Posted on 02/08/2016 6:47:05 AM PST by bigtoona
Why American cannot abide another ideologue as president
We recently enjoyed a belated holiday dinner at the home of friends. The dinner conversation was jocund, ranging from discussions about antique glass and china to theology and politics. At one point reference was made to Donald Trump being a conservative, to which I responded that Trump is not a conservative.
I said that neither does Trump view himself as a conservative. I stated it was my opinion that Trump is a pragmatist. He sees a problem and understands it must be fixed. He then sets about fixing it. He doesn’t see the problem as liberal or conservative; he sees it only as a problem. That is a quality that should be admired and applauded, not condemned. But I get ahead of myself.
Viewing problems from a liberal perspective has resulted in the creation of more problems, more entitlement programs, more victims, more government, more political correctness and more attacks on the working class in all economic strata.
Viewing things according to the so-called Republican conservative perspective has brought continued spending, globalism to the detriment of American interests and well-being, denial of what the real problems are and weak, ineffective, milquetoast leadership that amounts to Barney Fife, deputy sheriff – appeasement-oriented and afraid of its own shadow. In brief, it has brought liberal ideology with a pachyderm as a mascot juxtaposed to the ass of the Democrat Party.
Immigration isn’t a Republican problem; it isn’t a liberal problem – it is a problem that threatens the very fabric and infrastructure of America. It demands a pragmatic approach, not an approach that is intended to appease one group or another.
The impending collapse of the economy isn’t a liberal or conservative problem; it is an American problem. That said, until it is viewed as a problem that demands a common-sense approach to resolution, it will never be fixed because the Democrats and Republicans know only one way to fix things, and their impracticality has proven to have no lasting effect. Successful businessmen like Donald Trump find ways to make things work. They do not promise to accommodate.
Trump uniquely understands that China’s manipulation of currency is not a Republican problem or a Democratic problem. It is a problem that threatens our financial stability, and he understands the proper balance needed to fix it. Here again, successful businessmen like Trump who have weathered the changing tides of economic reality understand what is necessary to make business work, and they, unlike both sides of the political aisle, know that if something doesn’t work you don’t continue trying to make it work, hoping that at some point it will.
As a pragmatist, Donald Trump hasn’t made wild pie-in-the-sky promises of a cellphone in every pocket, free college tuition and a $15-an-hour minimum wage for working the drive-through a Carl’s Jr.
I argue that America needs pragmatists because pragmatists see problems and find ways to fix them. They do not see a problem and compound it by creating more problems.
You may not like Donald Trump. I suspect that the reason people do not like him is because: 1) he is antithetical to the “good old boy†method of brokering backroom deals that fatten the coffers of politicians; 2) they are unaccustomed to hearing a candidate speak who is unencumbered by the financial shackles of those who own him vis-a-vis donations; 3) he is someone who is free of idiomatic political ideology; and 4) he is someone who understands that it takes more than hollow promises and political correctness to make America great again.
Listening to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders talk about fixing America is like listening to two lunatics trying to “out crazy†one another. Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are owned lock, stock and barrel by the bankers, corporations and big-dollar donors funding their campaigns. Bush can deny it, but common sense tells anyone willing to face facts that people don’t give tens of millions without expecting something in return.
We have had Democrats and Republican ideologues – and what has it brought us? Are we better off today or worst off? Has it happened overnight or has it been a steady decline brought on by both parties?
I submit that a pragmatist might be just what America needs right now. And as I said earlier, a pragmatist sees a problem and understands that the solution to fix same is not about a party, but a willingness and boldness to get it done.
People are quick to confuse and despise confidence as arrogance, but that is common amongst those who have never accomplished anything in their lives and who have always played it safe not willing to risk failure.
Trump is a PRAGMATIST. He is neither a ideologue nor religious fanatic nor fiscal fanatic nor abortion fanatic.
Trump’s whole life is solving problems. He sees a problem, he gets to work on solving it.
First proof of that was how quickly he fixed the problem with the ice skating ring in NY city. That is his mode op operation. See a problem, devise the best solution, and go to work on it. Latest example of that is the US Post office in Washington DC. He observed the potential of it’s location, and put in a very high bid which nobody could beat. And now he is building the most luxurious hotel in DC there. With his knowledge and experience in construction of large buildings, it is already ahead of schedule and under budget.
Americans would be stupid to reject Trump and install another know nothing, smooth speech maker career politician as president. But do not hold your breath. We Americans have been electing lot of people who never worked in the private sector, and have been cashing government checks all their life. We will get the president our intellect deserves.
"Pragmatist" is a meaningless title.
Ideology guides pragmatic decisions.
So what is Trump's ideology? His tangle of ever-changing positions doesn't provide a clear picture.
Maybe, but what YOU think is a problem may not be what HE thinks is a problem, and vice versa.
(And by the way, which politicians' supporters do not use this "he sees a problem and wants to fix it" meme? I mean, ever?)
Thanks, but I forgot to add the standard disclaimer:
Any resemblance to other persons, living or dead, is strictly coincidental, and it does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the owner of this station, his employees, suppliers, donors or customers.
>> Trump is NOT a lawyer! <<
So, what am I to conclude from that factoid?
Ben Carson is not a lawyer. John Kasich is not a lawyer. Jeb Bush is not a lawyer. Jimmy Carter was not a lawyer.
Nuff said.
I have to disagree with your medical costs example: If one is a ‘principled conservative’ as I consider myself to be, then conservatism and pragmatism can intersect. Using your example, if medical costs are too high and one is a conservative, price controls are far from pragmatic. Any conservative knows that price controls distort the markets and create shortages, underinvestment, inefficiency and rationing, and eventually the markets find ways to thwart them, usually resulting in higher prices than before. How is it pragmatic to do something that doesn’t work? The pragmatic approach would be to eliminate ObamaCare, allow carriers to compete freely across state lines, dismantle the powerful crony health insurance big pharm lobbies and pass sensible tort reforms. While doing these things, I don’t care if a politician invokes conservative principles or uses conservative jargon.
I think there is a valid argument that someone like Trump may, by being pragmatic, behave in ways consistent with conservative principles, even while not invoking them, thinking about them or using the correct jargon. If he fires half the government employees on his first day as president, I don’t care if he does it in order to “limit the scope of government to those roles enumerated in the constitution” or simply because they are “incompetent”. If he eliminates the federal reserve fiat currency scam, I don’t care if it’s because it’s unconstitutional or if it’s simply because “we’re getting ripped off”.
It’s a GREAT thing that Trump is NOT a lawyer. Our founders wanted CITIZENS to serve! Lawyers belong in the Judicial branch, not spouting their BS in congress or the WH.
Nuff said.
Maybe. But the greatest burdens of protectionism are the costs they place on consumers.
If you want to pay the costs of protectionism, feel free. Do so voluntarily, by buying over-priced, domestically made items. I couldn't care less what you do with your money.
But nobody can give you the moral authority to impose such costs on me. Period. Stop. End of story.
I think that’s right. We don’t need an ideologue in the White House. He’s a patriot, which is fundamental. He’s looking at everything through the lens of what’s best for America and Americans. That alone is worth more than an encyclopedia worth of economic theory. Next, he’s got decades of experience sitting at the desk where the buck stops. He’s made his mistakes and taken his knocks, but that experience is golden. No more of this manchild in the White House blaming everyone and everything except himself for all that’s gone wrong. He also clearly leans conservative. Any thinking 70-year-old who is not a liberal ideologue is going to lean conservative, and he definitely does. But no he’s not a true believer, and that’s OK with me.
He’s a liberal Rino.
Probably because reality based solutions and conservative ideology overlap a lot more that Trump can be seen as both a pragmatist and a conservative.
I have no doubt that someone can be a conservative AND a pragmatic, I just have doubts that Donald Trump is one of those.
I believe he is pragmatic, but I have serious doubts that he holds a conservative world-view.
He wants to find solutions to problems, and he is very good at doing so, but I don’t believe he is guided by principles that are based on the founding ideas and principles spelled out in the Constitution.
I believe he would be a very effective President, and I have hopes that his solutions to problems and his policies toward governance would be in line with conservative principles, but I have very serious doubts.
As was seen in this last debate, Donald Trump himself has trouble defining what a conservative is.
Does this not bother those who claim he is conservative and would govern as a conservative?
>> Lawyers belong in the Judicial branch, not spouting their BS in congress or the WH <<
Yeah, sure. We don’t want anybody like Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln WH. Let’s stick to non-lawyers like Jimmy Carter and Herbert Hoover.
Tariffs are taxes. The higher they are, the more damage they cause. Some people think we should put high tariffs on China. But China would then retaliate and put higher tariffs on products we sell to them including I-phones and many other things. Then we have a full scale trade war in which no one wins. Such misguided policies lead to the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s.
I know it is an instinctive reflex to propose higher tariffs on a nation (such as a China) which often engages in manipulative trade and economic policies. But just because a certain country engages in bad economic policies, that does not mean that we should follow suite. If the United States would dramatically lower (ideally abolish) its corporate income tax rates (among the highest in the world) we would see corporations returning the US, return trillions of dollars back to the US, reinvest here and create jobs here. Regardless of what China or Mexico do. Policy makers here in the US should be focused on making our country an attractive place for investment. The rest will take care of itself. No need to impose or threaten higher tariffs or other types of retaliatory policies.
Sigh.
I’m calling Godwin’s Law on this. You lose.
Trump isn’t a Liberal or a Socialist. But also he’s not a solid Conservative—he’s a Capitalist. He bends toward Conservatism. He’s a Leader and, yes, he will make the trains run on time, ballance the budget (may take a few years) and rebuild the Military. He’s the man we need—at the moment. He will be a good manager—and maybe—just maybe a President greater than Reagan. I believe, when all is said and done, they will carve his face on mountains. History will call this “The Age of Trump” A new Gilded Age of American power. I am willing to let him have a chance.
Julius Caesar's apologists call him -- still, after 20 centuries -- a "pragmatist". He wasn't. He was an egotist and an exponent of Caesarism ipso facto; and his admirers are people who like "strong leaders" and strongman government, people who are impatient with the "little people" who run republics.
Wm. F. Buckley once wrote that it's easy to embarrass a citizen of the Swiss confederation: Just ask him to name the last five presidents of Switzerland. His point lies at the core of America's continuing struggle with ideological Stalinists and other exponents of rightisms and leftisms run by strongmen and jackboots.
Fighting these guys off, not admiring them, should be our primary preoccupation.
I am running into a lot of Trump supporters who are union democrats - in the past they were so frustrating to talk to about minimum wage, supply and demand, price controls - they would just spew the dem talking points but now they see the democrat party is not their friend. They see stupid sh!t happening and they don’t need to understand what conservative principle or what clause of the constitution is being violated. All they need to see is that it’s stupid and it has to end. They finally see it because of the way Trump talks. I am your typical principled conservative always talking about founding principles of limited government, unalienable rights etc. - I could never get through to anybody - but Trump does and I’m not going to complain - I think he might be our last hope.
That’s a bit overboard.
I think he is a capitalist, and I think he’s a good manager and organizer. He will get things done. We need the wall.
As with any president, the supreme court is a big concern. We have to hope he does well there, but look at some of the picks made by presidents we trusted. Lawyers are sleazy lot once they fit into a judgeship.
I really question the Founders on their regard for judges. I NEVER would have made them life-tenured positions. That was a monumental mistake.
How things have changed.
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