Posted on 08/30/2023 9:51:57 AM PDT by redheadedshannon
I expected after the 2020 election & the multiple disappointments since, that as the primary season leading up to 2024 lingered on, I would find myself supporting somebody other than Trump. I happily voted for him in both elections & certainly loved his America First stances that should always have been part of conservative orthodoxy. Reducing immigration, favoring the Americsn worker & only supporting trade that benefits the people of this nation.
His arrival on the political stage happened at a time when the only brand of Conservatism that was allowed by elites was the big business, corporate, tax cutting type that constantly involved us in foreign wars, supported mass third world immigration for the cheap labor express and wanted an internationalist future. They were always the weakest strain that never seemed willing to fight back.
His election was thrilling & it meant the world to all of us who wanted leaders that actually stood up to leftist bullies & the media. His staffing choices were never the greatest and Lord knows he underestimated the opposition, but it was impossible not to be thankful for a Trump Presidency. How awful would a President Hillary Clinton have been? We needed him there.
The one space that I could never seem to force myself into was being an apologist that silenced any criticisms. I was never going to be the girl that was unfailingly supportive of any political figure. His biggest supporters always seemed to go overboard on making everything about loyalty to him. The argumentative stance they took seemed to shout down any questions or reservations from fellow conservatives. It still goes on & isn't productive. Criticism would help to hone his political stances & make him tougher to beat. He proved not to be amazing at helping pick candidates that would win elections.
After consistent losses for Republicans in 2020 and 2022, we were presented with a question of who should be the leader in the 2024 Presidential race. Was it time to choose a new standard bearer? Many of us were thrilled with the lopsided Florida elections that won majorities of Hispanics and other elusive groups. Governor DeSantis seemed a rising star with solid conservative stances and a bright future.
To date, DeSantis and all other candidates have proved lackluster on the national stage. Though most will probably do great in the future, they seem unprepared for the office they seek. During this time, polls of Republicans and conservatives have shown a clear favorite in Trump. So many of the others running have failed to win support because of how new and untested they are.
We have also all been watching a Democrat Party actively pursing the prosecution & conviction of Trump, his lawyers & ultimately his supporters. To say that this is a worrying sign would be an understatement of epic proportions. This sign is a warning that we are on our last legs as a nation & are about to head into Civil War #2.
During the debate, Mike Pence summed up the position of most in Washington and elites around the nation. He hearkened back to the days of Reagan and a shining city on a hill. Ramaswamys response summed up the sentiments of conservative voters: this isn't the 1980s, it's not morning in America & it's impossible to go back. Stop living in the past & deal with our current reality, which is quite dark & deteriorating constantly!
I think we are all aware of global elites & their agenda. We are fighting a worldwide, left wing, totalitarian cabal that appear to want us turned into serfs and/or eliminated completely. They want a borderless world without national loyalties, an economy designed to only benefit elites, a lack of faith in God and an unelected, appointed government & police state.
Watching criminalized opposition, seeing Soros/Zuckerberg influence, experiencing election fraud and finding out about bizarre happenings like the Hawaii fires, has coalesced to make a strong argument in Trumps favor at this important time! I will always have criticisms of people on our side because I want us to win & anything we are failing at needs to be corrected to ensure that we succeed. The stars are too high to sit around and kiss anybodys butt!
Any criticism that most conservatives have is centered around making sure we don't get involved in petty arguments, that we support whomever we want in primaries, but support all Reublicans in the general to ensure Democrats won't have power, that we stop fighting amongst ourselves & that we make election security a priority.
Trump supporters need to allow some criticism, so that he changes tacts when needed & hones his debating skills. He has to appeal to the broader electorate and win enough of a majority to prevent Democrats efforts to cheat from succeeding. They need to understand that many of us would like to see a rising star like DeSantis or Ramaswamy elevated to more important positions for the future. We have got to have leaders for an era post-Trump & we need Congressional & state Republicans to work with Trump to get things done. That cant happen if you attack any and all who express a concern. In essence, we need to be more productive and stop fighting with each other.
I dont know what the perfect answer is for us, but I think the best answer at this time is to work to get Trump reelected, work to ensure fairness in elections and stop the barrage of communist BS and woke lefty ideology from advancing. I would strongly urge any and all conservatives, even if you don't support him in the primaries, to absolutely support Trump passionately in the general election. We have to turn out in the greatest numbers they've ever seen & get all Republicans elected to as many offices as humanly possible!
So who do think is better?
This thread deserves a bump or two.
There, fixed it.
It’s genuinely disheartening, though not surprising, that the Republican Party hasn’t collectively voiced strong outrage over the blatant political prosecution and election interference targeting Trump. Mark Levin has been vigorously highlighting this issue daily, yet it appears his efforts are largely going unheeded. While there have been mild mentions of ‘investigations’ and ‘defunding’, the usual pattern for Republicans is that no substantial action will be taken. Unless the upcoming election yields an irrefutable and overwhelming majority, the prospect of recovering from this assault on our Constitution and rule of law from the Left will be catastrophic for our future as a nation.
Nobody who's running. That's why I said I support Trump for the nomination.
What mistake(s)?
You don’t “win” against election rigging. It has to be stopped at the source.
I’d vote for Trump absolutely against Biden, but your concerns are shared by me. Desantis I think is the best person *for the job* but there is a salesmanship part of winning people over, and he’s been missing some layups.
I think the long term solution is we need to build up some MAGA-friendly candidates as a bench by getting them into the local and state levels, candidates with MAGA policies but without the shooting yourself in the foot proclivities.
Believing this while changing nothing else will ensure that Trump, once again, "wins the election" only to return home to Mar-A-Lago (or prison).
What the hell is he talking about? Trump killed It in all his debates. Even when entire audiences were stacked against him
“I know we all have got our doubts about the last election. I want to assure you that I share the concerns of millions of Americans about voting irregularities. I promise you, come this Wednesday, we will have our day in Congress!”And no, none of these people were obviously on the side of the deep state, whose existence many on the conservative pundit side were denying even after the 1/6/21 debacle.
Well said. If Trump was just another smooth talking career politician, I would not have voted for him twice.
Unless 2020 is “fixed” we will spend the rest of our lives, our children’s lives, and those of our grandchildren “electing” presidents just like the USSR did for 70 years
“ He’s not a perfect man.”
Of all the presidents, politicians, big statesmen in this country’s history tgere are none who have this “perfect” standard on them
When I ask why this one, people examine their shoes then slink off. Either that or tge nasty, “well of course…!” Eithe of course he has to be perfect or of course ge doesn’t have to be perfect
Let’s try now
You used this - please explain.
What mistakes?
1. Not going scorched earth against the communists from day one (Jan. 20th, 2017) and every day thereafter.
2. Making terrible appointments.
3. Not getting the wall built.
4. All of the pandering to blacks.
5. All of the pandering to Israel.
6. Weakness in the face of antifa and BLM terrorism.
7. Absolutely botching the covid response.
8. Allowing the Satanists to steal the 2020 election.
9. Being utterly unprepared to contest the stolen 2020 election.
I could go on and on. The dude came in knowing nothing about politics and he failed to staff his administration with people loyal to him and his MAGA agenda. I’m not sure he’s learned all that much and I don’t know that he has a better team surrounding him.
“””His arrival on the political stage happened at a time when the only brand of Conservatism that was allowed by elites was the big business, corporate, tax cutting type that constantly involved us in foreign wars, supported mass third world immigration for the cheap labor express and wanted an internationalist future.”””
Your commentary is very well written. thank you.
In 2015 Trump ran on three principal issues:
1. Stop illegal immigration that is taking away jobs from American citizens.
2. Stop outsourcing factories to Asia and elsewhere and bring those factories back to USA. Get out of unfair trade agreements.
3. Bring down price of gasoline by becoming energy independent.
For years the Conservatives in the USA had been concerned about the above issues, but the GOP was doing nothing about fixing these problems. Trump became the voice of the Conservatives on these issues. Trump listened to the voters!!!!!
Trump got elected in 2016-—the Conservatives were happy and the GOP Leadership was very angry. Especially after the GOP Leadership and their donors had lost $200 million on Jeb Bush’s failed primary.
When I talk with my Conservative friends today, they all recognize that the Democrats are our enemies. But those same friends still do not understand that most of the Republican Party Politicians and Leadership ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS.
Agreed. We’ve got to be very specific on what fraud exactly happened:
-Zuccbucks installing local officials to “fortify” the election. Solution: Outright ban it in states where we can, and in states where we can’t, lawyers on the ground in advance AND money of our own to install good poll workers. This wasn’t even attempted last time. We did this WELL in Bush 2000 which successfully prevented a steal in Florida. Look up the Brooks Brothers Riot
-Social media censorship that brainwashed people. There were people who indeed did legitimately vote for Biden, because they thought Trump was a literal goose-stepping Nazi from the Indiana Jones movies, or something. Solution: we’re in a better environment now that Elon has bought Twitter. Use new platforms like Rumble and podcasting services to get our messages out
-We previously almost actively discouraged early voting. This allowed Arizona to conveniently “malfunction” voting machines in 2022 in red precincts on election day. Solution: encourage early voting. We almost flipped NY in 2022, and probably would have if a bunch of conservatives hadn’t moved to Florida in 2020-2021.
The whole Sidney Powell kraken nonsense was a total waste of our time, and if anything, the left probably LOVED it since it ended up being a great distraction to the three big fraud issues that I outlined above. Ronna McDaniel has got to go. All she does is lose for us. She hasn’t addressed any of those issues. And, it’s another red flag for me for Trump since he didn’t call for her replacement when we had a chance.
Look, I fully agree with a bunch here that there were shenanigans in 2020. We either adapt to that reality and FIX those issues and learn how to play on the new terrain, or we’re wasting our time. I know some seem to be content to say “well it’s all rigged so it doesn’t matter”, but that’s not good enough for me. This is my country and I want to win.
“””That was the perfect opportunity to say, “I’ve learned so much. My second term will be totally different.””””
Trump also said in the Tucker interview that he has a much greater knowledge of where the DC scoundrels are than he had in 2016.
It is a full moon!
Great reply. I agree with everything you wrote.
Oh boy. That’s all deep state talking points—not a single one among the Uniparty Republicans who claim to be a conservative alternative to Trump would dare go “scorched earth on the communists”, being communists themselves. Trump was POTUS, not king. To be frank, he will need the military on his side to achieve any of that.
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.