Posted on 01/26/2016 5:36:15 AM PST by Kaslin
I understand why people like Donald Trump because I was a big fan of his as well.
I loved the fact that he's a charismatic, politically incorrect fighter and a successful businessman. I am also genuinely grateful to him for changing the debate on immigration and starting a conversation about Muslim immigration that we should have had a long time ago. I don't believe a ban on Muslim immigrants would ever pass Congress nor do I think it's practical (How would you realistically implement it?), but I do think blocking future refugees and immigrants from countries where Al-Qaeda and ISIS hold sway is more doable because of Trump. That's a little ironic because he was initially in favor of bringing in Syrian refugees, but it's true. Additionally, after years of being ignored, scorned and poorly represented by Republican leaders in Congress, it's nice to have a politician who actually goes overboard to pander to conservatives.
Additionally, I find it OFFENSIVE when Trump is called a fascist or people attack his supporters. At the end of the day, to beat Trump you have to convince his supporters to go elsewhere. You don't do that by insulting people for their choice of candidates.
That being said, the support for Trump reminds me of an old Jeff Foxworthy joke that went something like this.
Kid: Look up in the sky, mama, it's a plane! It's a plane!
Mother: Oh, look, he knows that! He's just so smart, isn't he?
Jeff Foxworthy: Smart? He's 12 years old!
When you have genuine affection for someone, it's easy to block out his faults. In Trump's case, this is being taken to such an extreme that it's starting to feel like we're in Jonestown a few days before the Kool-Aid is handed out. Tell me I'm wrong if you like, but even Trump made reference to that when he said,
"And you know what else they say about my people? The polls! They say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters. It's incredible."
Since when do conservative engage in this type of blind loyalty towards ANY politician?
Similarly, Donald Trump talks incessantly about polls that are favorable to him, but the polls have also consistently shown that he loses to Hillary Clinton. Worse yet, his favorable/unfavorable ratings are 33/58. That's the same as Jimmy Carter in early 1980. It's WORSE than Walter Mondale. Trump even has a higher unfavorable rating with the general public than Nixon AFTER Watergate. It would be easier to rehabilitate Enron's image than to make Trump President with those poll numbers.
Saying that a candidate with those poll numbers couldn't win an election without a miracle is something that anyone who knows something about elections would normally agree on. Yet, with Trump, many people seem unfazed. Basically, they think he's going to use some kind of "Trump magic" that will guarantee a victory.
The problem with that is that successful though Donald Trump may be, he fails all the time. He's had four bankruptcies. Then there's Trump steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump the Game, Trump Magazine, Trump Mortgage, Trump Airlines, Trump University, Trump Casinos, the New Jersey Generals and happily, he also lost a lawsuit and was unable to take a widow's home via eminent domain so he could build a limo parking lot. Trump has been a successful businessman, but an awful lot of investors who put money into his ill-advised projects because they just assumed he'd find a way to win have gotten burned doing business deals with him. Again, barring a miracle, that's what would happen to all of his supporters if he becomes the GOP nominee in 2016. Many of them don't see it for the same reason Ron Paul's fans couldn't see it in 2012. Sure, Paul had a diehard following that voted for him in Internet polls and showed up at his events, but he alienated too many people to ever win a general election while he was building up his fanbase. Trump has done the same thing, except a little bigger and better.
Getting beyond that, early on, I was willing to give Trump an opportunity to flesh out his policies and prove he's a conservative. Unfortunately, he never did that and there's little reason to think that a man who has switched political parties 5 times in his life and has never voted in a Republican primary suddenly became a diehard conservative in his mid-sixties. People who wouldn't buy this from any other politician are swallowing it hook, line and sinker with Trump even though his positions on some issues have switched from week-to-week.
Keep in mind that the most consistent political position Donald Trump seems to have held over the last 15 years is that we need a full government takeover in healthcare, which incidentally, would be WORSE than Obamacare. Trump was still pushing that less than six months ago, but now says he supports a free market plan. Do you believe him? If so, why?
In 2013, Ted Cruz was leading the fight against Marco Rubio's gang-of-8 amnesty bill while Trump was talking up amnesty, the Dream Act and comprehensive immigration reform. Nobody with half a brain in his head would believe any other politician claiming to be tough on immigration if he was fighting for amnesty three years ago. So, why believe Trump?
After having read several of his books, I can tell you that Trump has core principles that he believes in personally and in business, but that doesn't seem to be the case with politics. Since Trump is first and foremost a dealmaker, what makes you think you'd like the deals someone who doesn't share your principles would cut on your behalf any more than you liked the deals John Boehner made? What makes you think Trump would be any different than another celebrity like Arnold Schwarzenegger who talked a good game and then ended up governing from the left-of-center once he was in office?
Also, as entertaining and successful as Trump may be, he doesn't have the right temperament to be President. It's a serious, sober job and even if you like him, you have to admit that he's crude, mean-spirited, narcissistic, unpredictable and conspiratorial. Would you consider any other candidate who trashed POWs, "I like people that weren't captured," made fun of the disabled (He's done this more than once), said he never asked God for forgiveness and keeps making creepy comments about how he'd like to date his daughter, "(Ivanka) does have a very nice figure. I've said if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her?" Even if you're willing to overlook those comments because you love Trump so much, people who aren't Trump fans will not give him a pass. That will be doubly true after the Democrats hammer him with a billion dollars' worth of negative ads that he won't be able to effectively respond to because even Trump admits that he doesn’t know how he would finance his campaign in a general election.
Trump also spends an inordinate amount of time insulting people on Twitter. It amazes me that anyone complains about people hammering Trump when these are just some of the comments on his Twitter account over the last three days….
"@Rketeltas: Rubio isn't experienced enough to be Commander in Chief. Rubio is a carbon copy of Obama. We need a true leader Vote Trump"
"@red77angelluis: @realDonaldTrump @NeilTurner_ @YouTube LET'S GET TRUMP!! GO TRUMP!! USA!USA!"
"@Knight276: @C4Constitution trump right again #With_Cruz_you_lose! Nobody supports Canuck Cruz #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #trump2016
"@M0ther0f2kids: @meetthepress @NBCNews @clewandowski Everyone B smart! U know deep down Trump is the ONLY 1 able to best LEAD"
A wonderful article by a writer who truly gets it. I am for the people and the people are for me. #Trump2016…
"@realOllieTaylor: Isn't it time we had a president? Let goofy Glen keep Canada Cruz who can't win. The American people have Trump!"
"@WhiteGenocideTM: @realDonaldTrump Poor Jeb. I could've sworn I saw him outside Trump Tower the other day! "
Trump wants to be the GOP nominee, but he sounds like one of the mean kids running for third grade class President.
Incidentally, the last tweet is from a white supremacist who spends a lot of time raving about Hitler and "Jewmerica." Despite the fact there were numerous articles criticizing Trump for retweeting a white power nut, he did not take down the tweet. If, let's say, you're black or Jewish, ask yourself how comfortable you are with Trump now that he's knowingly retweeting white supremacists?
Look at all of this and tell me that you trust someone who is this petty, immature and erratic with the responsibility of handling the IRS, the DOJ, the DHS, our military and our nuclear codes. I certainly wouldn't. It's fine to say that you don't trust Sanders or Hillary either, but if even many Republicans don't think he's together enough to handle it, why would the American people?
It's great to be supporting a candidate who you believe is winning, but I think back to the saying, "Play stupid games, get stupid prizes." The prize for getting Trump to the finish line as our nominee would be losing to whomever the Democrats nominate and then watching helplessly as Obamacare stays in place, all of Obama's executive orders stand and the Democrats pick four more Supreme Court Justices.
If we nominate Trump, we'll have our third straight lose/lose election where most conservatives will have a candidate who doesn't truly represent their views as the GOP nominee. Of course, if Trump is our nominee, I will vote for him and I will try to do what I can to help him win, but it would be easier to ski uphill than to get a wildly unpopular Rockefeller Republican like Trump into the White House.
Trump is a vessel who says a lot of things that need saying. But as TC is proving with the “Iowans are stupid” ad there’s a treasure trove of stuff that will be used against him in the fall. And I’m still not 100 percent convinced that Trump is not working in concert with the Clintons.
How many I can find to wake fools like you up. Which will probably never happen because of your foolishness
Sounds like he was being 'conservative'.
Flip-Flopped on Legal Immigration:
Townhall’s Guy Benson: “Cruz has flip-flopped dramatically on a number of his previous immigration views.â€
“In response, Rubio charged that Cruz supported mass legalization of illegal immigrants and proposed huge increases in federal issuance of certain immigration visas and green cards. Cruz shook his head throughout Rubio’s rejoinder, but Rubio was correct on these points. Cruz has flip-flopped dramatically on a number of his previous immigration views. The Texan shot back, ‘it is not accurate, what he just said, that I supported legalization.’ Sorry, Senator. It’s on tape.†(Townhall, Guy Benson, 12/16/15)
Flip-Flopped on H-1B Visas:
In an election year, Cruz said “he would suspend the H-1B program.â€
“Cruz said he would suspend the H-1B program for 180 days while he audited the system for abuses, abandoning his prior support for a 500% increase in the high-tech program.†(CNN, 11/13/15)
“Cruz sharply distanced himself from his long-held plan to increase the number of visas for high-tech workers by 500%.â€
“A month prior, Cruz sharply distanced himself from his long-held plan to increase the number of visas for high-tech workers by 500%. Under fire from conservative talk radio hosts who said he was imperiling American workers, Cruz said he would suspend the program for 180 days until it could be reformed to his liking.†(CNN, 12/1/7/15)
In 2013, Senator Cruz offered an amendment that would increase the H-1B Visa program from 65,000 to 325,000.
“During the 2013 immigration debate, the Texas senator proposed an amendment to the comprehensive ‘gang of eight’ Senate bill that he boasted would ‘dramatically increas[e]’ the annual limit on H-1B skilled guest worker visas—from 65,000 to 325,000—a five-fold expansion.†(Bloomberg, 8/20/15)
You: Your duplicity is appalling. This thread is FULL of rebuttals. "Cherry-picking" is does not help your original, fallacious assertion.
I picked the first dozen or so responses in this thread for my examples... at which point there were no "rebuttals," only insults. Proving my point. Also, you have offered no rebuttals, only insults. Point two.
Self-awareness is not your strong point, eh?
>> The phrase “class of alien” will have to pass a legal test <<
It’s really a very interesting Constitutional question.
On the one hand, using any kind of religious test would seem to violate the First Amendment. I think Anthony Kennedy could easily be persuaded, and the four Dhims on the SCOTUS are sure votes from the git-go.
But on the other hand, who would have standing to bring suit in a Federal court? Some alien who is outside the USA? No way, IMHO. And I can’t think of anybody else.
So if you can conjure up a plausible plaintiff, I’m all ears!
You’re boring Troll!
Fair enough. It still does show a disturbing trend of attack venomously first, consider later, though. And that's the point I'm making. As my dear departed grandmother used to say, "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."
But I still think this post has an agenda.
I'm not sure what that means. All posts have an "agenda." The O.P. seems to have an agenda explaining why he is no longer supporting Trump as his first choice. My post has the agenda to point out the dangers of tearing down those who got you where you are now, and who you hope to support you in the future. Your post has the "agenda" of defending Trump from criticism (and originally) to cast aspersions on the motives of the author of the article. So what? None of those agendas are invalid. It's the results of the actions that matter.
hah! What a thought!
This country has become what the government wants instead of what the people can accomplish. It's absolutely horrible.
hah! What a thought!
This country has become what the government wants instead of what the people can accomplish. It's absolutely horrible.
“The problem with that is that successful though Donald Trump may be, he fails all the time. He’s had four bankruptcies.”
Does this sound like an unbiased opinion? I don’t.
To state the ‘he fails ALL the time’ is utterly ridiculous. It makes the rest of his personal opinions suspect. But, that’s just me.
Well then you’re a hater and not a real conservative and should jump off a bridge
/s
Kaslin -- if Trump loses, those folks here (a minority though they post frequently and aggressively enough, including in brief daily caucuses here, to appear otherwise) will REFUSE to be accountable for insisting on a candidate that so many here WARNED them would be rejected.
I share his concerns about Trump's temperament. The way one conducts himself in public is important in all walks of life. It is also indicative of how one will conduct himself in the future.
His tendency to belittle and demean opponents and detractors is bothersome. Nor is it new.
Is that how he will deal with anyone opposing his policies as POTUS? Christie on steroids.
What happens when the majority of us on the right oppose a policy he is trying to implement? Will he resort to calling us losers and whack jobs? After all, we are just nasty people; nobody likes us, everyone loves him.
While 90% of Freepers are at the ‘if X is the nominee, will you vote for him’ stage, I am still deciding my primary vote.
Temperament is but one consideration. Should I overlook behavior I consider beneath the dignity of the office of POTUS?
I want a President who is A-POLITICAL.
One who doesn’t care what THIS party or THAT party wants, but what is GOOD FOR AMERICANS.
I see TRUMP (as evidenced by having been associated with various parties) as being that kind of President.
It is possible CRUZ could be that way also, but I think it would be much harder for him to do.
What you ignored was this article by the author
He gives his honest opinion and you don't like it.
Well so be it. Who cares?
That's not what the UN says.
Wrong. More like someone that woke up and saw the truth. Unlike you
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