Posted on 03/07/2016 3:34:24 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Mitt Romney's speech against Donald Trump is not likely to win many converts. Romney's remarks will just further vindicate and entrench Trump supporters.
Romney, though a good man, is quintessentially GOP establishment and has shown, by his speech, that he still doesn't understand the role he and his colleagues have played in bringing about the Trump surge.
During campaign season, these guys always seem to get it. They profess to understand how destructive President Obama's agenda is, but once they're elected, they lose their will to fight, which makes many conservatives believe they didn't believe their own rhetoric in the first place.
I know, Republicans tell us that the GOP leadership has done all it can to stop Obama but there's only so much a congressional majority can do. That's also what they said about congressional minorities when they were a minority.
Regardless, they haven't presented their case to the American people with conviction during the past seven years, except in the runup to elections. They didn't point out Obama's evil intentions and often denounced those who did. They didn't rally around Ted Cruz, Mike Lee or a handful of others who tried to stymie Obama. Instead, they chose to ridicule and marginalize these fighters.
Even to this day, the establishment fails to understand the legitimate concerns millions of Americans have over illegal immigration.
Establishment types arrogantly and unfairly slander border hawks as nativists, suggesting their opposition to open borders is race-based.
It's not about race; it's about our national sovereignty, the rule of law, protecting jobs, protecting Americans against criminal elements and jihadis, and stanching an invasion of people who will further burden our welfare state -- not assimilate, not embrace the American idea -- and vote almost solely Democratic.
A sovereign nation must control its borders and encourage immigrants to assimilate and embrace the unique American experiment. But Democrats are for flooding the borders for all the wrong reasons, and large swaths of the Republican establishment have affirmatively aided and abetted them.
We've watched as Republicans have allowed many of Obama's budgets to sail through under the radar, on the pretense of just waiting for the next election. Our guys don't even talk about entitlement reform anymore, though they were telling us just a few years ago that we were about to go bankrupt.
The Republican Party has been so tone-deaf to these real concerns that some Republican voters are furious enough to have chosen a wildly flawed solution in Donald Trump. One person on Twitter said she is so disgusted she is going to vote Democratic for the first time in 40 years.
It is tragic that true conservatives, however, are being lumped in and punished for the betrayals of centrist Republicans. Trump supporters are adamant that no elected official escape the blame. Their solution is to burn the house down and rebuild it around Trump, even though they can't be sure what he'd do when elected.
People wonder why they would turn to someone like Trump. The GOP, after all, has stood for moral principles, manners and adult behavior, and Trump seems to exhibit none of those things. In many ways, he is the opposite of conservative principles, in demeanor, lifestyle and his personal conduct in the campaign.
But in their disgust at the Republican establishment, they are throwing out true conservatives and also certain conservative principles and values, as if all of conservatism has been tainted by a party that betrayed its base.
How else does it make sense that even valid, troubling criticisms of Trump seem to help him more than hurt him?
I think it's because this disaffected class of voters wants someone unorthodox enough to break the rules, someone brash enough not to be deterred by the niceties that have prevented establishment Republicans from distinguishing themselves from Obama in bold colors rather than pale pastels. They're seem not only not offended but invigorated by someone who'll hurl profanities and refuse to apologize even when he owes an apology, because they think it's going to take someone like that to resist pressure to betray them once he's elected.
And though the establishment has finally awakened to the intensity of the discontentment among the party rank and file, it still doesn't believe the angst is legitimate. The establishment is still in bitter denial and wouldn't support a person advocating many of Trump's ideas even if he were a paragon of moral rectitude.
If establishment Republicans were the least bit repentant about their betrayals, truly believed in the conservative principles embodied in their party's platform and were realistic about stopping Trump, they'd quit posturing and unite behind Ted Cruz.
For the way to defeat Donald Trump is not to deny him a majority and steal the nomination from him at the convention; that really would be the end of the party. It is to embrace the closest thing to a Reagan conservative since Ronald Reagan, before it's too late. But truth be told, they probably hate Cruz worse than they hate Trump.
I wish Trump supporters would consider this when they wrongly lump Cruz in with the establishment, and I wish they'd simmer down long enough to recognize that Cruz represents the answer to their complaints far more than Trump -- and with none of the baggage.
Lost me at ‘Romney, though a good man’
Have you ever...I mean EVER...wondered if you were the one that was wrong?
I see a LOT of Trump supporters throwing die-hard conservative commentators overboard because they don't agree with them.
Count Mark Levin and the Limbaughs in the bunch. There's lots more.
I'd posit that just because someone doesn't support your candidate doesn't make them a "liberal", "GOPe", "establishment" individual.
I'M not one, but Cruz is my first choice. Try, if you like, to make me a GOPe/establishment supporter.
You will fail.
How 'bout you think YOU might be wrong?
Because he is one of them. They want to keep their power and their perks.
Add that to Kansas, where people voted TWICE for Cruz.
No, we'll vote 3rd party. I know, same outcome. Just means the GOP should be very, very careful how they conduct themselves over the coming months, and how they vote.
The game is not over but let it play out. Let the candidates earn their votes.
I like Trump (although he makes me cringe at times) but Cruz would be a nice consolation prize.
No it isn't.
Same here - it’s Trump or no one. Cruz isn’t eligible to even run. Unite behind a Canadian? Not on your life.
By two points in a poll that was done in December
The race has changed since then
O.K. Limbaugh, who is saying that those of us who favor Donald Trump want ALL Republicans removed from office? I'm all for retaining legislators who have proven to all that they really are true conservatives. The real problem we face is discerning the political wheat from the chaff. Just another sycophant who does’t want the status quo boat rocked. I mean who does he really want, Mitt?
At 2:30 pm Pacific Time Maine’s vote was 5%, at 3:30 Maine’s vote was 5%, at 4:30 Maine’s vote was 5%, at 5:30 Maine’s vote was 5%. Turns out after the first initial votes were counted the GOP decided to gather up all the votes and count them in one location....Fraud
I’m sorry.
I didn’t get your point.
I never got through all of the blather.
So, Cruz fired a couple of guys that didn’t meet his standards. Are you saying that’s “bad”?
And I guess Trump keeps the bad ones? Or does he fire them, too?
Which would make you a...what’s the word?...
Oh, I know...a hypocrite.
And home of Sheila Jackson Lee...Lol...no thanks
Shhhh, the Cruzbots think he is an outsider and anti-establishment. Boy, are they deceived.
“Reports are out there that Heidi Cruz was on the front lines of the North American Union.”
She was, and so was Ted when he worked for W.
Thanks!
I got your back, Donald!
The people on my non-FR Trump groups are NOT die-hard conservatives.
There’s a lot of young people who are socially libertarian. Many Sanders supporters who’ve flipped to Trump. Democrats who’ve switched parties to vote for Trump. Many, many first time voters.
They do not care about abortion. They are not religious at all. Some of them support Trump despite his stance on 2A.
These people are not going to support Cruz. Ever.
Already, word’s getting out that Cruz is starting to get establishment backing. Believe it or not, Lindsy Graham started talking positive about Cruz.
And these Trump supporters are screaming, “See! He’s just another establishment shill!”
If Cruz gets the nomination, none of these people will show up. They’re the ‘crossover’ demographic and they’re here because of Trump. Not because of the GOP or a sudden love of conservatism.
Trump.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.