Posted on 03/25/2018 9:08:24 PM PDT by Kaslin
Remember the Kobayashi Maru scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan? Sometimes, you end up with no good options. Donald Trump just had that happen to him with the omnibus abomination, though don’t be fooled by the passive voice – he deserves some blame for letting it come to this. The absolutely essential military spending was wrapped in a fat suit of glistening, rancid pork, and the congressional rats had already abandoned ship and fled out of town when it was dumped on his desk. So he had a stark choice. Trump could sign it, and enrage his base but ensure our military could prepare for the wars looming on the horizon. Or he could veto it, and launch a government shutdown with about 0% of succeeding in getting a significantly better deal.
Trump chose the least worst of two bad options, and I, for one, refuse to lose my Schiff over it.
This was a last minute congressional jam-down of a swamp-generated monstrosity, and Trump deserves a slice of the blame for not seeing it coming. He evidently failed to ensure that his priorities and preferences were included as this sausage was being made, and suddenly the whole thing dropped on him (and us) seemingly out of nowhere and became a thing overnight. Except it wasn’t overnight. This train had been coming down the tracks for three months; the Congressional weasels succeeded in sneaking it in right before they ditched town. Trump is liable for letting himself be put in that position, but the GOP leadership is responsible for putting him there.
Now, the people who hate Trump anyway – many of whom would have squeed with squishy glee had Presidents Jeb! or Foamy Marco signed the bill – were delighted for a chance to scream “BETRAYAL TURNCOAT CUCK!” about this choice. For many of them, this is just another chance to try to tear apart the Republican coalition that rejected them – many still dream of someday getting a slot in a Ben Sasse administration. But none of them offered a game plan for an alternative.
What was the alternative?
Step One: Veto the Bill
Step Two: ?
Step Three: Congress Passes Conservative Spending Bill We All Love
If anyone can explain Step Two to me, I’d sure appreciate it. After all, that’s kind of the key step, and no one seems to have a good answer for what it might have consisted of. The simple fact is that while the GOP has a majority, conservatives do not. Step Two can’t be “Wishing” or “Wanting” or “Waving the Magic Wand.” If you think a government shutdown caused by Trump’s veto would result in a better outcome, well, that requires some explanation. I’d be interested to see a citation to a governmental shutdown that the shutter downer won. There isn’t one; people like us love government shutdowns because we think the government sucks, but the rest of America doesn’t.
It just doesn’t. I don’t want that to be the truth, and I don’t like it, but that’s how it is. We are not yet an unassailable majority, and the United States is not yet the dictatorship the left desires, so we cannot just decree that our wishes become reality. We have to compromise and make deals. And it’s annoying as hell.
This is a over-compromise and a bad deal. This bill is not what Trump promised and not what we voted for. The base is mad. Furious. And it has a right to be.
We’ve been mad at the saps in the GOP Congressional Caucus forever, and we’ve slowly but surely been turning out the simps and the squishes. There are many more to go. But a lot of the anger, fueled by giddy libs and eager Fredocons, is directed at President Trump. Some of it is justified – he let himself get pushed into the corner and he needs to reach out and get some advisors who actually agree with his program. But a lot of the base’s fury is overblown.
It’s absolutely understandable – in fact, it’s inevitable – that Trump supporters are going to be ticked off. We’ve been lied to and betrayed for decades, and anything that even hints at a continuation of that pattern spins us up to Rage Level 11. But the fact is that this was a screw-up that led to him being faced with two bad choices, and we need to see clearly what happened. We weren’t “betrayed.” It’s not “over.” And “Trump has totally lost my support” is exactly what your enemies want you to say.
Don’t say what your enemies want you to say.
This was a bump in the road, as road that includes Justice Gorsuch, defeating ISIS, Keystone, regulatory rollback, tax cuts and many other conservative achievements. Our enemies would love for us to throw that all away because we got a case of the madz. But that would be stupid.
There’s another spending fight coming. Trump says he won’t sign another flaming pile of garbage like this. After the reaction he got the other day, it’s likely he’ll keep his word. He should demand that he receive the next bill in final form 30 days before the deadline – no more 30 minutes to read 2,200 pages nonsense. This will give real conservative leaders a chance to disinfect it with sunlight, like Senator Rand Paul did highlighting the flotsam and jetsam in the last one.
Finally, Mitch McConnell needs to earn the base’s lost confidence by getting the GOP to toss out the filibuster rule and start passing our priorities because if these hacks blow the Senate majority (and they absolutely could) Chuckie Schumer will do that the first day anyway. Oh, and it would be really good for morale to get Ric Grennell and the other hung-up nominees confirmed. If McConnell has to change the rules to outflank Democrat obstruction, okay.
What do the rest of us do? Not quit. Get up, brush off, and get ready to fight. Tighten the hell up and jump back in the game. If you can’t take a hit, if you can’t stand to encounter an obstacle, if you’re giving up everything because something goes wrong, you’re not really committed to recovering your country and your own freedom. This is going to be hard. This is going to take time, a lot of it. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and draining the swamp will not be done in a day either. We are going to have more days like Omnibust Friday in the future, lots of them. That’s how it goes. But also remember that we will have days like November 8, 2016, where liberals are spread out before us, sobbing as their hideous libfascist dreams die before their eyes.
And those days make it all worthwhile.
A huge portion of this goes to the military who badly needs it. He also has implemented the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 as an emergency requirement all funding and has discretion over all funds in this bill. He does not have to spend it on the liberal pork at all.
As the Obama supporters, they believe that unicorns really DO and SHALL "fart" jellybeans, gummy bears, cotton candy, and a life sans any problems.
But finally we have a leader who will fight.
History shows how many wanted to get rid of Washington for losing battles and Lincoln for not getting the right general.
Sadly, far to many people neither know nor care about factual history. Thanks for posting what you did.
P
Bullsh!t. Stop engaging in propaganda!
The real situation is this: you shouldn’t criticize Trump on this bill and additionally declare yourself a #NeverTrumper!
And saying that you no longer support the President (moving forward) is tantamount to declaring yourself a #NeverTrumper, understood?
I'm glad we could have this talk. If you still support President Trump, I daresay you're welcome on FR.
If instead you b-tch, moan, groan, and—like a #NeverTrump troll—snottily announce that you no longer can support the President, then you may find the welcome mat yanked out from under you.
So "don't be a scum-sucking #NeverTrumper who doesn't support the President moving forward" would be my heartfelt advice to you.
This has been the clear paradigm since before November of 2016. Nothing has changed regarding the site policing guidelines, as far as I'm aware—written and unwritten—and I'd suggest that you don't push the envelope.
Personally, I think that JimRob does an exemplary job at keeping this forum focused. I wholeheartedly endorse his judgement. And supporting President Trump—especially against the backdrop on a pervasive, ongoing Deep State coup attempt—remains an integral part of that focus.
If you aren't on board with that, to the point where you no longer support the President, then—with all due respect—step off!
Disagreeing with individual decisions made by the President is fine. Doing so to the point of dropping your support for him—that is, being a #NeverTrump troll—is categorically not fine.
There are plenty of sites you can go to to indulge in #NeverTrump masturbation. FR isn't one of them...
LOL See
“It’s almost as bad as DU, on some threads.”
It gets pretty bad during election year. They crawl out like cockroaches trying to disrupt conversation. They’re on a fools errand because they will never change a single mind. Some liberals may turn conservative after they grow up or start earning money of their own but the chances of a real conservative turning liberal is slim to none.
I cannot see the downside of that. Had he vetoed the OSB and Congress overturned it, we would be at the same place we are now, but with all of his support intact, yet with an exponential increase in support for his principled stance. With the resounding support the GOPe would be destroyed, hoisted on their own petard. By October he would have a new bill to build the wall, a strong military and the winning wave of Conservative Republicans assured in November.
As it is now, it looks like a Bleak House and Senate.
Sadly, the #NEVRTRUMPERS are still at it. :-(
And then there are the damned "PURISTS", who are NEVER satisfied by anyone nor anything!
I should have mentioned those. They’ll be here pounding away until President Trump has finished his second term.
President Trump deals with this BS everyday and look what he has accomplished in such a short period of time.
You're losing your memory, no-par.
In 2005, Free Republic crushed the Bush-McCain Amnesty and the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination.
You were on site every day in 2005 explaining why our efforts were hopeless, and why the Republican Party would collapse unless we supported everything that Bush Two wanted.
In 2005, I suspected you were a center-left Republican who supported Amnesty and most of the Democrat Party agenda.
In 2018, I'm absolutely sure of that.
Reeking bullsh!t.
Trump has lost no support—except for a few latent #NeverTumpers who are constantly looking for reasons to leave.
But 1/3? Put the crack pipe down.
Anyone who would end their support for President Trump for signing a 6-month spending bill—in the midst of a coup attempt by the Deep State—is either a #NeverTrump troll at heart, or else a completely naivé armchair quarterback who can't be taken seriously.
The President needs no "sunshine patriot" supporters. Fortunately, such "supporters" can be counted on a couple of hands.
As for that "1/3 of his core support" that the President has lost—a wet dream which exposes whoever suggested it as a latent #NeverTrumper—whatever the miniscule figure might actually be, there are plenty of sites on the internet where such ilk can go indulge in gratuitous #NeverTrump masturbation. I daresay that FR isn't one of them. But I could be wrong.
Had Trump; vetoed this POS Bill and then had that veto overturned, Trump would have been well and truly F-I-N-I-S-H-E-D/over/done! He would be labeled as "weak", stupid, and far worse! And that's not all...many of the wobblies would either have stayed home ( far more than probably shall do, come November ) and NEVER bothered to vote ever again.
You ARE a political naif.
President Reagan, the "true CONSERVATIVE" and an hero of Conservatism to most here, if not all of us, "caved" on many things and did NOT have to face the same level of hostility, FROM HIS OWN TEAM AND PARTY, as Trump has; not to mention all of the constant garbage from the MSM, Dems ( not all of whom were as stupid and insane as that group in Congress is now ! )and neither was he suffering through an "investigation" of his and his family's entire lives.
Your post if filled to the brim with specious assumptions, day dreams, and puerlie pie-in-the-sky imaginings.
And HELL NO (!), the GOP does NOT face "....a Bleak House ( have you ever read Dicken's BLEAK HOUSE? The way you posted that, made me think of that novel, NOT quite what you meant though...I realized in the next second, but you should NEVER have capitalized the word "bleak"! ) and Senate"!
Stop swallowing, as whole cloth, MSM and GOPE propaganda!
Some people are never satisfied. I had a cranky neighbor not so long ago. He bitched and moaned if he thought your grass was to long then bitch if you mowed it twice a week, then bitch some more if you mowed it while he was watching a game. Some people just can’t be satisfied.
Unfortunately, yes they shall be, unless some of them get the all powerful “ZOT”.
You know when people are killing babies and selling their parts and the country is another trillion in debt, and high end traitors who tried to kidnap an election and worse roam free, maybe you shouldn’t criticize people for NOT being SATISFIED. The question isn’t why are they not it is WHY ARE YOU.
I was NEVER one of the droolers, who claimed that Bush 2.0 could do no wrong. Neither have I EVER been for amnesty of ANY kind! Hell, I'm against giving the damned DACAs anything at all...I want them deported!
"LEFT OF CENTER" ?
Me?
I'm probably farther RIGHT than you are; not to mention better informed, far more knowledgeable about politics and history, and am able to see reality.
You and your ilk, here, had NOTHING whatsoever to do with Bush ditching Miers and the arguments that some you you made, back then, were laughable.
The greatest attack since 9/11 is our inteigence agencies spying on a campaign they didn’t agree with.
Try to keep up or keep out of the way.
The lack of a set of cahones precludes the folks Trump has to deal with from electing new leadership.
I fear our lady reps are the only one with any testosterone.
The fight is in our state primaries.
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