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More to Conservatism Than a Vibe
Blog & Mablog ^ | 1/22/2016 | Douglas Wilson

Posted on 01/23/2016 6:28:44 AM PST by Theophilus

So how does Donald Trump do it? Do what, you ask?

Entirely detached from identifiable conservative principles, and almost equally detached from a recognizable conservative record, he nonetheless is filling up venues with enthusiastic people who are responding to what they think is some kind of conservative vibe. What is it that enabled someone like Sarah Palin to go dithyrambic?

It isn't anything conservative, of course, but it is not just smoke. There is a reason people are thinking what they do, and as a showman and entertainer, Trump knows how to exploit it. And as it happens, the two things he is energetically exploiting are the two things that the Republican establishment has resolutely refused to do for decades.

The first is that he says and does things that are outrageous to the pearl clutchers. They all gasp and get their dresses over their heads, and Trump simply doesn't care. Whatever else he is not, Trump genuinely is not PC. True conservatism is also not PC, but they are very different kinds of not PC. A dog and a cat are both mammals and quadrupeds, but for all that, however much you might want it to be otherwise, a cat is not a dog.

I leave out of this formulation, of course, as a discussion for another time, any cats that might want to self-identify as dogs. My understanding is that some cool cats are like that. Something to do with their fathers.

The other thing Trump does is that he defends his turf. If you cross his line, you are the enemy and are treated accordingly. I am not saying his lines are in the right place, or that his enemies are the right ones, or that he is anything other than some variety of all screwed up. I am simply saying that he fights for his position (whatever it might happen to be at the moment). In this respect, he is just like the Left. They fight for their turf also. They defend their party, and they don't even back away from their free-stuff-for-everybody berserkers. Shoot, one of them is doing pretty well in the Democratic primaries even as we speak.

So it is a simple fact that Donald Trump is not a conservative, however much of a conservative vibe he wants currently to exude. But is Donald Trump the first one? Is this the first time? These are simply "conservative principles don't matter" chickens come home to the "elect-ability" roost. The Republican Party has demanded the inclusion of non-conservatives for a long time now. If Trump gets the Republican nomination as a non-conservative, will he be the first one? Ha. Definitions don't matter, voting records don't matter, principles don't matter, and now, all of sudden, you want them to matter? Because Trump?

The problem that the respectable Republicans have with Trump is not that he is "not conservative." It is that he is so gauche about it. But if he does well, the RINOs will adapt to it - money, influence and access are the great emollient. If he does not do well, and someone like Cruz gets the nomination, the RINOs will all go back to . . . attacking real conservatives.


In an effort to raise the bar, the RNC has instituted the "wind tunnel challenge."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: conservatism; nomination; trump
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To: SamuraiScot
The most immediate threat is illegal immigration. It's existential.

I agree completely. However, I think there a deeper contributing problems to illegal immigration and illegal governance that promotes illegal immigration. For instance, and I think you see the same thing, our birth rate is below the replacement rate. This creates a vacuum in our welfare state/consumer and debt based economy. It also creates recruitment problems and military policies that deploy an army to recover a snowflake like Bowe Bergdahl and spends 850,000 to 1,400,000 to deploy 1 11B downrange for 1 year.

Whoever wins the election better figure out how to get more natural born American mothers to naturally breed some more natural born American children instead of trying to get through Ranger School or UDT. Otherwise we are going to get overrun like Germany.

It's Still the Demography, Stupid... Mark Steyn

21 posted on 01/23/2016 11:54:33 AM PST by Theophilus (The GOPe are dealers. The Marxist Democrats are duelists.)
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To: FourPeas
the next snake oil salesman.

Actually I think Obama is less of a snake oil salesman than the GOPe poison purveyors in Congress that Trump wants to negotiate with.

22 posted on 01/23/2016 2:47:28 PM PST by Theophilus (The GOPe are dealers. The Marxist Democrats are duelists.)
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To: Theophilus

4)Builds wall
5)Balances trade


23 posted on 01/23/2016 2:52:45 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Theophilus

A country of 312 million can man a standing Army of 500,000 without any problem. If we had a shortage of labor wages would be gong up. They are going DOWN! There is no demographic problem.


24 posted on 01/23/2016 2:57:42 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Theophilus

I can’t argue with that.


25 posted on 01/23/2016 3:02:46 PM PST by FourPeas (Chocolate, sugar and lots of caffeine. Hard to beat that.)
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To: central_va
There is no demographic problem.

I'm with Steyn and the thing speaks for itself and becomes more evident every day. People are the indispensable element in the economy and in security.

26 posted on 01/23/2016 3:10:36 PM PST by Theophilus (The GOPe are dealers. The Marxist Democrats are duelists.)
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