Posted on 04/26/2011 9:28:40 AM PDT by jmaroneps37
The boomlet for Donald Trump as a Republican nominee for president of the United States ought to be a wake-up call for Republican candidates and Republican party leaders alike.
Why has Trump surged ahead of other Republican candidates and potential candidates in the polls? It is not likely that his resurrection of the issue of Barack Obama’s birth certificate has aroused all this support.
The birth-certificate issue does more political damage to Obama’s critics than to the president himself, because it enables the media to paint those critics as kooks. Nor are Donald Trump’s political positions such as to create a stampede to his cause.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Radio-talk-show host Mark Levin has rebroadcast Trump’s varied and mutually contradictory statements on political issues and personalities over the years. It was a devastating revelation of Trump’s “versatility of convictions,” to use a phrase coined long ago by Thorstein Veblen.
So then what is Donald Trump’s appeal? And why should it concern Republican leaders in general?
Trump has what so many other Republicans are so painfully lacking: the ability and the willingness to articulate arguments clearly, forcefully, and in plain English. Too many Republicans talk like the actor of whom a critic once said, “he played the king like he was afraid that someone else was going to play the ace.”
What electrified so many Republicans about Sarah Palin in the 2008 election campaign was that her speeches offered such a contrast to the usual mealy-mouthed talk common among other Republican candidates, including Sen. John McCain. Whether you agreed or disagreed with her position on the issues, you didn’t have to wave your hand in front of her eyes to see if she was awake.
Donald Trump is dangerous in at least two senses. If, by some tragic miracle, he should become the Republicans’ candidate for president in 2012, that would be the closest thing to an iron-clad guarantee of a second term in the White House for Barack Obama.
That would be a huge setback for the Republicans — and, far more important — a historic catastrophe for this country.
What seems more likely is that Donald Trump as a candidate for the Republican nomination would use his superior articulation skills — not to mention brash irresponsibility — to trash all the other Republican candidates for that nomination, leaving them damaged goods in the eyes of the public, and therefore less able to gather the votes needed to prevent the reelection of Obama.
Why Republicans seem not to understand the crucial importance of putting the same time and attention into articulating their positions as the Democrats do is one of the enduring mysteries of American politics.
It was obvious that the Democrats coordinated their talking points and catch-phrases — “social justice,” “tax cuts for the rich,” etc. — even before the overheard and recorded statements of Sen. Chuck Schumer about Democrats’ plans to repeatedly use the word “extreme” to characterize Republicans.
But how many Republican catch phrases can you remember? Republican rhetoric tends to range from low key to no key.
Nor is there much evidence that Republicans have asked themselves how the left wing of the Democratic party gained such ascendancy in recent years, in a country where millions more people identify themselves as conservative than as liberals.
In short, there is little or no evidence that most Republicans see any need to fundamentally change their approach to the public. But if they think that they can rely on Obama’s declining popularity to win the 2012 election, they may be in for a rude shock. Worse yet, the whole future of this country and of Western civilization will be in jeopardy — in a world where the likes of Iran and North Korea become nuclear powers while we engage in empty talk at the U.N.
Barack Obama’s declining support in public-opinion polls makes some conservatives feel that his reelection hopes are doomed. But Donald Trump can be Barack Obama’s secret weapon in his fight to remain in the White House. The Donald can be his Trump card.
Congratulations, you've also just described George Soros, Warren Buffet and any number of other successful liberal business people. None of whom are at all conservative, yet they are extremely savvy and successful. And based on the populist progressive stuff Trump has advocated in the past, he may very well push an agenda Buffet and Soros would support - especially stuff like single payer socialist health care, massive wealth taxes, etc.
You know, if Bill Buckley were launching his career today he'd get hooted off FR.
Inherited money, prep school and Yale, and especially that faggy accent....he's obviously not One Of Us, right?
I doubt that those who think a TV reality show catchphrase - "You're Fired" - is a conservative campaign platform, would have the attention span to make it through two chapters of a book by Buckley, or by Sowell.
Yup, I completely agree.
One can surely hope! :)
Yes, he's refusing to release some records. However, none of the records he is keeping private is relevant to his eligibility to be president.
Nor is he spending any money to hide them, as privacy laws protect them.
What's amazing is your inability to comprehend what I've said and make up blatant lies out of whole cloth so easily.
I never even hinted that we shouldn't follow the Constitution or that Obama should be immune from the law.
There's a third reason you haven't thought of: by hiding it, he encourages the birther movement, which helps him politically by dividing his opposition.
Trump: 'Iowa Is Very, Very Important to Me' ('I'm a very conservative person')
Monday, April 25, 2011 5:45:05 PM · 55 of 60
Jim Robinson to Notary Sojac
We’ve already zotted a couple of overzealous trumpeteers for trashing Levin, Coulter, Malkin, etc, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if a few more don’t get the zot. There is no call to trash our conservative friends in a misguided effort to prop up a charlatan.
Note two things here.
(1) Jim explicitly calls Trump a "charlatan". I have disagreed with JimRob on a few things in the past, but not on this one.
(2) There is no call to trash conservatives (such as Sowell) if they don't hold your particular obsession to the degree that you do.
No, you didn’t hurt my feelings. Yes, it’s clear you that like to play games. I suspect that’s because you have nothing substantive to discuss.
Inherited money, prep school and Yale, and especially that faggy accent....he's obviously not One Of Us, right?
Exactly. If find really disturbing the extent to which the conservative movement has become hijacked by populist yokels.
Populism is not conservative.
"Obama's records should be made public" is a very rational position and I could not agree more.
"Obama's records should be made public, and this is an issue that if hammered on frenetically will win elections in 2012", is, in my opinion, nuts.
Like you Ace, trying to twist what a person said, LOL.
Try again!
Well, I guess it’s hard to respond directly to another’s post without pinging them :-)
Because you quoted JimRob about the birth certificate issue, and I wanted to show that as recently as yesterday he was outspoken on the idea that Obama’s lack of citizenship documentation is NO reason for Trump-worship nor for anger at good conservatives who aren’t on the BC train.
It's beyond disturbing. It's almost frightening because it's indicative of the kind of ignorance that leads to hate that itself leads to persecution.
As someone who grew up in the '70s reading Buckley, Kirk, Strauss, Hayek and the other greats, I've often said that Thomas Sowell is the only writer today who is worthy to be mentioned in the same breath. Light years beyond the Hannitys, O'Reillys, and Savages.
Trash Sowell, and you are really on my pissed-off side.
Are you on drugs?? Seriously you are so full of double talk it’s unbelievable. You say one thing and then the very next post you say you are not saying that. Uhhhh Okay....
LOL! Shaking My Head!
“Congratulations, you’ve also just described George Soros, Warren Buffet and any number of other successful liberal business people.”
Yeah, I’ve heard them calling for the truth about obama and the monetary situation regarding the Chinese on all the networks.
I’ve seen the Buffet Towers all over the world, and the Buffet and Soros Casinos.
Soros and Buffet make money off others works, or devaluing others monetary systems.
Trump creates, and stands in front of, glass, brick and steel monuments to American Capitalism.
In or out of politics, other than they are all rich, they are nowhere near alike.
Trump works for a living, even if that work is promoting Trump.
Trump would be a great advocate for America. Soros? Buffet?
I’ve never heard a peep from either one of them concerning American exceptionalism. To the contrary whenever either of them is speaking, America has always done something wrong, or Americans need to send the government more money to fix what is wrong.
Thank you Notary Sojac.
Want to play games, we can play games.
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