Trump Has Succeeded in Convincing Conservatives to Discard their Principles Overnight

National Review ^ | September 01, 2015 | CHARLES C. W. COOKE

[Steelfish]

Trump Has Succeeded in Convincing Conservatives to Discard their Principles Overnight by CHARLES C. W. COOKE. September 1, 2015.

Since he jumped self-confidently into the political limelight, Donald Trump has been quite the upside-down man. Customarily, primary seasons permit each party’s voters to indulge in a rational process of elimination: First, they discover which candidate most closely agrees with them on policy, and then they ask themselves whether that person is capable of representing their ideas in public. This time around, however, this process has been disastrously inverted, a solid portion of the Republican party’s balloters having decided first who they want to speak on their behalf, and then, as if t’were a mere afterthought, wondered what he might end up saying.

That their pick lacks any sort of conservative message at all does not seem to have mattered in the slightest. “We want that guy,” a host of voters have determined. “Whatever he believes, he says it so well.” If you have in the last few years become vexed and frustrated by the Republican base’s penchant for political purity, you should perhaps be breathing a little easier. A handful of months ago many of those who now make up Trump’s rank-and-file were ideological perfectionists who hated the GOP’s leadership, believed to their souls that the country was becoming a socialist hell-hole, and insisted vehemently that they had sat out the 2012 election because Mitt Romney was such a terrible squish. Today, by dint of some dark and unholy magic, these wannabe purists have hitched their wagons to Donald Trump, the greatest shape-shifter of them all. ......................... .......................................

[dschapin]

Cruz would be garnering the votes if it wasn’t for so many conservatives deciding to ditch their principles and vote for “the Donald”

[kabar]

LOL. I read the article. Did you? It is a hit piece on Trump. Essentially, he is saying that anyone who votes for Trump is not a conservative.

I really don't care what labels are put on people at this point. This country is going under because the political and corporate elites have lost touch with the American people. The Uniparty has abandoned the American worker. The globalists are flooding the country with cheap labor, privatizing the profits and socializing the costs. The Rule of Law is dead as we are being colonized by the Third World.

Everyone one of the 17 candidates calls themselves conservatives. I don't believe any of them. My test is immigration and Trump is the most conservative of all of them on this issue.

[bigbob]

I want a tough, proven executive leader who will put America first, support capitalism and personal freedom, stand up against our enemies, always put our military and national defense first, and undo every damn thing Obama has done that he possibly can. Give me that guy for four yearsvand we can argue about whether he is conservative enough to deserve a second term.

[central_va]

None of these guys will be able to defeat Trump in this primary. Trump's stance on legal and illegal immigration is why he's winning. There isn't any other candidate with the right stance on that issue. It's also the biggest issue facing our nation and has enraged Americans across the political spectrum because it's almost never addressed in a serious manner by any politician. There is no other issue with such a disconnect between politicians and the vast majority of American citizens than immigration. There isn't any alternative to Trump on this issue, and that's why he can't be beaten. This immigration issue alone will likely lead him to victory in both the primaries and general election. It's not hard to understand his success, and it will be near impossible for a candidate to take him down on other issues when they are failures on an issue many see as being more important than other by far. It's one issue that should break or make a candidate.

-- LeeClementineKenny

[PGalt]

counter-Bastiatian snake-oil

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423397/donald-trump-supporters-discarded-conservative-principles

+1 for the Bastiat reference…- 99 for the rest of the hit piece.

Wake up and smell the socialism, Charlie

POLITICIANS DID BUILD THIS…

http://www.usdebtclock.org

Socialism Is Legal Plunder

The Results of Legal Plunder
It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.

The Indirect Approach to Despotism

Usually, however, these gentlemen — the reformers, the legislators, AND THE WRITERS ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS — do not desire to impose direct despotism upon mankind. Oh no, they are too moderate and philanthropic for such direct action. Instead, they turn to the law for this despotism, this absolutism, this omnipotence. They desire only to make the laws. - Bastiat

CAPS - MINE

http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G036

[tennmountainman]

No, Trump is a product of Bonehead, McConnell and the rest of the
GOPe’s.

[Jan_Sobieski]

+2 ...so we conservatives should support open borders? Boehner? Graham? McConnell?

[conservativejoy]

In addition to all the betrayals you list, they won’t even stop funding Planned Parenthood.

[dragonblustar]

Life-long conservatives have decided to ignore all of Trump's liberal pronouncements. There's no denying it.

Was that before or after the GOP decided to stab the conservatives in the back? ( Election after election. ) Because, there's no denying that.

But yeah conservatives , lets get back on the reservation so the GOPe can screw us some more......

[Paladin2]

For the GOPee it’s Cruz or lose.

[dforest]

There may come a time I decide not to support Trump. That will be up to Trump. That in no way means I will move my support to any GOP establishment candidate.

It will probably mean I will stay home on election day 2016.

I will not feel a bit bad about it either. The GOP no longer represents me.

I have a place to go that dayr. My house.

[Steelfish]

Trump has trumpeted a core issue of immigration and rightly so. But the only conservative in the race AND who is also electable AND is a constitutionalist in the Palin tradition is Ted Cruz. The rest is all buffoonery and trumpoonery.

[Jan_Sobieski]

Hogwash! Many of us want Cruz/Trump. Quit throwing thinking people under the bus

[Steelfish]

Agree 100%

[usconservative]

LOL. Another hit piece.

No doubt written by a card carrying GOP-E apologist too.

[ground_fog]

Sorry but Jindal and Walker are not inspiring leaders..Cruz could be but I don’t trust him on Immigration

[kabar]

Ted Cruz supports amnesty, i.e., legalization without citizenship. He also supports a huge increase in guest worker programs.

[kabar]

Ted Cruz supports amnesty, i.e., legalization without citizenship. He also supports a huge increase in guest worker programs.

[Yogafist]

Add to that, the only thing he holds up as conservative principle is cutting taxes. We have the Republican leader in the Senate out again surrendering on a very conservative principle, protecting life, without even an attempt to fight. There is a lot more to being conservative than cutting taxes on corporations, that are increasingly using their wealth to fund anti-American legislation, like gun control, and homosexual marriage. I think we will be disappointed with a Trump presidency, but if he seals the border like he says he will, he will have done more good for this country than any president I can remember.

[Lee Enfield]

I, on the other hand, feel that the threat is great and will vote for the GOP nominee whoever it is. I reserve the right to drink heavily as a consequence.