Posted on 09/22/2016 6:19:30 AM PDT by Kaslin
A "never Trump" friend I've known since law school writes:
"My former partner is old enough to have voted for Barry Goldwater. And like me, he is pro-choice, pro-gay rights and libertarian, so there are some Neanderthal Republicans out there who are just too distasteful to vote for. So, like me, he often votes Libertarian. He does not see much about Donald Trump that resembles a traditional Republican."
For the millionth time, Trump is not a fiscal conservative. He is a populist. And his near-embrace by many evangelicals notwithstanding, New Yorker Trump with "New York values" is likely pro-choice and pro-gay marriage. The man doesn't even go to church. And speaking of "traditional Republicans": GOP voters backed Mitt "Romneycare" Romney and John "McCain-Feingold" McCain, but they draw the line at insufficiently conservative Trump?
Here's the problem. We live in a center-left country. Not center-right -- center-left. We talk the talk of low taxes and ending entitlements and terminating this or that social program -- until a fiscal conservative true believer proposes legislation to do just that.
Goldwater, in 1964, lost in a landslide. The main reason President Ronald Reagan got elected in 1980, despite his many gifts and his conservative principles, was voter disdain for President Jimmy Carter -- gas lines, the Iran rescue debacle, stagflation. Most conservatives who romanticize about Reagan don't get this point! Yes, we "need" another Reagan. But to bring that about, given the ever-increasing leftward tilt of the country, we need another Jimmy Carter.
Americans never embraced Reagan's stated conservative agenda -- advocating pro-life policies; standing down the Soviet Union by, among other things, funding "Star Wars"; dramatically lowering taxes; and encouraging true free trade (despite his protection of the auto industry with stupid Japanese car "voluntary" import quotas, and protecting Harley-Davidson, among other measures).
David Stockman, Reagan's young, fiscally conservative then-House member -- a Paul Ryan-type numbers guy -- headed his Office of Management and Budget. He wanted to take a machete to the size of government. But he failed to roll back much of anything. After leaving in frustration, Stockman wrote "The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed." He laments that with the combination of special interests and Reagan's refusal to bat them down, the size of domestic government grew even under the "Great Communicator."
But Reagan was liked personally, and when he was shot, his popularity soared. Americans were proud and impressed at the way he handled it with humor and without hatred. What, because of the attempted assassination Americans underwent an ideological metamorphosis? Of course not. In fact, when he was going through another rough patch, he reportedly joked with his wife, Nancy, that maybe he should go out and get himself shot again.
Consider this passage from The New York Times in 1986, the middle of Reagan's second term and two years after a 49-states-to-1 reelection blowout over Democrat Walter Mondale:
"For example, (Reagan's) personal popularity ratings, especially high for a second-term President, are not matched by public support for some of his key policies. As Fred I. Greenstein, a professor of politics at Princeton, puts it: 'He is more successful than any recent President in establishing space between himself and his policies.'"
This brings us to 2016. And it's even more left-wing now. Reagan pushed the income tax top marginal rate down to 28 percent. His successor raised the rate, as did Clinton. Yes, GWB rolled them back to about 35 percent, but they're back up.
In eight years, Reagan did not raise the minimum wage. Few of this year's GOP rivals, save Rand Paul, made a forceful argument against it. And Rick Santorum and Ben Carson wanted to raise it!
President George W. Bush tried to partially privatize Social Security -- and his party abandoned him on the issue. We now have "universal health care," which people are forced to join, and a self-described socialist might have won the Democratic nomination had he not stupidly taken Hillary Clinton's email issue off the table.
Finally, look at still popular and respected ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell, a supposed Republican. He is pro-gun control; pro-choice; pro-affirmative action. He criticized the House Speaker Newt Gingrich's 1994 "Contract With America" as a "little too harsh"; twice voted for Obama; and thinks the GOP has a "dark vein of intolerance" -- code for racist.
Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.
They're not fooling anyone, they're part of the Globalist Fascist Elite and don't give a damn about anything excepting keeping their Ponzy scam going.
Well if Barack Obama isn’t our Jimmy Carter, who is.
Trump is more a deal negotiator than a dictator, and he’s apparently seeing a formula in America that needs such facilitator oversight to bring it to pass. He might be personally permissive about some things that he’d never agree make sense to have formal social support for — and might be more pro-life than many think.
Please, the elite of that day didn’t like Reagan either.
The GOP elites didn’t much care for Reagan either. All they care about is conning the base into voting for them so they can continue their Ponzy scam (as you so aptly put it).
The Never Trump crowd would be just as opposed to Ronald Reagan. Their allegiance to conservatism is only a pretense to cloak their motives. Does it make sense to uphold their supposedly “pure” conservatism by going whole-hog for a traitor?
If you’re pro-choice and pro-homo, then you’re probably NOT a conservative anyway. So go vote Libertarian. We don’t need a bunch of lukewarm fence-sitters diluting the discourse any more than it already is.
The root word of “conservative” is “conserve.” Look it up. Our goal is not to adapt to the times or change with every shift in the wind, but to CONSERVE those values that have stood the test of time. Those don’t include murdering our children and endorsing sexual depravity, no matter how “cool” those things have become.
I don’t really agree with the article, even though I don’t like the NeverTrump people. The support for either Trump or Cruz in the primary was from the Republican Party becoming too similar to the Democratic Party. Trump is conservative on most issues, except ones he thought he’d lose on, example not talking about Social Security reform. I don’t think we should act like we don’t care about conservatism just because we’re supporting Trump.
The Never Trump crowd would be just as opposed to Ronald Reagan. Their allegiance to conservatism is only a pretense to cloak their motives. Does it make sense to uphold their supposedly “pure” conservatism by going whole-hog for a traitor?
They are frauds. That they prefer Obama & Hillary Clinton to the choice of the GOP primary voting base is all the proof you need to know about their principles and conservatism.
We now have the “fiscal conservatism” of Paul Ryan that includes cutting vet pay while welfare queens get full ride. There is simply nothing principled or conservative about the chattering class “conservatives” against Trump.
Mitt Romneycare has shown he is just as much a progressive as Hillary Clinton. I’m surprised he hasn’t endorsed her yet.
At least not during this election cycle...
Am I mistaken or did I hear that George H.W. Bush REJECTED the claim that he was supporting hilLIARy?
He said the reporter put words into his mouth and he was NOT saying who he was supporting at all.
I guess the media will be all over this.
The Trumpers of today would probably have voted for Reagan. They were all really from interest rates so high many lost houses because they couldnt refinance.
The Saudis were really hurting the average american because of the oil embargo and gas prices that were up probably 800%.
Doom and gloom was everywhere, long gaslines and a president(Carter)who seemed like a co-conspirator with whatever cosmic forces that wanted to squash America. Layoffs were up and no one was hiring.
Here is Carter’s Crisis of Confidence” speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kakFDUeoJKM
Reagan pretty much brought back the country on his own, until others finally got on board.
Please tell me what’s left to “conserve?”
We gave up on capitalism long ago. Pro-fag judges have legitimized sodomy and infanticide. Genocidal whites have committed cultural suicide by bowing down to blacks and third-world immigrants.
Just what is left to “conserve?” Nothing. It is time for a pro-America nationalist government to torch the barn and smoke the rats out.
I get so sick of the academic “conservatives” in the forum bitching because Trump doesn’t give esoteric constitutional law lectures and cite from the Federalist papers.
And yes, I am a millennial.
“Am I mistaken or did I hear that George H.W. Bush REJECTED the claim that he was supporting hilLIARy?”
I searched `George H.W. Bush rejects the claim that he is supporting Hillary Clinton’ and found nothing. Maybe I should have put `rejects’ in capital letters.
Yes, I would love to see that the Bushes and Cruz, and the other oath-breakers have finally come to their senses.
But the Bushes are in the tank for Hitlery because she’s their girl and it was Jeb’s turn.
After spending millions of donors’ dollars Jebediah only got two delegates.
He paid for the job fair and square, but didn’t get it. It’s not supposed to work that way, ya know?
Unless you have a cite, something more than “some say,” you must be mistaken.
It looks like Bush I, like Bush II—both still have bad cases of `red a**’ over Trump taking Jeb’s job.
Like Ted Cruz they are apparently willing to try and throw the election to the `rats in the vain and deluded hope that they can commit this treachery & accomplish this result and there will still be a GOP in 2020.
He could’ve done much more if the GOP didn’t foist globalist HW Bush on him, thus allowing the CIA/Globalist co-op him.
Democrats own blacks and GOPe feel entitled to the conservative and defense vote but never support it. All the chessy RNC hawk patriotic showmanship during Bush I and Dole elections were very obvious in fakey
*cheesy
it was on FR yesterday so there must be a thread- I wish I could recall something about the title that would help search- but it was here on FR
Message to everyone who supports TRUMP, the anti-Trumpers would have opposed Reagan too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.