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Grow Up!
Townhall.com ^ | January 30, 2016 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 01/30/2016 5:29:18 AM PST by Kaslin

Of all the many things said about Donald Trump, what was said by Roger Ailes, head of the Fox News Channel, said it all in just two words: "Grow up!"

It is amazing how many people have been oblivious to this middle-aged man's spoiled brat behavior, his childish boastfulness about things he says he is going to do, and his petulant response to every criticism with ad hominem replies.

He has boasted that his followers would stick by him even if he committed murder. But is that something to boast about? Is it not an insult to his followers, if it is true? Moreover, his cockiness is misplaced, because he still does not have a majority among Republican voters, while you need a majority of all the voters to win any state in the general election.

Trump has a showman's talent for telling people what they want to hear. But you can listen in vain for a coherent argument from him, based on facts and logic, much less an understanding of the inherent limitations of the office of president.

More than two centuries ago, Edmund Burke said: "Constitute government how you please, infinitely the greater part of it must depend upon the exercise of the powers which are left at large to the prudence and uprightness of ministers of state."

In other words, the personal character of the people to whom you entrust the powers of government matters even more than what kinds of government institutions there are. There have been some good kings and some bad presidents, as well as vice versa.

In a world where the future of this country is threatened from within by increasingly angry polarization, and where external threats can become nuclear, are we really going to entrust the safety or this country to a man who still needs to grow up?

Is the fact that he loudly expressed our own disgust with the political establishment a sufficient reason to gamble the whole future of the country by putting him in the White House?

The White House is not a place for on-the-job training. You are supposed to be ready, or at the very least grown up, before you walk in the door. Aging happens automatically, but maturity is optional -- and it is an option that Donald Trump has not yet chosen to exercise.

The issue that Trump raised about Ted Cruz's having been born in Canada is not the first time he has tried to challenge where someone was born. "The Donald" was among those who tried to say that Barack Obama was not born an American citizen, and who disgraced themselves, while undermining other critics of Obama who had serious objections to his policies.

On the other hand, messianic demagogues have often spoken at least part of the truth. But they have also often led their followers to their doom, whether at Jonestown, Stalingrad or innumerable other places. That is a very high price to pay for an exhilaration of the moment.

Donald Trump is not the only one who needs to act like an adult. With this country starting to unravel from within, while ruthless enemies overseas are developing both nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles to deliver them, we face problems that cannot be solved by candidates with glib words or by voters who vote for whoever meets their emotional needs.

If you don't understand the issues, but want to do your patriotic duty, then stay home on election night, whether in the primaries or in the national election in November. Uninformed voters turn elections into a game of playing Russian roulette with the future of America.

Conservative candidates will also have an opportunity to show their maturity and their patriotism. This is not the first primary season in which the conservative vote has been split among so many Republican candidates that it virtually guarantees that someone who is not a conservative will win the Republican nomination.

At some point during the primary season, it becomes clear that some candidates have no real chance of winning the nomination, much less the general election. At that point they can either continue hanging on, keeping the conservative vote split, or they can withdraw and throw their support to some other conservative candidate who has a chance.

A lot of people need to grow up, and to do something for this country that has done so much for them.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cluelessrant; growup; lilliputian; thomassowell
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To: Pravious

Yep, that’s about the size of it. I pegged him a year + ago when he wrote those 2-3 articles on having to vote for the RINO that can get elected. Bite the bullet a third time, essentially.


61 posted on 01/30/2016 6:15:23 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: mtrott
Beck is also trying to warn people about Trump's megalomania,

This is like Norman Bates writing reviews for area motels.

Yeah, the messianic megalomaniac Glenn Beck is my go-to guy on this issue.

62 posted on 01/30/2016 6:17:50 AM PST by Madame Dufarge
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To: Kaslin

There are some things America could stand to hate, at least in a relative sense. By trying to love everything equally, it ends up loving nothing.


63 posted on 01/30/2016 6:18:07 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: chatham

Too Bas Ailes couldn’t exert a smidgen of Control over his out of Control blond ,self absorbed employee M.K..
Fox seems to be trying to control the election rather than their own Employee.


Good Lord, Man! It is far too early in the morning to be drinking whiskey through a “Beer Bong!”


64 posted on 01/30/2016 6:18:17 AM PST by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: nathanbedford

You mean like Jack and his brother? Stood all up to the Cubans and Ruskies and backed them down? The one where he secretly agreed with Moscow the US would remove the nuclear armed Jupiter missiles it put in Turkey on Russia’s doorstep in 1959? Those two?


65 posted on 01/30/2016 6:18:40 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Kaslin

Dear Mr. Sowell,
You have been a hero and a distant mentor to me for years. But all things on this little planet eventually are worn down by age, wear and stress.

It is apparent that those factors have taken their toll on your once lucid and sagacious mind. So do the wise thing, and retire before the effects of the above render your attempts at wisdom, objects for humorous criticism instead.

Enjoy your stay at SUNSET ACRES, sir. You have earned it.


66 posted on 01/30/2016 6:19:17 AM PST by Tucker39 (Welcome to America! Now speak English; and keep to the right....In driving, in Faith, and politics.)
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To: Kaslin; mtrott; Washi

Must reading for these times
67 posted on 01/30/2016 6:19:50 AM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: Kaslin
He has boasted that his followers would stick by him even if he committed murder.

Sowell lost me right here. This is, simply, untrue. He said OTHER PEOPLE have remarked that his followers would stick by Trump, even if he started shooting people on 5th Avenue.

Sowell gets both the sentiment and the text exactly wrong.

68 posted on 01/30/2016 6:20:48 AM PST by Lazamataz (I'm an Islamophobe??? Well, good. When it comes to Islam, there's plenty to Phobe about.)
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To: Kaslin
Of course the first reaction to garbage like this is emotional - and it should be - anger that the hyper rational Thomas Sowell would squander his reputation and write utter drivel. Sowell himself starts with an appeal to the emotions - GROW UP - he tells us and Trump. Then he writes we face problems that cannot be solved by candidates with glib words or by voters who vote for whoever meets their emotional needs. Oh, so after his emotional rant, we should be aware of emotional rants - fine, we are now awake to what Sowell is really telling us.

And here he tells us - If you don't understand the issues, but want to do your patriotic duty, then stay home on election night, whether in the primaries or in the national election in November. Uninformed voters turn elections into a game of playing Russian roulette with the future of America. In other words, if you vote for Trump you don't understand the issues. YOU WHO ARE UNIFORMEND - DO YOUR PATRIOTIC DUTY AND STAY HOME! This is a loser. When did I join Sowell's camp of the unpatriotic uninformed should stay at homes! I know how to respond to that #&TS. There is the answer to your rant.

But Sowell tries to talk us down from our anger so shake off the insult and move on - what are those issues on which we are ill-informed? Conservative candidates will also have an opportunity to show their maturity and their patriotism. This is not the first primary season in which the conservative vote has been split among so many Republican candidates that it virtually guarantees that someone who is not a conservative will win the Republican nomination. Well he does not tell us, but the issue is conservative candidates splitting their votes and so they should drop out so the combined conservative vote will beat Trump.

So who are these conservative candidates who are supposed to drop out to block the immature Cruz.

Jeb? like Ryan Jeb only plays a conservative in the school play and he is too small fry to make a difference. Christie - I actually think of all the candidates Christie, a bit like Newt, is worth listening to - about 1/2 the time. Rubio - take about an ego. Rubio is not going anywhere. And he is all over the board.

So Thomas, which conservative is to drop out so that you can knock of the Donald?

At the end, Sowell is playing pin the conservative tail on the candidate [Cruz - though he never mentions him]. And by making this kid of tier 4 argument he loses.

He loses because we know the issues: immigration, 2nd amendment rights, keeping us safe from terrorism, incompetence in Washington DC - all the things that are included in Making America Great Again. And you just called us all unpatriotic uninformed idiots for wanting to Make America Great Again. With these marketing skills Tom, you should be selling Ford Edsels. Your brand isn't selling at it and your lousy at it anyway.

69 posted on 01/30/2016 6:22:14 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: All

John Wayne was a much beloved actor and was a tough SOB, but John Wayne punched Psychology on the jaw.

Trump just breaks all the furniture in the room.
Then he goes to Le Benardin for drinks and a bite.


70 posted on 01/30/2016 6:22:23 AM PST by mylife
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To: Lazamataz

Hmm! If so, that puts a different twist on it, so to speak. What a difference a bit of context makes.


71 posted on 01/30/2016 6:22:25 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: SueRae

I like Dr Ben Carson but have said from the beginning that I’m not going to vote for him because I think he would be perfect as Secretary of Health and Human Services. He would also make a perfect Surgeon General.


72 posted on 01/30/2016 6:23:01 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: mkjessup; All
My brother just wrote a letter to the editor of his Colorado newspaper. Went like this:

"As a professional economist, I rarely disagree with Thomas Sowell. However, his recent editorial (1/25) disparaging Donald Trump misses the point. If we do not secure the border and kill the terrorists, we will not have a country left that is worth defending. Donald Trump will secure the border and kill the terrorists. That is all that matters to many of us. In my opinion, the other candidates either cannot be trusted on those issues, or else are not capable of getting them done. Eliminating those existential threats excuses a lot of other policies with which I disagree, and trumps (pun intended) all else. Then we can return to arguing over fiscal and social conservatism."

He's gonna not like today's Sowell column when I send him the link.

73 posted on 01/30/2016 6:23:10 AM PST by Lakeshark
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To: Lazamataz

Old age sneaks up on a body. And mind.


74 posted on 01/30/2016 6:23:39 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Alberta's Child

They just don’t get it.


75 posted on 01/30/2016 6:24:16 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: patq

That was a funny damned episode. After he found out he was black, he divorced his white wife because in his words, “she’s a n-word lover.” Funny!


76 posted on 01/30/2016 6:24:48 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: mylife

Well that is a kind of psychology in itself... the ubiquity can’t be evaded.


77 posted on 01/30/2016 6:24:59 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: mkjessup

Yes. You don’t see any articles about it sourced by the usual TDS haters here.


78 posted on 01/30/2016 6:25:51 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Kaslin

What’s worse, the guy that wants to fix America jokingly boasting about committing murder, or the left he is up against actually committing it under guise of the law by way of abortion.

And worse yet, hacking the aborted human babies up and selling parts.

Fox News, I prefer Trump.


79 posted on 01/30/2016 6:26:14 AM PST by redfreedom (Voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil.)
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To: Alberta's Child
“If Donald Trump were the president I could envision a scenario where the U.S. Defense Department is pushed to the brink of a military coup”

Trump would be a great Commander in Chief. JFK's actions in the Bay of Pigs almost brought about rebellion in the military and the CIA.

The Kennedy administration leaked all the secret information about anti-Castro activities to the media and the communists. His administration provided names of the anti-communist underground in Cuba to Castro and his secret police. He changed the invasion site from night landings in western Cuba which would have worked to a small invasion at the isolated Bay of Pigs. He promised air support and then withdrew the promise at the last minute.

In the Cuban missile crisis JFK ignored evidence of Soviet missiles until they were operational. He removed NATO missiles from Turkey unilaterally without consulting NATO or the Congress. He did not ask for inspections of the Cuban missile sites. The missiles were most likely concealed but never removed. He allowed those anti-Communist Cubans who were captured at the Bay of Pigs to be beaten and tortured in Cuban prisons for months until millions of dollars were spent to ransom them.

JFK also allowed Castro to learn the identity of our agents and sent many people in failed assassination attempts against Castro.

In short, the Kennedy administration actions regarding Castro were a complete disaster.

80 posted on 01/30/2016 6:27:20 AM PST by detective
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