Posted on 04/03/2011 12:53:30 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Donald Trump will announce in June whether he plans on being a contender for the presidency in the Republican primaries later this year. For several reasons, my excitement over the prospects of a Trump candidacy is mounting.
Let me say first, that in a perfect world, the very idea of a man like Trump running for the presidency, on either party's ticket, would be unthinkable. This isn't to suggest that Trump is a bad man, but only that he has no experience in the art of governing. It is a common misconception among many on the right that success in business is likely to translate into success in politics. Not only does this assumption ignore the fact that the frameworks of incentives and constraints within which politicians and free enterprisers respectively operate are by and large mutually antagonistic; it ignores as well the fact that success in business could just as easily portend political failure.
Any business is an enterprise. An enterprise is defined by the goals toward which it is oriented, the goals toward the realization of which each of its members is expected to contribute. Now, obviously, the enterprises that constitute a "system" of "free enterprise" are not compulsory organizations. However, a state is indeed such an organization. It is a mistake of the first order, then, to confuse government with a private employer and citizens with employees.
Free citizens must be free to determine enterprises of their own choosing -- not those that the government decides to impose upon them. And what this in turn implies is that a government belonging to citizens, not subjects, free men and women, not servants and/or slaves, simply cannot be patterned on a business or enterprise model, for it exists for no other reason than to facilitate peaceful and orderly co-existence between individuals engaged in all manner of self-chosen pursuits.
A wildly successful businessman like Trump is no less likely to lose sight of this than someone devoid of all business experience.
There is another reason why, in a perfect world, no conservative would treat Trump with any seriousness in connection with the presidency -- namely, Trump is no conservative. That "business" and "conservative" are considered virtually synonymous terms by right and left alike is a standing testimony to how effectively the left trades in fictions. A person's involvement in business is no signifier of his political orientation, it is true, but it is also true that the tycoons of the largest businesses -- what the left derisively refers to as "Big Business" -- usually donate to Democrats. That he has contributed to the coffers of no small number of Democratic politicians proves that Trump is no exception to this rule.
Still, our world, the real world, is far from perfect. Given current political realities, Trump may be just what Republican voters need at the moment.
As Trump himself has noted, if not for pervasive voter disenchantment with President George W. Bush, we wouldn't now have President Barack. H. Obama. In 2008, voters in both major parties and everywhere in between had grown weary of Bush's "compassionate conservatism." Of course, being but a euphemism for ever larger government -- that is, exactly that thing against which Republican campaign rhetoric rails -- it was neither compassionate nor conservative, as conservatives understand these concepts. The Republican Party claimed to have learned this lesson, but beyond vague references to "spending," no GOP 2012 hopeful has so much as explicitly repudiated Bush "conservatism," much less specified the respects in which their governance will differ from that of the last Republican president.
Trump, in glaring contrast, has already indicated the willingness, the eagerness even, to make it abundantly clear to both the party and the nation how and why he will be no Bush Republican. This the party faithful and -- more importantly, to hear the Republicans tell it -- the independents and "moderates" regarding whom the politicians from both parties spare no occasion to woo both need and deserve to know.
But this is not all.
It would be a gross understatement to describe The View as Obama-friendly. Yet just this past week while making an appearance on it, Trump did what no other Republican, much less a Republican with presidential aspirations, would so much as think of doing: he unabashedly expressed his skepticism concerning Obama's birth certificate. With a single utterance, the Donald in effect legitimized a group of people whose concern for this very same issue earned them the scornful name of "birthers" and rendered them a collective object of derision by left-wing pundits as well as such "respectable" right-leaning personalities as Bill O'Reilly and Michael Medved. And what Trump did for this issue, he will be able to do with any number of issues that McCain and the GOP establishment sought (and continue to seek) to avoid like the plague.
This is the point: there is simply no way that anyone can succeed in depicting someone as internationally famous as Donald Trump as a fringe figure. This, obviously, isn't to suggest that Trump would be anything at all like an invulnerable candidate; no one is without weaknesses. But Trump's enemies (among the establishments of both parties) will simply not be able to dismiss him as an "extremist."
Finally, there are enough disenchanted Democrats, along with similarly disenchanted independents and Republicans, who would be more than willing to give Trump their ears. When this Washington outsider -- indeed, outsider to politics! -- promises that upon his election to the presidency, "business as usual" in Washington will become a thing of the past, they will have good reason to believe it.
Trump in 2012? This may not be such a bad thing.
I would vote for madoff / gadaffi 2012 if forced to over obama.
Sarah fliped on co2 caps, illegals, supported tarp, etc.
Get your beer goggles off and wake the heck up.
You are a complete idiot. You must be a McCain supporter. Wake up and morality is the problem and it why we have spent ourselves into the point of no return. Your Glock will not save you. Only Christ will be able to do that now.
Ok, but this is the only thing you posted in your #25.
3 marriages. No vote from me.
I guess you factored it in later.
Thanks. That was fun.
This is politics not bible study or church. I want the communist obama gone and will accept a 75 percenter goper than a marxist communist sleeper cell like obama.
Again - sotomayor and kagan thank you for adding to more far left sc justices on the court to advance the leftist agenda.
Not quite. First, Palin can’t win even if she does run.
Secondly, Trump has maintained from the start that if he runs, it will be as a Republican. Perot never said that even at the start.
(On the other hand, perhaps one's judgment ought to depend on what the meaning of "such" is!)
And while we're on the subject, why don't we start a movement to have "The Donald" name Jesse Ventura as his running mate?
Some reasons:
1. Jesse's Midwestern/Polish background and his Many-SO-tah accent would be a good balance to Trump's East coast/uppercrust persona and his Manhattan brogue.
2. Then one might observe that Jesse's lack of success in governing Minnesota compares favorably with Trump's record of multiple bankruptcies.
3. Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, they have approximately equal gravitas. One snake-oil salesman surely deserves another!
Still far better than bama.
>> Still far better than bama <<
“Plain old” better? Probably.
But “far” better? No way.
Trump has made donated thousands of dollars to the campaigns of Democrats Anthony Weiner, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer, Harry Reid, Arlen Specter, Robert Menendez, Patrick Kennedy, Frank Lautenberg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Ted Kennedy, and Charlie Rangel. Plus, he also donated to the DCCC. He’s given much more of his money to leftist Democrats than to Republicans.
The Donald is pro abortion and anti-gun. Anyone who would support this man is a fool or a leftist. But I repeat myself...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2685744/posts
- JP
I will blame you as much as the worst of the obama cult who showed up to vote for four more years of this insane admn.
Are you a liberal? For real. You sound like a real liberal. I can’t believe that I am the only one hear defending conservatism. This is certainly the twilight zone for sure. Again, the Tea Party will have the candidate this time. You liberals had McCain.
You don’t know much about business, do you? A sad reality is that most large businesses donate to both parties - it keeps the target off their backs.
The SarahBorg doesn’t respond to facts.
Well, at least when Trump plays golf, he’s playing on his own courses, not the taxpayers’ courses. He may have gone belly up a few times, but he took risks and won more often than not. His life is an open book. He sure as hell won’t be nouveau riche with the perks of office like the incumbent, that’s for sure.
We know nothing about Brackets. Nothing. What has he ever done? Once again the answer is Nothing.
His pre-presidency experience was nothing but taking advantage of affirmative action to amass degrees from big name schools, using an African-American community and congregation (and a few 60s terrorists) on the south side of Chicago to build a political base, playing it safe, not taking any decisive positions (”present”) in the record, much less risk. Just a ‘clean, articulate’ black dude whose time had come according to a gullible public and the media.
That total lack of experience has given us what we are stuck with today: an Administration that despises all that America has stood for historically. There are no adults in this Administration. And there sure isn’t anyone looking out for America’s long term national interest.
Trump has a lot to learn about electoral politics and governing. It’s one thing to be an observer or even a king-maker. It’s quite another to assume the responsibilities of that power. But he IS a ‘smart guy.’
And he knows how to put the right people in the right job to make it effective.
He may or may not run. The pay cut and restrictions automatically imposed on a POTUS may be more than he’s willing to take But if he does run, I think we should all at least give him consideration. At the very least we know he’s someone who gives a tinker’s damn about this country.
I am with several others here on this. I believe Trump will not run. He is using this to advance his Public Image. He also seems to be changing his attitude and ideology quite a bit since he revealed to BOR that he had changed his mind and was now strongly Pro Life.
His business and economic sense is amazing. His input will be extremely helpful for our cause this coming election. He will be a great support for us among Moderates and Independents. Also, can you imagine him as the Treasury Secretary?
Just not as a candidate and he knows this better than anyone.
Would a conservative supported Harry Reid over Sharon Angle? I’m not convinced of his conservatism...
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/02/donald-trumps-donations-to-democrats.html
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has received the fourth-largest amount of Trump’s contributions, including $4,800 in the successful 2010 campaign against Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle.
Ruedrich resigned his job and was fined $12,000, but I believe the loss of a Coal market trade agreement went down with them.
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