Maybe this is the way "religious" conservatives see this, but it is dead wrong as far as constitutional conservatives. If we voted for folks because of what they said, we would still be voting for Paul Ryan and Jeb! Get real. We are way past the gab,gab, gab fool me 17 times level of politics.
When I voted for Trump I wasn't spinning any cylinder and taking my chances. I, speaking only for myself, want not words, but action, and I voted for the man, not because of what he said, but because of what he had done. Getting the stuff done that he got done and the deals done that he got done speaks volumes. A man who builds buildings knows the difference between steel, concrete, digging foundations, engineering and architectural plans on the one hand and process, paperwork and regulation on the other. The one results in a product you can sell or use, the other is just a waste of oxygen and worse, good money that could have hired someone to make something or do something. There is one thing that Trump said that did impress me - that the Iraq invasion was a bad deal. It was the worst we could possibly have made because it was a one-sided lose deal aside from some DC cronies who have made a bundle of the thing. There was no upside. There was no win-win/lose-lose or win-lose bargain to be had. It was just one-sided lose. The American people lost. We lost treasure, we lost lives, and if things continue going the wrong way, we maybe lost our country.
That's why I voted for Trump the man - you know, the guy in the ring.
These so-called right-wing hand wringers - oh, maybe he is a good fighter but he's got mud on his face, or this version, well he's got mud on his face, but we will accept him, for the time being because he is fighting - are the reason conservatism has been on the ropes for so many years. The left is not making this stuff up about a genuine conservative weakness and this article just goes to prove it.
Dammit. Trump is a good fighter because he has mud on his face, and despite that and the catcalls from the left because of the catcalls from the right, he kept fighting. As the article said, many revered saints were far from perfect. There is the old saying good judgment is the result of experience and experience is the result of bad judgment. And that is probably why the saints persevered for causes and in the face of odds that any so-called "saintly" person would have ran from.
The General who won the Civil War was Grant. He drank, wasn't a perfumed prince, etc. etc. There is a lesson in this, a really harsh lesson the right needs to learn and real fast or we won't have a country. Holier than though hasn't cut it for a long time, but we get holier than thou Hillarys and Bushes because we like holier than thou. Grow up. I think most of us have.
Great post Andy.
And to those who share a negative view of the future, I will point out that President Trump pledged his ‘Life, his Fortunes, and his sacred Honor’ to run for a thankless position where he is incessantly attacked by the Democrats and media.
He could have instead stayed home, played golf and enjoy his grandchildren and wife. Instead he jumped into the fray and a world in which people get beaten up for wearing a MAGA cap.
My previous tagline said: “President Trump isn’t our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.”
L
You said it, I’ll steal a line from Lincoln... “he fights”.
I think the revolver analogy is apt. Since he was not a politician, he had no record to review. All we had was what he said on the campaign trail and interviews he did during his life. In short, he could have lied throughout the campaign like leftists do, and then when elected, do what all leftists do which is execute communist policies.
Now that we are two years plus on, we see he was not lying and has done his best against the deep state swamp with little support from a GOP lead house of representatives, plus a Chief Justice who has effectively become a liberal.
JoMa
I think most of us have "grown up".
Dan Bongino states it quite well when he characterizes the attitude many of us have towards President Trump as "Battlefield Morality".
By that, he means that things you might not normally accept or approve of are tolerated or shoved aside because what is at stake is far more important than a priggish judgement on a sexual peccadillo.
For my part, I have never ascribed to the notion that the President of the United States (or any politician for that matter) would be someone that would be a role model...though they can be in certain cases. I feel the same way about celebrities, actors, and sports figures. In the same way I only care about why someone is a celebrity, how they act, and how they play play their sport, I only care about how effective a President is as a Chief Executive and how he or she represents my values and observes the guidelines of The Constitution.
However, Hillary was unquestionably worse. So, given the choices between doing nothing, picking a nation-ending candidate, and voting for Trump .... I voted Trump and mentally crossed my fingers.
I'm pleased to be completely wrong in my initial assessment. President Trump has exceeded my wildest expectations, even with half of the Republican party, 98% of the media, and 100% of the dems working against him. He's dragged the Republican party to the right - something that I didn't think I'd see happen again in my lifetime - and removed 100's (1000's? more??) of DC swamp creatures from both parties. DC is a town that needs to be turned upside down and shaken out occasionally, and Pres. Trump turned out to be just the guy to do it. Is he a good man? Probably not, but sometimes the best man for the job isn't a good one.
Barring a 180 degree turnaround - I will happily vote FOR him (not against the other guy...) in 2020.
+1.
I was a rare Giuliani supporter in 2007-8 who didn't get banned. I said exactly what you just said.
Here was a very unusual politician who said he was going to do something "impossible", and then went ahead and did it.
I feel the same way about DJT. I grew up in NYC when he was a young man, and by the mid-80s he was the punchline of a joke.
But that was then.
Post#7. . .excellent comment. . .bravo AndyJackson
” Holier than though hasn’t cut it for a long time, but we get holier than thou Hillarys and Bushes because we like holier than thou. Grow up. I think most of us have.”
Thank you for this comment. We are the resistance. The resistance has to fight out of sewers and do things that are usually frowned upon. That is our only way to win. Yet, some here still hold noses at etiquette offences like this is a parlor game. Amazing.
“Holier than though hasn’t cut it for a long time.”
Which is why I was dismayed when Rand Paul decided not to support Trump on the emergency wall order.
Paul might be an academic and well trained general like McClellan, but Trump fights like Grant. As the author said, we don’t want to have to “shoot our way out of socialism”. Trump is giving the country a chance to avoid collpase.
Tempt not a desperate man, exactly.