Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
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
If we’ve already reached the “Trump really is a conservative” claims, things must be getting desperate.
The ugly reality is that the GOP electorate has elected mealy-mouthed moderates since Reagan. This election cycle is evidence that they continue to want the same, only without the mealy mouth. The nationalist wing of conservatives jumped on board seemingly because they’re willing to sacrifice everything else for a wall.
Trump is basically a blue dog Democrat. His past and present positions are pretty consistent with that. We do ourselves a disservice if we try to pretend otherwise.
Seriously? He wants to raise the minimum wage. “Loves” eminent domain even when it is abused by government entities to enrich developers (and, presumably, politicians through kickbacks) and hurt small property owners. Wants to repeal Obamacare (good) and replace it with “universal,” single-payer (read government-run) healthcare (very, very bad). Is fine with current abortion law (even though he “says” he’s now pro-life) and praises the “good” work of Planned Parenthood (who I’m sure will continue to receive government funding). He even has said in the past that he is in favor of the brutal act of “partial-birth” abortion (how disgusting is that?). He praised the Democrat’s trillion-dollar waste of money (AKA “The Stimulus”). He’s praised Obama up and down as strong and “somebody who knows what he is doing.”
I could go on and on, but, in short, he has been a very liberal Democrat all his life.
The country electing Barak Obama twice is what put us in the position we are in.
If you couldn’t already tell from my previous posts, my answer is an emphatic HELL NO! That being said, I will be forced to hold my nose and vote for the nitwit come November. He’s bad, but Hillary and the Dems are worse by an order of magnitude. What a sad state our country is in.
True. John McCain helped in that. So did severely conservative Mitt Romney.
And even more so than those, the extremely accommodating McConnell/Boehner Congress greatly assisted BH0 in putting us in the position we are in.
I think the opposition extends beyond that to the process where it was sequestered, Congress didn’t read it (props to you and James of having done so), and then voted to lower the threshold for ratification via TPA.
This smells of Nancy Pelosi: We have to pass it so you can see what’s in it. That line was a big part of what rallied support to Republicans via the Tea Party infused elections of 2010 and 2014. Then for Republicans to admit not reading the legislation and supporting TPA just added another log on the betrayal fire.
Immigration, sovereignty, trade – I point this out in the text.
“He punted on entitlements. Other than Christie, so did everyone else.”
That is demonstrably false. Rubio put forward a serious, well thought-out plan for Social Security reform.
I agree. Reality will play it’s part in any Trump administration. But I believe as a businessman, Trump will deal with it rationally. That’s my projection, but I don’t think he’ll keep punting.
Trade is where Trump is at his most left wing.
Trump’s full-throated endorsement of Kelo should have disqualified Trump from consideration entirely. He wasn’t only wrong, he was spectacularly wrong in a way none of the other candidates were. Heck, even the leftists on the court have repented this one and it’s probably the least popular Supreme Court decision of the last 25 years and rightly so.
Alas, we are where we are.
He was even on that one. What I say is that he was even with the others on most things, but right of them on immigration and trade, so overall, he was further right, especially when it counted to voters.
That is a fair criticism, although I am unaware of any modern trade agreement that isn’t negotiated my the USTR prior to being presented to congress. In addition, the TPP consists largely of language and provisions lifted from NAFTA which is a known entity.
Trade protectionism finding a home on the right is the most destructive blow to conservatism that Trump has managed so far.
I support Trump because he is the most conservative of the two candidates out there, but that’s like saying you’ve got the best banana plantation in Greenland.
Follow up question: Is Trump any more conservative than McCain or Romney are? If so, why? If not, why?
TPA was voted on before TPP was presented. I’ve not issue with the USTR negotiating, that is their job and consistent with the separation of powers.
Why are we still debating the primary? Yes, Trump should have been beaten by the more conservative and better candidates.
War’s over man, Trump dropped the big one …..
It’s Trump or Hillary. In the grand scheme of that battle, Kelo is a pimple on an elephant. imho.
Yet, there is wisdom in this oversimplification. I’m a realist. We should not open our borders if we are not 100% sure terrorists are not among those allowed in. I give you Guantanamo. Those released were not supposed to rejoin the fight, yet…
I think the answer to your follow up question is No. However, I add this caveat: illegal immigration. Others may not like it, but in 2015 this was the issue and anyone thinking they were going to be successful in the Republican primary without being a consistent hawk on the matter was out of their mind. Examples: Bush, Rubio, Kasich. Ted Cruz per usual over lawyered his position during the G8 and it weakened him, but I don’t think there is any doubt that the top 2 finishers were the farthest right on national sovereignty.
I know others will dislike that answer, the but the numbers do not lie.
Not is Trump a conservative in his heart. We’ll find that out eventually, but that his positions during the primaries were for the most part further right or at least even than the rest of the field.
Yes but TPA is not something new or unique. It was in effect from 1975 to 1994 and 2002 to 2007. Furthermore, it doesn’t really do much except establish rules governing how congress must treat the bill once submitted – namely it must pass committees in a certain amount of time and no amendments may be offered – congress can still reject the treaty. It doesn’t give the president power to unilaterally enact a treaty or circumvent congress. It just makes things smoother.
I disagree completely. A tax system that taxes worldwide earnings, but only as realized in an arcane repatriation scheme, that opens free import trade with countries with limited if any worker protections, mandated benefits or environmental protections, with countries rampant with corruption, with public enterprise ownership, lacking an reasonable profit motive, near totalitarian slave states while forcing it’s own industries to keep and spend its capital outside our borders, is not a conservative nation. It is a stupid nation.
Perhaps, just perhaps, a better title (which may have prevented all of these irrelevant distractions) could have been …..
Trump: Does Hillary’s PantSuit Make Me Look Conservative?
He was pro-life and pro-family, pro-school choice, pro-business, anti-regulation, and pro-military. Those were the things that were hot-button issues when he ran for office and during his two terms.
There were, however, some liberal-leaning things he did around the edges, partly out of personal conviction and common sense and partly just to work effectively with Congress.
One thing he did that I thought was amazing was sign in 1988 the toughest clean water act that this country had ever seen. I have unbounded respect for him for doing this.
But for a guy who spoke so strongly during his debates with Jimmy Carter, I thought his response to the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996 was pathetic.
Politics is about concessions.
People get angry at Bush 41 for the Americans with Disabilities Act, but to me, what could be more conservative than helping people live as independently as possible? Public schools were the original self-help welfare program. Conservative does not mean, as Trump said, leaving people to die in the streets. At least that’s not what it means to me.
You’re conflating a lot of different policies under Trade. I don’t really know where to begin.
What I said about reactions to Cruz? Give me a break. We’re all used to dealing with lots of people a lot smarter than we are and usually welcome it. I’ve even known some people who had total recall, it’s disconcerting and hopeless to argue but fascinating and awesome even when they’re profoundly wrong. I’ve also dealt with the political elite which was the point, and they really do not like anyone to disagree with them especially using the kind of argument conservatives throw around. At that level it’s all about mutual obligations, favors owed etc. Cruz wasn’t playing that game. He was too new still believed in argument, reason knowledge and principle.
Because @dougkimball brought it up. ;)
Also, for those unknowing, Treaties are powerful things in our government. They are the LAW, even to the point, for practical purposes, of being contrary to our founding documents. That’s why they are supposed to be so hard to pass. This end around, that is a preemptive bill allowing the President to unilaterally approve a treaty in advance, is an affront to our constitutional order and should be resisted, challenged, executed and buried. We also need a bill to further clarify that if any section of a Treaty is determined to be unconstitutional, then the entire Treaty is void and unenforceable. Treaties should never violate our constitution or dilute our rights and sovereignty.
I wish I could like this a hundred times.
It should be its own post. Just copy and paste it. :)
I’m with you on all counts. My point was that we can find untoward liberal quotes made by the most conservative people, especially those who’ve migrated to the right in a late in life political evolution.