Written by Bob Siegel and originally published by Communities Digital News
SAN DIEGO, May 10, 2016 — It happened. Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee. Now the liberal media is salivating because they are so sure Hillary will beat him. The GOP golf and country club establishment is aghast because they are also sure Hillary will beat him.
Actually, a few of the latter want to be sure Hillary wins. Yes, some of these elitist GOP pundits are calling for Republicans to stay home, consequently throwing the election to Hillary for the sake of “keeping our Republican party pure.”
Otherwise (supposedly) Donald Trump will re-write the very meaning of the word “Republican.”
There is another group within the Republican Party, a more honest, sincere group driven not by power but genuine ideology and values.These people call themselves “conservatives.” Conservatives are split almost down the middle. Some are licking their wounds from the defeat of Ted Cruz. They were hoping for a contested convention.
They do share one thing in common with Trump supporters, but only one: They were both disenchanted with the spineless GOP establishment. The problem is that they don’t trust Trump either. They don’t view him as a real conservative.
They are disgusted by the insults that come out of Trump’s mouth. They were shocked at the name calling and mud slinging. They have zero faith in his promises. And they have seen him change positions more times than a gymnast on a balance beam.
So how do we navigate through these disappointing and turbulent waters? Is there any hope left? Is there anything Evangelicals and other conservatives can do?
Yes. We can admit that Trump was not our first choice; not even our second. He may have even been at the bottom of the 17 Republican candidates’ list. But he did get the nomination.
That alone isn’t a reason to vote for him. Preventing another 4 years of the leftish, destructive policies of Barack Obama is a reason. And that is just exactly what we will get if Hillary, Bernie, or any other Democratic candidate wins this fall.
And so we may need to vote for Trump. That will be hard. We’ll need to plug our noses while we do it. But difficult as that may be, it needs to be done. Yet, that won’t be the hardest part. We have an even trickier task to perform first: We must persuade other conservatives to also vote for Trump.
“Well, now you’re just asking the impossible.”
It may seem that way. But it can be done. How? We start by pointing out that we are not so much for Trump as against liberal, Democrat alternatives
After that, we will point out that there are two different kinds of Trump supporters; the groupies and the realists.
We are in the second camp and we must be willing to express criticism of the first camp; those who defend the man right or wrong and follow him as if he was some kind of Messiah.
Let’s be honest. Many of Trump’s groupies are marching in lockstep for the same reasons people followed Obama in 2008; blind, uncritical, emotional euphoria based on charisma and talking points that don’t offer a lot of substance.
“Make America Great Again.”
“Hope and change”
They almost sound the same, because without elaboration, nobody knows what they mean.
Ironically, many in the “anything goes with Trump” camp are true conservatives who detest the policies of Barrack Obama. How ironic that they now follow another pied piper.
But Trump realists are a different brand.
We are not groupies. We are not so naive as to portray Trump as a conservative. He’s not a conservative. He’s a populist who skillfully felt the pulse of an angry, betrayed nation. At the moment, he’s a populist who articulates a few conservative values. That’s not as good as a real honest-to-goodness conservative, but it’s light years from allowing the leftists to completely control our country. Not only will we admit that Trump is a populist, we will point out that he’s a very flawed populist at that.
When he makes mistakes, we will acknowledge them, not as quick, obligatory disclaimers, but as genuine concerns.
We will admit that much as Trump calls other people liars, he has lied himself, many times. We will even site examples, such as his claim that George Bush was responsible for 9/11 and his attempt to walk it back days later by saying that Bush may have been responsible.
Politicians are notorious for claiming they didn’t really say what they said. Even in the age of video playback, they still explain what they “truly meant.” Apparently, they have been led to believe they can get away with it. Almost all of them do it and Trump, the self-proclaimed non- politician, has been quite political himself.
True, in some ways he is different from other politicians. The man speaks without a filter, then thinks about what he said the next day. Upon better judgement, he adjusts his position. The adjustment is fine. But it should be accompanied by an apology, or at least an honest admission. He should simply admit he was wrong instead of trying to spin it. When he spins, he has gone full circle, sounding like a politician once again.
And so, Trump realists will be honest, even when Trump himself is not.
Our honesty will squarely face his problematic track record:
On both social issues and foreign policy, he’s been all over the map; for a single payer system; against a single payer system; for abortion, against abortion.
He woos Evangelicals, yet when asked, he cannot name any personal examples of asking God for forgiveness. He holds up the Bible as a good book to read, only slightly higher on the list than his own book.
He’s a man who at any time could say anything, do anything, or stand for anything.
And yet, scary as this profile looks, there is another side.
The brass and tactlessness of Trump may make some flinch, but it is still satisfying to see somebody who does not consult a politically correct dictionary before talking.
Meanwhile, there’s more than brass. There has been a modicum of substance, hopefully the tip of a bigger iceberg. While Trump groupies only memorize his talking points, Trump realists have listened to some of his meatier speeches on foreign policy and trade. When well thought out detail is offered, it is not so bad.
Should the man surround himself with a conservative cabinet, (maybe even some of the people he ran against) we might see his business executive experience kick in, the experience of knowing that one must listen to advice and consider all angles before making a decision.
He has gone on record as saying that he will at least take the advice of generals more seriously than Obama did. That alone is significant, given the global anarchy Obama will leave behind.
As for the way Trump insults his opponents… An insult is abominable… IF… it was unnecessary and IF it was untrue.
Such was the case when Trump used insults during the primary. That will not be the case in the general election. If Trump were to go after Hillary with the same fervor he went after Rubio, Bush, Cruz and others, we might just experience that rarity of rarities; a Republican presidential candidate winning an election for a change.
Not that we would want him to be cruel or crass. But frankly, he wouldn’t need to be. All he’d have to do is speak the truth.
Both Mitt Romney and John McCain walked on eggshells to not insult Obama in 2008 and 2012. They were surrounded by campaign strategists who warned them again and again to avoid being offensive.Therein lies the Republican trap.
Democrats are not shy about attacking, even if the attack is a downright lie.
Harry Reid shamelessly commented on Romney’s tax returns without offering a shred of evidence.
President Obama claimed that Republicans wanted dirty air and water.
None of this matters to the Democrats. It works. Without hesitation, they lie about Republicans, while Republican candidates will not even speak the truth about Democrats. These days, there is a lot of truth to be spoken; truth which puts a spotlight on Democrat lies; lies about Benghazi, lies about health care, lies about Fast and Furious, and lies about countless other things.
Trump will not be so timid. He has shrewdly calculated that conservatives (at least a significant portion of them) are tired of the mealy-mouthed approach. They want a candidate who takes on his adversary as if he were stepping into a ring.
They want somebody to fight for their values, even if they are uncertain how much he actually shares those values.
” Trump is a racist and sexist”
No he isn’t. The man does have many problems, but those are not among them.
Yes he has insulted women, but you’ve probably noticed that he insults men just as much. He pops off at anybody who confronts him and he does so as a quick knee jerk reaction. His big mouth is an equal opportunity weapon.
As for racism, nobody can look into another person’s heart but if we’re going to judge a man by words during this election campaign, he has not said one racist word despite people choosing their own interpretation of his speeches.
Does a desire to protect our borders mean that one hates Hispanics? Then explain why so many Hispanic Americans support Trump. True, many others do not support him, but many do!
As for his idea of vetting Muslim immigrants more carefully, it’s time for a small education: Islam is not a race. Neither is it a nationality. Islam is a religion.
Yes, we will call Trump out when he lies, but not when he speaks the truth!
By the way; Democrats would have portrayed any Republican nominee as racist and sexist.
Do you think they weren’t going to say that about Ted Cruz? Of course they were. He too talked about borders, defended traditional marriage, and spoke against Islamic Jihad.
The Democrats would even have portrayed moderate, self proclaimed nice guy, John Kasich as anti woman and racist. You don’t think so? He already got in trouble with feminists for nothing more than discouraging female college students from drinking too much.
Mitt Romney was a moderate. They called him a racist for being a Mormon and a sexist for having the names of women he wanted to consider hiring in a binder.
Columnist George Will hopes to save the GOP by encouraging a Hillary win against Trump. The idea is that since Trump doesn’t truly represent the Republican Party, more damage would be done to its brand should Trump win.
“If Trump is nominated, Republicans working to purge him and his manner from public life will reap the considerable satisfaction of preserving the identity of their 162-year-old party while working to see that they forgo only four years of the enjoyment of executive power.”
That all looks good on paper. The problem is we won’t survive another four years as a free nation, not with the vacancies that are likely to open up on the Supreme Court.
Once we have a completely liberal supreme court, it won’t matter anymore who the president is, or which party is running congress, or what the will of the people accomplishes with a ballot measure.That’s practically true already. For all intents and purposes our country is no longer a democratic republic.
Our country is run partly by an oligarchy and partly by a dictator whose decisions are canonized by this oligarchy under whitewashed terms such as “judicial review” or “executive Orders.”
“Doesn’t it ring hollow that Trump now calls for unity after dividing Republicans and conservatives?”
Of course it rings hollow! Trump realists should call upon Trump to make the first effort toward reconciliation. He owes that to his defeated rivals.
What he owes to the GOP establishment is another story. True, some in the establishment are biting the bullet and supporting Trump, but many were scheming to take him out at a contested convention. Some seem to still be scheming. Romney will not endorse Trump. Neither will the Speaker-of-the-House. Neither will the Bushes.
Remember, this same GOP establishment asked Trump to take a pledge that he would support the nominee should he lose.
We’ll never know if Trump would have kept that pledge but we do know that Jeb Bush and every other GOP candidate was asked to make the same pledge. Jeb has already gone back on his.
“But don’t they have a right to be concerned? The GOP establishment is only critical of Trump because he’s not a true conservative.”
Really? They had a true conservative in Cruz and they hated him even more. Why? Because Senator Cruz had the audacity to keep his campaign promises and challenge his fellow senators and congressmen to do the same. How was he rewarded? Just recently former Speaker-of-the House, John Boehner called him “Lucifer.” So much for concern about electing a true conservative.
Would Cruz have been a better choice than Trump? Absolutely! There is no comparison. There’s nothing to even think about.
But that ship has sailed!
When the GOP establishment acts like their concern for Trump is his lack conservative values, they have difficulty making such comments with a straight face. We gave them back the House in 2012 and they did nothing. We gave them back the Senate in 2014 and they did nothing. They could have defunded Obama Care. They could have defunded his amnesty executive orders.
They could have done a lot of things. Instead, they were abysmal failures.
They worried about how Obama would portray them. They worried about how the media would portray them. They worried about pleasing everybody but the voters who had already spoken! Their failure left a vacuum that Trump has filled. They created Donald Trump!
Now they need to suck it up and live with it.
“But my conscience will not allow me to vote for a man like Trump.”
Will your conscience allow a liberal Supreme Court? Do you think Clinton, Sanders, or any other liberal Democrat will appoint a Supreme Court justice who lets the vote of the people prevail instead of legislating from the bench? What will happen to free speech and religious liberty? They barely exist right now. They are being suspended by a very thin thread. Four years of a Democrat administration, with its agenda of tipping the Supreme Court balance of power and you will no longer recognize the country you grew up in. It will still be called the United States of America and that title will be all that’s left.
“I’m not going to vote for the lesser of two evils.”
The alternative to the lesser of two evils is the greater of two evils.
In summary I am not calling anybody to be a Trump groupie, but rather, a Trump realist. As a realist, I have been painfully honest about his flaws, but I have also defended him where defense was warranted.The areas we presently see as strengths are still uncertainties, partly because the man is a volatile loose cannon, and partly because nobody can predict the future any way. This leaves an interesting choice on the menu: We have a candidate who is unpredictable or a Democrat who will be entirely predictable, whose policies will be inscribed by the Supreme Court as permanently as Mt. Rushmore. Given that choice, we would be wiser to roll the dice.
Think of it as that last ditch, eleventh hour unconventional drug that a doctor tries on a dying cancer patient because nothing else has worked. The doctor isn’t promising that his latest idea will work either. He is merely saying, “We better try it.”
This is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.
Bob Siegel is a weekend radio talk show host on KCBQ and a columnist. Details of his show can be found at www.bobsiegel.net