Posted on 09/01/2015 5:06:30 PM PDT by 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. ......................... .......................................
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Just the opposite.
It’s not winning but getting results that matter.
Trump, apparently, will get conservatives the result they want on immigration. On other issues he hasn’t pinned himself down enough to say whether he will or not. Which is par at this early stage of the campaign.
There is no doubt that the pundits and the GOPe want to take him out. He is uncontrollable and unconventional. Trump has raised the issue of immigration, which I know for a fact that the GOPe did not want raised during this campaign. They think it is a losing issue. They are dead wrong and Trump is proving it. My only concern is that Trump will backtrack and waffle under the pressure from the MSM, interest grups, and the GOPe.
These attacks on Trump are transparent. And they only strengthen and solidify his support. The people who are being taken for a ride are the people who think that the so-called self-described conservatives are on their side. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.
Trump is the real and only anti-establishment candidate. A case could be made for Carson, but all the rest are part of the problem, not the solution.
I guess there are lowfos on both sides.
If I were looking for the next cog in the wheel, I’d agree with the author’s position about Trump; he doesn’t fit.
Except.
I’m not.
I’m looking for a wrench to foul up the machinery and grind it to a halt.
When you want to use a wrench that way, who cares how well it functions as a wrench?
This is what the GOPe refuses to understand. I want your version of the party to die. I’m willing to throw a wrench. As long as it’s heavy and made of iron, I don’t give a damn how good a wrench he is.
Kind of like how the GOP and its leadership have ignored all conservative principles?
For the time being i am enjoying the Trump bull in the GOPe china shop.
I am rooting for the bull as it is smashing my enemies that have been screwing over the country since at least 1998.
Life-long conservatives have decided to ignore all of Trump’s liberal pronouncements. There’s no denying it.
==================================*=========================
Yes, because the uber conservatives in Congress have done so much good since we’ve given them the majority and since the GOP has given us such staunch conservative candidates for President over the last two decades.
Some people are going to be angry at this. They will call people names, but they won’t be able to refute it. The GOPe has discovered the perfect way to co-opt conservatives. They have the recipe for all future elections.
The old labels have no credibility anymore, and the politicians throwing around those labels as ad hominems and epithets have no more credibility, either.
The deck is being reshuffled.
-PJ
I am a conservative and I care deeply about immigration. It is my litmus test issue. Immigration is the defining issue of our time. If we don’t change the status quo, this country is finished. Everything else is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
You can’t refute it, so you pull out the Obama-supporter answer. Hope and Change! with Trump!
I see that sentiment expressed all the time, but the enemy of your enemy is not always your friend, you know.
No, he is saying anyone who supports Trump is not supporting Trump is not supporting a conservative. So far there is not a shred of proof Trump is a conservative, except that the mainstream media is constantly saying it. Some conservatives don't trust the mainstream media..
Seriously guys, you need to start vetting Trump - he is completely taking you for a ride.
better a ride with Trump than any of these other guys minus Cruz. I love Cruz I just don’t think he has a chance. I’m not riding anymore with the establishment. At least Trump isn’t a sniveling suck up
Hope and change won two elections with the two highest vote totals in American history.
How is Trump a street fighter? He fights with Rosie O’Donnell on Twitter. In the real world he is pansy. We don’t need a limp-wristed nancy boy as the GOP candidate.
Well at least you admit that since you can't beat the liberals you joined them.
Do we have different definitions of conservatism?
You need to explain this in more detail.
Because I might burst out laughing.
But what if perchance we don’t get the wrecking ball, or the wrecking ball ends up funding Planned Parenthood; endorses gay marriage; and is pro-choice.
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.