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Is Trump The Real Conservative?
Is Trump the real conservative? The bench, we were told, was deep. Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Jeb along with Biff, Buffy, Jugghead, Flounder… And then came Donald Trump. But while the bench might have been deep with politics, how deep were their conservative bonafides? Senator Rubio’s shtick wore thin quickly and he could not atone for his dalliances with amnesty. Governor Kasich was unconvincing except as a “good government” proponent and that ain’t conservative. Senator Cruz was conservative, no doubt, but he ticked everyone off. How can you govern if you can’t get along with others? Jeb never had a chance; his father was no conservative and his brother was too timid to be. The rest were flawed and weak.
And what of Trump’s conservatism? Better than you might think.
There is nothing conservative about open borders and the embrace of illegal interlopers. Trump said emphatically, he’d close the borders and send those here illegally back to their home countries. While the rest of the bench prevaricated, Trump doubled-down on sovereignty.
Moreover, there is nothing conservative about giving up any advantage when negotiating trade or treaties. While the rest of the bench sat dumbfounded, Trump looked to our strategic interest and asked why we should give up the farm. The Left cried xenophobia and protectionism, but Trump struck a nerve and the political class had no answer. The Iran deal was a perfect foil to prove Trump’s point, as is the proposed Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement. People see these deals as another rapid erosion of our sovereignty, and rightly so. Sovereignty facilitates conservatism; without the first, the second cannot stand. Trump rightly championed sovereignty again and rejected the globalist Left. And he was prescient: consider Brexit.
And no single candidate was more conservative than Trump on the military (rebuild it), veterans (we owe them), or foreign affairs (America first). He spoke as frankly about ISIS, Iran, China and Russia as any other candidate. His message was clear and conservative: we will be strong; we will support our allies; we will punish those who attack us; we will support Israel. And he said we will do this with the expectation that, in return, our allies will pay for their share of the burden and that our enemies, once defeated, will repay us for our sacrifice.
On taxes, his proposals were no less conservative nor more incoherent than that of any candidate. He punted on entitlements. Other than Christie, so did everyone else.
He didn’t pander to social conservatives or Buckley conservatives. He was sometimes petty and vindictive. His gracelessness and lack of humility remain his greatest weakness with the intellectual conservative movement. They don’t love a braggart and love nothing more than to see the arrogant get their comeuppance. Trump refuses to heal and they hate him for it.
But despite all this, Trump matched — trumped? — the conservative field because he was, in the end, the most conservative when it counted.
Trump doesn’t act like a conservative or defer to the George Wills of the world: he dismisses them. When applying the Buckley Rule to Trump, the problem was never his positions, but his electability. The pundits thought the electorate would reject him. They were wrong.
Sometimes you need a guy who isn’t afraid to ignore the pundits and the status quo. The status quo put us in the position we are in. The pundits fidget and futz and propose, essentially, more of the same.
Not this time.
Published in General
I am mostly convinced the best choice this election season, given the options, is to vote for Trump. But the idea that Trump was more conservative than the other candidates in the primary? Ehhhhhhhhhhh…no.
I have to admire your guts in arguing such a claim, but no, ain’t nobody going to convince me that Trump was somehow the best option for conservative voters out of the field we had.
No.
Yes.
Just kidding.
Yes, but conservative voters were stuck in the phone booth and you win elections by appealing to American voters. Heck, W knew that, Reagan sure as hell knew that. Last time out we even tried a “Severe Conservative” (the imagery is too funny) and got clobbered.
Thank the good Lord that Trump is not a “real conservative” like Rich Lowry!
Thanks for a most excellent post, Doug. Trump has had my attention since he announced his presidential candidacy over a year ago. Time will (hopefully) tell how conservative Trump is, but I’m cautiously optimistic.
Guns and judges are my starting happy point and whatever after that is gravy especially compared to the traitor.
Make up yo mind, Doc
I need more booze in me to find the moment of clarity. I made up my mind on voting R for president about the moment I was born. Trump is claiming to support many things I’m in favor of. We shall see.
The other candidate is chipper fodder, always has been, always will be. She hates me and I hate her back.
Little vague, there, Doc, what do you really feel?
I agree. I admit that this may be because Trump does not have a voting record in a legislature or a policy history in an executive position. However, I have not heard of many positions that Trump makes recently (once you figure out what he really means policy wise) that I would not agree with. However, I do recognize that he has changed significantly from his past positions and that is a big fear to a conservative base.
I do hope that Trump is in fact as conservative as you say. I also hope that conservatives would give him a chance to have reformed his positions, we are all about second chances right?
There is a difference between how conservative you THINK Trump is and the positions he took during the primaries. He took the most conservative positions. In doctrinaire conservatives may not trust him, but his positions were generally to the right of the rest of the bench. He didn’t convince you, but was the furthest right on his positions, or right there with the rest.
Let me state further, that there is nothing conservative about nation building or forced regime change, unless, in fact, the regime presents more than just an existential danger to US sovereign interests. We all believed that Iraq represented such a threat, but it turns out we were wrong, and that has proven to be very, very costly. And Trump, in his truly awful way, points this out. But you can’t fault him for it because he’s right. Afghanistan has historically been a black hole trap for foreign interests. Both Britain and Russia have twice been punished when they intervened in that wicked country. Now it’s been our turn for self immolation there, a country that devours wealth and lives with very little to show for it, a country ready to turn back to the dark ages as soon as the latest occupier runs out of lives to lose and treasure to burn.
Agreed…it’s a great start, Doc!
Doug Kimball, this is a great post. Each time I read it I agree with you more.
Except that I think that Rand Paul had better ideas on the debt and entitlements, as well as our foreign policy, than he’s being given credit for.
Aint that the truth.
My attitude towards a Trump Presidency is best summed up by a David Mamet line:
If come November it looks like Trump has a real shot at winning, I’ll vote for him, because Hillary, but I’ll be keeping my hopes for him advancing the conservative cause very low. He just needs to not suck as bad as Hillary would.
No doubt, but for his libertarian tendencies. If only he’d been more paleo than conservatarian.
No man who doesn’t know that a tie should extend no further than the bottom of his belt buckle can call himself a conservative.
I had to get that off the chest, it has been bugging the ever living crap out of me.
I really doubt it, but that is likely because we disagree on what being conservative means.
Conservative means not praising nationalized health care in Canada and Scotland.
Conservative means not suggesting loosening the burden of proof in libel suits.
Conservative means not praising the use of eminent domain to further the interests of private developers.
Conservative means not stating health care and housing are responsibilities of the federal government.
Conservative means not praising authoritarian regimes like China, Putin, and the DPRK.
Conservative means not trumpeting ones sexual conquests and marital infidelities.
Conservative means not … that’s all I can think of at the moment.
I bet the editors will never promote this!
Conservative means defending the first amendment instead of threatening to get back at those who criticize you and signaling that you don’t care about religious freedom.
Conservative means not signaling that you don’t care much about divided powers because your ideal is the strong men and demagogues of the world.
Conservative means knowing what is in the Constitution.
Absolutely agreed.
Doug, what would you call someone who threatens to punish companies that relocate abroad? What would you call someone who gets really excited about imposing 40% tariffs? What would you call someone who talks about trade deficits as if they’re prima face evidence that we’re losing? What would you call someone who thinks NAFTA is “one of the worst economic deals ever made by our country”?
You might say that we need a little protectionism or that protectionism is good — I’d disagree, but fine — but Trump is a protectionist if the word means anything.
I want companies to grow, flourish, and line-up to move their headquarters here. Trump has said some sensible and good things along those lines (reducing corporate taxes, etc.), but he’s mixed it up with a whole lot of protectionist grandstanding that I think is going to be really harmful.
I’m not as versed in the TPP as I should be but I think the two should be considered separately. Especially in this context, Trump’s position on the Iran Deal was essentially identical to those of the other candidates.
I don’t have any polling or anything to cite, but I think even a cursory look at, say, NR shows that #NeverTrump and #Leave were hardly incompatible opinions.
Agree to disagree, sir.
Conservative means not basing public policy on a particular religion.
Conservative means thinking that the free market capitalist system is good and that government should stay out of the way.
Conservative means that it could be in the best interest of the U.S to form and keep alliances around the world.
I am a libertarian, which heretofore has made me an uneasy but nonetheless full fledged part of the “conservative coalition.” Every previous republican candidate has been flawed from my perspective, but all have had compensating virtues. Enough, at least, to keep me in the tent.
I see no such virtues in Donald Trump. I see very little conservativism. Not a shred of libertarianism. And what little conservatism there is — build a wall, keep them out — is from the side of the conservative tent to which I’ve never subscribed.
It’s time to let the old coalitions die and build new ones.
me too,
I referred only to the stump. I’m sure we could dig up some pretty leftward stuff on Reagan; he was a Democrat and he did pass amnesty.