Posted on 01/23/2016 10:09:25 AM PST by TBBT
My colleague Ben Domenech was one of the many smart conservative and libertarians writers who took part in National Review's symposium on Trump. He, like many of the others, offered a measured piece, rationally pointing out the multitude of reasons Donald Trump is neither conservative, principled, nor equipped to be the president. I hope it'll matter.
I did notice, though, as I read through the pieces that I felt far less charitable than most of the writers towards Trump's supporters--perhaps the most sensitive constituency to ever appear in American politics.
Trumpism is an ideology that judges all things on how they interact with Donald Trump. As a result, it is completely disconnected from any cogent philosophy or moral worldview. And though Trump's fans characterize anyone who notes that the word clouds coming out of the candidate's mouth are incoherent platitude-infused puffs of gibberish as snobby, monocle-wearing, America-hating elite, all I'm saying is that if you're shopping around for a dictator, you can do a lot better than Donald Trump.
American politics has become a giant appeal to the base emotions of envy and/or anger--depending on what party you happen to be in. And Republican primary voters are about to bring every liberal fantasy about their regressive, anti-intellectualism, to vivid life. There are many rational people on the right who either justify or are sympathetic to this movement for understandable reasons: They're sick of corruption. Sick of the frauds and the failed promises. Sick of the abuses of the other party. Republicans want their own Obama.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
“Trump is the grenade we are using to frag the GOPe.”
Which all of these “true conservatives” loved and had no issue with, until he was somehow magically expected to vanish so that Cruz could just waltz in and get the nomination by spending the same period saying as little as possible.
They might have come out of curiosity, initially, I don’t know. But when the guy started putting a voice to very same things that were driving them crazy, things got real, as the saying goes.
I guess next he’ll be accused of being some kind of satanic psychic- knowing in advance what each & every one wanted to hear so he’d know what to say. lol I wish I were kidding.
Donald Trump proves one thing about America: that in our hearts, whether we’re rich, poor, Black, White, young, old, man or woman- we know what’s wrong & we’re in absolute agreement that the people in Washington DC are why those things are wrong. We are TOGETHER after all.
Nobody else gets this. They only want to get in on the action- to get their piece of the pie. And to hell with Americans.
Go ahead & rationalize if it makes you feel better.
No one looks at a tree in a forest
Even Biblical Christianity has felt the hit of misdirection and sensation
If anything, the "You will know them by their fruit" is the better reed to measure a man
When I was dating, I was syrupy and mushie ... I wrote letters and poetry ... I went dear hunting ... and she married me
My love has changed only in the fact that I comprehend it .. and my wife .. more now than then
My words are different ... we speak words of love for each other in other ways
I don't slight Trump for the words he's used in the past because if you ask a group of a hundred to identify him in one word ... many ... maybe most ... would say "businessman" ...
And as any salesman is taught and trained ... you NEVER offer more than a choice of two ...
Do you WANT it in green ?
We have it
sign here
“Trump is going to reach across the aisle and make deals. “
Cruz will issue executive orders and send the army to congress to force their compliance?
The far smarter course is to do what Romney proposed - massively tighten employment verification and e-verify so that illegals can't work. Eliminate entitlement to any benefits so that they can't get any. "Yuge" numbers would then self-deport.
But Trump opposed that as "mean-spirited" and "crazy".
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/11/12/trump-romneys-self-deportation-policy-was-mean-spirited-doesnt-support-restricting-legal-immigration-further/ So what he going to do when - not if - courts bring a screeching halt to mass deportations without a hearing?
Jeeze that's some fine thinking VDK.
I don't have the patience to go back 5 - 10 years and recall what I said "talk radio isn't walk radio" - "Brent Bozell documents the obvious without an activist bone in his body"
So whipping up into a dervish frenzy citing incantations of past conservatives won’t win me an election? It doesn’t matter what substance you place in front of a Trump supporter. Emotion will rule the day. I guarantee almost 90# of those trashing the piece the writer here is speaking of has never read a single line of it. Yet feel the urge to trash it based of who may have written it. This is pure emotion nothing more.
Good read
Trump IS the result of GOP and DEM incompetence.
Oh no don’t worry about those pesky little details! I know great people, the best people, some amazing people who know how to do great things. Really great things. 2016 hopey changey baby!!!! Details matter not!
Personally, I like the idea of a business mogul running for prez, as opposed to career politicians.
Why have a civil conversation. The attacks on Trump are things like: He’s a Nazi. He’s Adolf Hitler. He’s a tyrant. He’s dumb. He does not know anything about government.
Donald Trump has been in the public eye for more than 30 years. We know Trump and he is not any of these things. People who want to have a conversation which starts out with; He’s dumb, or He’s evil, are not interested in winning the argument. They are just happy to have the argument. Because some people will not listen to the argument they will just take sides.
I actually think Hillary is evil. I think that the NY Times was right back in the 90’s when they called her a congenital liar. She makes her money off the understanding that she can change policy. And she is vicious when it comes to people who threaten her political fortunes.
I actually think many of the democrats agree. Thats why she, as a front runner can never close the deal. A large group of democrats are afraid of her being president. As one of the centuries most corrupt politicians, who can control her when she really does get power.
In the past two presidential elections the electorate chose someone who they did not know. And who had very little practical training for the job. This time we have two people we know pretty well. It’s all out there for us to see. I am happy to finely get real candidates instead of suits who just read teleprompters of other peoples thoughts.
As it turns out there is BIG MONEY in constantly complaining about the evil rats. Problem is if you fix it then there’s no reason to complain and there goes the BIG MONEY.
Twitter response from Liz Mair (Former online comms strategist to Sen. Paul, Govs Walker & Perry & Carly Fiorina; former RNC Online Comms Director; Tory; libertarian; Arsenal fan)
“Liz Mair @LizMair Jan 20
He has no plan to reform entitlements AS IT STANDS. That inherently means bigger debt with him than we have now.”
I really disagree that Trump is an emotional vote. Trump is a clear thoughtful vote against big media and elite establishment. We are throwing both out. We see that both have been very harmful to our political process and Trump is the first chance to get rid of them since Reagan.
The tools used to spin a presidential election for the past 40 years have been the news media and the 30 second ad. Both are used like reins on a horse, if the voting populous is a large dumb animal. But whats not said here is that both are corrupt, owned by billionaires.
We don’t like the billionaires behind the scenes. We would rather chose the billionaire in front of us. This is the first honest election in a long time.
The GOP would not have Trump/Cruz if they had impeached the usurper. Make ObOzO defend himself and the Bolshie go on record defending him. The fact that the numbers say you are going to lose should not have factored into making him go on the defense many times. The GOP has the numbers to bring impeachment, just, do it. Sooner, or, later, the Bolshies will be aware their survival depends upon being with the majority.
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