Posted on 09/19/2015 5:43:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last week, National Review’s Jim Geraghty published what may be the most insightful essay yet [1] on the difference between the conservative movement and Donald Trump and his followers. Geraghty has noticed a telling reticence on Trump’s part to utter such words as “freedom” or “liberty.” By contrast, Geraghty notes that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker used the word “freedom” six times in the 179-word announcement of his plan to replace ObamaCare, and Ted Cruz used “freedom” twice and “liberty” eleven times in his announcement speech at Liberty University, not counting references to the university itself.
The reason for this lack of keywords is that Trump’s principles are very different from those who are inspired by the likes of the late William F. Buckley; he is indifferent to the size and scope of big government and quite indifferent to Constitutional guarantees of citizens’ rights. For instance, Robert VerBruggen pointed out several months ago [2] that Trump has not only been a serial abuser of the eminent domain provision of the Constitution but, having lost a case in which the state of New Jersey tried and failed to dispossess an elderly widow of her property on his behalf, even welcomed the disastrous Supreme Court decision in the Kelo case in 2005.
All of Trump’s campaign rhetoric centers on power politics — strength, American greatness — often in terms which would not look out of place in a speech by some nationalistic autocrat. And this doesn’t appear to bother his followers one bit, or at least no more than they are bothered by his disgusting boorishness concerning women (ask Megyn Kelly and Carly Fiorina) or his schoolyard-bully taunts of any Republicans who criticize him (as Bobby Jindal and, most recently, Rick Perry and Ben Carson can testify).
But what I find truly shocking is not Trump’s behavior, which has been on display for decades, nor his ability to attract a certain type of follower. What I find shocking is Rush Limbaugh’s defense of Trump in the face of Geraghty’s analysis.
On September 11th, Limbaugh read Geraghty’s piece on air, and then responded by alleging that Trump doesn’t need to use those keywords because he embodies freedom and liberty in his actions, and is indeed the object of envy for those who don’t innately exhibit those qualities.
The reason I’m shocked comes from Limbaugh’s assertion that he hasn’t endorsed any of the candidates. Yet he and several other talk-show hosts have been instrumental in empowering Trump. They imply consent of his boorishness, effectively egging him on to say ever more outrageous things while Limbaugh and company blow on the glowing coals of rage at the perceived Washington establishment, regardless of party. What Limbaugh has done here is to conflate license and libertinism with freedom and liberty, and he’s surely sophisticated and intelligent enough to know the difference.
I am not suggesting that the frustration may not be justified; I’m suggesting that the rage buoying up Trump’s campaign is a very dangerous and ultimately counter-productive political emotion, one which threatens to trump (pun intended) the principles on which the movement has been based on for the last 60-odd years.
Far from being a champion of liberty in any rational sense, Trump is the embodiment of crony capitalism. In the first Republican debate, and several times subsequently, he has openly boasted of borderline, if not actual, political corruption, quid-pro-quo contributions and payments he has made to politicians at all levels in order to secure favors for his projects. He is (as I mentioned above) wholeheartedly in favor of government misuse of eminent domain and the disastrous Kelo decision of SCOTUS.
Trump represents, as Leon Wolf has eloquently written in Red State, not any sort of conservatism, but a right-wing mob similar to the left-wing mobs evident in such phenomena as Sanders rallies and BlackLivesMatter. About a month ago, I suggested on this site that this was a worrying phenomenon on the Republican fringe. Now, I’m not so sure. As I’m sure Victor Davis Hanson would agree, this was precisely the Achilles’ heel of Greek democracy which made our founding fathers so wary of direct democracy. When any issue passionately polarizes a society with no chance of compromise (e.g., abortion is either the termination of a human life or potential human life, or it is the excision of a group of cells, no more significant than paring your fingernails, two positions between which there can be no compromise), two mobs will materialize and think with their glands rather than their brains, resulting in what the Greeks termed stasis, in effect, civil war. Inevitably, both mobs end up baying for the restoration of order, and usually a tyrant rides to the rescue.
As poet and playwright Zoë Akins first said in the title of a long-forgotten play, the Greeks had a word for it.
Is Trump, together with the American left in general, right? Has the carefully constructed, politically balanced and fine-tuned system created by our founding fathers deteriorated to the point where two angry, unprincipled gangs interested only in crushing the other side and exercising naked power confront each other like schoolboys shouting taunts at each other over a line drawn in the sand?
That, my friends, depends upon us.
Jeez, Trump sure has all the “new castrati” (as Rush has lovingly named them) in a tizzy with their panties in a bunch. Their hysteria has had me laughing repeatedly in recent days.
WELL!!! This adds some weight to the "he's just another Schwartzenrenegger" thoughts I've been having! Especially since I see Mr. Kennedy cuckhold is replacing the Trumper on some celebrity apprentice show!!!
As Lee Rodgers on KSFO used to say to Melanie Morgan:"Never fall in love with a politician... They'll break your heart EVERY TIME!!!"
Rush is going to destroy this writer on Monday.
Rush is almost always right. And when he’s wrong, he’s still got great heart, great humanity and a love of America that brightens my day.
“Donald Trump represents ethno-cultural-civilizational identitarianism. That’s all there is to it.”
THhat’s all? How about a pronunciation test three times fast?
Only 99.87% of the time.
It’s that beautiful wall that will someday The Donald will build on our Southern border that got us on his side.
THEY want to be the only voice. THEY want to be the only ones in control. THEY want to be the ones choosing who the leaders are. THEY want to be the only ones... Period!!
Ain’t happening any more!! There’s a new man on the block!
In 2000 NR endorsed Bush over McCain. I know Buckley gave McCain money in the primary.
Indeed.
Sure does. Cruz supports individual right. Trump uses government to steal old ladies property. You may think that is a little test. I think it is a major test.
Of course Rush knows the difference. He also know what his audience wants to hear. They want to hear macho swaggering and he gives it to them.
I don’t remember a presidential campaign where “conservatism” as a disembodied concept is championed like it is now. Huckabee was right when he said Reagan’s campaign theme was about the greatness of America, not the greatness of conservatism. It is getting creepy. The themes that Trump is running on are conservative, and these idiots are concerned that he doesn’t belong to the true Church of Conservatism.
All good. But using government to take property that doesn’t belong to you is a major fail. But I don’t expect everybody to agree with the notion that a conservative candidate should oppose government taking property from one citizen to feather the nest of another. Tens of millions agree with you.
All good. But using government to take property that doesn’t belong to you is a major fail. But I don’t expect everybody to agree with the notion that a conservative candidate should oppose government taking property from one citizen to feather the nest of another. Tens of millions agree with you.
Yep, Trump and Cruz—in either order
I believe that our next ‘real’ president is going to be either Trump or Cruz....I’ll accept either one.
My preference is Cruz because he remains the only real conservative in this race. However, if Cruz is unable to change the tide, I’ll support Trump for many reasons and because he, like Cruz, is also a fighter against our greatest threats, the media, libs and the damn GOPe.
Voting for the bill which gives Iran the nuclear bomb passes your ‘protecting life’ part of the test?
BTW, you can go back and look if you want to because I was critical of Cruz on TPA, the Corker Bill and H1B visas. But none of those votes or policies abridge individual rights. I’m 64, been a conservative all my life and not gonna change now. If it’s Trump or Hillary I’ ll vote Trump because Hillary fails every leg of the little test.
I’ve been listening to Rush and I like the way he’s handling this unlike other media that are considered ‘conservative’.
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