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Trump Is Not a Bogeyman
On Tuesday, Mona Charen wrote here:
This week, while we were still burying our dead from San Bernardino, every Republican – rather than explaining why President Obama’s refusal to fight the war on terror has led to this moment – was instead having to condemn Donald Trump’s mindless proposal to keep every single Muslim out of the United States until further notice. Again, he’s the perfect bogeyman.
But this is only true because the other Republicans can’t roll a reporter from talking about Trump to talking about, say, President Obama. Imagine if, instead of being led by the nose, some of these candidates had said “Well, Trump says a lot of things, but have you heard what the president said about [insert latest outrage here]? Talk about unacceptable! In fact, I think that … “
Trump is not a bogeyman. He’s a great big, fluffy pile of excuses for the GOP to fall on when they fail. It’s a symptom of the same disease that has the GOP demanding that they be elected to supermajorities everywhere for twenty years before they can be expected to produce results. Many of us aren’t buying their plans that will never be achieved, nor their inevitable excuses.
Republican candidates don’t want to talk about Trump? Fine. Don’t talk about Trump. The only reason these guys “have to” talk about Trump is they are either unwilling or unable to re-direct the conversation. If reporters have no respect for our other candidates, it’s because they don’t deserve it. Trump is a symptom, not a cause. It would be nice to see folks like Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham echoing Josh Earnest less, and act more of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzq57mux-_o
Published in Politics
I am a working class conservative, and I cannot understand Trump’s appeal. Telling your wife her butt looks big, even if the truth, is not a mark of integrity. Honesty is not the same as integrity. Little kids blurt out embarrassing stuff all the time like: “your right mommy, her legs are hairy!” Guess who has to explain the comment (mommy). The media go to the grown ups (established Republicans) because Trump will just tell them they are stupid reporters and he doesn’t know how they got a job. If your kid breaks curfew, the cops come to your house. He has identified himself as a Republican, is the front runner, so the questions to other Republicans running for the same job are relevant. Democrats defend their own, even to the point of lunacy. The fact that the press is Democrat biased is just the way it is.
Now Trump wants people to boycott Macy’s. He is celebrating their stock slide. I wonder how many of his supporters will participate. I think when someone seems to have a cult of personality following, the opportunity to lead people astray is damaging to other Americans, not politicians. A lot of people work at Macy’s. It is not the president’s business to say where Americans can shop anymore than that they have to buy health insurance.
Trump is not a Republican, but an independent. That is why other Republican responses fall short.
I would suspend all new entry by those of Muslim background until all translators, interpreters, and aides for our armed forces and diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan have been vetted and those passing are in the USA. While we are doing this, we can figure out how to clean up the vetting process so it works satisfactorily.Then we can do a restart.
Seconded.
new rasmussen has it a at 66%
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/immigration/december_2015/voters_like_trump_s_proposed_muslim_ban
Ha! That’s great! That same article says “Sixty-five percent (65%) of voters believe the two shooters in the incident were radical Islamic terrorists.” That’s not a question of belief; it’s a fact. Still, 35% of voters were absolutely blind to facts.
I’m guessing those were Democrats.
Or Americans who, unlike us, have the good sense not to follow the news non-stop.
Trump has a fairly checkered history and is not opposed to socialist positions on any number of topics. Weird how that doesn’t disqualify him in your eyes.
Sasse did a live 1:1 with Larry Kudlow at the NR Institute dinner. Very impressive.
He’s a fun house mirror (do those things still exist?) Democrats look at him and see a distorted reflection of themselves. Republicans look at him and think they’re in the House of Horrors. They see a person pretending to be a Republican who can say things they’re afraid to say because they know they’ll have to back down and apologize and lose face. He says them and gets stronger. Clearly it’s twilight zone stuff. Only Carly and Cruz seem to know how to handle him.
I can’t read anyone’s mind any more than you can, but I assure you I am not afraid of his presidency. I just do not see how this guy wins the independents. He elects Hilary. THAT is what I am afraid of.
Question: What happens if Trump starts spending money on advertising like most candidates have to do?
You know- little carefully scripted movies intended to put the advertiser into the best possible light, allowing multiple takes until everything comes out juuust right.
Generally, advertising helps sell a product, if I understand why there’s so much of it.
How well would Trump be doing if he was spending the same amount of money to sell himself as Jeb Bush, instead of merely relying upon people who don’t like him to tell the public what he thinks and what he wants to do?
Would he be doing a) better, or b) worse?
I think the answer is a) better.
Fortunately for the GOP establishment he’s actually a terrible businessman with no cash available to spend on his campaign, or so I’ve been told.
He would not work for her, but for himself, as you say, for the access to power and because her victory supports his ideology. A crony capitalist can benefit hugely from a corrupt ally in the White House.
I’ve never gotten much information about Trumps ‘socialist’ positions. I know he’s donated to Democrats, which is meaningless since he was first and foremost a businessman. All those donors to Romney, McCain and Jeb all give to Democrats too, you know. I can’t blame them. If you want to do business in quasi-fascist America, you must pay these people off. I have a pretty good sense of what a socialist is, and a LOT of them are establishment Republicans – guys who are happy to approve Democrats socialist takeovers as long as they get theirs.
My choice right now is Cruz and Trump is paving the way for him nicely. Mona et al are equally threatened by Cruz, so there’s that factor. Trump is not running in a vacuum.
I’d vote for him if he were the nominee. Bob Dole and many others wouldn’t. Who are the socialists again? They are more afraid of Trump and Cruz than Hillary and Sanders. Speaks volumes to me.
Does anyone doubt that once Trump wins the primary, his style and demeanor (except he will still trash the press), will change. Both he and Clinton will become the supposed owner of moderate middle ground in order to make our country great again. No more outrageous statements on immigration, banning muslims or anything else controversial issue. When Clinton replays the tapes from the primary season, Trump will just shrug and say well we have to win the primary, now I can tell you how I will really make america great again…
What I take from your comment is that you believe should Trump win the GOP nomination he will suddenly turn into Bob Dole.
I suspect not. Having staked out and suffered for his doubleplusungood opinions he has no reason or need to fall back into the usual GOP surrender mode.
He can simply offer the same sort of reasonable compromise that the open-borders gop establishment should have accepted years ago.
The base- and the public at large- will cheer, and Trump will coast into a second term.
You make up your future, and I’ll make up mine.
This. We should remind ourselves of this. Every. Single. Day.
This is a good description why I can’t stand the guy and will never ever vote for him. I don’t believe there is anything to the man other than the egotistical clown show. It isn’t an act, it’s all he is.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/12/donald-trump-mark-bowden-playboy-profile
Or, what about: ‘There is some truth in what Trump says, but he is ultimately wrong.’
It is true that illegal Mexican immigrants tend to bring a negative, criminal element to America, but …
It is true that we have to wake up and stop kidding ourselves about the dangers of allowing immigrants from Muslim countries into the US, but ….
If it weren’t completely consistent with everything, and I do mean everything I’ve ever seen or heard the man do, I’d think, “hit piece.” But having done my homework and watched as many episodes of The Apprentice as I could bear — and watched this campaign — it sounds absolutely like him.
The idea that Americans could fall for this makes me … surprised.
It does me as well. I frankly cannot comprehend it. This account of him from an interview in 96 sounds exactly like his campaign now.
Whenever I see Donald Trump and he begins to speak, it impresses me as a ‘stream of consciousness’ approach to delivering his thoughts. During the early stages of this campaign, I noticed that he frequently would fail to complete speaking a thought before this stream would be interrupted and shift the direction of the thought, and this tended to turn my attention away. Since his thoughts don’t seem programmed or contrived, he seems refreshing compared to what we are accustomed to in the political arena. Even though his words can be sensed to be honest or sincere at the time, some of his thoughts can be good and some bad, and some may not be what he thinks for very long before it changes. Not the kind of thinking or temperament I find comfort in making a commitment.