The burden is on the anti-Trump columns to make their case. I am merely pointing out some of the difficult terrain you have to navigate in order to press the "pure conservative" case against him. There are many good arguments to weigh in the balance.
The claim that state and, at least big city governments are more honest than the federal government is to a large fraction of the voters laughable.
“...The burden is on the anti-Trump columns to make their case...”
Bull-butter! Like I said, how can Trump supporters *NOT* trust their own eyes and ears each time he (consistently) demonstrates his “NYC-Values” center-left political philosophy? It’s what he grew up with. It’s what he knows best. It is what he consistently demonstrates as his *FIRST* instinct.
Tell me - what is Trump’s history for his first noted opinions on:
Assault Rifle Ban, Right to life, Private Property Rights, etc? And just today we read he prefers big govt over states and cozying up to the party establishment to (ahem) “get things done”. What should we expect tomorrow?
There are none so blind that *refuse* to see. But I don’t know if that is entirely true — I think you *DO* see, but the bending over backwards to justify and rationalize-away Trumps first-instincts for a center-left political upbringing and philosophy indicates something else entirely. And it is aruguably worse.
But he’s “evolving”... Right?
“...The claim that state and, at least big city governments are more honest than the federal government is to a large fraction of the voters laughable...”
That was not the claim - that govt at all levels is inefficient is moot. It is the very nature of govt. You minimize that inefficience with *smaller* govt. The claim I responded to was Trump’s ludicrous assertion was that states could not manage the parks as well as his “benevolent” HYOOGE Big Govt could. I would counter that *millions* of annual state and federal park visitors *know* better. State parks are every bit as well maintained, if not better in many cases in my experience, as national parks — regardless of govt inefficiencies. It could be argued that the inefficiency could be managed better at the state and local level, rather than having the top 25% (or whatever) “middle-man skim” that the Fed-Gov takes. Or perhaps Trump, being from NYC and sharing it’s values, doesn’t want to lose his skim off the top? After all, folks (perhaps misguidedly) *laud* his “cut-throat” business tactics...