This is some bad stuff on Trump’s part. I have to concede, he’s not a traditional conservative.
That said, I have to favor his Second Amendment and Immigration stances.
It’s a perplexing place for me. I don’t quite know what to make of it all.
Basically Donald Trump is a moderate. He’s conservative on some issues liberal on others. Which is fine if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s certainly preferable to a full-blown socialist or progressive. But the man is not a true conservative.
That lifetime of LIEberalism slowly leaks out of the bloated windbag...
Laz... You had a typo. You mean THIS YEARS immigration and 2A stances. Now last years stance or even next years stance...who is knowing, eh?
Cruz is strong on the 2nd amendment and frankly it’d be hard to imagine any of the candidates passing an AWB-style law, except perhaps Kay-sick. Trump is the only one who once advocated passing the AWB that I know of.
I’m still trying to understand how Trump is so different on immigration when all it took was for a couple TV talking heads to press him on deportation and he immediately said he’d let the “good” ones back in in an “expedited” process. Trump is one malleable guy. And the line-up of liberals and RINOs who have come out and said he’s “less scary” than Cruz just gets to be a bigger pile every day.
“That said, I have to favor his Second Amendment and Immigration stances.”
Which of Trump’s second amendment stances do you favor?
Rush hit on part of it, but not all of it.
Rush surmised that Trump thinks he's edging closer to getting rid of his rivals: and since South Carolina is an open primary, he's reaching out to disaffected Dems to get them to cross the aisle, just for this primary, so he can goose his results.
Rush wasn't sure whether it was for a knockout blow against the other candidates, by setting an air of inevitable momentum, *or* as a hedge against high Cruz numbers which are due to Cruz-related PAC ground efforts.
But *I* think there's another couple of things, which even Rush hasn't picked up on.
First -- note that the debate *was* right before South Carolina. But it also, and you'd have to be blind as a bat to not know this going in, had an audience packed with partisan GOP-e donors. Who booed all the usual suspects, and cheered for Bush and Rubio.
So, Trump decides to make the anti-Bush remarks, and the Planned Parenthood remarks, in front of an audience of packed partisans: that way, he can defuse the booing, and blame it on GOP-e plants: exactly the opposite of the astroturf groundswell *against* Trump, the GOP-e was trying to start.
But that leaves the question, why make those remarks at all?
I think the answer is, Trump is a master promoter. Not the "any publicity is good publicity"...but rather, he has a rare opportunity in *time*. Hillary and Sanders are going after each other instead of anyone from the GOP. Many of the other GOP candidates are fighting for second place. So Trump starts establishing the *memes* -- quotes right in the open, in broad daylight, that *he* has given to all kinds of politicians, and that he hated the Iraq War, and that Planned Parenthood does good things for women, not just he abortions.
What does that get him?
Battlespace preparation. The libs can't start their patented "wild-eyed redneck right-winger fanatic" and "war on women"...when *Medea Benjamin* has praised trump for trashing Bush. And by praising the "health care" part of Planned Parenthood -- he's taken the leftist propaganda literally, at face value: and this insulates him from "Bible-thumper fanatic" charges from the unthinking, low-information left. In the meantime, he can point to what he said about "not the abortions" and insist that Planned Parenthood tone them down.
He's thinking several moves ahead in terms of strategy, and positioning later on in the campaign: which most other candidates are not doing...
He *may* be lying: but most of the other GOP candidates are *definitely* lying. If the base, the dispirited conservatives who have watched the DC party and the elites cave over and over, feel their chances are "slim" (Trump) and none (anyone else), they'll choose slim.
But Trump is now setting out mindspace for the rest of the electorate.
Thank you for putting into words what I have been feeling...perplexed. My husband is so angry at me because I like some things about trump. I just don’t know what to say...
LAZ I am with you, IMMIGRATION is my ONLY issue this season without our borders being closed our conservative views won’t mean a damn thing anymore!!! Trump just speaks what is on his mind he isn’t poll driven I know who he is and I can accept these flaws for FINALLY securing the damn border!!!! The ONLY reason I believe he WILL secure the border is because he IS self funded and not beholden to the open borders crowd!!!! I CAN’T WAIT to see our NEW SKYSCRAPER WALL!!!! Trump is NOT a socialist or Marxist he DOES love the country, he is a fighter as far as MSM is concerned and to me NOTHING can be worse than Obama except Hillary or Bernie of course!!!!
The Republican Party, before the Bushies took over in 1988 was not a “war party”. Reagan was a “Peace through Strength”. When Trump says, he’s a “very militaristic guy but he never wants to have to use it”, that is Reagan’s philosophy.
The War Party started with Bush’s September 11, 1990, New World Order pronouncement by Bush #41.
Prior to that time, Democrats started wars and Republicans ended them.
It is only the last 28 years, while the Bush family controlled the Republican Party, that we became the war party.
Conservatives, never really liked the Bushes. They were considered “liberals” by the Reagans and others in the party.
Trump will not please you or I...on immigration...nor the 2nd.
Trump has not changed his stripes.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UO3nn7awUk