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The Pivot
It looks to me that Trump will now turn on the naysayers in the party. It couldn’t be more deserved. He tried to play nice, but they are refusing to support him. After the 50 national security neo-cons penned a letter denouncing him, and other GOP stalwarts are playing games trying to undermine him, Trump will now use them to differentiate himself from failed Republican policies and attract a new coalition of voters.
From yesterday’s speech:
When we talk about the insider, who are we talking about? It’s the comfortable politicians looking out for their own interests. It’s the lobbyists who know how to insert that perfect loophole into every bill. It’s the financial industry that knows how to regulate their competition out of existence. The insiders also include the media executives, anchors and journalists in Washington, Los Angeles, and New York City, who are part of the same failed status quo and want nothing to change.
Every day you pick up a newspaper, or turn on the nightly news, and you hear about some self-interest banker or some discredited Washington insider says they oppose our campaign. Or some encrusted old politician says they oppose our campaign. Or some big time lobbyist says they oppose our campaign.
I wear their opposition as a badge of honor. Because it means I am fighting for REAL change, not just partisan change. I am fighting – all of us across the country are fighting – for peaceful regime change in our own country. The media-donor-political complex that’s bled this country dry has to be replaced with a new government of, by and for the people.
The leadership class in Washington D.C., of which Hillary Clinton has been a member for thirty years, has abandoned the people of this country.
I am going to give the people their voice back.
Think about it. The people opposing our campaign are the same people who have left our border open and let innocent people suffer as a result.
The people opposing our campaign are the same people who have led us into one disastrous foreign war after another.
The people opposing our campaign are the same people who lied to us about one trade deal after another.
Aren’t you tired of a system that gets rich at your expense?
Aren’t you tired of big media, big businesses, and big donors rigging the system to keep your voice from being heard?
Are you ready for change?
Are you ready for leadership that puts you, the American people, first? That puts your country first? That puts your family first?
Fasten your seat-belts.
Published in General
was that before or after he connected Cruz with the Kennedy assassination? Was that before or after he accused W. of lying about WMDs in Iraq?
The only solution to the problem of “insiders” is smaller government. As long as you have a big government that has its hands in everything, it will pay to be an insider and get special favors from the government. The argument for Trump, if I’m understanding it right, is that he is an insider who will use his insider status to fight for you and me, in some unique way that Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Rick Perry, Rand Paul, etc. would not. I don’t get that. I don’t see what is magically different about him that would make him a “good” insider. If Trump emphasized making government smaller, as opposed to making it smarter (which is what Democrats do), I’d feel a lot better about him. He has talked about cutting regulation, and that’s a good thing.
Trump has deep problems as a candidate, and it’s not like people wouldn’t have noticed this without the NeverTrumpers pointing it out. The NeverTrumpers are not the problem with Trump. Trump is the problem with Trump. Hillary probably would have lost this year, but because the Republicans nominated Trump, she will probably win. That’s not the NeverTrumpers problem.
I couldn’t decide whether to gape or chuckle when I read this. We’ve gone over this countless times, but it is nobody’s duty to support him, and everyone’s right to refuse to do so. It is incumbent upon him to convince us to support him. By demonstrating character, consistency, and advocating for policies we support. He’s not doing that. Why should we support Trump any more than the people who “refused” to support McCain or “refused” to support Romney? Are they to blame for eight years of Obama?
PS – How is this different than the powerhouse of Margaret Thatcher when England had gone to hell in a hand basket? The dug in establishment, plus the riotous union thugs, terrible unemployment numbers, high debt, throw in the socialists and communists – and the good ol boys – she took them all on – Claire B may send you an autographed copy of Why Thatcher Mattered – Christmas is coming – tuck in to those liberal stockings hanging over the fireplace for some quiet bedtime reading –
How is that a question? I get you dislike Trump. I get that he is losing the election right now. The current RealClear map shows him winning 22 states. What is it that you think will happen in the next 80 some days that would cause all 22 of these states to choose Clinton?
Trump is in his own childish way pointing fingers preemptively at imaginary oppressors and betrayers.
Well, Trump is going to need to grow about ten to fifteen million additional tiny, stubby fingers to point at people in this country who refuse to vote for him who did vote for previous Republican nominees. Plenty of people who have been loyal Republicans and strong conservatives for years are correctly repulsed by Trump’s undisciplined idiocy and won’t vote for him or the mutated, self-negating, contradictory, half-baked ideology that he represents.
Trump is supposed to be growing the party and I suppose he is among a tiny cohort of people. For the rest of the nation he’s doing the exact opposite – Trump is decimating it.
This reads as if you are trying to be ironic, though I know that you are not. Trump has broken Reagan’s “11th Commandment” freely and often. This is the opposite of “playing nice”.
Trump supporters, who admittedly have some justified grievances against the Republican party, have succeeded in nominating a former Democrat/independent/Reform Party member who has a narcissistic personality disorder and is temperamentally unsuited to the presidency. He was jammed down our throats, but that doesn’t mean “GOP stalwarts” have to like it. Perhaps they have decided, as I have, that electing Trump would do irreparable damage to conservatism.
We shall see. If he does not win the election, I expect that Trump supporters and Trump himself will point fingers at the NeverTrump crowd, rather than blaming themselves. When you nominate an unelectable, unqualified, unconservative candidate with high negatives, it’s unreasonable to blame his failure on the people who oppose him. It’s like stocking a purse shop with sow’s ears and blaming customers for not buying them.
And Ted Cruz is a part of that society, and Donald Trump is not part of that society. Okay.
The people who have been getting it wrong are still getting it wrong. No surprises
No. We disagree a lot. Some people actually think Hillary would be better than Trump. Or they are trying to save themselves from guilt-by-association and distancing themselves from Trump. That doesn’t work either. Can’t wait to see the lying media smear Bill Kristol when they deem him no longer useful. These are the same people who have never fought hard against the left. They don’t see the threat. They think this country has an endless supply of freedom and wealth to squander until the next election cycle. That’s a very, very dangerous notion. These people have been fired.
Trump’s speech seems boilerplate “we need an outsider to change Washington” stuff updated for 2016. And he adds a version of Hilary Clinton’s “the system is rigged against you” theme. Nothing concrete here whatsoever, and certainly nothing remotely conservative.
“I’m fighting for real change!” Clinton or Trump?
Franco, I meant that both ways. There are plenty of non-Trump folks who accuse reluctant-trumpers of being just as bad.
Trust me – we disagree much less than either of us disagree with actual Hillary supporters. Perhaps we should have TPTB add a little widget that would show (not for participation, just for viewing) a few comments sections at places like Reddit. Just as a reminder. A little window into the world of liberalism, where the distance between you and me shows that we’re practically arm-in-arm compared to the distance between us both and the left.
Perhaps, and no matter who wins, in 2018/2019 the libertarians will still be claiming Republicans are unworthy of their irrelevant votes because “muh principles.” ;-)
Franco, did you listen to Klavan’s podcast from yesterday?
Trump’s comments about war were quite good. The speech you quoted above is – as Flagg points out – much retread of the same grievance politics we’ve been hearing for decades. Put those words in Al Sharpton’s mouth, and you’ve got the black lives matter movement. Fact is, it is a cynical play to emotions that people willfully allow to take the place of reason. I don’t care how much it excites people, it is false.
haha – well, either that or we will all be calling ourselves libertarian!
Event – Trump enters the presidential race.
Trump Supporter: “He will gain widespread support, and he’s the only one who can beat Hillary.”
Event – Trump wins the nomination.
Trump Supporter: “Woo-hoo! On to victory!”
Event – Hillary Rodham wins the election.
Trump Supporter: “It’s the fault of all you who didn’t get on board the Trump train!”
This feels familiar…
Do you see that this isn’t actually an appeal? Honestly, I want a good reason to vote for Trump other than “STOP HILLARY.” I want to be able to make a positive vote rather than a negative one. After decades of holding my nose and voting for The Nominee™, I want to be proud of casting my vote. Proud in a way Michelle Obama never was and never will be.
I’m not your enemy. We’re on the same side. My principles are important to me. So appeal to my principles.
You can replace Trump with Romney and Hillary with Obama and it’s just as true.
Yes, the charge of the Trump Light Brigade is beginning. There’s is not to question why…
Trump is a RINO.
There’s been quite a bit of introspection about Romney and acknowledgment of his candidacy’s failings. I don’t expect to hear much of that from the soon-to-be-disappointed Trump supporters. We’ll see.
I ‘blame’ the GOPe and certain individuals for creating the environment whereby Trump emerged as the nominee. Individual voters voted for what they wanted. You can’t blame them. We are stuck with Trump, and whatever you think about him, you should still see that he is far better than the Clinton cabal of leftists.
Even so, whether the blame is justified or not doesn’t matter much does it? Aren’t you guys the ones who are always worried about how things are perceived whether they are true or not? Anyone who enables Hillary will be dismissed outright, whether it’s determined that they made real contributions to Trump’s loss or not. The GOP will never get those millions of Trump voters back. There would be a viable third party starting in 2018.
But lucky for you I think Trump has a good chance of winning. The recriminations won’t be so bad if that happens. The party will have a chance to heal.
I think he means “unfasten your seat belts”.
This is a great Chris Christie speech.
If this is what the campaign is all about then he should’ve picked Christie. If this is what the campaign was all about then he’d have my vote.
Only the principled among you are worthy of such a distinction.
Everyone is a Republican-in-name-only because “Republican” is only a name. That was one of the problems with the GOP. Whatever Trump is, he isn’t a leftist and he isn’t a de facto Hillary supporter.
I want this too. It is not going to happen this election cycle. I am not old enough to have voted for Reagan, or the first Bush election (sold as Reagan’s 3rd term). I have never made a positive vote for President.
I simply cannot use pride or positive voting as my reason for voting or I would never cast a vote. I can think of no election for President, Senate or Congress that I was truly proud or that was a positive rather than negative vote.
And he isn’t a rightist either. Important to paint the whole picture.
My guess is someone hand him his phone and he goes back on Twitter.
I don’t think Texas or Oklahoma go Hillary. Everything else is up in the air.