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Trump -- Middle American Radical
Townhall.com ^ | February 9, 2018 | Pat Buchanan

Posted on 02/09/2018 10:03:34 AM PST by Kaslin

President Trump is the leader of America's conservative party.

Yet not even his allies would describe him as a conservative in the tradition of Robert Taft, Russell Kirk or William F. Buckley.

In the primaries of 2016, all his rivals claimed the mantle of Mr. Conservative, Ronald Reagan. Yet Trump captured the party's heart.

Who, then, and what is Donald Trump?

In a Federalist essay, "Trump Isn't a Conservative -- And That's a Good Thing," Frank Cannon comes close to the mark.

Trump, he writes, "would more accurately be described as a 'radical anti-progressive'" who is "at war with the progressives who have co-opted American civil society." Moreover, Trump "is willing to go further than any other previous conservative to defeat them."

Many "elite conservatives," writes Cannon, believe the "bedrock institutions" they treasure are "not subject to the same infectious politicization to which the rest of society has succumbed."

This belief is naive, says Cannon, "ridiculous on its face."

"Radical anti-progressives" recognize that many institutions -- the academy, media, entertainment and the courts -- have been co-opted and corrupted by the left. And as these institutions are not what they once were, they no longer deserve the respect they once had.

Yet most conservatives will only go so far in criticizing these institutions. We see this in how cradle Catholics find it difficult to criticize the Church in which they were birthed and raised, despite scandals and alterations in the liturgy and doctrine.

President Trump is the leader of America's conservative party.

Yet not even his allies would describe him as a conservative in the tradition of Robert Taft, Russell Kirk or William F. Buckley.

In the primaries of 2016, all his rivals claimed the mantle of Mr. Conservative, Ronald Reagan. Yet Trump captured the party's heart.

Who, then, and what is Donald Trump?

In a Federalist essay, "Trump Isn't a Conservative -- And That's a Good Thing," Frank Cannon comes close to the mark.

Trump, he writes, "would more accurately be described as a 'radical anti-progressive'" who is "at war with the progressives who have co-opted American civil society." Moreover, Trump "is willing to go further than any other previous conservative to defeat them."

Many "elite conservatives," writes Cannon, believe the "bedrock institutions" they treasure are "not subject to the same infectious politicization to which the rest of society has succumbed."

This belief is naive, says Cannon, "ridiculous on its face."

"Radical anti-progressives" recognize that many institutions -- the academy, media, entertainment and the courts -- have been co-opted and corrupted by the left. And as these institutions are not what they once were, they no longer deserve the respect they once had.

Yet most conservatives will only go so far in criticizing these institutions. We see this in how cradle Catholics find it difficult to criticize the Church in which they were birthed and raised, despite scandals and alterations in the liturgy and doctrine.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: presidenttrump
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To: spintreebob
Under what definition of US Conservative is the anti-Free Trade, anti(illegal) immigration agenda “Conservative”?

Allow me educate you about protectionism from the 1924 Republican platform.

We reaffirm our belief in the protective tariff to extend needed protection to our productive industries. We believe in protection as a national policy, with due and equal regard to all sections and to all classes. It is only by adherence to such a policy that the well being of the consumers can be safeguarded that there can be assured to American agriculture, to American labor and to American manufacturers a return to perpetrate American standards of life. A protective tariff is designed to support the high American economic level of life for the average family and to prevent a lowering to the levels of economic life prevailing in other lands.

So classical conservatism is protectionist, Neo Conservatism, ala Bully Kristol, is for free trade even if we are getting screwed when other countries protect their markets with tariffs. SO NOW YOU KNOW Conservatism includes protectionism!

Socialists love free trade. Marx wrote extensively about it and was a big proponent of free trade. So if you are free trader you are Marxist tool

21 posted on 02/10/2018 4:26:07 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: abb

Pat would have made an excellent president. There have been many fine candidates in the primaries and too many of them get media smeared out.


22 posted on 02/10/2018 5:11:12 AM PST by Neoliberalnot (MSM is our greatest threat. Disney, Comcast, Google Hollywood, NYTimes, WaPo, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC ...)
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To: Elsie

So true; but they will; definitely; PISS YOU OFF!


That is the purpose. People make mistakes when they are angry. President Trump appears to be calm and takes his time to respond. Every lie, every taunt, every bigoted label the left uses against that does not get a response weakens them, not President Trump.


23 posted on 02/10/2018 5:36:23 AM PST by CIB-173RDABN (US out of the UN, UN out of the US)
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To: CIB-173RDABN

So true.

I’m working on a little project myself right now.


24 posted on 02/10/2018 7:00:47 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: CIB-173RDABN

“I am not willing to play nice while the left demonize me, my family, my culture, my nation.”

Neither am I. It’s time the gloves come off.

L


25 posted on 02/10/2018 7:03:42 AM PST by Lurker (President Trump isn't our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.)
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To: Leaning Right

My voting since 1992 -
Perot
No one in 1996
Bush
Bush
McCain
Romney
Trump ——but favored Scott Walker until Trump jumped in.


26 posted on 02/10/2018 7:46:14 AM PST by dennisw (The strong take from the weak, but the smart take from the strong)
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To: abb

I worked for Pat and Perot in 1992. Frank Luntz worked for both...definitely for Pat. Luntz strolled into the Pat Buchanan operation one day wearing a big ol’ brimmed hat. hahahha


27 posted on 02/10/2018 8:10:28 AM PST by dennisw (The strong take from the weak, but the smart take from the strong)
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To: central_va

The Republicans of 1924 supported and gave WMDs to the Marxist regime of Mexico so the Marxists could expand their genocide of the devout Catholics and libertarians who were fighting for religious freedom.

And you call those Marxist loving Republican Conservative?


28 posted on 02/10/2018 1:47:23 PM PST by spintreebob
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To: spintreebob

I am a real conservative. Not a Bushbot NWO globalist Free Traitor™ neo-con, like you.


29 posted on 02/10/2018 2:04:08 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: Kaslin

Buchanan is right. So many elite “conservatives” are vested in the status quo more than the Constitution. Sometimes also it seems their personal desires are of higher priority than the desperate need of the American People to be free of controlling government. Their social acceptance, sex lives, access to streams of income, are paramount. They’ll sell us right down the river.

Thank you, Mr. Buchanan, for giving me a new label I can identify as. I now can come out of the closet and identify fully as an Anti-Progressive. No genital surgery required.


30 posted on 02/10/2018 2:11:22 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: Leaning Right

To me, the word “conservative” doesn’t mean what the media uses it as. It means to me that I revere the Constitution as written, respect the official ways it can be changed, and resonate with the longings and rights in the Declaration, of our People to be truly free.

It doesn’t reflect on my religion or way of life. Because if you are a Contitutional Conservative, you would fight to the death for your fellow American’s right to live as a Christian, a Wiccan, an atheist, a hippie, a Buddhist monk. More important THAN a religion is our right to practice a religion or lifestyle (that doesn’t hurt others).


31 posted on 02/10/2018 2:19:11 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: amihow

It values freedom as God given rights to choose among various good, but not the license to choose, unpunished, between good and evil.


This is not true. Conservatism is the more moral choice over leftism, but conservatism refers to how men govern themselves. It remains in the sphere of legalities, which are highly influenced by objective morality, but a government cannot force morality.

An individual is free to choose evil. He is even free by his Creator to choose evil, not that Gd doesn’t mourn when he does so. An individual, if caught harming another, can be stopped by the government from committing more evil. Hopefully. But even under the Constitution a man can sit in his house and dream of poisoning puppies and raping bunnies. It’s not our purvey to stop him.


32 posted on 02/10/2018 2:25:00 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: Neoliberalnot

I appreciate some of his commentary but I was unhappy with his demeanor toward my coreligionists so would not have voted for him. Maybe that would have been a mistake as he might have been much better than Bush, but it doesn’t matter any more.


33 posted on 02/10/2018 2:26:46 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: Yaelle
Perhaps I should have said not to choose evil without probability of punishment.

Much of law is enforcing morality. For instance to force completion of contract or pay damages is just that.

34 posted on 02/10/2018 4:05:48 PM PST by amihow
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To: Yaelle

I’m not following your comment?


35 posted on 02/10/2018 4:06:44 PM PST by Neoliberalnot (MSM is our greatest threat. Disney, Comcast, Google Hollywood, NYTimes, WaPo, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC ...)
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To: amihow

Right. Once the evil is out in the open, and enforceable, true.


36 posted on 02/10/2018 4:26:26 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: Neoliberalnot

He did seem a bit anti Semitic. It kept me from considering him. Also, I stupidly fell for the Bush apologists and promoters in the “right wing” media at the time. Like 95% of all FReepers.


37 posted on 02/10/2018 4:27:46 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: Yaelle

You mean anti-Israel. You are an American, like me. My allegiance lies here not with Scotland, or England.


38 posted on 02/11/2018 5:04:30 AM PST by Neoliberalnot (MSM is our greatest threat. Disney, Comcast, Google Hollywood, NYTimes, WaPo, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC ...)
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To: Lurkinanloomin
President Trump is the most conservative President since Reagan and has exposed the Bush father and son as the pretenders they are. If President Trump continues to conserve the America we all love he may well eclipse Reagan.

For some libertarian purists, the single most important litmus test for "conservatism" is a commitment to unrestricted trade (at the US end). These are the ones who complain about Trump not being conservative enough for them for ideological reasons. The rest of it is just sour grapes from GOP establishmentarians like the Bushes.

39 posted on 02/13/2018 10:48:19 AM PST by ek_hornbeck
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