Thursday, August 20, 2015

ON THE SUBJECT OF DONALD TRUMP…


Let me be clear, I consider myself a social conservative, a fiscal conservative, pro-life and I favor a strong national defense.  So why is it that at this point in the campaign I feel quite comfortable in supporting Donald Trump instead of any of the other ‘Republican’ candidates who make up his competition in running for GOP nomination?  Well, I suppose the easy answer would be to say that I am, very simply, fed up with those in the party who while they like to refer to themselves as conservatives during the campaign, once elected tend to behave just the opposite, as I see them walking arm in arm with the likes of ‘Dingy Harry’ Reid.  Since gaining control of Congress the Republicans have been little more than a complete disappointment.

And yet, something I find as being quite insulting is how it has been over the last few weeks, really since he first declared himself a candidate, that we’ve seen all manner of Establishment Republican consultant and pundit publicly fretting about whether Donald Trump will irreparably damage the Republican brand.  But seriously folks, I don’t see how Trump could do anymore to ‘damage the brand’ than has already been done by the likes of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, our supposed leaders in the House and Senate.  And while Trump has been referred to as being somewhat of a joke, I would argue that it is John Boehner and Mitch McConnell who have been, and continue to be, the real jokes here.  Only they’re just not funny.

And when do you suppose that those very same folks will finally begin to start worrying about the damage that Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and the rest of the GOP Establishment has already done to tarnish the Party’s brand?  The evidence is everywhere, all one has to do is to open your eyes.  Wasn’t it recently that McConnell shut down all efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, fight sanctuary cities, kill Obamacare and stop Iran from getting nukes because they might get in the way of pushing corporate welfare?  At this point, Boehner and McConnell might as well just wear the logos of the corporations and wealthy donors that sponsor them because they’ve turned their backs on conservatives and the country to cater to them.

My advice to all concerned would be that we shouldn’t be worried about Donald Trump, the ones we should really be worried about are the guys we were already stupid enough to elect.  They’re the ones who keep stabbing us in the back.  They are the ones laughing at us for actually trusting that what they were telling was the truth.  Any while I am sure there are many who will choose to disagree, I would argue that Trump may actually be good for the Republican Party where guys like Boehner and McConnell are the ones we need to be keeping a very close eye on regarding the amount of damage that they have already done and are continuing to do to our party.  I have gotten to the point where I’m willing to risk supporting someone like Trump.

Because Trump is knocking the GOP Establishment back on its heels. Yes, Trump did go over the line with his “I like people who weren’t captured” remark about McCain, but when all was said and done, it was the Maverick who got pancaked.  Not only did McCain end up getting major blowback for calling Trump supporters “crazies,” he also made an enemy of a billionaire who’ll be willing to pour millions into a campaign to take him out in a primary. And in adding insult to injury, Trump is now polling better with veterans than McCain. Trump has also smashed Lindsey Graham, slapped Karl Rove and ceaselessly attacked Jeb Bush. If Trump does nothing else other than stop Jeb Bush our nominee, we should build a larger than life statue of him.

And after Reince Priebus at the RNC started to interfere in the presidential primary by attacking Trump with there even being rumblings that Trump should actually be left out of the debates, we started hearing that the Donald might choose to run as a third party.  After that, Reince Priebus suddenly remembered what his job was again and started calling on everyone to be civil.   On top of all that, many people believe that Trump’s surge in the polls is a direct result of how unhappy many conservatives have become with the Republican Party. That should be a wake-up call for the GOP. In fact, if it isn’t, then the next one will probably come after we start bleeding seats on Election Day once we don’t have Obama to kick around anymore.

It’s true that Trump is sucking up all the oxygen. And he is dominating the coverage of the 2016 presidential election. While it means that candidates like Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee will have trouble getting enough coverage to gain steam, there is a huge plus to the “all Trump, all the time” coverage that most people have missed. In the 2008 and 2012 elections, the state-controlled media and the establishment picked the candidates they liked best and then they systematically destroyed anybody else who started to get any traction.  This time around, Trump is acting like a missile defense shield for the rest of the field and may actually help us break the liberal media/squishy Republican stranglehold on picking our nominee.

Trump is also forcing the other candidates to up their game. If candidates use nothing but “safe” boilerplate jargon to ensure that they don’t offend anyone and act as if we have a thousand years to fix the problems we have in this country, that’s fine, but no one’s ever going to hear their name with Donald Trump in the race.   Because of that, the GOP candidates have been forced to do more to get their names out there.  Ted Cruz called out Mitch McConnell for lying to Republicans on the Senate floor. Rand Paul took a chainsaw to the tax code. Bobby Jindal is threatening to arrest the Westboro Baptist Church wackos if they protest the funerals of mass shooting victims. Mike Huckabee pointed out that Barry’s Iran deal very well may lead to a Holocaust.

Now you may choose to disagree, but to my way of thinking these are all very good things.  We need candidates who can communicate, who show some fire and who have a sense of urgency about addressing the problems that are confronting America. Trump is helping to bring that out in the rest of the field. The failed Republican leadership in Congress has made it abundantly clear that it doesn’t care about anything other than slavishly serving the interests of a few thousand ultra-wealthy donors and corporations. Meanwhile, Trump is talking about securing the border, looking out for veterans, fixing the lousy trade deals we make in this country, getting our hostages out of Iran and stopping the massive crime wave that has been created by taking in so many illegal immigrants.

Now, even those who hate Trump’s guts are talking about sanctuary cities because he turned it into an issue. Quite frankly, neither party is looking out for the best interests of the American people on illegal immigration; so it’s quite refreshing to see the Republican field being forced to address it. It shouldn’t have taken Trump to get a real conversation going, but it has. He's teaching Republicans they don't have to surrender: No politician should want to needlessly offend people, but on the other hand, it’s impossible to accomplish anything without making some people angry. Unfortunately, most Republicans don’t seem to understand this and have allowed cowering to become their standard operating procedure.

In fact, the GOP has become such a group of timid, knock-kneed, namby-pamby pushovers and wimps that Republicans don’t do much of anything other than just sit of their behinds and beg the Democrats not to beat them too badly. Trump is showing Republicans that it’s possible to do something different. Yes, you don’t have to apologize just because the state-controlled media demands that you do so. Yes, you can hit back even harder when you’re attacked. Yes, you can stick it to the press when it treats you unfairly. In all fairness, other Republicans have done this as well, but Trump has made it the centerpiece of his campaign and it has taken him all the way to first place when NO ONE expected him to rise that high.

The Republican Party is called the “Stupid Party” and for good reason. Simply watch McConnell and Boehner and you’ll see why.  But even Republicans can learn a lot from the way Donald Trump has brawled his way to the top of the heap. Even if it doesn’t last, no one will forget that Republicans voters love a fighter.  A big reason that Trump has been able to maintain his position in the polls is the fact that there is a great deal of frustration on the part of conservatives when it comes to the Republican Party.  And it is that frustration together with the sense of being abandoned by our elected leaders that has driven many, rightly or wrongly, to support Mr. Trump.  And if he should win the nomination I’m willing to risk voting for him.  

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