Posted on 02/19/2016 10:18:50 AM PST by GodGunsGuts
I'm really trying to understand why people stay with Trump. I really am. Like I can see why a conservative would prefer Rubio. I don't agree, but I can see it.
But for the life of me I don't understand the Trump thing at all. Because if you're for Trump, here's what you're saying:
I hate the GOP establishment so much, I'm backing the guy that donated to help them against the Tea Party.
I hate Obamacare so much, I'm backing the only candidate not named Bernie Sanders also for single-payer healthcare.
I hate amnesty so much, I'm voting for the guy that helped fund most of the political campaigns of the gang of 8.
I thought Romney and McCain were squishes, so I'm supporting Trump who's to the Left of both of them.
Even though he is no longer going to deport the illegals? There is an alternative candidate with plans to tear down the wall who has always supported the wall who has principles and doesn’t try to destroy all on the right who disagree with him while stilling praising his friends Schumer and Pelosi.
I am also puzzled that so many "Conservatives", even here on Free Republic would follow Trump.
The uniparty holds us neatly on the plantation by our own deep desire to only vote for someone with a big C on their forehead. We are trapped into their game by insisting on conservatives that they control or will control.
They play with us, letting us think every four years that we have a say or a choice. As long as we insist on the Most Conservative above all else, we're owned. We have to be flexible to fight our enemy.
Not only is he not a Conservative, he is using the media to manipulate and distract from the real issues. He is using emotionalism, preying on people’s anger by saying what he needs to get what he wants.
What you see as using the media to manipulate and distract is him using the media with acute timing to save hundreds of millions of dollars on buying ads. His "shocking sound bites" ask for explanation, and his explanations are reasonable, non PC policy points he wants to dominate the next news cycle. It's ingenious.
You probably respect Jeb Bush's style of campaigning. Sure, you might grumble over the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on ads that got him from front runner to bottom of the pack, but you respect the tried and true money waste that is an American presidential election season. And you know that candidates often use anger to motivate voters.
He is psychologically out of balance, he has no grace or gravitas, he is classless and crass, he is not thoughtful nor is he broadly or well educated in what he needs to be to be an inspiring leader. He is a disgrace and an embarrassment to the United States.
You should have seen his town hall last night with Anderson Cooper. He explained why there is no time for PC right now in this campaign, but he also spoke of his upbringing, the school's he went to, the circles he runs in, and explained with no guile how he can be, and will be, diplomatic, PV, what it takes, when serving as President, but now is not the time for it.
Trump is very well educated, he is very bright, he is also for his position quite street savvy in a NY way, not a Compton way. He has grace and balance but he is extremely confident. This contrasts with a Barack Obama who is extremely insecure but arrogant as hell. Achievements come before confidence, whereas before arrogance there is only desperate need. Our recent disasters as President have been some of the neediest people, coming out of desperately needy children (Clinton and Obama). Trump came from two adoring parents.
He is psychologically more grounded than anyone else up there except maybe Bernie who appears to be floating in a little 1977 communist cloud. Last night he spoke about drugs, and how he's seen them destroy the children of good, successful friends all around him. He says he begged his children since they were tiny not to smoke, drink, or do drugs, and indeed so far it seems he has had an impact. He knocked on wood, because he still has two sort of young ones. He talked poignantly about the two marriages he couldn't save, blaming only himself. He is indeed very grounded in reality and has a wise insight that comes from experience.
I think he’s cornered the Howard Beale - Pat Paulsen voting block.
Understanding focus is the key to understanding politics. The now focused Trump, in dealing with questions of policy, is intellectually plugged in to the actual subject matter. Quoting quips he made, in contexts that have nothing to do with the actual responsibilities that he now seeks, is deliberately misleading; deliberately hypocritical in the moral sense.
We need to stop this crazy war between the Trump & Cruz supporters, as we need both groups to win in November, and to keep the pressure on the politics as usual crowd to avoid the idiocy of the "politically correct." See Support For Trump & Cruz.
I will try in what I am sure will be a vain attempt to keep this short.
Why do people continue to support Trump despite his history of taking positions all over the board on key conservative issues depending upon the circumstance or audience at a given time? Being on the wrong side or being on all sides of an issue does not seem to hurt Trump with his supporters. This phenomenon is what has everyone flummoxed and is something new worth exploring.
Look to history. It is replete with examples of what constituents (or voters) turn to when they feel completely frustrated by their circumstance. They turn to a strong man willing to promise them solutions to whatever it is that is most frustrating them. But they don’t just turn to a strong man, they are willing to turn a blind eye and reject any attempts to get them to even contemplate what such a strong man must do to deliver on such promised solutions.
Germans have a word which is useful here. It is “Zeitgeist” - which translates more or less as a defining spirit or mood of a particular time in history as represented in popular ideas or beliefs at that time.
The people of Germany were culturally humiliated and economically frustrated by circumstances which flowed from the terms of the Armistice which ended WW1. Hitler came along and promised, and, as he rose in power, was able to deliver on what at least on the surface appeared to be real solutions. And, as long as he continued to do so, the people of Germany were willing to continue to turn a blind eye as to how he made things happen. In essence, through their vote and acquiescence, that electorate simply hired a strong man to do what they knew in their hearts was their collective dirty work. The world and most Germans today accept that they were without excuse.
Stalin and the people of the USSR had a very similar symbiotic relationship. As long as Stalin appeared to deliver solutions, Russians ceded more and more power to him and turned a blind eye and did not want to think or contemplate the means by which he pursued such solutions.
The same can be said for Moa Sedong and the Chinese...for Castro and Cubans.
Well, what is the Zeitgeist in America today?
One cannot deny the relative sudden popularity of Bernie Sanders and Trump is quite surprising. Both promise dramatic solutions without explaining how they are going to deliver on such promises. It would be helpful to think about this commonality they share differently. By not asking their supporters to think or contemplate about how they expect to accomplish such solutions, on an emotional level at least, it absolves supporters of any culpability as to what will follow. They don’t want to know the means, just the ends.
By implication or inference, “Elect me to do your dirty work and I will not ask you to think or be responsible” is the value proposition being made by both candidates in their respective party’s election process.
While past Presidents have tested the checks and balances built into the separation of powers design of our Constitution, electing either Bernie or Trump (strong men) cannot help but confer a mandate for means and methods none of their supporters are willing to openly acknowledge today. To do so would remove that necessary veil or fiction that allows them to at least on an emotional level maintain their willful ignorance of what they know in the dark recesses of their hearts is in fact married to their casting a vote for either.
That such ignorance is willful is clearly revealed by the reactions you get when asking Trump or Sanders supporters about just how their chosen candidate is going to accomplish their promised solutions, at least within the constructs of our Constitution and laws. In either case they simply do not want to logically discuss or even contemplate such details.
Yes things are bad, change needs to occur, and solutions need to come about. Few can deny this. However, what we need in a President is someone who has a long standing demonstrated reverence to our Constitution and has a proven competency in using legal processes and the law to defend the Constitution while effecting those changes necessary that will allow desired solutions to follow within the context of our laws and Constitution.
What we do not need is someone essentially offering to do whatever is necessary to deliver solutions. The former will at least preserve our Constitutional Democratic Republic for our posterity and the later will, as history has repeatedly demonstrates, once we as a people are loosed from our moorings will lead to who knows where or what.
Well, his stance on abortion meant nothing to building a great building, so his stance was based on something else. I could go on, but that is a very clear example disproving his quips were to only support his real estate business.
You just believe he has evolved on the majority of the issues he espoused over the years; I find that level of change suspect.
So your saying he’s a guy as a businessman wasn’t going to upset the game, instead plays the game like every other businessman.
So why would you think as a politician he will upset the system, and not play the game like every other politician.
I would be OK with Trump’s explanation that he was just playing along if his whole campaign weren’t singularly focused on the claim that he will go to Washington to upset the go along to play along apple-cart.
I don’t think Trump started out as a conservative but he is very quick and he seems determined to figure out how to make America great again. He doesn’t seem to make many wrong turns but if he does he figures out how to turn them to his advantage. Even his detractors admit he has an uncanny way of landing on his feet. I think he will keep learning over and over that the smart move is the conservative move. Liberal ideas are what got us in this mess and Trump is seeing that and he’s campaigning against every leftist policy he can think of. I figure if he opposes enough liberal ideas like obamacare, common core, gun control, open borders, minimum wage, deficit spending, abortion funding, soak the rich tax policy- Soon he will be a real conservative anyway, so you’ll all be able to stop worrying.
Until you look deeply at any subject, don't you usually just try to be agreeable on that subject?
Now I have been a dedicated Conservative, since I was 15; but in Junior High I was a moderate--the strong opinions came later, as I finally focused on what was really involved in the policies I came to oppose.
Good question. I realize it seems like I’m being selective.
He was not running for President before. He is now coming to grips with the fact that he may actually be the next President. He is thinking - if I get the chance what will I do? Can I make things better?
Sure, he’s taking on a new found political persona and he doesn’t have a long consistent record - I concede that. He sounds a bit primitive compared to we long time WF Buckley conservatives. But I’m impressed that he picked conservatism as his bandwagon to climb onto, and he gets more conservative every day. Maybe he is going to get shunned as Noob, like on FR.
Like I said before, if he was a liberal he would have had an easy time running as a Democrat. Why go to all the trouble of faking conservatism? It doesn’t make sense.
The GOP have been running a con for all my life, and I remember Roosevelt.
To compare trump to RR is foolish.
Trump is something alright, like his recent comment that we need socialized healthcare to stop people from dieing in the streets. What the man is, tje republican obama, Trumbama.
Exactly. All Trump supporters are just ignoramuses who are missing the ruse, right? Anybody who disagrees with you is stupid, right?
What arrogant balderdash. It's no wonder the acrimony is so fierce, with conceited and needlessly inflammatory pronouncements similar to yours being made by supporters both sides.
I reject that absolutism. There is a middle ground for thoughtful people to potentially support either candidate. And choosing to support one or the other candidate doesn't make any particular individual an idiot.
You can support Trumbama all you want, I do not give a hoot.
>> Vexed by Trumpology
Like, ya’ know... right?
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