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When I hear Trump supporters trying to describe why they support him, I am struck by the similarities of their enamorment with the love-struck hyperbole of a teenaged girl in puppy love.
They say things like “He resonates.” “He fights.” “He talks back to the media.” “He talks about the issues.” None of those represents an argument for Trump as a serious presidential candidate. It isn’t an argument at all. It is purging masquerading as principle, excretion and anger pretending to be some kind of higher argument. They are subjective assessments of Trump, grades recorded on a curve.
Trump is like a cat trained to piss in a human toilet. “It’s amazing! It’s remarkable!” Yes, yes, it is remarkable. For a cat. We don’t judge humans by the standards reserved for cats.
Lord Acton wrote the famous assessment “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” What most people don’t realize is that Acton wasn’t saying the corruption was limited to the power holders, but also stated it taints those who admire the power. It works the same way with popularity.
We routinely forgive the rich and famous for sins we would condemn our neighbors for. Trump’s popularity apparently trumps all standards we would apply not just to our neighbors, but to our leaders. An example is Ted Cruz, who recently promised not to “criticize fellow Republicans.”
Apparently that means “fellow Republicans named Donald Trump,” as Cruz has made a reputation ripping his fellow Republicans as long as he’s been in the Senate. Cruz is obviously hoping to scoop up the Trump voters if and when the real estate mogul loses steam or self-implodes, and contributing to that fall or failure might make them think twice about jumping on the Ted bandwagon.
In 2012, Mark Steyn wrote that a President Gingrich would have “twice as many ex-wives as the first 44 presidents combined.” If that (quite brilliant) line resonated with you three years ago, why doesn’t it for a President Trump?
I understand the compulsion to celebrate anyone who doesn’t take crap from the mainstream media. But when Newt Gingrich brilliantly eviscerated the press in 2012, there was a serious ideological worldview behind it.
Trump’s assaults on the press have only one standard: whether the journalist in question is favorable to Trump or not. If a journalist praises him, that journalist is “terrific.” If the journalist is critical of Trump he is a “loser” (or, in my case, a loser who can’t buy pants). Not surprisingly, Hugh Hewitt is now “third rate” because he made Trump look bad.
Similarly, I’m constantly catching it from Trump supporters who label me a whiner or worse because they think I’m being disrespectful when I criticize Trump or them for supporting him – as if these folks would refrain from criticizing Jeb, Ben, Rubio or Kasich if they were in the lead. Disingenuousness at its height.
Yes, I am dismayed at this irrational leap to Trump. I’ve been a conservative most of my life – except for the irrational 20s when, even though in the military, I was the liberal with a heart Churchill said I should be, but became the conservative with a brain he also said was inevitable. Conservatives have spent more than 60 years arguing that ideas and character matter. That is the conservative movement I joined and to which I dedicated my political loyalty. Now, in a moment of passion, many of my comrades-in-arms are throwing it all away in a fit of pique. Because “Trump fights!”
The illogic is monumental. We as the voters in the GOP party uniformly decided Rick Perry was unfit for office because he couldn’t remember the third cabinet level department he would shut down if elected. Perry was absolutely Lincolnesque in that faux pas compared to the http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/07/31/donald_trump_this_run_on_sentence_from_a_speech_in_sun_city_south_carolina.html“]unintelligible ramblings and English mangling of Donald Trump[/url].
It is more than just mangled speech and disclarity on who our nation’s enemies are, as he showed in that hard-to-hear, cringe-creating radio interview with Hugh Hewitt. It is the fact he apparently can flip-flop at the drop of a hat and get away with it despite the votes to whom he appeals having always, in the past, been skeptical of anyone who did such a foolhardy thing.
Case in point: Suddenly, after years of being pro-choice, he’s suddenly pro-life. Is it a true change of heart and mind, or is it political expediency to get elected? I’ll let you be the judge, but don’t forget to consider that, shortly after making his pro-life declaration, he was asked who he would name to the Supreme Court if elected, and url=”http://www.nationalreview.com/corne...o-abortion-extremist-judge-ramesh-ponnuru”]he suggested his pro-choice-extremist sister[/url].
Another such instance: In the last month, Trump has contemplated alternatingly, a flat tax, the fair tax, maintaining the current progressive tax system, a carried-interest tax, a wealth tax, and doing nothing. His supporters respond, “That shows he’s a pragmatist!” No. It shows that he has absolutely no ideological guardrails whatsoever.
Ronald Reagan once said, “Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.” Trump is close to the reverse. He’s a mouth at the wrong end of an alimentary canal spewing crap with no sense of responsibility.
I mentioned that Hewitt interview a few paragraphs back. Trump followers immediately jumped on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram touting his “gotcha question” defense, and echoing mindlessly his “I’ll delegate” attempt at recovery, saying he’ll go find another Doug MacArthur.
Ignoring for the moment the fact MacArthur was an egotistical fool – a lot like Trump, come to think of it – it occurs to me that if the would-be boss doesn’t know foreign policy, he is clueless as to who might be qualified to accept the delegation of his ignorance.
I think the thing that disheartens me the most is the cow=herd mentality of Trump followers. Obamacare has been the favorite whipping post of conservatives, and the knowledge the Obama really wanted a single-payer system made such a system the least popular option among conservatives, with only 16% support.
When Trump revealed he favors a single-payer system, polls showed an inexplicable leap of support to 44% for single-payer government healthcare coverage. It is a completely irrational and counter-intuitive move for conservatives to consider, and threatens the very underpinnings of conservatism in the U.S.
Trump is not a conservative. At worst, he’s a liberal, which I halfway suspect. The reality is more likely, though, that he’s nothing more than the sideshow barker I’ve accused him of being, and is campaigning like a populist. William Jennings Bryan best voiced my problem with populism:
“The people of Nebraska are for free silver and I am for free silver,” Bryan announced. “I will look up the arguments later.” My view of conservatism holds that if free silver is a bad idea, it’s still a bad idea even if the people of Nebraska are for it. But Trumpism flips this on its head. The conservatives of Nebraska and elsewhere should be against single-payer health care, even if Donald Trump is for it. What we are seeing is the corrupting of conservatives.
If you are a conservative, Trump is anathema to your political philosophy. So why are you supporting this clown-candidate? It doesn’t make any sense.
They say things like “He resonates.” “He fights.” “He talks back to the media.” “He talks about the issues.” None of those represents an argument for Trump as a serious presidential candidate. It isn’t an argument at all. It is purging masquerading as principle, excretion and anger pretending to be some kind of higher argument. They are subjective assessments of Trump, grades recorded on a curve.
Trump is like a cat trained to piss in a human toilet. “It’s amazing! It’s remarkable!” Yes, yes, it is remarkable. For a cat. We don’t judge humans by the standards reserved for cats.
Lord Acton wrote the famous assessment “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” What most people don’t realize is that Acton wasn’t saying the corruption was limited to the power holders, but also stated it taints those who admire the power. It works the same way with popularity.
We routinely forgive the rich and famous for sins we would condemn our neighbors for. Trump’s popularity apparently trumps all standards we would apply not just to our neighbors, but to our leaders. An example is Ted Cruz, who recently promised not to “criticize fellow Republicans.”
Apparently that means “fellow Republicans named Donald Trump,” as Cruz has made a reputation ripping his fellow Republicans as long as he’s been in the Senate. Cruz is obviously hoping to scoop up the Trump voters if and when the real estate mogul loses steam or self-implodes, and contributing to that fall or failure might make them think twice about jumping on the Ted bandwagon.
In 2012, Mark Steyn wrote that a President Gingrich would have “twice as many ex-wives as the first 44 presidents combined.” If that (quite brilliant) line resonated with you three years ago, why doesn’t it for a President Trump?
I understand the compulsion to celebrate anyone who doesn’t take crap from the mainstream media. But when Newt Gingrich brilliantly eviscerated the press in 2012, there was a serious ideological worldview behind it.
Trump’s assaults on the press have only one standard: whether the journalist in question is favorable to Trump or not. If a journalist praises him, that journalist is “terrific.” If the journalist is critical of Trump he is a “loser” (or, in my case, a loser who can’t buy pants). Not surprisingly, Hugh Hewitt is now “third rate” because he made Trump look bad.
Similarly, I’m constantly catching it from Trump supporters who label me a whiner or worse because they think I’m being disrespectful when I criticize Trump or them for supporting him – as if these folks would refrain from criticizing Jeb, Ben, Rubio or Kasich if they were in the lead. Disingenuousness at its height.
Yes, I am dismayed at this irrational leap to Trump. I’ve been a conservative most of my life – except for the irrational 20s when, even though in the military, I was the liberal with a heart Churchill said I should be, but became the conservative with a brain he also said was inevitable. Conservatives have spent more than 60 years arguing that ideas and character matter. That is the conservative movement I joined and to which I dedicated my political loyalty. Now, in a moment of passion, many of my comrades-in-arms are throwing it all away in a fit of pique. Because “Trump fights!”
The illogic is monumental. We as the voters in the GOP party uniformly decided Rick Perry was unfit for office because he couldn’t remember the third cabinet level department he would shut down if elected. Perry was absolutely Lincolnesque in that faux pas compared to the http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/07/31/donald_trump_this_run_on_sentence_from_a_speech_in_sun_city_south_carolina.html“]unintelligible ramblings and English mangling of Donald Trump[/url].
It is more than just mangled speech and disclarity on who our nation’s enemies are, as he showed in that hard-to-hear, cringe-creating radio interview with Hugh Hewitt. It is the fact he apparently can flip-flop at the drop of a hat and get away with it despite the votes to whom he appeals having always, in the past, been skeptical of anyone who did such a foolhardy thing.
Case in point: Suddenly, after years of being pro-choice, he’s suddenly pro-life. Is it a true change of heart and mind, or is it political expediency to get elected? I’ll let you be the judge, but don’t forget to consider that, shortly after making his pro-life declaration, he was asked who he would name to the Supreme Court if elected, and url=”http://www.nationalreview.com/corne...o-abortion-extremist-judge-ramesh-ponnuru”]he suggested his pro-choice-extremist sister[/url].
Another such instance: In the last month, Trump has contemplated alternatingly, a flat tax, the fair tax, maintaining the current progressive tax system, a carried-interest tax, a wealth tax, and doing nothing. His supporters respond, “That shows he’s a pragmatist!” No. It shows that he has absolutely no ideological guardrails whatsoever.
Ronald Reagan once said, “Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.” Trump is close to the reverse. He’s a mouth at the wrong end of an alimentary canal spewing crap with no sense of responsibility.
I mentioned that Hewitt interview a few paragraphs back. Trump followers immediately jumped on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram touting his “gotcha question” defense, and echoing mindlessly his “I’ll delegate” attempt at recovery, saying he’ll go find another Doug MacArthur.
Ignoring for the moment the fact MacArthur was an egotistical fool – a lot like Trump, come to think of it – it occurs to me that if the would-be boss doesn’t know foreign policy, he is clueless as to who might be qualified to accept the delegation of his ignorance.
I think the thing that disheartens me the most is the cow=herd mentality of Trump followers. Obamacare has been the favorite whipping post of conservatives, and the knowledge the Obama really wanted a single-payer system made such a system the least popular option among conservatives, with only 16% support.
When Trump revealed he favors a single-payer system, polls showed an inexplicable leap of support to 44% for single-payer government healthcare coverage. It is a completely irrational and counter-intuitive move for conservatives to consider, and threatens the very underpinnings of conservatism in the U.S.
Trump is not a conservative. At worst, he’s a liberal, which I halfway suspect. The reality is more likely, though, that he’s nothing more than the sideshow barker I’ve accused him of being, and is campaigning like a populist. William Jennings Bryan best voiced my problem with populism:
“The people of Nebraska are for free silver and I am for free silver,” Bryan announced. “I will look up the arguments later.” My view of conservatism holds that if free silver is a bad idea, it’s still a bad idea even if the people of Nebraska are for it. But Trumpism flips this on its head. The conservatives of Nebraska and elsewhere should be against single-payer health care, even if Donald Trump is for it. What we are seeing is the corrupting of conservatives.
If you are a conservative, Trump is anathema to your political philosophy. So why are you supporting this clown-candidate? It doesn’t make any sense.
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