NOTE: Previously I suggested Dennis Prager as part of this group. I actually meant Mike Gallagher. From what I have heard, Prager is decidedly anti-Clinton and not a Trump apologist. My apologies…
Carl von Clausewitz famously said “War is the continuation of politics by other means”. He is of course right. But it’s also true that politics is war by other means.
Frankly, I’m tired of listening to guys like Sean Hannity, Dennis Prager, Herman Cain and others suggest that I’m not a real conservative or that I must be a closet Hillary supporter or something of that ilk because I do not support Donald Trump for president. (Which probably explains why I listen to a LOT more sports talk radio these days…) These paragons of conservatism gripe “Why aren’t they focusing their attention on Hillary?” or “Why haven’t you been focusing this much energy on President Obama?” Well, the fact is, since my first blogposts seven years ago: Racism: America’s Original Sin and The Gift of Freedom, I have done little else than write about the perils of the cancer of liberalism, tried to highlight the irrefutable fact that free markets, individual freedom and limited government are the keys to prosperity, and argue that our Constitution is the greatest document in human history.
Now I don’t harbor the conceit that Hannity, Cain or any of the others are actually talking about me specifically. They don’t know me and I’ve no idea if they’ve ever even read my blog. But there are no doubt more than a few conservatives who have spent years listening to the talking heads on “conservative radio” opining that if we only had a real conservative carrying the banner for the GOP then we’d have a chance to save the nation, who are now stunned to watch as those same talking heads have swooned like teenage girls as they fawn over Donald Trump. And now they lecture us that we’re somehow traitors to the conservative cause because we don’t become sycophants too?
The reality is, standing for conservative principals applies whether a candidate is in the Democrat or the Republican Party. Principals don’t bend just because the liberal candidate is on your side of the isle. That’s why I supported Christine O’Donnell over RINO Mike Castle. Sure, she may have been a flawed candidate, but she was an actual conservative rather than being part of the squish GOP establishment that has proven itself to be all about power and privilege – its own – as opposed to standing for limited government and actually trying to stop Barack Obama.
So today we find ourselves subjected to tirades that the #nevertrump movement – of which I’m not a member – and conservatives who are trying to figure out how to push an illiberal liberal from the perch the media anointed him with – via $2 billion in fawning coverage – atop the GOP are somehow not true conservatives at all but are really Hillary supporters. Somehow if we still fight, even if it’s only for the flicker of hope that somehow Trump will implode or the convention will somehow figure out how to nominate someone else, we are somehow turncoats who were never believers in the first place.
That is, frankly, bullshit. It’s not that we don’t have disdain for fascist Barack Obama’s extra constitutional progressive policies. It’s not that we don’t despair at the thought of a vain liberal, crony capitalist opportunist sitting in the White House. We do. But the point is, we don’t want a vain liberal, crony capitalist opportunist running for president under the banner of the party that claims to represent conservatism and limited government. While I agree that a President Hillary Clinton – or Bernie Sanders or Pocahontas Warren – would be a disaster for freedom and prosperity that doesn’t mean that I have to support Donald Trump as the savior. The reality is, Donald Trump is every bit as much a big government crony capitalist as Clinton is. Well, maybe he’s a bit less of one, but at least Clinton only whined about the “vast right wing conspiracy” where as Trump has actually suggested that Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post as a tax dodge with the implicit threat that once in office he will use the mechanisms of government to punish Bezos and Amazon. Maybe he’s right about Bezos, but his threat, along with a similar approach to dealing with Ford and Carrier certainly suggests that a President Trump won’t be much of a free market and limited government guy.
Which brings us back to the point… conservatives are conservatives because they are (generally) conservative and believe in things like limited government, individual freedom and free markets. Conservative does not equal Republican, particularly when the Republican banner is being carried by a guy who is anathema to all of those things. That does not mean that I won’t vote for or even argue for Trump against Clinton in the general. I may do both, albeit reluctantly, but we’re not there yet. Strange things can happen… I remember shaking hands with Gary Hart in Florida a few months before he shot himself in the political head when he invited reporters to follow him, and they did.
Until Donald Trump is absolutely the only real option for keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House, he will not get my support and I will continue to do what I can to highlight the fact that he is no conservative savior, no conservative and no savior at all. He is a petty, spiteful, manipulative crony capitalist narcissist who would continue Barack Obama’s assault on the Constitution. Maybe it will be all for naught and maybe I’ll end up pulling the lever for him in the general as a nod to the reality that the other crony capitalist in the race would be even worse, but don’t accuse me of being a closet liberal because I don’t rejoice that bootlickers like Hannity et al have turned the party of Abraham Lincoln into the party of Bozo the Clown.
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@retire05:
I do exactly as you, I apply my standards. He’s a troll, why do you care if I think so? does it matter to you if he’s a troll? if not just ignore what I say, sure won’t hurt my feelings.
@Dennis Bonnette:
That probably includes only you.
@retire05:
What difference does it make that it was ‘in one day’?
Is that ‘true conservative’ as in Ted Cruz, who chooses to ignore the part of the constitution about ‘natural born’ citizen? Or Rubio, who is clearly establishment open border guy? I’m not sure I know any ‘true’ conservatives and don’t know if I’d like them if I knew one. What was in the crown on Bevin’s head that makes him ‘true’? I see where his approval rating as governor is in the toilet.
@Dennis Bonnette P.H.D. : .
BS.
Oh, so now you’ve changed your tune. Now the whole convention has to decide on rules changes. Do you really think an attempted coup of the Republican party by radicals is in the interest of the country?
@Redteam:
An honest person applies them equally.
What bothers me is that a person (you) that I once thought was reasonable has become a tiresome, insulting jerk.
@retire05:
I haven’t changed nearly as much as you, Retire. I never would have thought you would throw out everyone’s vote and appoint someone just because the crowd voted for the wrong person in your opinion. The democratic process is; that when you vote, you accept the outcome. You don’t cry, stamp your foot and declare everyone to be an idiot and then throw out the vote and appoint someone. What caused you to give up on a government OF the people BY the people?
Who did I insult? Some troll? that’s what they’re here for, to create controversy.
@Redteam:
I haven’t changed. I still want a Constitutional originalist for President. Drumph (Trump) ain’t that guy.
Throw out everyone’s vote? How so? Trump only tool 41.6% of all votes. Seems 58.4% of the voters wanted someone else and not Trump.
But you want to throw out the vote of 58.4% of the voters over a plurality, not a majority.
You still think we are a government of the people? That train left the station a long time ago and Trump will do nothing to turn it around.
And who are you to label someone a troll when they clearly stated they are anti-Hillary just because they are not pro-Mr. Carnival Barker, i.e. Trump?
@retire05:
rather dignified, wouldn’t you say?
That’s the way the system works. You want to ignore those people and appoint someone with even less. I doubt very much, though I haven’t looked it up, that not too many persons elected president have ever gotten over 50% of registered voters.
More so than any other nation in the world. You want to throw it out and replace it with all appointed people?
Just like everyone else on this site, I have the right to say what I want to as long as it doesn’t offend the site owners. But do you think someone denying they are a troll means they are likely truthful? Is that worse than
@Redteam:
Do you have an objection to The Donald’s family name?
Perhaps I should have said “all primary votes cast.”
How do you think candidates have been selected for the last 156 years?
Apples and oranges. 50% plus one of registered voters is not required.
And every Republican candidate since Lincoln has won the nomination how?
Ted Cruz echoes Trump in bashing proposed changes to GOP rules
@retire05:
Usually by getting the most votes. Rarely has one been appointed by fiat. Castro did appoint himself back in the 50’s. That’s the last one I know of that was put in place by dictatorship.
Apples and oranges, did anyone say it was? Your basis for denying the nominee to Trump is that he didn’t receive a majority of the vote. Since you now admit a majority is not required, then I suggest we go with the person that gets the most, as is the custom.
I’d say by getting the most votes. You seem to be implying that the votes are routinely thrown out and someone is appointed. That don’t happen. Do you know of any Republican candidate that went through the primary process and got a majority of delegates that did not get the nomination?
Finally — Steve Deace agrees with me:
https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/06/dear-gop-convention-delegates-declare-your-independence
@Dennis Bonnette: What was that name again? Steve Dunce? Sounds like he should move to Cuba, he’d fit right in with that government.