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Conservative Is As Conservative Does
President Trump is the most conservative president of my lifetime, including President Reagan. This is true, as a matter of fact, across all three of the legs of the old conservative coalition stool: economy, national defense, and social conservatism. With an impressive record of promises kept, despite the worst efforts of Democrats and Conservatism Inc., American voters have a real choice in 2020.
President Trump has done more to strengthen NATO, as opposed to papering over other nations’ hiding under our nuclear umbrella and so shifting the burden onto our taxpayers and our cities under ICBM target designations. He has, without a massive military build-up (despite his hyping of our latest purchases), imposed more economic pain on bad actors (Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran) than any president since at least Reagan, and done so to the advantage of American working families. President Trump’s policies have paid off in growing NATO member states spending at least 2 percent of their GDP on their own defense, from two to eight members, outside the United States. This satisfies Americans’ basic sense of fairness, building a reasonable basis for continued commitment to an alliance that is finally showing signs of taking itself seriously. Such a substantial demonstration of commitment also serves notice to Russia and China that NATO is not a paper tiger.
President Trump has similarly pushed the United Nations to really live up to its fine phrases, its written aspirations. Far from abandoning the world or merely patronizing other nations, he has treated them as adults, as sovereign states who are entitled to pursue their interests while we pursue ours. He made that point again in hosting an on-camera meeting of the U.N. Security Council members. Read or watch the remarks and you will see even China engaging in a mutually respectful manner.
President Trump is the first president since the New Deal to actually attack the onerous burden and unconstitutional arrogation of authority in the regulatory state, resulting in a massive effective tax cut entirely outside of the budget process. The latest jobs report smashed “experts” expectations and provided the occasion for the Office of Management and Budget to trumpet the massive transfer of wealth from the permanent bureaucracy back into the hands of the American people. This is wealth that was being destroyed by regulation, not even having a chance to pass through the taxable economy. These actions, pushed hard by President Trump, unlike any other modern Republican president, are especially advantageous to small businesses, and so to women, minorities, and lower-income whites with a dream of business success.
President Trump has done more for racial harmony and more for minority economic empowerment than any other modern president, as he has ruthlessly pushed for real job creation and real wage growth for those in the lower-income quintiles. This has been cutting the legs out from under the racial resentment industry, including the white racial grifters. TruCons like Ben Shapiro conveniently flip their arguments from claiming, with evidence, that Latin American immigrants vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, to claiming, without evidence, that patterns of immigration have no predictable effect on our electoral and then constitutional system. Yet, it is President Trump, who they find so personally offensive, who is actually, consciously, carrying out a program of programs to shift voting patterns, by listening and responding to needs rather than talking down to people without the right graduate school diplomas. If Latino, African American, and Asian voters really change their voting patterns, it will be thanks to President Trump, and not at all thanks to the Paul Ryan, Chamber of Commerce, AEI, National Review crews.
In the same manner, President Trump, a man whose faith has seemed mostly of the civic religion, basic respect for country, version, has done more to actually fulfill promises to “social conservatives” made by Reagan and every Republican presidential and Congressional leader since. See his very careful selection of judges at every level. See his administrative defunding of Planned Parenthood. See his aggressive promotion of religious liberty in every agency, led by Attorney General Barr’s eloquent defense of our history and liberty. See his relocation of our embassy to the actual capital of the state of Israel. See his personal promotion of protection for religious minorities around the world.
Closely connected with the defense of the first clause of the First Amendment, President Trump’s appointees in the Departments of Justice and Education have also pushed back hard against leftists suppressing conservative speech and assembly in public educational institutions. The Department of Justice revoked all the lawless “dear colleague” letters and ordered all agencies to refrain from any more avoidance of the formal, public, rulemaking process. Just this week, Justice intervened in a court case involving outrageous prior restraint on speech at Jones County Junior College. The statement of interest is devastating, as is the 9 December DOJ press statement:
“The United States of America is not a police state,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division. “Repressive speech codes are the indecent hallmark of despotic, totalitarian regimes. They have absolutely no place in our country, and the First Amendment outlaws all tyrannical policies, practices, and acts that abridge the freedom of speech.”
“Unconstitutional restrictions on our first freedoms to speak and assemble directly threaten our liberty as Americans,” said U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst for the Southern District of Mississippi. “While some may disagree with the content of one’s speech, we should all be fighting for everyone’s Constitutional right to speak. I pray JCJC will do the right thing, change its policies to comply with the U.S. Constitution, and encourage its students to speak and assemble throughout our free state.”
President Trump is aggressively selling the product of promises made, promises kept, most recently at the Israeli-American Council’s national summit, in Florida, while Vice President Pence drove the points home hard to faith leaders in Kalamazoo, Michigan. We have a real choice, so what will you do about 2020?
Published in Politics— Dan Scavino (@DanScavino) November 13, 2019
This has a lot to do with our society’s great increase in *credentialism*, specifically educational credentialism. It is expected that a high-level leader will talk and think in the way that a Harvard professor would approve, and I’m not talking about a professor of math or science.
Yeah, it would be helpful if our self-proclaimed “intellectuals” would stop trying to help the Democrats impeach the President, and instead start laying the foundation for 2024. But that would require long-term thinking and long-term strategy.
It’s so much easier to write your 932nd “Why I hate Trump!” column for the Washington Post.
“I’m happy, hope you’re happy too.”
Y’know, @cbtoderakamamatoad‘s quadratic equation thread points to the clear answer to this “oh but he’s not making the case for conservatism” silliness. One may yammer all day about Locke and Burke and Jefferson, and still get the wrong answer. The only valid argument lies in real world results.
PDT has made the serious intellectual case for conservatism by proving that it works. That’s more than a dozen useless Goldbergs and Podhoretzes could do in a dozen lifetimes.
That’s exactly my point.
Just like most everything Obama did has been swept away, so too with Trump, I expect.
The “intellectuals” who could be making the case for the good stuff Trump is doing are too busy attacking Trump the person.
I’ve been listening to, reading about, and voting for the “intellectual foundation” for the past 50 years. Finally I see some action. Action I didn’t expect to see.
To partially quote a conservative polemicist : I thank God daily that Clinton lost. And I prey to God to swiftly end the Trump presidency. Rock->Hard Place.
What most irritates me bout Trump is that he had a chance to be a real leader, a good president for the country. He has thrown that away. The current crop of democrats is simply terrible. But Trump is giving Joe Biden a real good chance to become president. That is on Trump, no one else. When he loses in 2020, he has only himself to blame. But rest assured he will blame others.
One of the primary impeachment charges rests on the fact that he prefers Trump of the nation. That is true.
Well, how to be the fly in the ointment while acknowledging the strength of this post?
Spending has not been abated.
The swamp, and by that I primarily mean Cabinet agencies, has not been drained.
I’m in the “tariffs are not conservative” camp.
I’m good with Trump as a relatively conservative POTUS, but there are a few big boxes that he hasn’t checked.
Husband doesn’t follow politics like I do. Every once in a while he looks up and says “Hilarie’s not president; right?” I assure him she’s not. He then smiles and goes back to what he was doing
I’d also add in regards to NATO – do we really, truly think that those nations that won’t(and haven’t for decades) pony up their 2% GDP contributions but will be there in any meaningful way resisting any Russian, Turkish (?) or Chinese aggression? – pulleeze!
As for the trade imbalances – leveling that playing field/prying open those markets has been long, long overdue.
As for the deficit & debt – can’t argue with that except that he’s not the only one responsible for that. That entire town is in on that. Start the layoffs, shut-down and let’s see property values in the DC area crash – I’m all n board for that.
How has he thrown it away? I feel that the democrats have thrown away a chance to get a lot of what they wanted if they would only have worked with him. In some ways, I think that if anything, their intransigence pushed Trump into a more conservative stance than he would have naturally taken.
I really don’t understand why the supposedly conservative Never Trumpers didn’t recognize that there was a lot of energy in Trump that could have been guided if they worked with him. They totally blew it.
There are people who are fine musicians and know little or no music theory.
These conservatives who fantasize that their President will educate the American people on the deep underpinnings of conservative philosophy are missing some really obvious facts about American voters and basic politics.
First, the job of POTUS is to implement policy, not assume the mantle of lecturer-in-chief. It’s actually the job of the Goldbergs and Podhoretzes of the world to do that. They, for some reason have a pathetically small audience so they think it’s the Republican Presidents job to role-model and educate the masses for them. This is just not going to happen, especially since the entire media culture is arrayed and deployed against conservative ideas.
Second, you have to win. These idiots can’t seem to grasp that simple concept.
Third, we are fighting an enemy and it’s a zero-sum game at this point. So anyone who thwarts the leftist advance is doing great work for the conservative cause. Any loss or any holding-pattern Presidency ( Both Bush’s) is a huge and possibility fatal setback for conservatism.
And I’m left with the question of how people become conservatives. Do we really need to take courses and read all the articles and books? Then we ‘become’ conservatives after a certain period of immersion?
I can tell you that probably the main thing that got me to become a conservative is our enemies and what they want to do. It’s not that difficult. Then I started my research.
Further, if these over-educated nattering nabobs don’t understand that you can be a great conservative intuitively just by living your life, they will never be able to offer decent political advice or craft winning strategies.
I was 95% sure that Trump would become a conservative champion as soon as he got a good look at Democrats.
Democrats might have been able to get some of their agenda from Trump if they played differently, but the truth is they need a boogeyman to keep their side together much more than small victories.
He didn’t say most conservative president possible. He said most conservative president of his lifetime.
True, but I didn’t see any point in going there since it’s arguably true. I don’t think it’s a stretch to take the overall theme into a discussion of “Just how conservative is that?”
Let’s see where we go in the second term.
The Cold War was a struggle of ideology. Reagan grasped that in a way the left could not. He understood America as the greatest nation in history quite well, better than Trump. He knew it intellectual level.
He was an FDR Dem. They moved away.
FDR was no Wilson.
Tarrifs are very conservative. The Founders used them.
What is more conservative than that?
They are not free market.
He’s also done this while retaining those in his fan base (including me) who reject elements of the “social conservative” agenda. He does this through tone.
President Trump’s tone is aggressively un-sanctimonious. His irreverence is fresh, and suits a public figure whose youthful extra-marital exploits made tabloid headlines decades ago.
Unlike many Republicans, Donald Trump totally spares us “holier than thou.” Add that to peace initiatives, minority job and wage growth at home, and a sensitivity to the working class, and suddenly conservatives are in a position to defy long-standing Republican stereotypes.
Very good.
But they seem to be a good 2×4 to get the Chinese (and other) mule’s attention to focus on more equitable (for us) trade.
They are trying right now.
Hey, got to keep getting invites to the right parties….
Sure they’re conservative. They conserve our economy. What they’re not is Libertarian. There’s an ocean of difference – Libertarianism pretends humans exist wholly as individuals. Conservatism recognizes we live in communities.
It was war, and FDR was still a patriotic politician in spite of his liberal actions at home before the war.
But then, he did imprison American citizens who were Japanese . . .
The Dems are using a political prosecution to damage a political opponent.
Ironic, ain’t it?
The Dems do seem to embrace the idea that this is a way to damage the President’s reelection, I’m not sure that’s true.
This is a long and involved discussion that we will not resolve. I agree with @bryangstephens above that tariffs are not free market. They are, in fact, interventionist. I understandf that there may be short term rationales for them, but bottom line– they are big government. To me, that’s not conservative.
You may think tariffs are big government but I think it is a power that falls properly within the purview of the federal government under our Constitution as contrasted with the many things that don’t that are the true elements constituting our ‘big’ federal government. Tariffs are ‘interventionist’ but that is laughable considering the amount of lobbying intervention that our nation has experienced in our trade relations. I think it is refreshing to have some intervention on behalf of ‘the people’.
This rings true for me in the same sense.
Well stated.
And -The un-virtuesignaling from Trump allows them to be nasty, whilst exhibiting their moral acumen to us all—
DJT has exposed that split within the conservative caucus.
Practical, real-world religion,
versus
high-minded, principled and off-worldly goals.
The former went with Trump predominantly, the latter tended to become Nevers.
It is generally the kind of conservative who loathes Trump who I find coincidentally off-putting.
There are many social conservatives who appreciate Trump, accept him as he is. These are people who don’t hold a grudge, believe in forgiveness and redemption and in a good Christian way, try not to make judgements of people. If he pulled a Bill Clinton with an intern in the Oval, they’d abandon him and so would I. A persons past is one thing, his present another. And there’s nothing in his past that compared to BillClinton levels of exploitation and debauchery.
They got so used to hectoring and shaming every goody-two-shoes Republican with some affaire, a divorce! Scandalous!
Now they don’t know what to do so they are trying everything. Lurching from one strategy to the next.
Nonsense. Your preferred media may wish that “relations were deteriorating between [President] Trump and other leaders,” but his relationships is at least as good as President Reagan’s were, for those of us who remember those days.
I also recall President Reagan letting the deficit and debt balloon to get guns in exchange for Democrats getting butter. There was even a rationale being floated that President Reagan was cleverly choking the federal government with the debt. Laughable now, but it was seriously advanced by supporters of the president.
The rest is just your bitterness, nothing to do with any meaningful “conservatism.”