Trust me when I tell you that there is absolutely
nothing that would make me happier than to find out that Donald Trump would
actually come to prove himself to be the second coming of Ronald Reagan. But I have this nagging little voice in the
back of my head warning me to very wary of Mr. Trump. And while he most certainly has been saying
all the right things, as my dear old dad used to say, “Talk is cheap, it takes
money to buy whiskey.” So at the end of
the day I am at the point where I still can’t quite bring myself to vote for
Trump as I simply don’t trust him to follow through on so much of what he has
promised, and continues to promise.
But be that as it may, as we all know, Trump
currently leads, and has been leading, the polls nationally and in most states
in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, and essentially since
the very first day he declared himself a candidate. And there are certainly
some very understandable reasons for his maintaining what has become, in some
polls, a very impressive lead. And while
he has shown himself to be a skillful campaigner, I would caution conservatives
in offering up their support to Mr. Trump in the caucuses and primaries. And please don’t misunderstand, I am not
saying don’t vote for the man, just that you should think it through first.
Because in looking back over the history of our
current Republican front-runner what we see is someone who has been described
as being a “philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the
broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a
free-floating populism with strong-man overtones.” And upon closer inspection we find that the
real-estate mogul and reality-TV star has supported everything from abortion to
gun control to single-payer health care à la Canada, and even punitive taxes on
the wealthy. So, again, all I’m asking for
folks to do is that a little caution be used when going to the polls.
Now I will admit that since first declaring his
candidacy, back in June of last year, Trump has tended to take a more
conservative approach than he has in the past.
Particularly on those issues that remain near and dear to the heart of
those who closely identify themselves as being conservatives. And yet, one must admit that there does
remain some rather sizable holes in Trump’s plan for addressing some of these
issues, most of which tend to go ignored by a great many of his
supporters. He has succeeded in
exploiting the discontent regarding a government continues to be seen by many
as one that can’t be bothered to enforce its own laws.
Trump’s mantra since then has been, and remains, one
that has as its primary focus that Washington is full of problems, his claim of
being a problem-solver and a leader, and a ‘let me at ‘em’ kind of an attitude. But if, like Trump, you have no real
familiarity with the relevant details and the levers of power, and no clear
principles to guide you, you will, like most tenderfeet, end up getting rolled.
Especially if you are, at least by all outward indications, the most
poll-obsessed politician in all of American history. Trump has shown very
little interest in limiting government, in reforming entitlements, or in
defending our Constitution.
As we have seen after listening to the three
Democrat candidates, any candidate can, and usually will, promise the moon if
only voters will elect him, or her, to higher office. But politicians have records of success, of
failure, or plain of backsliding by which their promises must be judged. And
while Trump can try to turn his blankness into some sort of virtue by referring
to it as a kind of innocence, voters need to be taking such a claim with a
grain of salt. Because like a man with
no credit history applying for a mortgage, or, in this case, applying to manage
a $3.8 Trillion budget and the most fearsome military on earth, Trump may be in
over his head.
And if Trump were to become the president, the
Republican nominee, or even a failed candidate with strong conservative
support, what would that necessarily say about conservatives? Could it then be said, and with some degree
of accuracy, that the movement that ground down the Soviet Union and took the
shine, at least temporarily, off socialism would have fallen in behind a huckster?
The movement concerned with such
“permanent things” as constitutional government, marriage, and the right to
life would have become a claque for a Twitter feed. Trump, nevertheless, has provided to the
Republican Party with a valuable warning.
That being, of course, that if responsible men
irresponsibly ignore, or simply refuse to address in any meaningful way, those
issues deemed as being most important to those voters who proudly identify as
conservative, then those in power should not be surprised when such behavior is
then seized upon, and taken advantage of, by someone like Trump. If they cannot explain their Beltway
maneuvers — worse, if their maneuvering is indefensible — they will be rejected
by their own voters. If they cannot advance a compelling working-class agenda,
the legitimate anxieties and discontents of blue-collar voters will be
exploited by demagogues.
And, you know, I totally get the complaints coming
from those who call themselves supporters of Trump when it comes to
‘Establishment Republicans”, I really do.
But that doesn’t make him any less of a flawed candidate for them to get
behind. And while I am certainly not
going to be telling anyone that they should not vote for Trump, because that’s
not my purpose here, what I am asking for is that those of you who do intend to
vote for him, at least do some level of research on the man before doing
so. But then, you should be doing that regardless
of whomever, Republican or Democrat, it is that you intend on voting for.
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