle guy threw a Breitbart reporter to the floor because she wanted to ask Trump a question.
That was yesterday.
The cussing is not a huge issue. It’s disgusting when used in public by a presidential candidate, but we could probably live with it.
It’s just a part of the trump syndrome.
I appreciate your conviction.
My point was about the use of ‘strong’ language in public.
I too have reservations with ‘globalists’ because it does seem they tend to sell out the US to achieve a goal.
The opposite is equally as devastating though. Isolationism and trade protectionists have caused far more damage to this nation and the world in the past.
Odd how trump supporters always use the ‘so and so did it too’ defense.
Isn’t that for kids?
We’ll miss you at the polls.
Yes, Trump’s IQ cannot be measured. It is off the charts.
He knows many words of more than one-syllable ... he just chooses not to use them.
If you are sure he will still care about any of that once he’s elected... care enough to actually work at it.
He has a short attention span. What if he is distracted by his plans to spread more casinos over Nevada on government land...land that, by the way, he wants to leave under the control of the feds because the states can’t be trusted.
Happy days if Trump is all you think ... very sad days if he is what I think.
Well, we all know how great a job the GOPe has done to date on those issues (not), so I am not sure how more of the same is going to address those issues.
Not at all.
What is conservative about open borders?
Bloated budgets?
Targeted tea party groups by the opposition and doing nothing about it?
Conservative is a word that died with Romney/McCain/Ryan, etc., and is used as a code word to get the base to crawl over broken glass and vote.
When the actions never backed up their campaign promises, voters figured out they were lying and won’t reward them with additional power.
No more.
you don’t get into Harvard Law without top-flight test scores, i.e.,
*******
BS
You can buy your way in there if you have connections.
But you miss the point:Harvard hates America.
I don’t think that’s the race card, it’s the morality card.
I don't see where the Republicans dealt away anything...They 'gave' it all away with nothing in return...Trump couldn't possibly be any worse than that...
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