Posted on 08/12/2015 7:28:44 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
[BIG SNIP top of Morning Jolt]
"....Do Republicans Even Care What Conservatism Is Anymore?
In mid-August 2011, Rick Perry was the frontrunner for the GOP nomination. He led every national poll from mid-August to late September. Of course, the following six months turned out to be one of the most tumultuous periods of any presidential primary in recent memory: Herman Cain led some polls -- he reached 27 percent in one survey -- followed by Newt Gingrich, and before the primaries were done, Rick Santorum was the frontrunner for several consecutive polls. At one point, Michele Bachmann was in second place nationally. In February, one poll had Ron Paul in second place with 21 percent of the vote. Of course, Mitt Romney never trailed that badly, and ended up winning the nomination.
Perhaps Donald Trump will be remembered as another Cain or Gingrich. But one striking contrast is that Cain and Gingrich were indisputably conservative. Sure, Gingrich had some out-there ideas and Cain could be pretty open about his inexperience in foreign affairs, but their views, statements, and actions during their long public careers clearly put them on the right side of the political spectrum.
This doesn’t apply to Donald Trump. The criteria of the Trump fans strike the rest of us as bewildering, because there’s no past or present deviation from conservative philosophy that seems serious enough to get them to say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa . . . maybe I’ve got the wrong guy here.”
Trump is allegedly popular because he’s the only one talking about illegal immigration -- he isn’t -- but in the past days he said he supports what sounds like a path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants, based on “merit.”
Ann Coulter contends Trump will continue to surge as long as he keeps talking about immigration, stating, “The voters keep saying, ‘We don’t want any more immigration.” Does she still feel that way when Trump says, “I would get people out and I would have an expedited way of getting them back into the country so that they can be legal”?
Glenn Reynolds attributes Trump’s rise to anger over two particular issues . . .
>>>Trump’s rise is, like that of his Democratic counterpart Bernie Sanders, a sign that a large number of voters don’t feel represented by more mainstream politicians. On many issues, ranging from immigration reform, which many critics view as tantamount to open borders, to bailouts for bankers, the Republican and Democratic establishments agree, while a large number (quite possibly a majority) of Americans across the political spectrum feel otherwise . . .<<<
Except Trump’s immigration position of sending the illegals home and then letting “the good ones” enter legally isn’t all that different from an open border, and Trump is not a critic of the Troubled Asset Relief Program:
>>>You had to do something to sure up [sic] the banks, because the psychology of the banks and you would have had a run on every banks, the strongest and the weakest. So, you have to do something. And I hated the ultraconservative view on that. And ultraconservative is nothing should ever happen. If they go out of business, everybody said, that’s fine.<<<
You did have to do something to sure up the banks. They probably should have done something for Lehman Brothers, because Lehman was a disaster that caused lots of other disasters. Lehman was a real disaster, but they did have to do something to sure up the banks.
Trump also supported the bailout of the auto industry.
On just about every major issue, Trump has previously loudly endorsed the progressive ideal: In 1999, he endorsed a 14.25 percent one-time “net worth tax“ on individuals and trusts worth $10 million or more. He’s called for “universal healthcare” and described himself as “very liberal on health care.” He supported the assault-weapons ban. He once said he was “very pro-choice.” He just said he’s willing to support funding for Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion activities. He’s a big fan of eminent domain, and said he agreed with the Kelo vs. New London decision “100 percent.”
Lots of conservative writers have been laying out Trump’s past statements and positions for several weeks now, with little or no impact on his lead in the polls. Either lots of Republican voters don’t encounter these arguments, or they read them and don’t think Trump’s past positions matter much.
What’s particularly baffling about Trump fans is that, right after dismissing their man’s past liberal positions, they will then turn around and dismiss other candidates because they’re allegedly not conservative enough.
The skepticism of Jeb Bush is completely understandable, whether it’s his allegedly “rigorous path to earned legal status,” his stance on Common Core (and the suspicion he’s not being honest about what the program does) or the nagging fear he won’t be relentless enough if matched against his metaphorical sister-in-law Hillary Clinton. But between his dramatic expansion of school choice, nearly $20 million in state tax cuts, cutting 14,000 state jobs, abolishment of affirmative action in university admissions and state contracting by executive order, and eliminating all state funding of Planned Parenthood, Jeb Bush did more for the cause of conservatism in his eight years as governor than Donald Trump ever did.
Marco Rubio will be similarly dismissed from consideration for his role in the Gang of Eight deal, although how different is that bill’s path to citizenship from Trump’s “expedited way to get them back in the country legally”?
Rick Perry is flat-lining in some of the early primary states. Is this over his 2011 “have a heart” comment? Doesn’t his response to the 2014 border crisis count for anything?
Are we really to believe that Donald Trump is the most consistently conservative, most qualified, most electable, overall best choice in a field that includes Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, and Bobby Jindal? That he deserves the support of Republicans more than Carly Fiorina? Even if you disagree with some of their particular stances, don’t Rand Paul, Rick Santorum, or Mike Huckabee deserve more credit for what they’ve actually done for the conservative cause? Doesn’t Ben Carson or John Kasich bring more to the table?
The 20-some percent of self-identified Republicans currently preferring Trump are insisting to the rest of us that records don’t matter, attitude does. This strikes me as spectacularly wrong-headed.
Do these voters know what conservatism is? Do they care?
At this point, I’m enjoying watching both parties burn.
Short answer: No.
Long answer: A lot of verbal flatulance from the GOP, especially around election time; but no action at all where the rubber meets the road, and no smell of political napalm in the morning.
The reason both parties are burning is because the giant bonfire they made of our country has now spread to them. It’s an irony thing.
Unfortunately the democrats aren’t really burning.
That’s why I disenrolled from the Republican Party this year. I’m officially an independent now.
Not only do they not care they don’t even know what Conservatism is.
What “both parties”?
I agree that Hillary is done but the party is far from dead. She’s downright moderate compared to what they’re building.
However, given the volume of Trumpeteers even here at FreeRepublic, I would redo the article's title: "Do Republicans Conservatives Even Care What Conservatism Is Anymore?"
Does the Republican Party know what conservativism is anymore? Does Jeb Bush?
That’s all I hear - conservative this and conservative that. The pundits all talk about it, few if any clarify it.
How many times have I asked people what is a “conservative”? They usually have a hard time telling me.
I’ll tell you the truth ahead of time, I dislike the political use of the word “conservative” almost as much as I dislike the political use of the word “liberal”. IMO, both terms point in the wrong direction.
Nevertheless, I’ll try again: “What is a conservative”?
Republicans know what money is. They know who bought them. The principles they spew are just a pretense. Recent and not so recent history bears this out.
When your shown your NSA file, you tow the line -period!
Donald Trump is a classic example of what happens when you speak before you think.
If he had a conservative bone in his body, I’d say he was an embarrassment to conservatism. But since he’s instead a rank opportunist and provocateur, we can simply say he’s an embarrassment in general.
Yes, but what “both parties”? There’s a reason why many of us refer to a Uniparty.
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