Remember when conservatives got all excited by this picture? THAT's why they're excited about Trump.
In the
National Review:
In recent weeks, the Times reports, “Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on American companies that put their factories in other countries,” and vowed too to “increase taxes on the compensation of hedge fund managers.” Elsewhere, he has brazenly channeled Elizabeth Warren in tone — “didn’t build this country”; “fair share”; “got lucky” — and promised increases in government spending that are demonstrably unsustainable. Alas, he has suffered scant pushback for his heresy. Honesty requires us to acknowledge that had President Obama endorsed exactly the same policies and rhetoric, the reaction from the Trumpkins would have been little short of nuclear.
Not a bad point. Trump is teflon, standing strong despite apostasies that would've felled lesser candidates, and no one can figure out why. Krugman's theory makes sense: "It’s really about who’s boss, and making sure that the man in charge stays boss. Trump is admired for putting women and workers in their place, and it doesn’t matter if he covets his neighbor’s wife or demands trade wars."
The crazies don't really care about any conservative platform, they just want someone to reflect their own bigotries and xenophobia, all the while telling the weenies to fuck off (be it Jeb Bush, or Barack Obama). They'd be just as excited if it was Hulk Hogan playing the role. As for those poor "respectable" conservatives like National Review author Charles Cook? The comment threads are brutal as you'll see below the fold.
You morons slamming Trump supporters or those who see the obvious need to wake up. Sweeping elections in '10 and '14 and the establishment GOPe types still piss, moan and tell us they just dont have the votes. No, they dont have a spine! Voting R because "if you dont will certainly give us Killary" is exactly where these establishment pukes want you.
Hahaha......Cook is dumb as rocks.
News flash = We know Trump isn't conservative (on all issues). In fact Cook is the dummy who walks around thinking "gotta vote for a true conservative", then throws his vote to Bush, Fiorina, Kasich, or most of the other candidates.
In fact, Trump is rated as being very conservative by Conservative Review. Slightly behind Cruz and Jindhal who aren't "conservative" on certain issues but are on most. Especially those that matter to conservatives - immigration, 2nd amendment, and growth of government.
No wonder National Review is a wasteland....with opinion pieces like this, who reads it, much less takes it seriously any longer?
Trump's not perfect, far from it.. BUT he says what he thinks instead of parroting the party's talking points..
More importantly, his love of our Country and the American People shows, unlike the people who make up both DC Political Establishments. Their only loyalties are to their political party, the political class, and the special interests that finance them.
We voted our principles in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014. Look where that got us. Screw principles. We need a real fighter.
If the GOP discovers some pretext to expel Donald Trump from the Republican primaries, then he can win the presidency on a third-party ticket.
Trump does not need the GOP. The GOP needs Trump. Otherwise, the it loses in 2016. Based on past performance, the GOP would rather lose. That's why they exist. They are a controlled opposition. They like it when the D-party wins.
Principles schminciples! If Trump becomes POTUS and does ONE conservative thing, that'll be more than the Republican Congress has done, or, for that matter, George W. Bush.
What this is igniting are the flames that the Tea Party Movement kindled over the past couple of elections. GOP House? GOP Senate? Check. Meaningful opposition to Obama and the Progressive Agenda? MISSING IN ACTION. The Republican Party is likely to go the way of the Whigs. The Quislings like Boehner and McConnell are going to ride their majority right into the ground, as their party disintegrates around them.
There is nothing "conservative" about supporting tax-cuts George Soros and Sheldon Adelson. They are the enemy. They are traitors, like Angela Merkel. Tax them at 100%.
One reason Romney lost in 2012 was his support for tax-cuts for the rich, including hedge fund managers. The Republican Party needs to rebrand its image, and to change its ideology to benefit the middle & working classes. That is real conservatism. But of course NRO doesn't seem to understand that.
Not in every instance but being loyal to "Conservative" candidates have kept us with McCain, McConnell, Graham, Murkowski, Boehner...need I go on? Perhaps Trump is correct in the most important and pressing issue of the day and maybe he will see this issue through to its Conservative solution. The preceding Bozos sure haven't.
Would you vote to end Social Security tomorrow, even if it means losing your check? If you answer "no", then you aren't a conservative, your support of Trump or lack thereof aside.
Cooke, don't presume to tell me what my process is. If you don't understand what's going on by now, then you are hopelessly stupid. But I don't think that. I think you've just been given marching orders to take out Trump at all costs.
The irony is, it's your prospects that are being risked, not Trumps. There is nothing you are going to say or do that will convice people like me to support the corrupt, bought-and-paid-for wh*res of the GOP that you seem to think that I should be supporting. Not a chance in the world.
If you choose to dismiss me as some sort of mindless virus, then knock yourself out. Me and a few score million others are going to watch and laugh as the corrupt, backstabbing GOP establishment gets CRUSHED in 2016.
The idiots at NRO still don't get it. It's about IMMIGRATION!
Yup. It's about brown people!
Do as I say not as I do, now the media class's motto joined in chorus by the Beltway chamber's mercenaries posing as politicians. We're suppose to have principles, but our beltway betters can bury their moral compasses and sell our nation down the river.
Lets see, the conservative base would have to vote for totalitarian leftist statists for the next 20 years in order to out do the Establishment GOP in destroying the country.
The EGOP, selling the mansion that they inherited for firewood and then slandering the men and women that had built it all the while blaming the guy that is telling them to stop burning it. The EGOP like a round table of GM execs and UAW bosses in the 1970s.. what could possibly go wrong.
We have two parties hell bent on transforming America, two parties that want to flood the country with welfare recipients and criminals. Two parties unafraid to slander and malign and brow beat the tax paying law abiding citizenry.
The country is in a slow civil war, roughly speaking there are two broad sides: 1) the DC traitor classes and their mercenary voter base against 2) the US law abiding tax paying citizenry.
The GOP has been convincing conservatives to discard their principles for so long that the establishment feels it is somehow entitled to the conservative vote and Trump isn't.
Conservatism has failed as a movement. Since 1989 it has been running on fumes from Ronald Reagan and has little to offer in the way solutions for problems today. Many GOP voters intuitively sense this; they sense that things used to be better for people like them. which is why they are ready to embrace something different. An agenda created for the problems of the 1970's is of no interest to them. They are not interested in "True Conservatism."They are interested in someone who will get America back on track!
I like that Trump actually seems to want to put Americans first. Rather then whining about how people who commit a crime by crossing the border illegally are doing it as an "act of love". I'm not interested in excuses for why someone comes in illegally for "free" education and "free" healthcare paid by me through higher taxes and insurance premiums. I'm interested in getting them out, back to their countries and off my back.
This writer can't be stupid as not to understand Trump's appeal is about immigration. I think he and his chamber of commerce supporters know this and hence the hysterical over-reaction to Trump.
I don't know how I can state this more clearly so that Charles Cooke and other NRO authors can understand my thinking. I support Donald Trump because I believe him when he says that he will enforce our nation's immigration laws. Immigration is far and away the single most important issue that the United States faces and I have prioritized immigration hawkishness over every other issue.
Perhaps it's because we know that mass 3rd world immigration means the end of America as we used to know it. If your house is burning down you want a fireman and not a "make me feel good" counselor who lies.
I remember just the other day I couldn't book a flight on any of the major airlines due to the large Latin American population hogging up all the seats.
He's got ONE LOUD Conservative Message that trumps all others:
IMMIGRATION Policy has to benefit US Citizen's JOBS and WAGES
You have no idea what is going on outside of the beltway. Our jobs have been swallowed alive by hyper-free-trade policies and illegals. What do you expect? And the GOP did....wait for it.....absolutely nothing when we handed them control of Congress. So the heck with it. "Conservative principles" don't kick ass and take names.....a person does. And that one is Donald Trump.
The Establishment lectured us for years to stop the conservative 'purity test' attitude (which we never had, but it was their uninformed opinion of us) and now have reversed course and are lecturing us that we must not support someone who is not a true conservative in his past.
I think it baffles them that I can support both Ted Cruz and Trump. To them, it's contradictory and I must be demented. They don't know us.
Meanwhile they tell us Jeb is the true conservative (as was Romney) when to many of us, Jeb sounds more like a Democrat everyday. Why does Jeb use the communist slogan, "Lean Forward?"
What the establishment hacks don't get. For all his flaws, Americans are going to be more inclined to vote for Trump than one of these lying treasonous bastards the George Wills and Charles Krauthammers would like to cram douwn our throats.
Actually, the reason conservatives are flocking to Trump is that he is speaking out against the biggest threats to our country- reckless immigration policies and political correctness.
Here we go again! Once again the useless GOP in Congress.... hands Obama yet another victory.... and what does the NRO mainly focus on today? Trump. The NRO is about as useless as Congress.
Old news. We know about Trump's past. They've been repeating this nonsense since the first week Trump announced, and still comparing Trump from his past when he was a billionaire businessman pursuing business interests to Trump today pursuing what's best for the country.
Heck, Texas used to be a Democrat state! As was most of the South.
The Establishment still doesn't get it. It's more important for a candidate to fight the Establishment (yes them) than to claim conservative credentials. I don't believe Jeb is conservative despite his past. Jeb sounds more like a Democrat everyday. And why does Jeb keep using the communist slogan, "Lean Forward?"
I still think the Establishment don't now or don't care about the problem with millions of illegals ruining our lives and our country. The Est must safe and secure and insulated from them.
Principled conservatism means putting the national interest first. If that means getting the rich to pay us back the dough they've earned on the backs of illegal labor, so we can afford to build a wall at the border, this is an eminently conservative idea.
I see. So, when Boehner, McConnell, McCain, Jeff Flake, Christie and Jeb! proclaim conservative principles and then overtly violate them, 'no big'.
But when Trump says what he thinks, and would likely carry forward those statements: "HERETIC!!! BURN HIM!"
Got it. Hypocrisy good; honesty bad.
Sounds like a great Karl Rove/RNC talking point. GOod luck with that, NRO.
In the aggregate, it really is mostly about the brown people, with a dash of "I hate the GOP establishment and Trump can't be bought." But other Republicans are equally horrific on immigration, so what else sets Trump apart? His masterful use of media to project the kind of braggadocio that appeals to the conservative lizard brain. Remember how hot Vladmir Putin made
conservatives? Donald Trump is the GOP's homegrown Vladimir Putin.