Posted on 11/20/2015 11:30:00 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
As has been made abundantly clear by his incessant mewling and pathetically thin skin, Donald J. Trump is not in fact an unwaveringly resolute tough guy of the type you would hope to find standing next to you in the trenches, but an insecure attention seeker who cannot help but pander to his audiences' prejudices. In the past few days, Trump has been asked variously whether, if elected, he would use his power to close mosques; whether he believes that Muslims should be registered in a special government database; and whether or not it would be a good idea to suspend the Fourth Amendment for anybody who prays to Allah. In all cases he has either demurred completely or eschewed the more traditional "yes" and "no" categories in favor of some choice hedging. "That may have to be done," Trump says. "There's no doubt." "We'll look at that." "We'll consider all the options." "We're going to have to look at a lot of things very closely."
So painful has this tendency become that I have begun to hope his interviewers will get a little surreal, just to see what he says:
"Will you replace your hair with spaghetti and your fingers with soup spoons?"
"Sure. We're going to look at everything."
"As president would you consider taking suspected burglars and parachuting them naked into lava?"
"That's something we'll consider. You can't have all this crime. Terrible."
"Do you think it's fair to say that you are the egg man, that you are the egg man, that you are the Walrus?"
"We're going to examine a range of possibilities."
"GooGooGooJoob?"
"I'll be looking into that."
Perhaps the only thing that is worse than Trump's silence is what he does say.
The most common defense of Trump's perpetual acquiescence has been that he did not explicitly say "yes" to the more controversial among the questions, and that he cannot therefore be accused of endorsement. In truth, this isn't quite right; speaking to NBC last night, he did seem to suggest affirmatively that Muslims would be required to sign into his hypothetical database or face consequences. Either way, I'm struggling to see how this defense can be acceptable to his admirers. Trump, recall, is supposed to be courageous. He's supposed to be steadfast. He's supposed to be a no-holds-barred badass who will make great deals and stare down enemies and Make America Great Again. How, one wonders, does a chronic inability to say "no" fit into that mien?
If there is one quality we need in a president, it is the ability decisively to say "no" - especially, I would venture, if that president hopes to advance conservative goals. When a sane person is asked whether he would institute a tracking database for Muslims or force one religious group to carry special ID cards, he says, "Of course I wouldn't." If Trump is unable to manage even this, how would he rein in spending or limit illegal immigration? More to the point, as Trump might ask sneeringly of others, how would he deal with Vladimir Putin?
Perhaps the only thing that is worse than Trump's silence is what he does say. Even if we are generous and assume that the man does not actually believe any of the specific proposals to which he has given his tacit consent, the attitude he is exhibiting is positively Wilsonian in character. In Trump's world, America will be restored to glory when his handpicked team of experts is permitted to experiment upon the public outside of the usual constitutional limits. Nowhere in his rhetoric will you find any reference to America's pre-existing cultural and legal traditions, or to the necessary bounds that free men insist be imposed upon the state. There is no talk of "freedom"; no reflexive grounding of ideas in the Declaration and the Federalist Papers; no conceptual explanation or underlying philosophy. There is nothing, except will to power. By his own admission, Trump's are the politics of doing enthusiastically what works in the moment; of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt; of the administrative state and of bureaucratic expertise; of the Prussians and the French and the Singaporeans. Whatever he might claim before his adoring crowds, Trump is not in fact an antidote to Barack Obama. He is his parallel.
Calvin Coolidge said "no" over and over and over again because he understood that the federal government existed for a handful of specific reasons, and that any action it took outside of its carefully delineated tramlines was inherently suspect. Donald Trump's only visible constitutional opinion is that someone strong ought to make sure the trams run on time. There's a word for men like that, and it sure as heck isn't "conservative."
>>”He doesn’t. He made statement YEARS ago..”
So if he still does, you’ll stop supporting him?
He supported government-paid-for universal healthcare last month:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-60-minutes-scott-pelley/
Any poll average that throws in that ludicrous 15% Butcheress of Benghazi over Trump by McClatchy/Marist as legit deserves to be thoroughly laughed off the stage.
I'm cool with that, so long as others don't claim a Trump victory based on anything other than their own opinion.
Nice to hear from someone who knows the history.
Is that like a punt?
Cruz, for whatever reason, does NOT and shan't attract disaffected Dems, Indies, blacks, Hispanics, lots of GOPers/leaning GOPers, ethnics, blue collar workers, white collar workers, ethnics, etc.; but Trump does. And no, no matter hows much you wish for it, that isn't going to change.
You have your opinion set in stone...This piece isn’t worthy of posting.
IMO
So who in the GOPe do you work for?
Well, if we get to pick our own polls... I win!
:)
I’ve noticed today that those with a seething hatred can’t be convinced about what actually was said. It’s almost like if they say it enough, then it’s true. In their illogical, feeble minds, truth be damned. Why would anyone post an article from the gop-e website (National Review) on this website?
Wrong about your feelings, CW? How?
But Chuck, quit waffling and crayfishing, and tell us how you really feel.
Wm. F. Buckley would throw up on his successors, putting out this mealy-mouthed New York Yacht Club locker-room drivel under the masthead of his publication. Buckley was elegant, antinomian, a true individualist. He'd burn his magazine to the ground rather than see it used as a Park Avenue buttwipe by the Rockefeller wing of the GOP and a sluice for Four Hundred prolefeed.
No that’s like an I’m so over any opinion you may have... Dead to me... Good bye...
“Convince me I wrong.”
Given your history, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to bother.
So hows Scot Walker doing? LOL
Ben Carson, your new candidate, (I call him the Pyramid Grain Man), will crash and burn soon enough. LOL
Cheers.....
I’m not wasting my time trying to convince the inflexible.
;)
Isn’t Trump saying “No “ to ISIS-infiltrated refugees and “No” to illegal immigrants?
I’m a Cruz guy, but those two issues are huge to me. I could stand behind him on those two alone if he wins the nomination.
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