Posted on 03/14/2016 9:36:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I like the idea of Ben Carson, man of integrity and plainspoken utterer of hard truths, being okay with Trump lying outlandishly to the public about what he thinks so long as he doesn’t really believe it.
“I needed to know that he could listen to other people, that he could change his opinions, and that some of the more outlandish things that he’s said, that he didn’t really believe those things,” Carson said.
When asked which statements Trump might back away from, Carson demurred.
“I’ll let him talk about that because I don’t think it’s fair for me to relay a private conversation,” he said.
When he said last week that “There are two different Donald Trumps,” he wasn’t kidding. The dark art of Trumpism lies in making the individual voter believe that he’s BSing everyone else, that “their” version of Trump is the true one and the “other” Trump is just working an angle to protect himself temporarily. If you’re a border hawk, Trump saying that he’s changing on H-1B visas isn’t disqualifying, it’s just a self-serving lie designed to make him seem more moderate on his way to the general election. If you’re more open to legalizing illegals, Trump’s mass deportation demand is just a self-serving lie he’s telling the right to protect his lead in the primaries. If you’re an alt-righter, Trump saying that he loves Israel is just his way of pandering to mainstream conservatives and centrist Democrats. If you’re pro-Israel, Trump dodging Jake Tapper’s questions on David Duke was, unfortunately, just something he had to do to keep his turnout up this month. He’s been doing this for months. That’s why most Trump controversies come with some sort of walkback: We’ll have mass deportation but we’ll also let the good ones back in, we’ll bar Muslims from entering the U.S. but it’ll be temporary and maybe short-lived. Believe whatever you want. Carson’s no exception.
The upshot of this, as Michael Brendan Dougherty notes, is that Trump has been able to retreat lately from all sorts of nationalist positions that his fans love with no dip in support. He’s lying to everyone else, see. Not to them.
But over the past few months, there has been a lot of evidence that Trump’s populist-nationalism is disintegrating. In September he released a tax-reform plan that is much beloved by the most anti-nationalist conservative thinkers around. In fact it is the very thing that Beltway creatures like Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth cite when they try to explain their sudden and perplexing support for Donald Trump.
Trump has also sounded completely out of his depth on immigration, much to the chagrin of his restrictionist fans. In a debate in Detroit, where Trump would supposedly have some of his most nationalist-minded fans, Trump said, “I’m changing. I’m changing. We need highly skilled people in this country, and if we can’t do it, we’ll get them in.” He described his position on immigration as “softening” and then long-windedly explained why Americans would not take seasonal jobs on some of Trump’s American properties. One of the reasons he offered was the weather. That’s right, the pro-American-worker Trump says that America is just too hot for American workers. Trump also pushed “touchback” amnesty, where illegal immigrants are granted legal status if they go home and obtain a guest-worker pass from an employer. Suddenly the “big beautiful door” in the Mexican border wall sounds a lot bigger. As Trump has begun to emphasize about immigration, “everything is negotiable.”
Trump’s non-interventionism also seems to be on the table. In the Detroit debate he talked about creating “safe zones” in Syria to stem the refugee flow. And in the Miami debate he said he would commit ground troops to Syria and Iraq: “We really have no choice, we have to knock out ISIS… I would listen to the generals, but I’m hearing numbers of 20,000-30,000.”
Is Trump against amnesty or secretly for it? Is he anti-interventionist or secretly in favor? Is he serious about a trade war with China or does he secretly think that’d be a bad idea? (And it would be.) With a garden-variety pol like Romney, this slipperiness would damage him badly, smoking-gun proof that he has no principles. Trump gets away with it for two reasons. One: Because he sounds like the opposite of a smooth-talking politician, unconcerned with policy and eager to brawl rhetorically with the competition, no amount of weaseliness on his positions can shake the perception that he’s “authentic.” The guy called out rapists from Mexico who’ve crossed the border illegally in his announcement speech last June; anyone willing to say that has gained an essentially irrebuttable presumption of honesty from his fans. And two: The whole point of electing Trump is that he’s going to be some sort of populist avenging angel against the entrenched establishment in D.C. In reality he’d be anything but that as president — read Dougherty’s piece — but that’s the image he’s built for himself.
He’s going to war with the people’s enemies, both foreign and domestic. Once your candidacy is successfully framed that way, your supporters will indulge you nearly anything. War is, after all, a dirty business. If you need to lie to the media and the establishmentarians in order to gain power then that’s what you’ve gotta do. The moment of truth for Trump will be what happens if, somehow, he pulls this off and wins in November. Come next January, when he needs to start signing bills, one side or the other will find out conclusively that it’s been lied to. Which side will it be?
“Trump has German ancestry”
Yes
I hear the war drums in Youngstown but I have learned not to be incited to death
Never march to death
People in the Mahoning valley pass out turkeys, and glad hand, and they stuff folks in the river
The steel mills and the pensions aint coming back
I have thought for many years that I may retire to the great state of Ohio,
but I might just die here smiling
I’m the opposite. I want to know that he does actually believe a word he says. He seems to make it up as he goes along.
GO CRUZ
No, I don't suppose it is. My humble suggestion to some of the Cruz people several months ago was that they insert a line into the stump speech anchoring his story just a bit on his mother's side of the family. He talks a lot about his dad, who has a compelling flight to freedom and up from rags narrative, but on the birther thing, his mom's family is the key.
Three of Cruz's maternal great grandparents were immigrants from Ireland and Italy. The fourth, I think, was born in the U.S. I don't know how far back that family thread goes in the U.S. In a perfect world, Cruz would have a great uncle who was with the Irish Brigade at Fredericksburg, a great, great, great grandfather who froze at Valley Forge, and a bit of Native American heritage mixed in from an 18th century liaison that would make him as Indian as Elizabeth Warren. (He could just "recall" the latter without any corroboration at all, and still be as Indian as Elizabeth Warren.) I'm just making up those examples for fun. I don't know what the most compelling peg in his family tree might be. He could peg a story to a factory worker in Delaware or a farmer in Pennsylvania just as well. But it's important to make it a story, not a legal debating point.
None of that is relevant to the fact that he was born in Canada, but framing is important. People are thinking he's the son of a Cuban who was born in Canada, as opposed to the great great grandson of an iconic American type whose mother happened to be living in Canada when she gave birth.
Failed?
Ted Cruz Wins: The Shutdown Worked
http://spectator.org/articles/60939/ted-cruz-wins-shutdown-worked
Ted Cruz: Man of the Year
He’s both principled and effective
“It is a rare thing for a freshman United Senator to make the impact that Cruz has made in his very first year in the Senate. To take a stand, to stick with it impervious to the assaults and petty jealousies of the crowd. And most importantly to bring about change.”
http://spectator.org/articles/57187/ted-cruz-man-year
He rarely speaks of family though many enemy’s do
Back in the 50's-60's when Kennedy was running it was said we can't have a Catholic as they would rule the world. Then with Romney we can't have a Mormon because they think they are Gods. Now we can't have a Pentecostal, because they are nuts.
It is looking more and more, like people would prefer a candidate who is an Atheist.
“Cruz is part of the whacked-out Dominionist faith.....”
Back in the 50’s-60’s when Kennedy was running it was said we can’t have a Catholic as they would rule the world. Then with Romney we can’t have a Mormon because they think they are Gods. Now we can’t have a Pentecostal, because they are nuts.
It is looking more and more, like people would prefer a candidate who is an Atheist.
BTW, I have not found any posts by people advocating for the President be an atheist.
His dad’s story is a staple of the stump speech. Imprisoned in Cuba, released, came to America with $100 sewn into his underwear, took a job washing dishes for fifty cents an hour, worked his way up, started a business, now a pastor. It’s a great story. It’s just the branch of the family tree to use when a relative newcomer, the son and grandson of immigrants, is challenging your authenticity as an American.
correction: it’s just NOT the branch to use ....
Open your ears and stop hearing only what you want to hear.
Cruz said: "As violence broke out the rally was canceled altogether. Now the responsibility for that lies with protestors who took violence into their own hands. But in any campaign responsibility lies at the top.
Don't you think that when Trump has said he likes the old days when we could fight back and carry them out on a stretcher, then he says he would like to punch him in the face, isn't contributing to a brawl type of mentality?
Donald Trump on Smiling Protester: ‘I’d Like to Punch Him in the Face, during Nevada Speech
‘Be careful Bernie': Trump threatens to send supporters to Sanders rallies
Compare that to how Ted Cruz handles hecklers.
TED CRUZ TALKING WITH CODE PINK
Watch Ted Cruz Get Ambushed By Angry Iowa Farmer, Then Turn Him Around
If The Precious (Trump) manages to win the general election, I wonder how many of his most vocal supporters will own up to that support 8 months into his administration?
How many old posts will be dug out of the FR archives to remind people that they were warned?
Most pols wait until they have been anointed at the convention before they start moving to the middle.
Hasn’t anyone told Trump that?
Remember, the rally in Chicago was a lot more than merely an opportunity for Donald Trump to exercise his free speech; it was an opportunity for his supporters to exercise their right to peaceably assemble to express their grievances against an over-reaching Federal Government. What is ultimately at stake, here, is the right to express dissent to the new norms the "politically correct" theorists are trying to force upon the rest of us.
“But for me, it’s obvious that he loves this country, and he’s willing to risk everything to protect it.”
He has risked everything? Except for the 20 years of his life as a billionaire when he contributed to Democrats who were destroying the country because he didn’t want to offend Democrats - because it might cost him some business deals.
In the past the only thing he has put above country is money.
I get it, and people on this forum try to paint him as a turd?
"BTW, I have not found any posts by people advocating for the President be an atheist."
The point I was trying to make is that it appears no matter what ones religion is, if they don't like that person one of the calls is that they are from a so called BAD religion. Therefore maybe they would rather an Atheist.
Anyway Ted Cruz says he is a Baptist.
"I was raised in the church. Each night, my dad would read with me from our children's Bible. We'd memorize Bible verses, and compete to see who could do the best. We'd act out scenes from the Old Testament. We attended Clay Road Baptist Church, pastored by the same Brother Gaylon Wiley who had led my father to the Lord."
One of the biggest mistakes an American voter can make is to vote for a candidate for president that they know to be arrogant. It is true: pride goeth before a fall.
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