Posted on 01/23/2016 4:20:32 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Donald Trump is no conservative. That's not a crime, it's just a reason to vote against him. Many fine people are not conservatives. But the reason Trump's candidacy should worry the Right runs much deeper than that: He poses a direct challenge to conservatism, because he embodies the empty promise of managerial leadership outside of politics.
Trump's diagnoses of our key problems - first and foremost, that America's elites are weak and unwilling to put the interests of Americans first - have gained him a hearing from many on the right. But when he gestures toward prescriptions, Trump reveals that even his diagnoses are not as sound as they might seem.
Conservatives incline to take the weakness of our elite institutions as an argument for recovering constitutional principles - and so for limiting the power of those institutions, reversing their centralization of authority, and recovering a vision of American life in which the chief purpose of the federal government is protective and not managerial.
Trump, on the contrary, offers himself as the alternative to our weak and foolish leaders, the guarantee of American superiority, and the cure for all that ails our society; and when pressed about how he will succeed in these ways, his answer pretty much amounts to: "great management."
The appeal of Trump's diagnoses should be instructive to conservatives. But the shallow narcissism of his prescriptions is a warning. American conservatism is an inherently skeptical political outlook. It assumes that no one can be fully trusted with public power and that self-government in a free society demands that we reject the siren song of politics-as-management.
A shortage of such skepticism is how we ended up with the problems Trump so bluntly laments. Repeating that mistake is no way to solve these problems. To address them, we need to begin by rejecting what Trump stands for, as much as what he stands against.
I would say that going with Trump is the equivalent of calling in an enemy air strike. We do have a much better choice. We can support and elect a real conservative.
Well, I posted a link documenting his positions dating back decades by I guess you didn’t bother to read it.
"...."I am actually disappointed with a lot of the Republican politicians," [Trump] said. "Whether it is we are going to cut Social Security, because that's what they are saying. Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, they want to do it on Medicare, they want to do it on Medicaid," he continued. "And we can't do that. And it's not fair to the people that have been paying in for years and now all of the sudden they want to be cut."....
To the Establishment turns out being Conservative means supporting the gloBULList Cheap Labor Express, open borders and "Free Trade". Well that ain't cutting it any more and everyone can see thru Cruz evening though Establishment can't. He is indeed one of them.
So we are going to burn it all down using an apolitical daddy warbuck blowhard BS artist from NY. I'm good with that. After March and Trump is crowned the "presumptive" nominee you will come to acceptance.
Cruz seems quite competent prosecuting cases before the Supreme Court
Speaking of "management" and the Billionaire who would be king:
Trump: I'm worth whatever I feel [Deposition 2007]
...Throughout the deposition, Trump sparred with O'Brien's lawyer, Andrew Ceresney, over how the real estate tycoon determined what he was worth.
Trump: My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with the markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings, but I try.
Ceresney: Let me just understand that a little. You said your net worth goes up and down based upon your own feelings?
Trump: Yes, even my own feelings, as to where the world is, where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day ...
Ceresney: When you publicly state a net worth number, what do you base that number on?
Trump: I would say it's my general attitude at the time that the question may be asked. And as I say, it varies.
But the deposition shows Trump's valuation of his properties can be at odds with others' views......"
Priorities, people. Without Jesus guiding our minds and hearts it does not matter who the president is.
Government working means the worthless Congress critters must grow backbones.
Trump the deal maker is always looking for ways to engage and influence. Isn’t that precisely what we should have in the WH?
All this talk about Trump the tyrant misses a salient point. Trump is not a tyrant. He is a successful businessman who knows how to influence and motivate people. DUH.
Umm, ok. If you say so.
I’d have a LOT less issue if it was ‘Great Leadership’
We already have GREAT mgmt. of govt...as in, every facet of our lives is micro-managed.
Limited govt - hell yes, but I want great leaders for the areas where limited govt is valid.
Leaders one can follow; mgmt. is just another word for dictate.
Nothing wrong with making a deal if you get the best end of it. And Trump’s Art of The Deal was not a guide to making lopsided concessions to your opposite. He strongly implies that he would make good deals; that is, those advantageous to the American people/USA. We do have the product of the deals he’s made to go by: a real estate empire. Whether he can deliver in the political/geo-political realm remains an open question. But many would like to give him that chance. He could hardly do worse than the last 7 years.
I do say so. If I wanted a deal maker in the White House, then I would still be supporting McConnell, Boehner, and Ryan, who have been working tirelessly with Obama and the Democrats to "get things done." Having a liberal Republican in the White House would make matters worse, not better.
?
This could have been phrased differently.
Conservatives want a candidate who realizes that the government is too big and too powerful and too intrusive, and just as importantly, who realizes that the office of the president has assumed far too many unconstitutional powers.
In other words, we are sick to death of egotistical fools who think “I am so good, that I can *control* the power!”
Which sounds like the line from a fantasy movie of some sub-hero who tries to grab “the object of ultimate power”, thinking he can control it, only to end up as a pile of smoking ashes.
And ambition flows like water in Washington, D.C. So there are dozens of men, all of whom think that they are so good that they can *control* the power. And they will fight anyone who wants to *reduce* the power of the office of the president.
Obama, with his “phone and pen” has stimulated this assortment of ambitious fools into an imbecilic froth. They all see themselves as being within a short leap to dictatorial powers. And they are adamant that they want all of that power, and more, ever more.
But the only way to win the game is to *reduce* the power of the office. And not just the power of the POTUS, but the power of the bureaucracy, and congress, and the courts.
Put “the genie” back into the bottle, and not only will a president be beloved and remembered as someone who saved our nation, but someone who led our nation out of the wilderness of economic chaos, social despair, and oppressive government.
Must not include PAC ad spending.
Iowa alone has had $30 million spent on political advertising.
Levin should go back to Israel, and stop interfering in politics here in the US.
Only 8 posting days until Iowa Caucus!
What has the current GOP in the House and Senate done to advance
conservative issues?
Unlike Trump, they can affect change. They chose not to.
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