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.
Ted Cruz has paid back his loans. There is only one candidate who has never paid back all of the money he has borrowed.
Same old same old.
Yawn, Go Trump!
good management and limited government are the same thing
I like Cruz in general, until a few days ago he was my preferred candidate. I finally turned based on the rabid, idol worshiping, nutcase fervor of the Cruzer or loser crowd.
Cruz has never done a wrong thing in his life.
He even instructed the leaders in the temple when he was twelve.......
Yeah, they post the same old crap that doesn’t help their cause over and over. They are out of touch.
He still has burned his bridges within the DC establishment with no other source of political support.
He's still flip-flopped on H1Bs.
He still waited for Trump to take the lead on illegal immigration before a tepid "me too."
Cruz: too weak to lead.
RE: 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 â immigration, of all types.
I don’t see how using the Bully Pulpit to warn of BOTH the immigration crisis and the ever rising size of government are mutually exclusive. BOTH can be done in speech after speech after speech.
For example — Reagan warned of BOTH the size of government and the dangers of the Soviet Union during the cold war.
They base their whole piece on “Trump Promises Great Management”.
It’s like Regan saying he wants to make America a shining city on the hill, and these guys writing that that means that Reagan wants to hike taxes to coat America in a reflective material.
Do these people even remotely know that’s how Trump talks?
Dems/ GOP establishment part and parcel of Muslim Brotherhood. Same problem.
If you think we can wait several decades to address the jihad that has already overtaken (and could destroy, forever) Europe, well, I don’t trust your judgment.
RE: He’s still married to someone who works for GoldmanSucks.
Why is working for Goldman Sachs an inherently bad thing?
Supposed we replaced Goldman Sachs with say, JP Morgan, is that still a bad thing?
DISCLOSURE: I used to be a computer consultant for a big investment bank.
If government runs more efficiently without waste and abuse, it should be smaller. And yes, we can eliminate some functions of government, which Trump has also mentioned.
Well, at least, I’m glad to see that you didn’t include Cruz in the list of “conservatives” for Amnesty. Other than Walker (and he’s only about half conservative) most on your list are conservative poseurs. But I see your point.
RE: good management and limited government are the same thing
Is it not possible to apply good management to a large government bureaucracy?
RE: There is only one candidate who has never paid back all of the money he has borrowed.
C’mon, don’t stop there... give us the name...
RE: And yes, we can eliminate some functions of government, which Trump has also mentioned.
Good. Can you provide a web link for us?
http://twitchy.com/2013/12/10/salem-communications-to-acquire-twitchy/
Twitchy is another Salem Communications owned site. They’re avid anti-Trump. You can see repeated, attempted Trump smear pieces on most of their sites....HotAir, Townhall, Twitchy, Human Events, RedState, etc.
Sad that Michelle Malkin’s once great sites (Hot Air, Twitchy) have gone the way of tabloid sites.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested Sunday that he would eliminate several federal agencies if he were elected president.
Asked on “Fox News Sunday” how he would cut spending, Trump named the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency as potential targets.
“No, I’m not cutting services, but I’m cutting spending. But I may cut Department of Education. I believe Common Core is a very bad thing. I believe that we should be — you know, educating our children from Iowa, from New Hampshire, from South Carolina, from California, from New York. I think that it should be local education,” Trump said.
“So the Department of Education is one,” he continued. “Environmental Protection, what they do is a disgrace. Every week they come out with new regulations.”
Asked by host Chris Wallace who would protect the environment in the absence of the EPA, Trump maintained that “we’ll be fine with the environment.”
“We can leave a little bit, but you can’t destroy businesses,” he added.
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