Posted on 01/23/2016 7:26:46 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Donald Trump is no conservative. Now, That's not a crime, it's just a reason to vote against him.
Many fine people are not conservatives. But the reason Trump's candidacy should worry conservatives runs much deeper than that: He poses a direct challenge to conservatism, because he embodies the empty promise of managerial leadership outside of politics.
Trump's diagnoses of our key problems -- first and foremost, that America's elites are weak and unwilling to put the interests of Americans first -- have gained him a hearing from many on the right. But when he gestures toward prescriptions, Trump reveals that even his diagnoses are not as sound as they might seem.
Conservatives incline to take the weakness of our elite institutions as an argument for recovering constitutional principles -- and so for limiting the power of those institutions, reversing their centralization of authority, and recovering a vision of American life in which the chief purpose of the federal government is protective and not managerial.
Trump, on the contrary, offers himself as the alternative to our weak and foolish leaders, the guarantee of American superiority, and the cure for all that ails our society; and when pressed about how he will succeed in these ways, his answer pretty much amounts to: "great management."
The appeal of Trump's diagnoses should be instructive to conservatives. But the shallow narcissism of his prescriptions is a warning. American conservatism is an inherently skeptical political outlook. It assumes that no one can be fully trusted with public power and that self-government in a free society demands that we reject the siren song of politics-as-management.
A shortage of such skepticism is how we ended up with the problems Trump so bluntly laments. Repeating that mistake is no way to solve these problems. To address them, we need to begin by rejecting what Trump stands for, as much as what he stands against.
-- Yuval Levin, a contributing editor of National Review, is the editor of National Affairs.
RE: So being a great manager is now considered a liability?
Did the author of this piece insinuate that?
National RINO Review thinks McRomney would be a limited govt guy. That’s their idea of limited govt. LOL.
Just another hit (piece) from RINO Reiview and Yuval Levin.
RINO Review believes that DC Lawyers/career politicians are the only ones with the abilities to ‘manage’ this country.
RE: the president manages
the congress decides the size of govenrment
_________________
The President has the power of the BULLY PULPIT to inform congress that government is too big and needs to be cut down to size.
I’d like to hear that from Trump.
LOL. Yet he wants to give more power to the EPA. Is that Conservatism?
Popularity over principle.
RE: We KNOW Trump loves America: and will not sit by helplessly while others trash it.
Let’s see where this reasoning is taking us — it is possible that Trump will not cut the size of government, but let’s vote for him anyway because he’s a great manager and because he loves this country.
Is the GOP lineup now so pathetic that there is no one who loves America AND who will cut the size of government?
I really don’t know what type of ‘CEO’ Trump would be like. I would guess, based on many of his comments, that he would be a delegator. That was Reagan’s style. It’s funny that we equate the President with a CEO, and the only GOP candidate with that experience is Donald Trump.
RE: Yet he wants to give more power to the EPA. Is that Conservatism?
Not only that — he is FOR government taking private property in order to develop big businesses.
Anyway I just hope that we can get these 3 things done with Trump....it is imperative.
RE: I really donât know what type of CEO Trump would be like. I would guess, based on many of his comments, that he would be a delegator.
I want to hear him say this — I will appoint an able DOWNSIZING manager for the Washington bureaucracy.
I sure hope that TRUMP (WE LIFT UP OUR HEARTS TO HIM) doesnât turn out to be a MANAGE THE DECLINE type of guy with BIGGER & BETTER SUBSIDIES & MANDATES.
There’s no bigger “mandate” than the 5,000 page Trans Pacific Partnership. NAFTA on steroids. Written by lobbyists like Goldman Sachs. Sadly, Saint Raphael lead the GOP establishment charge for it with Paul Ryan when he successfully campaigned for TPA. Without TPA there would be no TPP.
Trump said he wanted to use the EPA to enforce higher EFS - is that Conservatism, Yes or No? This has nothing to do with Nixon.
Here’s just a little example. There are more if people are willing to listen.
You are correct.
Cruz claims to, but he has flip-flopped on H1Bs, has a wife who works for GoldmanSucks, and left off immigration until Trump moved the Overton window; not to mention, the rabid left will not let off the birther thing (recall, btw, that Trump questioned Obama's birth as well, in the past); and, Cruz will face more opposition from the GOPe in Congress than Obama did, without any swell of populist support behind him to give him political cover.
It is the GOPe that maneuvered the US into this desperate position, by caving to Obama while lying about being conservative, and lining their own pockets.
The brand is destroyed.
Tag line.
Obama has already opened the door to autocratic government, and Trump is just the sort to walk right in.
“The President has the power of the BULLY PULPIT to inform congress that government is too big and needs to be cut down to size.”
True, but there are clear and present dangers that need to be addressed first, and if not corrected immediately, will make everything else moot. For instance — immigration, of all types.
Donald Trump is a man of action. I am weary of the chattering class, who have never accomplished anything 3D, preaching their sermons, and retiring to their cloistered echo chamber enclaves.
Wait......what about the Trump of last year? Was that guy Conservative? Sure he was, I mean partial birth abortion is a true conservative belief right?
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