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#NeverIndifferent
From a conservative perspective Donald Trump delivered an outstanding acceptance speech. He focused on the major issues facing our country, issues that Democrats refuse to acknowledge, much less propose to solve. And while his message was duly harsh on Obama’s policies and Hillary’s actions and character, it was also incredibly nonpartisan and optimistic. His commonsense approach was certainly accessible to a very broad section of Americans. He demonstrated more humility than bombast.
It is time to put the ugly and divisive GOP primaries behind us and look at the objective choice before us. The choice is clear: Either the executive branch will be led by this man (with GOP backing and serious conservative leadership in Congress) or it will be led by Clinton, Inc. Consider that conservatives have an opportunity under a Trump administration to promote conservative policies in a Republican administration that will likely be no less conservative than any post-Reagan administration. Debating with a somewhat receptive administration would be an outstanding outcome for conservatives, particularly when considering where we find ourselves today.
Trump is still Trump. That may be too big an obstacle for some of us. But for many non-committed American voters, the choice before us became clearer and more promising after last night.
Published in General
I thought the speech a boring string of Trump sound bites. To the extent it had substance it raises issues. e.g. is he going to federalize police? and his daughter, unlike Jr. is a naive progressive . Not good, not good at all. Moreover, I don’t find the divisions ugly, on the contrary the unity of the Trump supporters is mobbishly Democrat. Still, he is not Hillary so our choice is clear. It’s all very depressing.
I watched her with my wife who is not ramped up about politics. We both thought she was lovely. I know she was loving her Dad, but isn’t that a good thing? That little throat clearing sound she made as she smiled, while waiting for the applause to settle was endearing. All of Trumps children are bright, energetic, and love their father.
I have nothing to add to the commentary since I would never waste my time listening to Trump except in very brief sound bites in analysis by people I trust and value. From the moment he walk up to the podium last year to declare his candidacy I was sure He would never earn my vote no matter how bad a candidate the democrats nominated. That fact has been validated every day since and it is delusional to claim he is anything but a grotesque parody of a leader without principles or values.
So they gave Cruz prime time 20 minutes to speak knowing he wasn’t going to endorse. How did they treat him badly? During the primary some very improper statements were made by Trump, but Cruz also did some underhanded things through surrogates. It’s time to move past that. I believe Trump, in his way, tried by inviting Cruz to speak. What are you seeing differently?
That’s funny. My wife, also not political, said she had an obvious “rich person” accent. The way you talk when you’ve grown up around wealthy people your whole life.
She reminded me of Chelsea Clinton and I found myself wondering if she was wearing invisalign. Apparently that’s what “the accent” sounds like.
And more directly to this post. I get the impression we shouldn’t even bother with the nomination process anymore because it doesn’t matter who is chosen. “The Party” (previously known as the GOPe) will be there to mold them into the proper form.
Skipped the speech to go swimming with my wife and girls at the neighborhood pool. It was a beautiful evening as dusk settled in over the canyon and the setting sun bathed the mountains.
Anne was drying off the two older girls, I removed the floaters off the youngest and let her try on her own for the very first time before calling it a night.
She invariably sank towards the bottom. But without a sense of panic or concern. She knew I was there to grab her, and was thrilled at the opportunity to swim like her big sisters. “Again! Again!” She came up from under beaming with a giant, fearless grin on her face. She was so excited to be growing up. And I was just as excited for her, if not more so.
I had completely forgotten about the speech until I heard another dad begging his young girls to get out of the pool because he had forgotten about the speech too and had to hurry home to watch it. Obviously his girls were confused and disappointed.
I understand where he was coming from but can’t help but wonder what kind of amazing memories he missed out on in the pool last night with his girls.
I was very disappointed by his tone. He could have backed off 10db and not been so raspy. His cadence was plodding. I watched Fox and avoided CNN analysis because they are simply partisan hacks. Not that Fox doesn’t have it’s biases either…Fox had a string of analysts on who were largely praising the speech and I was surprised. They focused on the content mostly which was fine IMO.
But the charges made do require force and anger, and this may have been a wake-up America speech. He said a lot of good things and some of these themes are winning ones. We’ll see. This election is like no other.
If they had invited him, let him speak, clapped politely, and then moved on, I would believe this. Instead, they invite him so they could jeer him off stage, followed by a 24 hour propaganda campaign about how “Cruz’s career is over,” repeated verbatim from every Trump and GOPe outlet from the minute Cruz stepped from the podium. This was an orchestrated campaign, designed to drub Cruz out of the party. A line was drawn. You’ve chosen your side, I’ve chosen mine.
A rich person accent and reminds you of Chelsea Clinton. Wow…whatever.
Ain’t it the truth.
I’m glad that we can agree on something.
We are about to have a Trump White House and we will revisit the argument.
The majority of Congressional Republicans and their leadership specifically are spineless and will be revealed for the big government stalwarts they are in the coming Trump administration.
Not to worry, there will be a credible alternative in 2020.
When I grow up I want to be Lance.
I wish his speech didn’t start so late. However, now that I can listen to this on YouTube, I have the advantage of listening to it at 1.5x, which is convenient. There’s things to like, but some of his claims are as grand as what we lampooned about Obama’s claims 7 years ago.
This is the least word-salady speech I’ve heard him give.
They only pass brave laws that they know Obama will veto. The initial telling incident for me was when Boehner squealed that we only have 1/2 of 1/3 of the government under our control. The truth is, of course, that the particular 1/2 of the 1/3 has total control over spending. The leadership has ensured funding of all of Obama’s stupid initiatives, hence the judgement of being non-conservative and unprincipled. They simply don’t do what they promise, even things under their control.
Or maybe I will vote for my dog who is a democrat. Must see :)
So was I, until I read up on Johnson. He’s as much a train-wreck as Trump, only without any reasonable party support. Say this out loud, without chuckling; “Libertarian party support.” Pence and Weld are the one-eyed princes in the land of the blind. Given the better party support for Trump/Pence, my hopes of a Johnson/Weld victory slide.
Still sounded like a raving, angry drunk on a barstool who was ignorant about the real world. In that vain, the speech had no coherent construction and was just a series of hit and miss darts thrown at a dart board – jumping back and forth from domestic to foreign policy. Too many, “I will do this…believe me” boasts and I too was disturbed by the sense I got that the federal government will get involved in too much like local policing. I also found the Mussolini-like posing and expressions disturbing.
And here’s what I just posted elsewhere…(edited to be more CoC compliant):
I’m not voting for Hillary but lately Trump’s comments about deciding whether or not to defend a NATO ally based on whether they’re up to date on their payments, shows once again his abysmal ignorance of foreign policy, national security and historical precedence. Many NATO allies are still reeling from his dangerous comments. If he is elected, the first thing he ought to do in November is make a bold statement that America will defend the Baltic states and all its NATO allies from any provocative or reckless move by Russia. If he doesn’t then all hell could break loose and he could be tested immediately. In this instance Hillary has a more credible NATO policy than Trump does and she’s been vetting Adm. James Stravidis, former Supreme Allied NATO Commander to be her VP pick but who will likely have another prominent role in her administration.
Trump needs a more qualified set of foreign policy and national security advisors around him. And he needs to listen to them and defer to them before opening his yap and making idiotic statements that could have grave consequences for our European allies.
I don’t know. Three little girls can certainly be something precious but someday you could end up living in a house with all three of them going through puberty together. I think I would have a better chance surviving a Trump presidency than that. ;)
You know Boehner endorsed Trump, right? He’s on your team for this one.
I understand that Cruz’s “vote your conscience” was unmistakably and deliberately a refusal to endorse. I can understand the argument that if he felt that way he should’ve stayed away. But words themselves have meaning–and Trump’s team booed and condemned the simple advice that people should do what they believe to be right.
That betrays something ugly about the movement’s view of conscience — and sent precisely the wrong message to all those who do, genuinely, struggle to reconcile a vote for Trump with their view of right and wrong.
A wiser candidate and team — one truly seeking to unify — would have praised Cruz’s advice, and thus taken most of the sting out of it. Imagine this response: “Yes, vote your conscience — I would never ask any American to do anything else. We’ve just come out of a bitter primary, and I know people have strong disagreements. I don’t ask anyone to violate your conscience. I ask you to listen, and to consider the alternative, and I hope to earn your vote in November.”
Would that really have been so hard?
The Libertarian Party is a clown car for sure. At least they try to have a good time at the circus.
The Republican Party is an even bigger clown car, except its circus is more like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC4wbTAa5SI
The Democrats cancelled the circus because men who paint their faces is both a microaggression and cultural appropriation against the transgendered.
One step at a time.
Shut ‘er down @tomdmeyer, the comments have been won for the day.
See you next week everybody!
Because Trump is a megalomaniac and narcissist with no solutions and a dangerous ignorance of foreign policy and economics, he’s not sufficiently so?
Have you heard Johnson talk about combatting ISIS using the techniques that Weld used against the Mafia in New York in the 1980s? Those techniques included the perp walk and RICO.
Are you familiar with his mythical unconstitutional commitments to keep the borders of foreign countries? For that matter, are you aware that he’s committing not to intervene if foreign powers invade their neighbors?
Did you know that Johnson claims that we’re allying with ISIS against Assad? Have you heard Weld putting on a silly voice to mock those who claim that Assad is being “mean” to those he’s murdering?
Trump has disgusting moments. He’s either a racist or an exploiter of racism. Next to Johnson, though, he’s like John Paul II in his commitment to truth and decency.
Edit: I regret the analogy; Trump isn’t as knowledgable as Clinton on foreign policy and I don’t want to have anyone back me into the corner of suggesting that Clinton is better than JPII, which alerts me to my having set the bar a little high. Sorry about that. Trump is, I dunno, Charles Krauthammer next to Johnson.
Do you think that it’s a serious mark against Trump for President that he has a daughter with left wing politics? Do you think the same of other Presidents who have had offspring who got confused about this stuff?
Was there ever any doubt?
They’d just spent a week using “vote your conscience” to mean “vote against Trump” in the context of unbinding delegates. Not every American had been having the term used that way, but the delegates had been in endless hours of talks about it, and there was a definite narrative with some who already resented the idea that voting in line with the wishes of the people who elected them wasn’t voting their consciences (as opposed to their egos).
Also, the booing wasn’t serious until Cruz went through his patented trolling technique and responded to the booing, which came from all sections, including from the Texas quarter, as “enthusiasm from the New York Delegation”. Cruz has a talent for getting hostile responses from audiences to show his purity, and the delegates are mostly not people trained to resist trolling. His attack on the delegates (insulting to both the NY and non-NY delegates in different ways) was genuinely unexpected.
Cruz’s words were expertly chosen to maximize their offense.
You’d have a good point if your remarks didn’t entirely misrepresent my post.
Hope you’re feeling better soon.