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Why We Need Trump
I voted for Ted Cruz in the Indiana primary in 2016. He lost because he could not break through the media bubble and Trump used free media to reach voters with a simple message. Border security, protectionism, and no foreign wars were the messages that won him the race.
I had trouble voting for Trump and had to get away from politics for a time be able to make that decision. In the end, it came down to Donald Trump’s pro-life position that made me see that 16 years of Democratic presidential control would set back the cause dramatically. Trump opponents are either pro-choice or don’t understand that a left Supreme Court is incredibly damaging. Handing power to the corrupt Hillary Clinton either through voting for her or not stopping her was a mistake.
In retrospect, Ted Cruz or any other Republican could not have won. Every other Republican would have been labeled crazy on social issues and never would have been able to break through with an economic message that flipped the Midwest to red. Donald Trump was rarely ever asked about social issues and that allowed him to break through with rural voters.
Since Trump has been elected he has dealt with more negative coverage than any previous president. In order to keep Hillary voters outraged the Obama administration created a phony Russia collusion story. I don’t know how long this fantasy can go on, but it seems to be the driving force behind Trump’s low approval ratings.
Trump has been great on regulatory issues and I believe that has helped produced 3 percent economic growth in two quarters this year for the first time in a decade. With tax reform on the way and relative peace abroad, Donald Trump has been very successful. More Supreme Court picks could change things for the better.
When it comes to Donald Trump and his character I see good and bad traits. His loose grasp of facts can be a problem. The lack of discipline is also a trait can undermine his communications strategy. On the other side of the ledger, he has kept his political commitments and exceeded any hopes for conservative reform. This suggests he is sincere when he makes promises.
Since we are in this as citizens together, let’s get past not accepting Trump as president. Be happy things are going great.
Published in Politics
I coudn’t agree more.
This may be true, but when Trump was asked about social issues, he answered well. When the other candidates tried to deliver a pro-life message, I had the feeling that their words had been run through a focus group of pro-life activists ahead of time, and I didn’t like that, and I come from a family of pro-life activists. Trump spoke about abortion the way a normal person would, and I thought he was very effective.
The writer is ignoring the sweep of American history since the end of WWII. In 17 elections in a row, the American people would also give a Party exactly two presidential terms unless (the Greatest American President in the Twentieth Century) Ronald Reagan was involved. The Republicans won for 2 terms in 1952 & 1956. The Democrats won for 2 terms in 1960 & 1964. The Republicans won for 2 terms in 1968 & 1972. The Democrats won for 1 term in 1976; see the Reagan exception. The Republicans won for 3 terms in 1980, 1984 & 1988, with H.W winning Reagan’s Third Term; see Reagan exception. The Democrats won 2 terms in 1992 & 1996. The Republicans won 2 terms in 2000 & 2004. The Democrats won 2 terms in 2008 & 2012.
Essentially, the American people give a Presidential Party 2 terms to institute their policies. But, by the end of the 8 years, the Americans get restless for a change and throw out the bums, a process that repeats every 8 years, in the absence of a Reagan.
Any one of the 17 Republicans Candidates, including Jim Gilmore, would have beatened the Democrat last November. I believe that if Trump resigns or is forced out, President Pence will be elected in 2020, based upon American’s desire to give a Party 2 full terms. However, given the number of committed NeverTrumpers like myself and Trump’s unique ability to energize the opposition, and embarrass his supporters, I see titanic waves where we will lose the House in 2018, and the Senate in 2018 or 2020, as the aroused American people punish the Republican Plurality who forced Trump on our party and our country. Virginia is just the start. People like Trump and Moore are toxic and will kill our party.
Economic growth and curbing the regulatory state are great results. But I would frankly give the credit to Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell who have sent those policies to Trump. What is even more astounding is the blinding speed that McConnell has been getting Judges confirmed, and for keeping the Scalia/Gorsuch seat open for a full year!
However, policies are not enough. We have an unstable lying bully as President. To paraphrase Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons, I will not squander the honor of the United States for tax cuts. I for one will never vote for Trump and will work as hard as I can to defeat him in the 2020 primaries.
If Trump walked on water there would be an OP within twelve hours stating Trump cannot swim.
Seawriter
Gary Robbins: We have an unstable lying bully as President
That isn’t true. But dream on, keep your fantasies about impeaching Trump, person who gave money to the Democrat in Alabama.
Moore deliberately refused to obey not one, but two, appellate orders and was removed for each act of contempt. Moore argued that a Muslim should not be admitted to Congress due to religion. Moore is disqualified as being a Senator. I am proud to have given money to his opponent, since there is no sign that Moore will step down so we can save that seat.
We will be destroyed if we are the Party of Trump and Moore, and for good reason, just as the Republican Party was born after the death of the American Whig Party.
Something I noticed is that since Trump took the slings and arrows for telling the truth about political violence after charlottesville and sticking up for the bedrock principles of liberal democracy, the nearly 2 year long wave of political violence ripped straight from the Weimar Republic came to a screeching halt.
That ain’t nothing.
Trump is sure way better than Hillary would have been.
I also voted for Cruz, but once Trump won the nomination, I became a very reluctant Trump voter.
Trump has certainly exceeded my very limited expectations, and I have been moving from very reluctant to actually supporting the Trumpster. He has governed as a conservative, in spite of his sometimes off message tweeting. If tax reform passes, his first year will have to be counted a success. But… congress.
Moderator Note:
Please see http://ricochet.com/456027/trumpkin-nevertrump-civil-conversation/Yes. Let’s get on with it. Keep the pressure on the establishment wing this also may influence Trump in the right direction. [Redacted] on the right influences no-one except perhaps the left wing media. It’s sort of liberal virtue signaling and is tiresome.
And yet…Planned Parenthood every year still gets 500 million dollars to murder 300,000 babies. Not even a modest pay cut. But let’s don’t kill any elephants, and to kill a single giraffe is horrible.
Moderator Note:
Please do not ascribe *quite* such awful motives to your fellow Ricochetians.Gary the Democrat in Alabama supports third trimester abortions. Funding the annihilation of babies kicking in the womb is the very definition of evil. Moore maybe bad, but aiding the cause of killing the unborn if you are pro-life is the definition of insanity. Allowing hatred of Donald Trump to violate a political principle such as the protection of the unborn is just rage over reason. Instead of finding candidates you agree with [redacted] finding common cause with people you disagree with even more. Never in my life did support a pro-choice Republican with my money to get revenge on a left Democrat who I hated. Hate is a terrible reason to make decisions. You have gone from doomsday predictions to [redacted] a man who is deregulating and presiding over peace and prosperity. Handing power to the left given their lack of reflection on any mistakes they made during the Obama administration is crazy. Was Obama’s desire to fundamentally transform America so great we need part two. Trump is clearly better than Obama or Hillary. Elections are binary. Who knew Obama was so popular on Ricochet?
Chuckles blame Rand Paul and John Mccain that was the margin of defeat for not defunding planned parenthood. I regret voting for Mccain in 2008. Remember plenty of frauds supported Mccain 2010 instead Hayworth.
I wholly object to partial birth abortions, however the federal statute against them was upheld by the Supreme Court with Kennedy voting with the conservative Majority.
While I agree with the deregulation movement, Trump has managed to alienate women and the young. He is well on his way to destroy the Republican Party.
The sooner that Trump can be forced from power the better.
J.D. Hayworth represented Flagstaff in 1994-2002, and was a moderate Republican who working closely with Native Americans. One year I contibuted the maximum to him that cycle. I helped police his signs in Flagstaff. After his Congressional District excluded rural Arizona, J.D. went pretty full nativist. He was beaten in a general election thereafter, which was fine with me.
I voted for McCain over J.D. in 2010. (At a Party summer gathering I thanked McCain for his support of the surge.) I ran for Superior Court in 2012, and got the highest percentage of votes in this very Democratic County, higher than Romney.
Trump was not my choice in the primaries either, but I couldn’t be more thrilled with the job he’s doing. I’m happy to have been wrong about him and I’m ready for 2020!
Please let DeBlasio be the Dem, please please please!
Getting out of the Paris climate accords and reining in the excess of the Justice department and EPA are clear example of Trump deregulating. As for judges Collins, Murkowski, and Mccain would have advanced Hillary’s nominee for Scalia’s seat no question.
As for Republican chances at electoral victory without Trump look at map see that his strength rural areas was unprecedented. The Romney model failed because he could not connect ordinary voters were being hurt by economic changes. The people who we gained in the Midwest had not voted by such margins for Republicans since Reagan was office.
Since no sitting President since Taft has been beaten in his party primary, stop dreaming of the impossible for the sake rage.
Did you thank Mccain for killing the defunding of planned parenthood? Derailing the Repeal and Replacement of Obamacare is monument to your hero.
Mccain’s that Republicans should not pass any legislation without Democratic support, when Obamacare was passed without any Republican support is the same idea behind the nuclear freeze movement. Unilateral disarmament is stupid idea proposed a silly fool. But I am sure with Trump being President it is somehow his fault. John Mccain is the biggest fool in Washington DC. His spitefulness for Trump convinces him he can break campaign promises spanning two elections. Hate justifying lying what a despicable human being John Mccain is.
No he hasn’t.
Heck, having anything made from any part of an elephant is illegal, no matter when it was made or how the ivory was gotten. But try to talk about Planned Parenthood and the conversation suddenly focuses on “health”.
Screwtape must be proud.
I haven’t met a single woman who has been alienated, if anything they are more for him than ever.
I blame social conservatives for not screaming to high heaven about the issue. I blame a so called anti abortion Prez for not doing the same and educating the people. Yes I blame Paul and McCain but also all the rest of those lying hypocrites that are pro life so long as it doesn’t cost anything and so long as it gets them elected.
@garyrobbins , you keep bringing this up. And I totally understand the point; that after two terms the other party looks more interesting to the populace. Sure. Got it. Fine.
But if you’re going to take it seriously, we should examine it a little more closely.
Your exception is that Bush41 won a 3rd term for the Republicans in 1988. Okay, fine.
But also, Truman won a 5th term for the Dems in 1948.
And Gore won the popular vote after two Dem terms in 2000; ridiculously close, it could have absolutely gone either way.
And Hillary won the popular vote after two Dem terms in 2016.
So, of the 10 times the situation has come up after WWII, which isn’t a lot, 4 times the popular vote has stayed with the two-term party. 2 times for the actual vote.
But why start with the end of WWII? Why is that relevant? The case of the 2 term incumbent party winning happened a lot before then; FDR won 3rd and 4th terms for the Dems in ’40 and ’44, Hoover won a 3rd term for the Republicans in ’28, Taft won a 4th term for the Republicans in ’08, Teddy Roosevelt won a 3rd term for the Republicans in ’04, and so forth.
It’s almost like there are more exceptions than cases that follow the rule.
So I’m calling shenanigans on this “sweep of American history”.
The margins in 1960, 1968, and 2000 were less than percentage point. The argument that this is a advantage for the party out of power is basically saying that flipping coin three times row getting heads proves heads is better.
Same here. Despite being a kinda sorta never-Trumper, my shock at his totally unexpected victory was more like exhilaration. Hillary would have been the last nail in the coffin of the American experiment, and Trump promised constitutionalists for the Supreme Court. That alone was enough.
However, there’s more. Like his cutting of regulations.
The biggie, though, is his wonderfully put together program of pressure on North Korea and China to end Nork nukes. If he succeeds in that, nothing else really matters. All is forgiven. If he can get China to pull back from taking over the South China Sea, it’s icing on the cake. More big government, more deficit spending, and less free trade is troubling. But, again, if he manages to close back up the Pandora’s Box of nukes, all is forgiven. We’ll still have a future (and constitutionalists on the Sup Court) to work on the rest.
Um, Taft was not beatened in his party primary, TR was.
In the last 50 years, LBJ was forced out of the 1968 race by Gene McCarthy.
Reagan weakened Ford who lost to Carter.
Kennedy weakened Carter who lost to Reagan.
Buchanan weakened H.W. who lost to Clinton.
The best result would be to beat Trump in the primary. But, if Trump is weakened by Sasse/Flake/Corker/Kasich so he loses in the general election, that would be good by me. I love my country more than my party. The cancer of Trump needs to be excised even if the cost is four years of Democrats.
There were long lines of suburban women in lines at the polls in Northern Virginia during a downpour of biblical proportions so that they could vote against “Trump’s Republican Party.” Ed Gillespie got the largest number of votes in a Virginia Governor’s race, other Ralph Northam who beat Gillespie by 9 points.
Without being too direct, does the MT in your name mean Montana? While women in rural areas aren’t being turned off by Trump, suburban women are being driven away in droves.
Hey, I was born in 1952! History began then! (Great picture though.)
Well that was only because of the 30 million illegal voters in California…