[SeekAndFind]

Before Trump, most Republican politicians saw lying to their base — or at least to a certain part of their base — as a necessary and proper part of their job.  Consider, for instance, this representative quote from Mac Stipanovich, chief of staff to Bob Martinez, the moderate Florida governor who later served in the first Bush administration:

There was always an element of the Republican Party that was bats--- crazy. They had lots of different names — they were John Birchers, they were 'movement conservatives,' they were the religious right. And we did what every other Republican candidate did: we exploited them. We got them to the polls. We talked about abortion. We promised — and we did nothing. They could grumble, but their choices were limited.

The tawdry history of how the pre-Trump Republican Party has used and discarded the religious right — especially the pro-life movement — is rather long.  Even so, I think it's important for conservatives to know it.

[SeekAndFind]

Prior to Trump, the last Republican president who did not appoint at least one pro-choice Supreme Court justice was Herbert Hoover, who left office in 1933. Hoover appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, but they had all retired or died by the time the next Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was elected in 1952.

Eisenhower appointed five justices, two of whom — William J. Brennan and Potter Stewart — were still on the Court when it decided Roe v. Wade in 1973. Both voted with the liberals to create a constitutional right to abortion.

Eisenhower, a general with no former political experience, was notoriously bad at choosing judges. He even admitted, in private, that some of his Supreme Court nominations were the worst mistakes he had ever made. Perhaps he can be forgiven for picking the justices that he did...but the rest of the country would still have to suffer for it.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Trump was the first President since Eisenhower to attempt to stop the illegal alien inundation.

That made both parties so mad they hobbled his term and cheated him out of office.

[TexasGator]

“Roe vs. Wade: How Trump Succeeded Where Reagan Failed”

Reagan didn’t have three nominees and a republican senate!

[rintintin]

“ Back in December of 2017, Donald Trump announced that the U.S. embassy in Israel would be moving to Jerusalem. This made a lot of people angry. The press and the political establishment condemned it as a hostile gesture that would make diplomacy with “Palestine” harder. The U.N. Security Council voted to denounce it. The Palestinians rioted.

Trump went through with the move anyway,”

Trump promised to build a wall all along the southern border of the US. He didn’t deliver. The fact he moved an embassy on the other side of the world doesn’t make up for his failure to fulfill his wall promise here at home. Being America First should mean fulfilling your American promises before turning to issues half a world away.

[BlackAdderess]

There is another way of looking at this, and that is that rather than legislating a solution agreeable to the majority of voters by legalizing first trimester abortion (that is where the voters were in the 1970’s, and where they still are today), both sides decided to politicize the issue and fundraise off of it for 49 years. Today we have both the NOW and NARAL taken over by BIPOC and the alphabet people, neither of whom has anything approaching the electoral clout to push through their agenda, but by keeping abortion in play for 49 years, legislators who are not interested in doing their jobs by representing the will of their constituents have created this social justice mess by keeping a majority of voters unsettled for a prolonged period of time by normalizing the idea that a precedent can stand for decades so long as the other two branches of government can be controlled and prevented from upsetting the apple cart.

[x]

Trump could appoint three justices and had a Senate that would confirm them. He wasn't tempted to make any spectacular "firsts" and he had a great list of potentials to choose from.

Also, in the Trump years, many Arab countries were more scared of and opposed to Iran than to Israel. It was clear that moving the embassy to Jerusalem wasn't a priority to other presidents -- should it have been? -- but it was easier for Trump to do that than it would have been for them.

Trump was a good president, but chance, circumstances, and the changing opportunities for presidents played a role in both decisions. Also, things do get written into platforms that candidates really don't want.

If you expect politicians to attempt everything in their party platforms -- or to achieve everything they promised to do -- you are only setting yourself up for disappointment. The difficulty of getting things done is a feature of our political system.

[BlackAdderess]

Nothing is going to get fixed until we ditch the idea that 13% of the population can routinely shove its will down the throat of the remaining 87%, and get back to government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Nothing will be fixed until representatives start doing their jobs, you know, by representing their districts.

[murron]

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