Can Donald Trump Lead A Conservative Movement He Barely Understands?

Talking Points Memo ^ | 12/23/2015 | By LAUREN FOX

[FourPeas]

He's clueless when it comes to conservatism. Trump is not to be trusted.

Agree absolutely.

[DoughtyOne]

I wish you folks would think before you write some of this stuff.  It would save a lot of time.

The Donald is not, by any definition, a conservative.

Cutting the deficit spending, eliminationg givernment departments, and starting to pay down the nation debt does not qualifiy as Conservative to you.
Putting a wall up on the border, sending illegal aliens home, does not qualify as Conservative to you.
Building up our military instead of allowing it to languish and decay, is not Conservative to you.
Getting our veterans the care they need is not something you see as Conservative.
Eliminating the Department of Education, doing away with Common Core, is not something you see as Conservative.
Eliminating Obamacare and replacing it with a private sector solution is not Conservative to you.
Supporting Israel and recognizing it as a very important ally is not Conservative to you.
Returning to good relations with all the cold war allies doesn't sound Conservative to you.
Bringing jobs home and allowing our citizens to compete on the global markets doesn't sound Conservative to you.
Demanding that trade deals be renegotiated or negotiated in the future to benefit the U. S. on equal footing doesn't sound Conservative to you.

But he has harnessed the conservative impulses for his own purposes in gaining access to the highest levels of power in America, and by extension, in the world.

My guy didn't win, so this guy has to be evil and not telling the truth.  FAIL

You brain trusts that go this route seem to forget something.  If Trump had wanted to, he could have run as a Liberal and easily beaten Hillary and Sanders.  Why would he go right, unless that's what his naturail inclinations were?

Crafty in the way he has tapped into a huge wellspring of pent-up desires, he exploits them in the manner of a highly skilled conductor leading an orchestra, from mere cacophony into a sweet and melodic concert, falling pleasantly on the ears of the audience.

That's quite an imagination you have there.  If Trump truly wanted to rule as a Leftist, that would have been a lot easier in a field of three instead of a field of 17.

You need a new batch of tea leaves.

Pied Piper, or genius and master of the universe? Maybe, and perhaps in the end, we may be someplace far from where we are at, but is the direction we otherwise would be headed in any way preferable?

This rivals the filth I read from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times these days.

[Finny]

Ditto. Well said.

[DesertRhino]

“Make Catholic Church the official church of America......”

No thanks. That’s precisely why the constitution forbade an establishment of religion. Their track record is horrendous as an operating system for a temporal government.

They are the defacto and some time legally the state religion everywhere south of the Texas border. It breeds substandard peoples and societies.

[napscoordinator]

I said it wouldn’t pass which is a shame. But the others you like?

[DesertRhino]

That true conservative wishlist is rather short on individual liberty.

[HarleyLady27]

I think before people are allowed to write articles like this they need to take a test....one that shows they have ‘gray matter’ between their ears....

The writers of today are like a box of rocks....

[erkelly]

You stated you did not think Trump would be a successful president but a better option than any democrat. I think that there will be no in-between with Donald Trump; either your assessment will be correct, he will just be a blip that temporarily paralyzes the left for a moment, or he will be the greatest president of the 21st century. There will be no in-between with Trump. With any other non-democrat candidate at this time, no matter how ideologically pure, there is not much change of reversing the destructive policies the democrat party has put into place, but with Trump's larger than life persona, there is a real chance that he could. Whether he will or not remains to be seen. It is worth the risk, we really are out of options.

[DoughtyOne]

I’ll bet that every one of those people who have gone to his events knows more about Trump than almost all the folks who trash him here.

I see untruths listed day after day after day by the same people that have been told they are not telling the truth, with proof.

So I’m not buying your idiotic idea.

I’ve never seen a group of people so in denial that anything Trump is saying has value.

[DesertRhino]

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10. I’m on board. Hell i’d settle for reverting to the original constitution.

And I want no income taxes. I want the government financed mostly by tariffs.

[erkelly]

No, not annihilate, EXTREMINATE!!!

[DesertRhino]

“I think before people are allowed to write articles like this they need to take a test....one that shows they have ‘gray matter’ between their ears....”

The writer was about 12 when 9/11 hit.

[HarleyLady27]

It should still be made to take a test for ‘gray’ matter....

[goldstategop]

Trump isn’t a movement conservative.

He doesn’t believe what he says - he’s more of a populist who tells people what they want to hear.

Being a conservative, is instinct, a healthy skepticism of human nature and a profound distrust of change.

Trump doesn’t seem to embody the philosophy that’s the essence of conservatism.

That said, he doesn’t ridicule or dismiss us and he’s willing to listen.

Which is more than can be said for the GOP establishment that has traditionally treated us as the political equivalent of the “crazy aunt in the basement.”

Trump is many things but we should be under no illusion as conservatives that he is the Second Coming Of Ronald Reagan.

It would be unfair to harbor that expectation of him.

[erkelly]

Oops, I mean EXTERMINATE, not extreminate! Darn Spellchecker!

[odawg]

Does George Will lecture Ryan and McConnell on the philosophical details of conservatism? The entire Republican caucus? The ones who have actually voted and betrayed conservatism?

[centurion316]

The best attribute of Trump is that he isn’t a career politician. Those of their ilk are completely corrupt. We are in deep doo doo.

[roamer_1]

While the OP confuses Conservatism with mere Republican-ism, the answer is still no.

[McGruff]

No Trump is not a conservative but he is exactly what this country needs right now. And with Ted Cruz as his VP Ted can move him in the right direction. Then Ted Cruz would be naturally next inline for president. that would be 16 years of Make America Great Again folks.

[odawg]

“He doesn’t believe what he says”

There is an you-tube video out of a twenty-five year interview Oprah Winfrey did with Trump. He says the same thing in that interview that he says now.