Posted on 02/26/2016 12:49:01 PM PST by Ohioan
And come Tuesday Trump will wrap up the GOP nomination for all intents and purposes so try to get the butt hurt out of the way as soon as possible and get on board. :-)
On the other hand, I doubt that you will convince many other folk that Trump is "Dr. Feelgood." Love him, hate him, or whatever; he is certainly not painting a rosy picture of where we are at.
Yes, of course, he is optimistic about being able to turn things around; but he is not dishing up pablum.
You may not accept my hypothesis that Trump is a living metaphor for American Conservatism; but let us keep the debate on an honest plane.
Isolationism (rooted in a verrrry different era of US History when Washington was nursing a very vulnerable infant nation was one thing and it did not last very long since we got into it with the Barbary pirates not so long thereafter and had another war with the Brits in 1812.
I am much more of a devotee of Andrew Jackson than ever I will be of Alexander Hamilton. The business "interests" have been corrupting the USA since Hamilton's time as Treasury Secretary. First, the public had the sense to reject "Federalist" Party power once and for all at the political expense of John Adams who was a far better man than Hamilton. Then Aaron Burr removed Hamilton altogether by firing a fortunate shot at Weehawken, NJ. Jackson hammered these SOBs and their "National Bank" scheme into the earth after Jefferson had regrettably failed to do the honors earlier.
The greedypig government centralizing enemies of the constitution raged at Jackson, had their Senate censure him and did every kabuki dance imaginable to reclaim their lost economic dominating central bank. The late unpleasantness between the states occurred when Lincoln was elected against no less than three essentially Democratic candidates, any of which would have been far better for the American and for the nearly 700,000 young Americans butchered i Lincoln's war. Then Lincoln was "martyred" and the predecessors of today's donor class big government ran around the country waving his bloody shirt for the gulls of the next generation or two. "Pay no attention to the thieves behind the curtain and remember that our Father Abraham was murdered by their enemies."
Then the Democrat Party went temporarily bad with Woodrow Wilson, enactment of the federal income tax amendment and creation of the Federal Reserve Bank and somewhat permanently bad abandoning the small government Al Smith approach in favor of FDR's nomination an big government policies.
Hamilton and Henry Clay ad Abraham Lincoln were now as represented in the Democrat Party as in the Republican Party. Fast forward a few decades and even the FDR style policies of LBJ were not enough to satisfy the rabid left and they handed George McGovern and his fellow reds in their ranks the permanent keys to what had previously been the "party of the working man" and a party that previously believed in flat out winning necessary wars.
Meanwhile, the Republicans, not to be outdone by much, nominated Tricky Dick, who brought in the supine foreign policy of Henry Kissinger, second rate SCOTUS justices, and porking up Muffie's trust fund uber alles. And Nixon fed Agnew to the lions and then begat Feckless Ford. Reagan, who was certain to lose as an impossible right wing nut, at least according to TRUMP!!!'s fellow Manhattan elitists, gave the GOP a temporary respite that it did not deserve and won 93 of a possible 100 states in two elections and came closer to carrying New York City, losing by 27,000 votes, than any GOP candidate since Calvin Coolidge in 1924. Te GOP-E was shocked!, shocked! and has spared no effort since to make sure that there not be another philistine peasant like that Gipper fellow occupying their penthouse, errr outhouse, no make that White House!
There are MANY litmus tests for conservative priorities and AMONG them are: closing off all but necessary immigration for the foreseeable future until we have digested those already admitted illegally or sent them home, the babies, guns, marriage, a thoroughly restored and enhanced dominant military capable and willing to absolutely intimidate and crush this nation's enemies whenever they may have the nerve to show their heads, putting an end to these infernal sovereignty-sapping trade sellouts that are destroying the lives of ordinary Americans, dealing a death blow to Islamofascism and Iran's nuke program and the suicide bombings and the rest, restoring civility in our public life in manners, language and moral behavior and subjecting our nation's leaders to high standards in those respects.
Now, charitably speaking, TRUMP!!! does not seem enthusiastic for most of those priorities since he is nothing vaguely resembling a conservative. He is credible on combating excess immigration (and maybe even building THE WALL, but we will pay for it, which is OK since we want it. He seems credible on guns which is a bit strange given his Manhattan residence. He is credible on giving a LOT better treatment to veterans and he will probbly be willing to spend some money on the military restoration but not enough to get the job done.
Other than those issues, many of them important, he will be anything but a conservative in office. He has always been a pro-abort, including support even for "partial birth" abortion. He then insults our intelligence by claiming to have been converted on the subject while bouncing the AMAZING!!! child of a friend in his lap. Had he never bounced his own children in his lap? Or were they just ordinary? Do merely ordinary children also deserve to live? How about Down's Syndrome kids? Kids affected by Cerebral Palsy? Clearly, he has not thought these lies through to their logical conclusions and clearly, on life matters, he is a charlatan and no conservative.
Morals? Civility? His language in this campaign is unprecedented for vulgarity by a POTUS candidate. He incorporated a striptease joint in his Atlantic City casino and STILL managed to bankrupt a casino! Casinos mint money. It is what they do and what they are.
Might do away with trade deals? Isn't The Donald known primarily as a wheeler dealer and prides himself on The Art of the Deal? Isn't he the only GOP POTUS candidate to predict that he can make "deals with Schmucky hewmer and Nancy elosi and Harry Reid (whose term will end before Inauguration Day in 2017?) What kind of deals will be made with such sorry excuses for Americans? What more will actual conservatives be expected to give u to the Deal God?
I can pick your candidate apart with ease but, by all means, let us recognize that The Donald is The Donald and keep this debate on an honest plane. That requires a preliminary abandonment of the pretense that TRUMP!!! is any kind of conservative. Some of us have been conservative through many long years, some fat and some lean, and we aren't about to be good little lemmings running off the cliff for Mr. Bluster.
If Mr. Bluster is a metaphor for American Conservatism, then it is no wonder that our nation is in such crisis and that the mobs in the streets fancy themselves "conservatives" in service to The Donald.
If ever I should "withdraw" a claim, I will be sure to let my critics know that specifically. Draw no inferences. Make no assumptions.
If, as seems likely, TRUMP!!! wraps up the nomination, it will be up to TRUMP!!! to convince his critics. I am a conservative and not a TRUMP!!! groupie. The “butt hurt” (how very TRUMP!!!ian, maybe I have blood coming out of my wherever, too?) is dedication to the principles of conservatism. If that’s a problem for you and for him, make the most of it!
And also to ignore the reality as though it were irrelevant?
What on earth does TRUMP!!! have in common with Russell Kirk, Bill Buckley, Bill Rusher, Frank Meyer, Will Herberg, James Burnham, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich von Hayek, Thomas Sowell, Ronald Reagan, or Jack Kemp?
To translate into English, you propose not to broaden conservatism but to dilute it into insignificance. AND, don’t forget, Ronald Reagan could NEVER have been elected since he was such an extremist, not at all like any of our chums down at the polo club or at any of TRUMP!!!’s resorts.
I question how false the label is but that has nothing to do with whether he is a conservative or not.
Most of the attacks on Trump's "Conservatism" are based upon cherry picking among his actions and pronouncements from years ago.
You don't have to go back years to question Trump's conservative credentials, only weeks or months. Conservatives want to reduce spending. Trump talks of increasing spending, on the military and infrastructure and entitlements like Medicare and Social Security. A Conservative wants to reduce the size of government. Trump has given no indications on where he wants to reduce government, only where he wants to expand it. A conservative respects the Constitution and seeks to strengthen it. Trump want to weaken the First Amendment and the Fourth Amendment and the Eight and the Tenth Amendments. Trump is many things but a true conservative is not one of them.
Thanks to Trump, it may never again be quite so easy to intimidate dissent in America.
Unless Trump can do a number on the First Amendment like he wants.
Taking on the idea that certain subjects, where the Left has no argument, but has relied on its efforts to intimidate, should be off limits, has demonstrated a major aspect of any reasoned Conservatism--the right to fully examine what is real and what is not. (All Leftist theories are wishful. Conservatism has always been grounded on reality.)
You lump together a bunch of Conservatives, who did not support the same litmus tests. For example, although he served as the publisher for Buckley’s National Review, Rusher called me on a matter in the 1970s, which strongly convinces me that he would have endorsed Trump, this time around. (I will not get into the details, because they go to particular political alliances at the time, and would not be germane to the particular issues today—but might be used by the Leftist lurkers to create faux issues.)
The Barbary Pirates war was in no way a departure from the Washington/Jefferson foreign policy. When Jefferson was Washington's Secretary of State, he defined the common policy in terms of "punishing the first insult." No body simply suggested that we were too weak to act when our interests demanded. That was not my point; nor was it a fact.
Read the "debate," I published: Washington/Bush Debate, not primarily for the fact that the Founders generally opposed intervention in other lands' internal affairs--although that certainly, by any use of language, is the Conservative position. No, but for the clear, clean grasp that Washington showed of the human psychological factors that are really ageless.
Jeb's older brother was so confused, at the time, in trying to outline his concept of an American mission, that in his speech he used the term "Freedom" in six different and conflicting senses; while Washington's explanations went not just to the argument that people now try to refute--the reliance on the distance from Europe--but to the effects on the psychology on the home front, in getting involved in picking favorites and enemies, as fragmenting our cohesive spirit. (Of course, the converse would be true in other lands; where our perceived claim of a right to change cultures, has proven an enormous recruiting tool to our enemies. And consider the four generations of folly in British policy in Ireland.)
Trump does not have the developed clarity of expression that Washington displayed; but his dust-up with Jeb on the last debate where Jeb tried to take him on, showed far greater and far more Conservative clarity than Jeb could manage.
I typed too fast. Of course, I meant four centuries, not generations, on the British effort to change Irish culture. I also forgot to acknowledge—as fairness requires—that I agreed with a few of the diverse items in your long response to my # 57.
I think you give his blustering and bullying and insults and profanity far too much credit. It doesn't make him a champion against political correctness. It just makes him a jerk.
Taking on the idea that certain subjects, where the Left has no argument, but has relied on its efforts to intimidate, should be off limits, has demonstrated a major aspect of any reasoned Conservatism--the right to fully examine what is real and what is not. (All Leftist theories are wishful. Conservatism has always been grounded on reality.)
But in turn Trump has shown that on key conservative principles - smaller government, less intrusive government, respect for the Constitution - he holds positions that are completely the opposite.
As for his "bullying?" Does the good kid who steps on to the playground to deal with the "bully," who has been intimidating his friends, lose his status as a "bully thrasher," if he insults the bully, before thrashing him? I do not think so.
you mistake a bully for what is a strong leader.
your slander is misplaced and smacks of ignorance
Trump makes people think he is a strong leader by him shouting and repeating the words that he is a strong leader.
His words are just words.
And he is a bully.
His family and the people who work for him spend half their time working to make sure he doesn't get mad at him.
Bullies do that, you know.
Being ignorant of business in or reason to show your ignorance in public forum
filing a law suit is ordinary business
He threatened to sue Ted Cruz just recently for Ted running an ad using Trump's own words.
Trump threatened to sue and Ted said go right ahead in fact Ted was planning on conducting Trump's deposition if it went that far.
Trump didn't file the suit. Cuz it didn't work with Ted. Ted can't be bullied.
I would like to ask all the Trumpers in Freeperland, do you really want a president who yells "lawsuit" every time his feelings get hurt? Isn't that just a tad bit petty?
Oh yeah, he has already said that he is going to change the libel laws. No president, not even our worst presidents have ever tried to change the libel laws. But somehow now the libel laws are bad because they don't favor Trump.
Only confirmed bullies do that kind of stuff.
Not filing nuisance law suits.
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