Posted on 01/22/2016 2:41:08 PM PST by Isara
The rise of The Donald has been remarkable. He is, it seems, supported by conservative Republicans and independents. At least that is the what they claim to be. He is supported by people who impose strict litmus tests on politicians-ready to denounce them as RINOs or liberals at the drop of a hat. And yet, those litmus tests don’t appear to apply to Trump.
On the contrary, he can do no wrong. And everything he says must be good-because he is “speaking his mind” and “telling it like it is.” Trump supporters have excused his flip-flops (something they would have never done for Mitt Romney) on issues like abortion and guns. Trump supporters have ignored his current faults, including his continuing defense of single-payer healthcare. Trump supporters have also ignored his personal and business failings, including but not limited to: his fake brand of Christianity, his three marriages, his four bankruptcies, his four draft deferments, his use of eminent domain, and his unabashed buying-off of politicians (including the Clintons).
Trump supporters are rightly angry about the state of the country, but they have also bought into a cult of personality. Personality cults are always dangerous, especially when someone as charismatic (and wealthy) as Donald Trump is at the helm. If Trump decides to run independent ala fellow-protectionist Ross Perot, you can be sure millions of people will follow him and torpedo the Republican candidate.
Let’s give credit where it is due: Donald Trump was smart enough to make this happen. Despite never holding office, he knows how to be a politician. Jeffrey Tucker summed up Trump’s strategy best (please read his entire article):
As of this writing, Trump is leading in the polls in the Republican field. He is hated by the media, which is a plus for the hoi polloi in the GOP. He says things he should not, which is also a plus for his supporters. He is brilliant at making belligerent noises rather than having worked out policy plans. He knows that real people don't care about the details; they only want a strongman who shares their values. He makes fun of the intellectuals, of course, as all populists must do. Along with this penchant, Trump encourages a kind of nihilistic throwing out of rationality in favor of a trust in his own genius. And people respond, as we can see.
Rick Perry has tried to tell the truth about Trumpism. Now Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is taking up the baton. I hope they are successful, and they should be commended for standing up against The Donald and his lynchmob.
But people were sounding the warning bells back when Trump was last threatening a presidential bid in 2011. Among them was the now-deceased Andrew Breitbart. Here is what he had to say:
Of course, he's not a conservative. He was for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), before he was against Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)...celebrity is everything in this country if these guys don't learn how to play the media the way Barack Obama played the media last election cycle and the way that Donald Trump is playing the election cycle-we're going to probably get a celebrity candidate.
Ironically, the Breitbart website has seemingly been the online driving force behind Trump’s candidacy. Andrew Breitbart, if he were still alive, would have never allowed that to happen.
Michelle Malkin has had a very public feud with Trump going back to 2011 as well…and it has continued. She wrote a devastating column about “Donald Trump’s eminent-domain empire.”
Trump has attempted to use the same tactics in Connecticut and has championed the reviled Kelo vs. City of New London Supreme Court ruling upholding expansive use of eminent domain. He told Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto that he agreed with the ruling "100 percent" and defended the chilling power of government to kick people out of their homes and businesses based on arbitrary determinations:
"The fact is, if you have a person living in an area that's not even necessarily a good area, and government, whether it's local or whatever, government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and make (an) area that's not good into a good area, and move the person that's living there into a better place - now, I know it might not be their choice - but move the person to a better place and yet create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good."
Like most statist promises of bountiful job creation, government-engineered redevelopment math rarelyaddsup. Trump's corporations have backed casino industry bailouts and wealth-redistributing "tax-increment financing" schemes - the very kind of taxpayer-subsidized interventions we've seen on a grand scale under the Obama administration.
Undoubtedly, hardcore Trump supporters will read this piece and add Breitbart and Malkin to their hate lists. But it is my hope that their conservative credibility will help open the eyes of others who may be considering Trump. It would be a grave mistake to put an ego-driven, pro-government New York billionaire anywhere near the White House (yes, that also applies to Michael Bloomberg).
Now is the time to #DumpTrump.
I agree Ted Cruz can win the general, particularly if Hillary is the nominee. My dog could beat Hillary in the general. Now if Bidden or Warren jump in that is a entirely different story.
High 5s....
The problem with Trump is not what he is saying, but what he will do. He is an utter pragmatist, hence his positions are all over the board and his financial contributions go to every corner of the political spectrum. It is fitting for a CEO to be a pragmatist, and to adapt his managerial decisions to a changing landscape always seeking to enhance shareholder value. That is what he has done, while always publicly overreacting to many populist causes be it rapists in the park, assault weapons or the “cunning” Chinese. Good management is not a negative, and it is safe to say that it is a skill that he has demonstrated. However, demagoguery doesn’t help anything except his own political skin.
Yet conservatives want a political leader who is willing to march into hell and to die for their convictions. They are not getting that, and in the words of Bill Buckley, ‘I want the most conservative candidate who can get elected.’
If these promises are hollow, or he reverses positions, or the worst of all worlds, replaces a conservative with a Sotomayor on the Supreme Court - it would be a catastrophe and his Manchurian liberal candidacy would lead to an American descent. One more liberal judge and the Second Amendment is gone from the United States. Can we trust Trump? His own Federal Judge sister was for partial birth abortion - meaning there was no conservative religious strain running through his family. Some of the sacred beliefs we conservatives all share were absent in his formidable years. To be a slave of the popular demand, so long as it doesn’t hurt his bottom line is not a particularly appealing place for those who have true convictions and demand that the great engine that is America find her way back onto her traditional ideological tracks. Trump wants to make America great again, but can he praise his sister as a judge he would put on the Supreme Court, who is a rabid partial birth abortion defender? That is scary. Judges are critical. We need more Samuel Alitos, not fewer.
There could be some IED’s in a Trump presidency. He was against assault weapons - which is just a stupid, idiotic, demagogic position that has nothing to do with murders by guns. It is a screeching, emotional, grandstanding issue and Trump dove into it. That told me he never even thought about it, probably because he never had to or his family did not raise him in a gun culture. He had no clue. They made money, and that’s fine, but we are not electing him portfolio manager. He has had some real flaws in his background that he is papering over with rhetoric, and our sacred Constitution lies in the balance. What is popular in 18 months maybe far different than now, and does he change every tune he has been singing?
[ If we screw up this election and elect a used car salesman because he just “repeated” the “garbage” we wanted to hear, we’re not going to get another chance. This country is over. There will be no turning back. ]
I think we already are screwed, I think we are already an Empire and don’t realize it yet...
End of the American Republic, Start of the American Empire
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3385310/posts
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Get real.
Cruz laid everything out in 2011,and that is where Trump got his Fake list.
Trump is nothing that you want him to be, and everything that is needed to wipe this country off the map.
Nobody is abandoning the constitution! Where do you get such ideas? Trump will enforce immigration laws, period. Trump will build the already authorized wall. Trump will negociate better trade deals. Trump will take the fight to ISIS and halt for the time being Muslim immigration into the USA. Trump will cut waste and fraud in government where ever he finds it. All of the above is constitutional.
You need to open your eyes and see the big picture, really
We are in a war with Marxist globalists and we are at war with Islam and we are losing both wars. The country needs a leader that is unabashedly an American first. A leader that will defend America, rebuild the military, secure the border, defend Christianity, bring back manufacturing jobs and deport illegals. Prior to Trump getting in, NO ONE was talking about any of these things. NO ONE.
If we do not fix immigration this election cycle the country is done, the constitution is dead are we the people are screwed. That is why we the people are getting behind Trump.
It got zero to do with right/left.
It’s survival.
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Words worth repeating
This article is from August 8. The author, “Southernconstitutionalist” is commenting favorably about Rick Perry and Rand Paul.
Hey, Isara, give it up. It’s over.
.
Lies are worth repeating?
Wow.
Noooo
It’s far from over..
It may take until super Tuesday to put this one to bed.
Welcome to the forum.
The room is a bit messy right now, but always is during elections..
Yes IMHO Cruzs’ promises are chopped liver. Cruz is owned by Wall Street. His cheer leading in the Senate for TPA, TPP and two other super secrete OTrade deals makes Cruz untrustworthy to me. Sorry, I used to like Ted Cruz a lot. Now, I don’t believe a single word that comes out of his mouth.
Michelle Malkin has lost her mind. Guess she will now be against everything Trump does as President. Poor girl is going to have a hell of a time adjusting.
So, if he supports this— how could anyone support him? Kelo vs. New London is a textbook case, and the dude thinks it was just fine. It wasn’t. People had their property taken for pennies, and it went to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who ruled in favor of Pfizer to tear down a neighborhood, for expansion of laboratories they NEVER built, and turned the old neighborhood from struggling to vacant and deserted and non-tax paying. Disgusting.
Quick throw them and all their friends under the bus.
Her parents were here legally. As a Cherokee, I declare all of you anchor babies!
Good argument but it doesn’t change my mind and here’s why. It’s Trump or establishment. People can rave about Cruz’s creds (which I doubt) til the end of time but it’s irrelevant. Cruz will never win the nomination and anyone who’s followed these races knows that. He’s 20 pts behind in nearly all races.
So who’s next, no one. It’s Trump or letting the establishment take us down the same road to hell we’ve been on. It’s not a hard decision for me because I believe Trump. I think he’s only going to do what he thinks is best for the country. I believe he’s pro-life for whatever reason, I know he’s pro 2nd Amendment (carry permit), and he’s the only one running who understands the financial world enough to fix it.
He’s also self-funded which even Cruz can’t say. I know Cruz has this big rep that he’s an outsider but he’s not. He’s got big-money donors, some pro-amnesty, some big banks and wall street.
It’s time to take a chance on someone who’s never been in the system. Could he disappoint us, yes there’s that risk. But there’s no risk with status quo, we know exactly what they’re going to do.
I know full well that Trump is not as conservative as I would like, but I really don’t care. Have the Republicans done a single thing to stop Obama? Heck they just voted to make the government an equal partner with parents in raising children.
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