I’ve pretty much stayed out of the “Trump is a conservative / no he’s not” mess that is raging in the part of the Right political blogosphere. Sure, I’m watching it as it is part of the messy sausage making process of who we end up have representing us. But I will say that the intensity, as we are mere weeks from the Iowa caucus and the NH Primary, has ramped up exponentially. And yes, behind the ‘Grok email closed door, it rages there as well – after all, we are an extremely opinionated bunch (er, that’s why you come to read us, right?).
I have endorsed Ted Cruz, so take this with a grain of salt. I have written about Trump in the vein of mostly praising him for bringing up issues that the Establishment Republicans just didn’t want have in the election (they assault their blue nosed sensibilities) even as we, their base, have consistently said they were important. We’ve been suffocated by the Left’s tool of politicial correctness even as the R elite cowered before it as well. And a lot of “Establishment Conservative Pundits” have fallen in front of this onslaught as well – saying something at time but certainly not full throated roars of attacking the Left attacker (except for us at the ‘Grok as you all well know). Give him credit where credit is due: Trump has ripped that shroud to ribbons and has run roughshod on the enables of the Left – the mainstream media. ‘Bout time somebody did.
He’s has said a lot of rough things, but I do believe that he has just had his Edwin Edwards moment (that corrupt Louisiana Democrat that famously said “The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy“)…
Has Trump reached the height of hubris of that statement with this:
“‘…The Pulse. They say I have the most loyal people – did you ver see that?. Where I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters, OK? It’s incredible.”
UPDATED: I fleshed out the quote after listening to Fox News Sunday. A bit better for Trump but…
UPDATED 2: Grokster Kim adds a fuller video here in the comments
Perhaps true, given how partisan (as in “all in or all out”) elections and candidate support has become, he could be right. Hubris or just a statement of fact – you choose. To be honest, I think it the former and that gives me pause to ponder (a lot). It certainly does seem that once a Trump supporter, they are absolutely all in and nothing else matters and perhaps that was why he said what he did but it stills bodes negatively going forward.
Look, I will not take a back seat to anyone on being a Conservative (with libertarian leandings) even as I quote The Corner and National Review Online, I think they overplayed their hand by far with this special issue lambasting Trump. Sure, this is the time to stake out positions and make your stands, but let’s be clear in that they (some of the writers) have taken stances that I certainly have looked askance at over the years for straying as well. And I think the GOP did the right thing by yanking them from the upcoming debate: they were right for taking it away from CNBC for attacking the GOP Prez Nominees from the Left; the same still holds when the “other side” does the same against one of those candidates. Fair is far but when you, as an official statement attack one of those candidates en masse and by name, well, Prebus had no choice. Good decision. Eminent domain, taxes, other issues on which he has flipped flopped gives me other pauses for not being conservative even as he is doing what the GOP has failed to do which is bring new people into the GOP even as the old hands of the GOP could not.
But back to the hubris bit. We also see this on the Democrat side with an all in Socialist (Bernie) and a closet Socialist (Hillary) with calls to be THE Takers of our generation – not only of individual’s wealth but striving to wear the Totalitarian Crown of moving even further away from our formerly Constitutional ways. Lying about being snipered, the corruption of interweaving of her official Secretary of State with the Clinton foundation, lying about Benghazi, attacking those accused her husband of sexual malfeasance (even as she now attacks males accused of the same thing) and lying about her “more secret than Top Secret” email on a private email server that top intelligent folks have said were surely hacked by our enemies.
Not only that, it IS clear that her supporters do not care a whit what she has done. Her supporters just don’t care at all, so it seems. Mirrors abound on both sides of the aisles – it’s just that the issues change. And of course, her whitewashing enablers as well totally disregard everything she’s done as well (that would be Jeanne Shaheen, dontcha know). And they wonder, given Shaheen’s craven display of “political leadership” as a shining example, why this country is in such deep sneakers?
On the Right it is clear that the R leadership have brought Trump upon themselves – by having the hubris of not listening, they have lost their claim to leadership – after all, if you are in front but none are behind you, you are no longer leading, eh? Instead of excoriating Trump (and his followers), I think they need to start doing yet another “post mortum” to figure out why.
