Posted on 01/18/2016 6:54:01 AM PST by Kaslin
We all understand that politicians will be political, emphasizing one point to one audience and another point to another audience. We also understand that people's views can genuinely change, including the views of politicians.
But when a political leader completely flip-flops on issues and then flip-flops again, the trustworthiness of that leader must be questioned.
Does Donald Trump fit the description of a double-minded, untrustworthy leader?
Judge for yourself.
Trump claims that his views on abortion changed based on personal experience.
Let's give him the benefit of the doubt, although at best, he is still not a strong, consistent pro-life candidate.
He has also taken a more negative stance on gay issues than he did in the past (although at no time did he fully support same-sex "marriage"). Is this simply a calculated political shift in order to win the Republican nomination?
Perhaps, but once again, let's give him the benefit of the doubt, although here too, he is hardly an articulate champion of conservative moral values.
Other shifts in his views cannot be so easily explained.
Let's consider Trump's views on Hillary Clinton.
As Time Magazine reported July 17, 2015, last year Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton the "worst Secretary of State in the history of the United States," and a "desperate" and "s" candidate.
Trump's insults this year have gotten even worse, to the point of him calling Hillary's bathroom break during a presidential debate "disgusting." And that is only the tip of the iceberg.
Trump is also renting out a theater in Iowa so voters can see the new movie "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" for free. According to a Trump spokesperson, "Mr. Trump would like all Americans to know the truth about what happened at Benghazi."
Contrast this with Trump’s comments in 2007 when Hillary was running for president on the Democrat side while Rudy Guiliani was running on the Republican side.
Trump said he was torn between them, stating, "They're both terrific people, and I hope they both get the nomination."
Yes, these were the words of Donald Trump.
Then, in 2012, he told Greta van Susteren on Fox News, "Hillary Clinton I think is a terrific woman," he told Greta Van Susteren. "I am biased because I have known her for years. I live in New York. She lives in New York. I really like her and her husband both a lot. I think she really works hard. And I think, again, she's given an agenda, it is not all of her, but I think she really works hard and I think she does a good job. I like her."
As to Hillary's record as Secretary of State, Trump opined on Live Leak that she probably did "above and beyond everybody else and everything else."
He also dismissed the importance of Benghazi and said that, if Hillary ran again for office, he was "sure" she would do a "good job" of defending her record as Secretary of State.
Is this not a glaring example of being double-minded?
How do you trust the words of someone who one day says that Hillary did her job as Secretary State "above and beyond everybody else and everything else" and another day brands her the "worst Secretary of State in the history of the United States"?
Which is his real opinion, the old one (from just a few years back) or the current one? And if his current opinion is his real opinion, why did he speak of Hillary with such praise before?
For another glaring example, consider how Trump has flipped, then flopped, then flipped again in terms of his evaluation of Ted Cruz.
On December 13, 2015, Trump stated that Cruz has acted like "a little bit of a maniac" in the Senate and doesn't have "the right temperament" or "the right judgment" to be president.
Two days later, when CNN's Dana Bash asked Trump about those comments during that night's presidential debate, he replied, "Let me tell you, as I have gotten to know him over the last three or four days, he has a wonderful temperament, he's just fine, don't worry about it."
Perhaps Trump was sincere during the debate.
Perhaps the first comments were just political rhetoric and perhaps he really did get to know Cruz better and genuinely believes that "he has a wonderful temperament" and "he's just fine."
Then how do we explain Trump's comments just one month later - and a month in which Trump made significant gains in the race - blasting Cruz in even more extreme terms?
Speaking to George Stephanopolous on ABC News on January 17th, Trump said of Cruz, "Look, the truth is, he's a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. He's a very - he's got an edge that's not good. You can't make deals with people like that and it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy."
Trump also called him "a total hypocrite."
So, what does Trump really believe?
What you mean is that he will be the white version of the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, correct? And you are probably right.
To bad
You don’t see what I did there?
>>Trump will in most likelihood make deals with both sides and unify the uni-party by ending the resistance of the opposition. (Conservatives) Obama-care will never be overturned, government will grow larger and more tyrannical, taxes will rise and moral decay will accelerate. The conservative movement will be hijacked and no conservative will be able to ascend to prominence for decades. Think John McCain only much more liberal and orders of magnitude more arrogant.
Then, I hope your guy wins and prevents all that from happening. I do not believe that he can and that he will just be another GWB—a guy who calms the conservatives while allowing the forward march of Progressivism to continue on.
Bfl
“A leader who can get stuff done and appeals to Republicans and Democrats...”
And will tell you to shove your values up your a$$ to get along with the liberals?
Trump is a liberal carnival barker.
Said it before, will say it again. If this guy's name was Mitt Romney, FR wouldn't give him a second thought.
Voters are being bamboozled by a cult of personality and some seem ready to support yet another Northeastern liberal. If that happens, the party and country will deserve its fate.
>>And will tell you to shove your values up your a$$ to get along with the liberals?
That is the motto of the Republican party and the centerpiece of compassionate conservatism. It is what SuperPACs and lobbyists order their pet politician to say and do.
excellent point, and do true
Bingo
You nailed it.
“Again, conservatives snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, amazing.”
We again owe a debt of gratitude to Trump for “smoking out” all these so-callled Conservative publications and authors. The truth is, they are the RINO Glue that’s kept the GOPe together all these years while claiming that they are “true conservatives.” And you can add in the “Tea Party candidates” who couldn’t wait to get their RINO bona fides just as soon as their asses hit their newly minted chairs in the Congress! Conservatives get played each election cycle. Trump isn’t a Conservative, but he just might get some things we need done done, unlike the “conservatives” in Congress who spend their time drinking with the RATs while they continue to try and find their balls and backbones in their “spare time.” The truth is, there are very nearly no “real Conservatives” in the Congress today, just one’s who run their mouthes that they are.
“Is Donald Trump a Double-minded Man?”
Why do so many titles end in a ? If you can’t make a statement you shouldn’t blog.
The more I think about, "what happens after The Donald moves in at 1600?", the more I incline to believe you.
His whole campaign to this point revolves around (as in 1980, as in 1964) selling conservatives the idea that a conservative can't win, and complementarily, selling everyone else the idea that "conservatives are fundamentally nasty people and nobody who knows them likes them". This is a massive smear and libel of anyone who holds traditional American values, anyone who believes in American exceptionalism and what used to be called, quaintly, "Americanism".
Now what we hear from people like Trump is "eat all the communism and cynical white-hating, race-baiting minoritarian politics (aimed right at you), and shut the hell up".
I like the fact that he’s putting his own money where his big mouth is.
Bump. I used, three or four weeks ago, to have a certain comfort factor with Trump as a viable second choice, based on his anti-GOP-E rhetoric.
Now I think he may be more like Dick Nixon, who in 1969 energized conservative Republicans still smarting from Barry's massive defeat at the hands of the GOP-E and LBJ acting in concert, won the White House by defeating liberal Dem Hubert Humphrey (with the help of sectional candidate George C. Wallace, who carried the South) -- and then dumped the conservatives completely, fobbing off some of his young conservative activists like Kevin Phillips and Ralph Whalen with smalltime appointments, of the kind Anne Gorsuch later on famously called a "nothingburger".
(Nixon did the same thing with George H.W. Bush, saying that Bush was the kind of guy who was a nuisance, always around and always enjoying "access" because of all the people he knew, so that the way you got rid of him was to appoint him to something.)
Whalen got it after a few months and left after six months, then went out and told everybody by writing a book, Catch the Falling Flag.
The point of mentioning this history of Nixonian politics is that I think it foreshadows what we could expect from a Trump nomination and victory.
One mind would be an improvement.
If your whole world revolves around abortion and gay marriage call the Supreme Court up and cuss them out because they are the ones who shoved it down our throats. Donald Trump had nothing to do with it.
Right now we need to worry about getting the jobs back in this country and securing the border and getting rid of these illegals. Keep the Muslims out. Shut down the govt tyranny. That is what is the most important thing.
If you want to reverse abortion and gay marriage then call your Governor and your state legislator and school them on the 10th Ammendment.
You tell me how your boy Ted Cruz is going to reverse gay marriage and abortion. He isn’t because he has not got the authority to do it. If elected he will serve 4-8 years and you will still have gay marriage and abortion. So get off beating Trump up about it.
Trump would like to be Mussolini when he grows up.
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