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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
So you favor open borders and bad treaties? You are for nation building and forgoing recompense when we must force a change? I’m being rhetorical of course.
The point I’m making is that compared to the field, Trumps THEN stated positions (not his previous non-political ramblings, which should bear less weight BTW) were further right than the rest of the candidates. How this all reveals his true heart is open to debate, but his stated positions got him the nomination. Conservatives were quick to dismiss him as lacking the disposition to be President. This is precisely what WFB was speaking to when he made his point. Trump’s stated positions were further to the right than the field, the voters were convinced and they all seemed willing to forgive his obvious faults and vote for him. NR tied to make their case, and failed.
Support for a robust foreign policy and the military was conservative during the cold war. It is neither left or right in itself, but it is big government and should be of concern in the left’s hands. If Hillary wins, brace yourselves, that’s where she’s headed after the top brass is replaced by PC liberals. The mislabeled “social concerns” are at the heart of conservatism in that conservatism means we revere the past, traditions, put religion and inherited mores, values and morals at the heart of things, so that people left alone under clear transparent law work it all out on their own without the nanny state telling them what they can or cannot do. Read Burke again. Conservatives don’t impose their views through government, but some things have to be defined in law at the state level were the authorities reside. None of them should be federal and to define them there is not conservative. Our founders called these things virtue, and put it at the center of the Republic they had created. De Tocqueville saw our success as deriving from that combination of freedom and a religious sense. I don’t know what Trump is, but he’s not a conservative. When others were dismissing him as a charlatan and a clown I warned that he was a man on horse back and would steam roll ahead. Cruz irritated people because he was a consistent conservative. I know we have to reconcile ourselves, but?
Trump is not conservative. A conservative believes that the powers of the President are defined in Article II of the Constitution. That is, the President has limited power. Trump’s promises require him to be an Imperial President, whose power comes from political strength, not the Constitution. He has mentioned some conservative ideas, like government’s first responsibility is to protect it’s citizens, but this doesn’t make him conservative.
Yeah. And later he said he’d let all of the “good” ones back. So there goes that idea.
No, Cruz was arrogant and unwilling to listen.
I guess he knows nothing about the Treaty of Versailles.
I didn’t hear any other candidate praising Putin. Did you?
@jamesofengland has convinced me that opposition to the TPP is grounded more in not understanding it than the actual laws contained within. Given that he’s the only one around these parts that’s actually read the whole damn thing (I’ve only read parts) I think I’m well served by going with his analysis.
Many of Trumps stated positions are to the left of the Democrat nominee. Where was Trump to the right of Cruz, Rubio, Perry, or Walker?
Trump combines the worst of Romney’s unconvincing conversion from previous progressive positions, McCain’s dislike of conservatives, and Bush 43’s ability to sound more conservative than he is.
Woo hoo! Main Feed!
Well the Social Security and Medicare entitlements are the 800-pound gorillas in the room. They’re 70%(!) of the federal budget. Reforming them alone could actually turn our plethora of projected annual deficits into surpluses. I don’t blame Trump on this one. There just isn’t any political will in the country to muck with them. But he says he’ll balance the budget without touching them while lowering taxes. That’s pure bunk.
If the definition of conservatism includes (if not depends on) the commitment to limited government, then there’s no way anyone can claim that Trump is a conservative. By all accounts, Trump has zero interest in limiting government. He wants to exploit state power to get what he wants.
Now I might argue that Trump is the ultimate Republican – especially the way the Republican Party has paid lip service to limited government for almost a generation – but he’s certainly not the ultimate conservative. Frankly, he’s everything I loathe about the Republican Party. His stated policy goals may be better than Democrats, but he still uses government in the same way that they do.
Conservatism is about the proper relationship between government and individuals, and if he abuses that power, even for the sake of achieving better goals, then he’s as liberal as the Democrats.
So, do the 10% of areas where Trump is to the right of Jeb Bush make up for the 20% of areas where he’s to the left of Hillary Clinton? That’s the question I’ve been asking since Trump came out in support of single payer healthcare.
I’m with Cato Rand. If we’ve reached the point where classical liberalism now plays zero role in qualifying a conservative, it’s clear that a realignment needs to take place.
To whom was Trump to the Right of on the Iran deal?
If there is one skill Trump inarguably possesses it is to bid a job and bring it in on time and under budget. Ever hear of a new weapons system coming in on time and under budget? If he can do nothing else but bring some degree of accountability to government his presidency will have been a success.
Billions are squandered every year on “feel good” legislation with little or no accounting of where the money went or if it accomplished the goal for which it was intended. We’re soon to be 20 trillion in debt and Congress haven’t even blinked yet. And this with a so called “conservative” Congress?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFsHE5pMdx4
Sometimes?????
And independents (who he’ll need if he is going to win).
Heck, here’s Jeb Bush on it:
boom bam, baby!
Would this were the case. The federal government is not a business. It’s not run for a profit. It is a big, bloated mass of bureaucrats who cannot be fired. So the idea that Trump (or anyone else) can reign it in is laughable.
I can’t imagine why this comes across as arrogant. If only I were smarter…
Yes, and I’m not kidding.
I never understood the concept the a person who believes in borders and laws is xenophobic and/or progressive. One cannot have a civil society without laws and order. That is a pretty basic conservative principle. It is this principle which Trump established in his own inimitable way that pushed him to the forefront in the primaries. In our current global economy, trade is crucial. But bowing at the alter of Free Trade, when it is anything but free is just bad business. We can’t always do perfectly fair deals. Sometimes we do have to take it in the shorts, so to speak. But we have the largest single market(dollars) in the world, seven trillion dollars larger than China. Without stomping down others, we can still make deals that allow for US manufacturing. We currently produce less than 10% of the steel that China produces. That is a national security problem, in my view. Trump is not against doing business. That’s where he is most comfortable. But it has always been my belief that a good business deal is good for all parties involved.
Nice post, Doug. Thanks.
Trump conservative? It is so perfect to me that people who believe that you can keep terrorists out of this country by asking all incoming immigrants/refugees “Are you a Muslim?” are the same one’s that believe that someone with Trump’s well established history of leftist views is a conservative because he’s acted like a leftist caricature of a conservative for a few months.
It is way past time to obliterate the leftist media complex and the leftist education complex. Too many Americans have zero ability to discern fact from fiction.
I think you nailed it. Trump’s proposals usually end up in the conservative results territory, but I see no evidence of a driving ideological philosophy, specifically as you point out, limited government.
But then, that was generally true of Bush 1, Dole, Bush 2, McCain, Romney. It is generally true of the Republican party overall.
On some level, I think that explains Trumps success. Most of the voters I speak to have no opinion on the ‘right’ size of the federal government, or any such ideological insight. They just look at single issues, and proposed solutions.
Trump has mastered talking to this type of voter. We at Ricochet tend to be much more politically educated and involved than the vast majority of voters. They aren’t stupid, or ignorant, they are just not that involved politically to form grand ideological principles. They are issue voters, and that is where Trumps conservatism ( if you want to see it as that) lies. It is about common sense goals, and THAT, voters respond to.
Of course, until a federalist is available, I will go with the least worst. NeverHillary
How do we know he possesses this skill?