Donald Trump

Monday, Monday

Mark Noonan30 Comments

Things are not looking too hot in Syria:

CIA-backed rebels in Syria, who had begun to put serious pressure on President Bashar Assad’s forces, are now under Russian bombardment with little prospect of rescue by their American patrons, U.S. officials say.

Over the past week, Russia has directed parts of its air campaign against U.S.-funded groups and other moderate opposition in a concerted effort to weaken them, the officials say. The Obama administration has few options to defend those it had secretly armed and trained.

The Russians “know their targets, and they have a sophisticated capacity to understand the battlefield situation,” said Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., who serves on the House Intelligence Committee and was careful not to confirm a classified program. “They are bombing in locations that are not connected to the Islamic State” group..

If they are really hitting the necessary targets – and I suspect that they are – then we can only assume that our security has been breached. This would come as no surprise as security under the Obama Administration has been notoriously slack. Syria is turning into a geo-political debacle for us.

The LA Times asks if Clinton can change the gun debate. The answer is “no”, but I’m very hopeful that she’ll make this a key element of her campaign. The American people are, if anything, more in favor of the individual right to bear arms than at any time in our nation’s past. I can’t think of anything better for us on the political front than Hillary, desperate to shore up leftwing support, going on a gun control rampage.

Just to set the record straight for any Trump supporters out there – if Trump does emerge as the nominee, then I’ll vote for him. But Trump is flat wrong on eminent domain.

The Libertarian Moment is stated to be over. I’ll state that it never began. I respect my Libertarian-minded fellow conservatives. I fully understand where they are coming from. I agree with them on a lot of issues. But the United States will never be Libertarian – and any desire for it, if pressed too hard, will just backfire. Better to just get with the right balance – the maximum freedom possible consistent with orderly government.

The Carson campaign finds some uses for Hillary’s Hard Choices.

Out and About on a Sunday

Mark Noonan20 Comments

Sources say female troops were given special treatment to pass Ranger School. The thing is no enemy of the United States is going to cut us any slack. Any woman who wants to be in a combat unit should have to meet the exact same standards as the men – and no lowering of standards. In fact, I’d like to see the standards raised for all military services – perhaps even a smaller overall Army and Marines, but each soldier and Marine trained up to Special Forces quality. 250,000 such soldiers and Marines could make mincemeat of most global military forces.

Bill Clinton has identified the culprit in the Hillary e mail scandal: the Republicans.

Trump is claiming that his GOP rivals want to start World War Three over Syria. This is an exaggeration, of course – but that is Trump in a nutshell. But it must be kept in mind that unless we decide we want to back the Assad regime (and there is a case to be made for this – I’d set our price at the removal of Hezbollah from Lebanon), there is a risk of war with Iran and Russia, who are backing Assad (so, if we decide to fight Assad, they might decide to fight us). Careful thought is necessary in the Syrian mine field.

Hey, fellow Conservatives, just because it is a defense program doesn’t mean it isn’t a boondoggle. I’m pretty sure that about 1 in 3 dollars spent by Uncle Sam is waste, fraud or abuse. And that goes for military spending, as well. British Admiral Jacky Fisher in the early 20th century managed to reduce Naval spending while also providing Britain with a vastly more powerful Navy – big spending doesn’t necessarily translate into a strong military. I bet we can actually cut defense spending and get a more powerful military – and as we set about trying to get rid of regressive, anti-human social spending, we’ll need to find some military cuts so that our proposed reforms don’t come out as “cut welfare and spend on military”. Politics is an art – and you’ve got to play the game to win.

Corporations are selling each other corporate bonds in order to buy back their own stocks. I’m sure this will end well…

A lot of my fellow conservatives have taken strong issue with some statements by Pope Francis. Well, here’s something he said which will make you happy:

In this place which is symbolic of the American way, I would like to reflect with you on the right to religious freedom. It is a fundamental right which shapes the way we interact socially and personally with our neighbors whose religious views differ from our own. Religious freedom certainly means the right to worship God, individually and in community, as our consciences dictate. But religious liberty, by its nature, transcends places of worship and the private sphere of individuals and families.

In other words, liberals, religious liberty means we’re allowed to act upon our religious beliefs even in the public square.

Maybe Just Be Honest?

Mark Noonan47 Comments

I’ve been seeing a lot of statements by politicians of late – naturally – and one thing is striking me: the inability of people in politics to just admit when they don’t know things. All of them appear to be laboring under the impression that they have to have a pat answer to all questions – and as it is impossible for them to do that, they hem and haw around and end up saying things which are wrong and/or stupid.

To be sure, a wise politician will prepare him or herself with answers for likely questions – for GOPers this will be genuine MSM gotcha questions on social issues designed to feed into the overall Progressive campaign themes. But one cannot know everything – it just isn’t possible. And, of course, when a GOPer heads to a conservative or libertarian media outfit, he or she better be prepared for all sorts of smart, penetrating questions – a bit of study beforehand is wise. But even then, you’re still not necessarily going to have an answer for every question. I’m pretty well informed on matters of foreign policy but I, for instance, didn’t know who was in command of Iran’s al Quds force until I read about the Trump/Hewitt fracas over the issue (which seems to be a bit blown out of proportion by anti-Trump forces). Trump didn’t know either – and he should have just admitted not knowing and moved on (one thing about an admission of ignorance is that whatever series of questions your interviewer was planning for that subject are now wastebasket material). If I were running for office and someone leaped out and asked me a question I didn’t have a good answer to, I’d just say: “you know, that is a good question and I haven’t looked into the details of that matter – next time we talk, I’ll have something to say on it. Next question?”. I’d rather take a bit of heat for saying I don’t know something – when I don’t know about it – than take even worse heat by giving an ignorant answer, or getting huffy about the question, itself; or worst of all, lying about things and then getting called out on the lies later.

The main point I’m making here is that honesty is really the best policy. Especially in politics. This might seem counter-intuitive because, well, politicians tend to be people who spread enough bull to fertilize the Sinai. But the reality is that no matter how good a lie seems to be, it never works out in the long run. Well, strictly speaking, it never works out in the long run if you’re the sort of person who cares about the country and our people – those politicians who are just relentlessly on the make find that lies work well, in a sense. But for those who are trying to do something worthwhile, never fall into the trap of thinking that anything other than truth will work. Even if it results in you getting crushed this time around, it merely sets the stage for your ultimate triumph (or the triumph of your ideals, if you don’t get a second chance) – if a politician just tells the truth then in the long run that politician will be perceived as the best person, especially in contrast to the lying opponents who used lies to beat you at the previous election.

Level with the people. Tell them what is on your mind. Admit it when you don’t have the answer nailed down at the moment. Give a precise set of actions you will take once in office. Think about the candidate who has spent the whole campaign telling the truth – and then gets up in debate with the lying opponent: it will be a beautiful moment. “You just heard my opponent tell you a pretty story about what he/she will do – but it is just a fairy tale. It isn’t true.”. It just crushes the life out of someone who lies when someone who is known to be a truth-teller points out the Emperor has no clothes. It has happened before – when Reagan did his “there you go again” in the debate with Carter, that was Reagan saying, “it is just a fairy tale”. Here, take a look:

THE PRESIDENT. As long as there’s a Democratic President in the White House, we will have a strong and viable social security system, free of the threat of bankruptcy. Although Governor Reagan has changed his position lately, on four different occasions he has advocated making social security a voluntary system, which would, in effect, very quickly bankrupt it….These constant suggestions that the basic social security system should be changed does cause concern and consternation among the aged of our country. It’s obvious that we should have a commitment to them, that social security benefits should not be taxed, and that there would be no peremptory change in the standards by which social security payments are made to the retired people. We also need to continue to index the social security payments so that if inflation rises, the social security payments would rise a commensurate degree to let the buying power of the social security check continue intact.

In the past, the relationship between social security and Medicare has been very important to provide some modicum of aid for senior citizens in the retention of health benefits. Governor Reagan, as a matter of fact, began his political career campaigning around this Nation against Medicare. Now we have an opportunity to move toward national health insurance, with an emphasis on the prevention of disease; an emphasis on outpatient care, not inpatient care; an emphasis on hospital cost containment to hold down the cost of hospital care for those who are ill; an emphasis on catastrophic health insurance, so that if a family is threatened with being wiped out economically because of a very high medical bill, then the insurance would help pay for it. These are the kind of elements of a national health insurance, important to the American people. Governor Reagan, again, typically is against such a proposal.

MR. SMITH. Governor.

GOVERNOR REAGAN. There you go again. [Laughter]

Carter did the normal Democrat thing – claim the Republican wants people to die in the streets and then promise a sack full of free stuff if you vote Democrat. But Reagan utterly destroyed it – just by saying, “there you go again”. It means, “you’re just spreading BS, Carter”, and instantly the millions of Americans watching the debate understood it – here was a hack politician promising a world he cannot possibly give, confronted with a truth-teller. Reagan went on to win in a landslide just a few days later. We’ve been hammered by lies for quite a long while now – and people are aware of the lies. In 2016, the Democrat candidate will have to defend the lies – he or she will have no choice as Democrats cannot run far away from Obama’s record (remember: $2,500 reduction in insurance premiums? Keep your plan if you like?)…and when Hillary or Biden or Sanders is up there in front of a massive national audience telling the American people how evil the Republican is and how much free stuff he or she is going to give you for voting Democrat…”there you go again”. But it will only work if the eventual GOP nominee has not spent the campaign hedging and hemming and hawing and trying to triangulate himself into favorable coverage for a news cycle. Telling the truth can make you terribly unpopular at times – you have to endure that heat; embrace it; proclaim how proud you are to be condemned for speaking the truth…and just wait for your moment to point out that the other guy is full of nonsense from start to finish.

Out and About on a Thursday

Mark Noonan18 Comments

The Chinese government is buying stocks, so the economy is all better now – please resume your regular Kardashian news viewing.

Kasich viewed as a bigger threat to Bush than Trump is. Uh; well…ok. But being a threat to Bush is akin to being a threat to nothing…Bush hasn’t got a chance at being nominated.

Hillary Clinton is viewed as being dishonest and untrustworthy. This surprises precisely no one. Meanwhile, Joe appears to be Biden is time before he jumps in…

Boehner reportedly calls Cruz a “jackass”…this will, I’m sure, make Cruz more than willing to work with Boehner, assuming Cruz becomes President. If this story is true, then it is time to get another Speaker.

Read that Rubio doesn’t think Trump will win the nomination because we’re not an angry nation. Which is true. We passed “angry” in 2010. By now, we’re a scorching furious nation.

Charges have been dropped against a man for playing the Star Spangled Banner on the Fourth of July. Yes, this is still officially the United States of America. Sorta.

There are 141 counties with more registered voters than living people. And that does appear to be more voters than living people – not more voters than adult citizens. So, voter fraud isn’t a problem.

Attacking the Establishment is What 2016 is All About

Mark Noonan15 Comments

I see that Donald Trump got into another fracas with Megyn Kelly and now Ted Cruz has also taken exception to a Kelly line of questioning:

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz was seemingly unhappy with a question on immigration Tuesday night from Fox News host Megyn Kelly, telling her it was something he’d expect to be asked from a “liberal journalist.”

Kelly asked the Texas senator the same question Donald Trump faced on the cable-news network Monday.

“If you have a husband and a wife who are illegal immigrants, and they had two children here who are American citizens — would you deport all of them? Would you deport the American citizen children?” she asked.

Cruz replied that politicians should first tackle immigration by focusing on issues of bipartisan agreement, including stopping illegal immigration and “improve and streamline” legal immigration…

Kelly’s question is just the sort of MSM-Prog question we expect – from the MSM-Prog types. Fox News says it isn’t like that – but here we go. The question is a “why do you hate the children?” sort of question. It is a question which essentially boils down the entire issue to something which is (a) trivial and (b) impossible to answer in a mere “yes or no” manner. Kelly is pretty much holding here that unless Cruz (and, I guess, Trump who was asked the same sort of question by Kelly) states his opinion on whether or not the children should be deported, then he can’t talk about immigration reform. It is a typical liberal trap for conservatives – you either have to show the LIV that you hate the children or you have to anger the GOP base by getting mealy-mouthed on whether or not you’ll deport illegal immigrants. People who are concerned about illegal immigration are not primarily concerned about what we may do regarding those people who have lived here a while and have American-born children – the primary concern is whether or not we, as a nation, will control our borders, at all. Yes, the children of illegal immigrants are an issue and will have to be dealt with as we work out the ways and means of border security and immigration reform…but it isn’t the top issue. The top issue is the number of people flooding across the border today, not the number who flooded across five years ago and now have two American-born children. But, you see, if we start discussing the real issues regarding immigration, then we’ll have to do something about immigration…but if we can emote about the children then we can ignore the real problem…and Democrats and Chamber of Commerce types will get their heart’s desire: open borders.

But, this isn’t really about illegal immigration – it is about the desperate desire of the Ruling Class to get its way in spite of the will of the American people, and the desperate desire of the American people to defeat the Ruling Class. The reason why Donald Trump is surging in the GOP primary and Bernie Sanders in the Democrat primary is because people are fed up. Frank Luntz apparently needed the Establishment Fainting Couch today when he focus-grouped some GOPers and found out they despise the GOP Establishment. This came as shocking news to Luntz, but for you and me down here its old hat…because we all despise the GOP Establishment. We handed them massive victory in November of 2014 and they can’t even defund Planned Parenthood! PP is handed to them on a platter and they can do something which the base would be thrilled about…and at no political cost (the MSM would like to use such a thing to gin up “war on women” for 2016, but they wouldn’t dare because if they did, it would only bring up why PP was defunded; something the MSM has thus far prevented the LIV from learning). For those on the left, they can’t believe they had the whole government for 2 years and the White House+Senate for 6 years and all they got for it is ObamaCare: they were expecting the Progressive Paradise to arrive. We laugh at it, but they really believed Obama when he made his victory speech in 2008…they really thought that getting Obama and a Democrat Congress meant that the sea levels would start to fall. Been a bit of a disappointment, hasn’t it? And now they are told that their only choice for 2016 is a worn-out political hack who drew the lucky straw in the marriage sweepstakes? That isn’t going down any better with Democrats than Jeb Bush has with Republicans.

Trump still isn’t the man we need – but he’s going to keep leading in the polls until some GOPer out there figures out that fighting the Establishment (all of it, everywhere – even, and especially, those parts of it which claim to be on our side) is the only way to go. I think Ted Cruz has figured it out – I think that Scott Walker has partially figured it out (though his basic Establishment background is preventing him from doing it right – and he’s actually hurting himself right now by being all over the map rather than finding a point and sticking to it). Cruz doesn’t spend any time attacking Trump – there’s no point; all that does is make him more of a hero…but getting into a fight with Megyn Kelly? Good politics (I know a lot of conservatives think highly of Megyn Kelly – I’m unimpressed. I’ve never heard so much of a word out of her which indicates a deep level of thought about things…of course, I barely ever watch Fox News or, indeed, any televised news other than local stuff to catch the weather report, so maybe I’ve missed something…and if someone has a quote from Ms. Kelly which is impressive, I’m ready to hear it). Megyn Kelly is part of the Establishment – she’s the opponent. It isn’t for a GOPer to get along with her, but to challenge the basis of her lines of questioning…and so, too, with all other MSMers asking us questions, because not one of them is on our side. And the people – especially the GOP base – wants to hear that. We don’t want to know what Cruz – or anyone – will do about the children of illegal immigrants…we want to know what Cruz will do about the people flooding nearly unimpeded across our border on daily basis…and we want the reporters, if they are such, to ask the Democrats what precisely they propose to do about stopping the flow (we know they won’t – but until they do we’ll treat with monumental contempt any MSMer who presumes to ask a “gotcha” question of a GOPer on the issue).

I really haven’t the foggiest notion how this will all come out in the end – I don’t know who will win the respective party nominations, and no idea who might wind up getting elected. It could get very, very messy – even having both conventions becoming brokered as no one in either party wins a first-ballot majority (still highly unlikely – but in the 5% chance range unlikely, rather than existentially impossible, as it normally is). But from what I have read and heard, the people are just sick of this nonsense. They voted for hope and change in 2008 and all they got was business as usual, a stagnant economy and a world spinning out of control. There is no trust any longer – and as there is no trust, people will go for anyone who expresses their distrust of the Establishment. Yes, even an Establishment guy like Donald Trump – because even though he’s of it, he’s fighting it (he wouldn’t be the first Ruling Class politician in human history to eschew his own…Pericles and Caesar did it thousands of years ago in Athens and Rome). You want to keep Donald Trump out? Then don’t attack Trump – do a better job than Trump is at attacking the system.

Opening Up the Immigration Debate

Mark Noonan18 Comments

Trump laid out a plan for immigration, and did the GOP a huge favor. From what I gather, Trump’s is for deportation of all illegals and building a secure border. This is far more vigorous than any GOPer has proposed and, indeed, it is probably a plan which would never get majority support. It is also makes things a bit more difficult for the GOP – but at the same time it opens up a gigantic opportunity.

First off, the Democrats love it – not the plan, but that Trump said it as a Republican. They desperately need a divisive, racial issue which can be used to juice up the base for Hillary in 2016. Regardless of what happens to Trump, Democrats will paint the Trump position as the GOP position – and as the Democrats will put it, the GOP plan is cruel deportation. No amount of mealy-mouthed GOP claims to the contrary will matter because, quite simply, the MSM won’t sufficiently report them…but you can bet that they’ll drive this into the ground…it’ll be endless “REPUBLICAN Donald Trump wants to DEPORT ALL ILLEGALS” on replay for days as the MSM drives the Narrative into the public mind. The bottom line is that the Democrats and their MSM lapdogs will try to convince LIVs that the GOP hates Latinos.

Will it work? Of course it will. All it took was one badly answered question and the GOP was hammered successfully with “war on women” twaddle for two election cycles. LIV are LIV for a reason – they don’t know anything other than what the MSM tells them. And the MSM will tell them about Trump and the mean, horrid, racist, cruel Republicans.

Secondly, though, it does open up the field of debate – any GOPer can now be a relative moderate on immigration but still be tough on illegal immigration: he or she just needs to step an inch to the left of Trump. We can condemn both extremes of immigration – mass deportation and open borders, while at the same time calling for real immigration reform which will actually give the United States an immigration policy based upon rational ideas. LIV who have been told that the GOP is a horrid, racist bunch of anti-Latino bigots will eventually get to hear the actual GOP nominee speak about it…and when he or she lays out a rational plan for immigration reform, and then challenges Hillary on the Democrats’ open border nonsense, LIV will have their eyes opened (well, we hope – as long as there isn’t some Kardashian news on the debate nights).

My ideas on immigration start with strict border security – both as a matter of national defense and as an act of mercy towards the illegals: our Progressives will downright refuse to see it, but open borders in the United States merely means that criminal gangs control entry into our nation, and they treat the illegals extremely badly. I’d like to see a modification of birthright citizenship, but I believe any change here would require a Constitutional amendment (I would amend it to say, “any person born to at least one U.S. citizen is a natural born citizen of the United States”, in order to finally clear up forever the entire issue). I’d like to have some sort of guest-worker program. I’d slap a 90% tax on remittances from people in the United States to people in foreign countries (I believe this would, of itself, cause several million illegals to just go back home – they are only here to send money back home and once we stop that, there’s no reason for them to be here), though I’d offer no tax penalty to a guest-worker who takes his savings with him when he leaves (in other words, while he’s working legally as a guest-worker let’s say he saves $10,000.00…if he tries to wire that home, we take $9,000.00…but if he goes home with it, no penalty; massive incentive to leave when your legal time is up). I would explicitly have a program for eventual citizenship for those illegals here for, say, 5 years or longer, who have committed no crimes while inside the United States, who have had children while living in the United States, and who have not sent more than 10% of their gross income back home since arriving in the United States (in other words, I’m getting a path to citizenship for those illegals who’s actions indicate a desire to settle permanently in the United States and become Americans). I believe that any GOPer can take all or part of these ideas and craft an immigration plan which would command majority support.

One thing for certain, Trump has torn the lid off our politically correct political process. Whether this will harm or help the conservative cause long-term remains to be seen. But now that Trump has lanced the boil, it is time for any GOPer who really wants to be President to step up, steal Trump’s thunder and come up with plans which walk the actual middle line between the extremes. We’ll see if anyone does it.

Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders…and Jeremy Corbyn

Mark Noonan50 Comments

There is much heart ache out here in GOP Establishment-land about Trump, and I’m sure a lot among the Democrat Establishment about Sanders (though Team Hillary is still acting like her nomination is a coronation and no one need pay attention to Sanders…the GOP is being helpful by releasing videos of the massive Progressive crowds Sanders is drawing; which is encouraging, as it is actually a pretty clever move by the GOP. First time for everything, right?). But who in heck is Jeremy Corbyn, you ask?

I admit that until today I had never heard of him – he’s a candidate for the leadership of Britain’s Labour Party. Generally, when a party gets crushed at the polls in Britain, the losing side then finds a new person to lead to them victory (or, another crushing defeat…but, that isn’t the plan, at any rate). As Labour was blown out of the water a couple months back, they are casting about for someone to restore their party fortunes. Most of the people vying for the post are conventional Labour Party politicians…but Jeremy Corbyn, a backbencher of no great fame, tossed his hat into the ring…and recent polling shows him favored by 53% of Labour voters. So frightened is the Labour Establishment at this, that they even got former Labour PM Tony Blair to pen an op-ed pleading for Labour voters not to vote Corbyn. Blair warns that voting for Corbyn won’t just lead to another Labour defeat, but to the possible extinction of the party!

To be sure, I think that Blair is on to something. Corbyn isn’t just your run-of-the-mill Progressive, folks. His parents were involved on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil war, so Corbyn is a Brit version of our “red diaper babies”. Corbyn, himself, is a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Socialist Campaign Group and the Stop the War Coalition (which war? Don’t ask – just assume if you want to kill a bad guy, they’re against it). Corbyn wants to nationalize Britain’s railways, provide a “living wage” for everyone, backs animal rights, may favor turning the Falklands over to Argentina, wants to ban the importation of foie gras, and appears to join any group out there with a leftwing cause. This guys is a far left fanatic. But, he’s also a rebel – very often voting against his own party and his Parliamentary expense account is the lowest among all 650 members of Britain’s House of Commons. He’s a kook leftist – but he’s an honest one, my friends. And he looks poised to take leadership of the Labour Party (though we’ll see if the Establishment can squash his bid). Corbyn as leader of Labour would be the perfect opponent for the rather squishy, Establishment types of the Tory party. They’d love to run against him – all they’d have to do is quote him and roll up a 100 seat majority, so you can see why Blair is worried, as are all Establishment types on the left.

I bring this up because these phenomena – a huckster zillionaire, an out-of-touch Boomer socialist, a far left fanatic in Britain – are symptoms of a general rebellion growing against the Establishment. I read today that Sanders drew 29,000 people to a rally. Donald Trump does seem to have faded a bit in the polls, but he’s still riding high. True, in America it is still the silly season of politics. We’re a long way from the first primary ballots and we should all recall that in 2011 a lot of people rode high for a moment, only to flame out before the election even got rolling. But there is a palpable anger and frustration out there. People are sick to death of politics as usual – and especially for the American right, the politics as usual which means we just help the liberals get what they want. The first sign of rebellion in Britain was also on the right, by the way: in the form of the United Kingdom Independence Party – which has risen mostly out of British frustration with the Tories. And if you think our electoral system is hosed, you should see Britain’s – the UKIP got 2.4 million more votes than the Scottish National Party, yet the SNP wound up with 56 seats, UKIP with 1! But, still, the bottom line is that anger with politics as usual boosted UKIP votes by nearly 3 million over their 2010 number. The people are tired – the left want’s genuine leftism; the right wants genuine conservatism. No one wants a left which is actually a bunch of crony-capitalists, nor does anyone want a right which is also crony-capitalist, with a dash of just preserving leftwing policy failures. Left and right I think people want candidates who will fight for what the people believe in. To have it out in a genuine, head-to-head contest which will decide what course the nation will take.

I think we’ll just see more of this as time goes on – and unless the GOP Establishment wakes up, there will be an American version of the UKIP by no later than the 2024 election, with a strong possibility it’ll show up in 2020…and it’ll take out of the GOP, immediately, a couple score House members and a few Senators, likely enough to deny the GOP a Congressional majority. For the Democrats, I see a complete take over by the far left – they really can’t stop it, if the leftwing base really tries. After all, what Democrat can fight against someone shouting the slogans the Democrat Establishment cooked up to gin up their base for 2012? But it can happen that the far left splits from the Democrat party and sets up a Social Democrat Party in time for 2020 or 2024.

Hold on to your hats, folks – it is about to get very interesting.

Regarding “The Donald”

Leo Pusateri15 Comments

Trump

To my good conservative friends- especially those who support “The Donald.”
In these days of milquetoast (or worse) defenses of conservatism by elected leaders, especially the ‘establishment’ GOP leadership, it is easy to get excited over a seemingly unapologetic firebrand who finally articulates much of what you and I have wanted to scream from the mountaintops.

I get that.

But remember what was happening 8 years ago. Many on the left and ‘center-left’ rallied behind a charismatic, well-spoken candidate who nobody really knew much about.

Not that there wasn’t information available. There was information galore about Barack Obama– from his associations with known domestic terrorists, to his belonging to a communist party in Chicago; from his 20-year association with a preacher who preached hate about the United States, to his being mentored by an avowed communist in his earliest days. The information was available to any who wished to do even a cursory internet search.

Many (myself included) tried to warn people about Barack Obama, how he wasn’t the man whom he portrayed himself to be.

But people would have none of it. They looked upon Obama as an open canvas; they looked upon him and projected upon him their greatest hopes, and ignored the reality of his checkered past. They didn’t see a guy raised by communists and people who hated America. They saw a guy descending from Greek columns. They saw ‘the One”–their own personal messiah the one who would finally deliver them to the “Promised Land” and make the sea levels lower and the earth heal. They scoffed at reports of his past, thinking, “Well, even if he did cut his teeth on communism and Islam, he wouldn’t *govern* like one. He would certainly out of a sense of duty and responsibility carry out America’s most time-honored traditions.” And they elected him anyway. The ‘cult of personality’ took over. There was no reasoning with people who refused to be reasoned with.

And we all know how that has turned out.

Now, back to Trump.

Donald Trump does an awfully good job at selling himself. He can sell ice cubes to Eskimos. He is very good at portraying himself as larger than life.

He is very good at ‘portraying’ himself as an unapologetic conservative.

But understand, people. Donald Trump is NO conservative. He has a very long record of taking very progressive stances on everything from border security to abortion to tax policy. He has engaged in crony capitalism, and has been part of the problem all along.

Are we to believe that he REALLY took a 180 on all these issues, just in time for the Republican primary?

Again– I understand how Donald Trump can be appealing. He is charismatic and unapologetic–something we wish more of our elected leaders would be. But let’s leave our passions behind and look at things realistically:

1. Given his long track record of being a crony capitalist and a big-government, pro-abortion progressive, can we reliably count on Donald Trump to actually govern as a conservative?

2. Even if Donald Trump were to attempt to keep his promises (which I have sincere doubts), can he accomplish all that he proposes in a system of checks and balances? Or will he govern with a ‘phone and a pen’ like our current dictator-in-chief?

Let’s not let our passions get in the way of our good judgment. We have an embarrassment of riches in fine candidates such as Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, and Ben Carson who, while admittedly not as charismatic, have long track records of conservative stances and successfully advancing the conservative agenda with reasonable chances that they will govern accordingly.

No more cults of personality, please.

Debate Open Thread

Cluster149 Comments

Carly Fiorina did very well in the early debate. She is a formidable candidate. Can you imagine a Trump/Fiorina ticket? Speaking of Trump, if he can dial down his ego, add more details to his ideas, and act presidential – he just might run away with this. This will be a fun night, well at least for us political junkies.

Out and About on a Wednesday

Mark Noonan6 Comments

Attorney General Lynch says she will look into those videos of Planned Parenthood looking for “less crunchy” ways of carrying out an abortion. The question remains whether she’ll be looking for criminal activity on the part of Planned Parenthood, or will be out to get the makers of the videos.

Governor Brown (D-Peoples Democratic Republic of California), says global warming threatens human extinction. As soon as he calls for a ban on limos, private jets and beach houses larger than 1,000 square feet, I’ll take him seriously.

Our new Partners for Peace in Tehran say they will buy whatever arms they want.

If you ever thought there was a bottom to the well of Progressive silliness, you were wrong.

Perry rips into Trump. He has to. First off, as a matter of principal: Trump is simply not the man who will win the White House for the Republican party. Secondly, as a matter of electoral politics – he’s an also-ran so far in the GOP sweepstakes and he has to gain some traction. Attacking Walker or Cruz will work against him (their supporters might be angered), attacking Bush and Christy is boring – we already know he’s not on board with them. Attack Trump and you get noticed.

Hillary Clinton is polling just terrible in the swing States. Before you get too excited, I understand the polling sample over-states Republican numbers – but, still, with 99.99% name recognition Hillary is down 9 points against Walker, who probably doesn’t have 50% name recognition in, for instance, Colorado. She’s a giant on weak legs.

I really don’t know what to say about the Bland case – woman gets stopped for failure to signal (with, I guess, also doing a rolling stop at a stop sign) and it escalates into her being arrested and then dying in prison – officially by suicide but the full investigation isn’t close to done. The only bit of wisdom I can impart is to wait until the investigation is complete before rendering anything like a judgement on it.

In the Fundamental Transformation department – newly sworn citizens don’t have to swear to bear arms in defense of the United States. It makes sense – after all, some of the people becoming citizens might not want to defend the United States; why inconvenience them with something as trivial as being loyal to the nation they voluntarily immigrated to?

List of the 20 cities Americans are fleeing from in droves. Oddly enough, a lot of them appear to be governed by Democrats. Shouldn’t people be moving into Democrat governed areas? I mean, they really care about the little guy and have the best solutions for all of us, right?