Posted on 03/03/2016 2:18:02 PM PST by Jeff Head
Mitt
March 3, 2016.
I am writing this with quite a bit of consternation.
I am not sure you will see it, much less read it. But I hope you will. Please forgive the length in advance.
I watched your speech today about Donald Trump, and I have to say, I was disappointed.
I watched you in 2012 accept Donald Trump's endorsement in Las Vegas. You said glowing things about the man. You were clearly glad to get his endorsement and talked about his success in business and that he was someone who saw the dangers our nation faces oversees.
Now, you return that favor with today's diatribe? As if though you never said those things?
This is not honorable. You could easily have met with Trump privately and talked this over. I have no doubt he would have made the time for you.
But instead you chose to make a public spectacle, and quite honestly, and spoken as a person who has had great respect for you...you came off looking like a stooge for the Republican Party elite.
Donald Trump does indeed come across as a crass, egotistical, and often profane man. But he was in 2012 as well. People know this about the man. It has been apparent for a long time, and particularly for the last six months as he has gone through this process and is energizing more and more voters.
Where was your speech then?
I know you will probably not like to hear what I have to say. But I think enough of you to know that you know that one of the qualities of any good leader is an ability to listen. Particularly to listen to things that may not be what they want to hear, but could be what they need to hear.
That is true in friendships. That is true in marriages. That is true as a father. That is true as a Mayor or Governor. That is true of an officer or squad leader in the military. That is true in Church positions. It is true of a group manager or CEO in a business. It is true in any position of leadership.
The fact is, Donald Trump’s rise in this election season is the product of a very broken GOP leadership.
This has gone on most of my adult life. A great exception was during the Reagan years where another outside the beltway individual, whom the establishment scoffed at, but who was as true as he could be to the people who elected him...and who, because of those qualities, delivered the largest Republican victories for the Presidency in my life time, and probably in all history. That’s simply the truth…I know there are a lot of details that went into it…but it is the truth nonetheless.
It is true that Donald Trump is not Ronald Reagan.
But Trump is a person who speaks directly, and says what most of us have thought when it comes to things like immigration, when it comes to the unbridled importation of immigrants into the country who may be a risk, when it comes to Obama Care, when it comes to the Iranian deal, and numerous other initiatives, including his tax and corporate tax plans. It is true that Donald Trump is not politically correct.
But the people are frustrated and they are angry because of career and establishment politicians and their attitudes. They care more about fixing the country than they do about political correctness or “reverence,” for broken leadership.
Trump is tapping into the real frustration of the people.
And you know what, despite the irreverence…or maybe because of it… the people believe he will do what he says, establishment be hanged.
Historically it’s not the first time. Andrew Jackson was sent to Washington DC in his day to “route the vipers out.” People may argue about how effectively he did or did not do…but from time to time, if the “go along to get along,” attitude festers too much, it needs lancing for the good of the nation.
Some may not fathom it, but the more establishment types attack Trump, the bigger the flames will be stoked. The people will properly view it as the establishment, omnce again rejecting them and they will simply be all the more determined to put someone in there who will not do so. Some may not "get" that...but it is true nonetheless.
Maybe a personal example from my own career will help you understand it.
At a former job, at one of our remote facilies, we had a couple of employees who ran the place. They we unbelievably good at what they did. But they were absolutely blue collar and not "spit and polished." They were what the management types felt was irreverent and they were profane. They were both raised in such an environment.
I was given the task of working with them with the warning that it would be next to impossible because of these qualities.
You know what I found? I went there with an open mind...determined to live out Jesus Christ's golden rule. Not as a goody two-shoes of some type, but too simply work with them and get the job done.
I worked with them...I listened to their language, I listened to their frustrations with management whom they felt always looked down their nose at them.
I found that they were unbelievable talented at what they did...which is why management told me was the only reason they kept them around.
Over time, I found these two men, despite their rough exterior, their profanity, and their ways, to be gems...to be diamonds in the rough.
They were honest. I have never heard them be anything but brutally honest.
They were loyal. Once they learned I was out there to work with them and get the job done, they would bend over backwards not only to do their part...but to help me do mine.
The listened well. They did not here me cursing and eventually, they asked me about it. I told them is was not my place to tell them how to talk in their plant…but that I for myself did not use such language. You know what? They honestly tried to lessen their own profanity. Now, they were not real good at it…but they clearly, consciously tried and that endeared them to me.
Over a ten year period, they became my friends.
Many in the larger office, despite my own protestations and testimony to the contrary, still looked down their noses at them and would not open their minds to them.
But I found that if I needed help on a cold night and needed to call someone to come to my assistance, that the more spit and polished people, particularly those that looked down their nose at those two individuals, were somehow not available to help. I am sure they had their reasons and that those reasons were probably more than adequate justification. But guess who was willing to drop what they were doing at a moment’s notice and help? You got it…those two supposedly irreverent, profane, no good guys at that remote location.
There’s an important life lesson in that…at least there was for me.
Sometimes we need to look beyond the party line.
Sometimes God in Heaven puts people in our path who may be indeed rough around the edges. Who may be irreverent and profane in our eyes and ears...but whom He has put there for his reasons, and to maynbe do some hard work. Who underneath all of that are really good people. But we will never know if we taek such views of them and do not try and get to know them.
It's not like they were aliens. It's not like they were mortal enemies. They were just Americans trying to make a living for themselves and their familes.
I do not know Donald Trump well enough to make that judgement. But I do hear what his daughters say. They say he is rough on the outside, but that there is a different man underneath all of that. There probably is.
Mitt, to close, I am a dyed in the wool Ted Cruz supporter and intend to support him until he either wins the nomination, or until he drops out.
But I tell you this...if Donald Trump wins the nomination I will support him 100% against the absolutely corrupt Hillary Clinton who is promising to double down on Obama's disastrous policies. I will support him 100% against the open socialist Bernie Sanders, who though himself is very honest about what he is...is nonetheless honest about wanting to create an ideology and government form that will simply put the pedal to the metal in terms of Obama's policies.
THAT is what we need to unite against.
If Trump wins...and it looks like he will, and it looks like he will do so with an absolute majority of the delegates...THAT Is how we unite. We stand against the far greater evil.
I intend to do that.
In the end, I believe most Americans are tired enough of the political establishment, and educated enough to see what the goal is here.
Sincerely,
Jeff Head
Emmett, ID
March 2016
See the following links for more of my messages to all Americans:
Donlad Trump Phenomenon
Black and Latino Americans: For God's Sake Wake Up!
My Oath to the Constitution as a US Citizen
Mass Shootings and Gun Control
My Message on Islamic Terrorism
The Boston Marathon Terror Bombing
Sharia Law must be outlawed in the United States
Fast & Furios and the Obama Administration
Ferguson Missouri and False Narratives
Secure our Southern Border
| Wonderful statement of what I also believe! Trump will get the job done -- because he's proven he can do it throughout his career. We need a CEO, not a politician. POTUS is an executive post, not a legislative post. I analyzed the elements of Trump's action-oriented approach in a FR column in January entitled From Art of the Deal to Art of the Campaign. |
Ya know...I read the statement and I have to laugh at his giving his superiors such wiggle room when an emergency arose. I relate it to the Army when i was in ...the only REAL good officers were those that were former enlisted. I never met a bad E-8 (master sergeant)..THEY ran the show , butter bars (1st louies’) would try like hell with there college pablum but the E-8’s knew what to do and we the lower ranks knew this . Anyway I digress , Mitt just gave Trump 5-15% more of our voting population. When you allow yourself to just be in circles that consider themselves to good or “educated” to be bothered you end up like these rino’s gaming the system that they set the rules for....will be fun to watch the carnage in D.C. when “The Donald” arrives.
Trump has also promised to end Common Core on the federal level.
Give me a specific example of a 'lie"
You are the one spreading lies
I think Romney did not need to create a public spectacle.
I think he could have and should have gone to Trump and made his case in private and tried to work it out.
Trump endorsed him four years ago and said he was honored to do so.
Romney accepted that endorsement and said glowing things about it.
Both men could settle this.
If Romney was really this concerned...if he felt it was THIS bad, then:
1) His acceptance of the Trump’s endorsement was a sham.
2) He would have gotten in the race to stop it.
3) He would have spoken out far sooner.
He did not do any of those things.
Any reasonable person can and should ask why.
Trump has been successful. Trump has spoken up and out about numerous things that need to be on the table.
Trump is profane...he is crass...but he is also taking the bull by the horns himself precisely because the establishment types have not been addressing the real problems.
In the end...if Trump brings the number of people to the table with his message and his written and documented plans...and if in doing that he wins as big as he is...then he is the person the people are choosing.
I am happy to let that process unfold.
I had to laugh when Romney said ‘all we got was the hat.’
I thought, that is more than we go from Romney in 2012.
5.56mm
Exceptional post, and you’ve always set the bar high.
You worked with a couple of rednecks, though you didn’t use the word.
Mark my words. Rednecks built America and they’ll rebuild America.
It’s almost as though Mitt got lassoed into being a mercenary for the GOPe.
Whatever Donald Trump is... Donald Trump isn’t a GOPe mercenary. Or a Democrat mercenary.
He’s probably do about as well as the Jebster.
I wouldn’t rely on rule 40 - the rules committee meets the week before the convention. If it looks like rule 40 will be a problem, it will be changed. They did the same thing last cycle, so it would not be unprecedented.
Excellent.
I have two open letters..F...U...
To Romney that is
https://www.facebook.com/philliprjohnson/posts/10156601201210472
Phil Johnson
11 hrs · Santa Clarita, CA, United States ·
Please allow me to expand on something I posted (below) in reply to some questions that came up in an earlier comment-thread. Here is my answer to friends who wonder if there’s a contradiction between my sounding an alarm during an election year regarding Donald Trump’s character vs. my own frequently-expressed opinion that churches and pastors should keep partisan politics at arm’s length, and Christians should not be deluded into thinking that the machinery of the American Electoral College can be commandeered for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom.
This isn’t about politics. My concerns about Donald Trump have nothing to do with his political convictions. Even if I agreed with every position he took on both foreign and domestic policy, it would still be my firm belief that he does not qualify to lead this or any other nation. It’s frightening to think that such an irascible and capricious man, severely lacking in both self-control and moral boundaries—a man whom we have repeatedly seen fight like a 7-year-old schoolgirl—might have the power to invoke war or take other executive actions.
Of course Trump is by no means the only Presidential candidate (including certain current office-holders) who is morally, spiritually, and ethically stunted. He’s surely the *worst,* but he’s neither the first nor the only scoundrel who doesn’t deserve anyone’s votes. American politicians for years have seemed to be trying to outdo each other to see who can be more arrogant, more narcissistic, more ostentatious, more wantonly driven by the flesh, and more cleverly deceitful—while being less accountable, less open to instruction or admonition, and above all, less modest. But Trump has greatly upped the ante, and he is certain to be the hands-down winner by an incredible margin in the contest to see who can be the mouthiest and most unsavory political candidate ever. I can’t imagine how anyone could ever surpass him for sheer carnal chutzpah.
I’m especially annoyed by the ridiculous pretense (put forward and fostered by Trump himself) that he is a faithful Christian who “reads the Bible more than anyone else”—even though he claims he can’t remember ever asking God for forgiveness or even needing to. This man is not a Christian, and as long as he insists he is—and (evidently) manages to get lots of people to believe it,—my conscience is continually telling me I have a duty to warn my friends and members of my flock not to be duped by this swaggering loudmouth falsely masquerading as a messiah.
I’m appalled by the pathetic gullibility of hundreds of thousands who self-identify as “evangelicals” (presumably people who would say they believe the Bible is true) who nevertheless are quite willing to believe that this arrogant adulterer represents hope, or promise, or an improvement of some kind.
Americans already voted an overweening narcissist into office eight years ago. Why would anyone think an even more egomaniacal blowhard is going to make things better for our nation?
Yes, I know God is sovereign, and that the king’s heart is in His hands (Proverbs 21:1), and I DO rest in the knowledge that His truth will ultimately triumph, and He will use all things for our good and His glory.
But I’ve never viewed my Calvinist convictions as an excuse for indifference or inaction. I needed to say something.
Nice job, but too long.
I can name that tune in four notes.
F-U-M-R !!
You, sir, are fantastic.
I only wish all the so called conservatives in congress could read your words.
Would they understand our frustration and anger?
I voted for Jeff Flake only to watch him turn into a McCain clone.
So disappointing, needs to get home to AZ and really listen to the people.
Can’t vote for anyone who is only in it for themselves, I’m done!!!
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