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Title: Trump Fans, ItÂ’s Time for an Intervention (30 Million, Give Them A Path)
Source:
National Review
URL Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421045/donald-trump-fraud
Published: Jul 13, 2015
Author: Jonah Goldberg
Post Date: 2015-07-13 17:15:22 by Hondo68
Keywords: A Path to Citizenship, loves Hillary health-care, totally pro-choice
Views: 13663
Comments: 56
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is Jonah Goldberg’s weekly “news”letter, the G-File. Subscribe here to get the G-File delivered to your inbox on Fridays.
Dear Reader (and those of you with better things to do),
There have been times in the past when I’ve gotten crosswise with certain segments of the conservative base and/or with the readership of National Review. And, because, like the Elephant Man, I am a not an animal but a human being, I have always had at least some self-doubt. That’s as it should be. People who share principles should not only hear each other out when they disagree; they should be able to see each other’s points and hold open the possibility that one’s opponents have the better argument.
This is not one of those times, at least not for me.
I truly, honestly, and with all my heart and mind think Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters are making a yuuuuuuge mistake. I think they are being conned and played. I feel like a guy whose brother is being taken advantage of by a grifter. I’m watching helplessly as the con artist congratulates him for taking out a third mortgage.
Anger Is Not an Argument
Now, before I go on, let me clarify a few things. I get it. The base of the party is angry. They’re angry about Obama’s lawless chicanery on immigration. They’re angry about the GOP’s patented inability to cross the street without stepping on its own d*ck and then having to apologize for it. They’re angry that the Left’s culture warriors are behaving like an invading army that shoots the survivors even after they’ve surrendered. They’re angry that Republicans have to bend over backward so as not to offend anyone, while Democrats have free rein (and at times free reign) to do and to say as they please.
Enter Trump, stage left. He makes no apologies. He’s brash. I can understand why some see him as a breath of fresh air. If you want to give him credit for starting a worthwhile debate about sanctuary cities and illegal immigration, fine. I think that argument is way overdone, but certainly reasonable enough.
Trump supporters need an intervention. I want to sit them down at the kitchen table, reach into a manila envelope, and pull out the proof that he’s a fraud.
Maybe you just like him. On that, we can respectfully disagree, as there is no accounting for taste. Perhaps you just like his musk and the way it assaults your nostrils, which is fitting, given his line of cologne. Fine.
I, on the other hand, find him tedious, tacky, and trite. He’s a bore who overcompensates for his insecurities by talking about how awesome he is, often in the third person. Jonah can’t stand that.
You see the next Teddy Roosevelt and all I see is someone who talks big and carries a small schtick.
’Sup Britches?
In words George Will shall never write, this is a good moment to talk about my pants. Earlier this week, Donald Trump attacked Charles Krauthammer and me. By the way, I don’t blame Trump one bit for his hostility. I’d hate me too, if I were him. Still I do marvel at how this supposed Master of the Universe can be unnerved by such criticism. If it takes so little effort for me to set up shop in his head, by all means, let’s give him thermonuclear weapons.
Anyway, when asked about me, he said:
I’m worth a fortune. . . . I went out, I made a fortune, a big fortune, a tremendous fortune . . . bigger than people even understand. . . . Then I get called [a failure] by a guy that can’t buy a pair of pants, I get called names?
As the intern said to Bill Clinton, this puts me in a weird position. I don’t like to brag, but I’m actually quite adept at buying pants. I don’t enjoy it. But I can do it. It never occurred to me to put it in my bio or anything — “Jonah Goldberg is a senior editor of National Review, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a successful pants-buyer” — but maybe I should.
Now, I will say that I sometimes choose not to wear pants, and not just because I’m so fond of my spaghetti-strainer codpiece (which affords me the satisfaction of telling really attractive women, “Hey, my eyes are up here. Thank you very much”). But these are my choices. If I want to identify as a pantless American, who are you to say otherwise?
More to the point, what I find so gaudy about Trump is his constant reference to the fact that he made a lot of money, and his expectation that it somehow makes him immune to criticism or means that he’s a better person than his GOP competitors, never mind yours truly.
The Trump-Pets Blare
Moreover, I find it horribly disappointing that his fans like this about him. If you met someone in real life who talked this way, you would think he’s a jerk. But somehow he’s awesome when he does it on TV?
The most troubling defense is this claptrap that he ‘tells it like it is.’ Well, first of all, no he doesn’t. He tells it the way you want to hear it, which is an entirely different thing.
His biggest fans disappoint in other ways as well. I marvel at how they can simultaneously despise Obama’s arrogance but revel in Trump’s. (I chuckle at all of the people who tell me he’s a heroic truth-teller for “telling it like it is” and “calling it as he sees it” but who at the same time fume at me when I tell it like it is about Trump and call it as I see it.)
But most grating of all are the people who sincerely think he should be the Republican nominee for president of the United States.
On this, I’m afraid we’re going to have to disrespectfully disagree. First of all, he’ll never be president of the United States. I won’t go into all of the reasons I think this, but a few off the top of my head: his enormous negatives, even among Republicans; the Midas’s hoard of oppo-research material that surely lurks beneath the surface; and his comments about women, which alone would turn the gender gap into a chasm. To borrow a line from Mark Steyn, a President Trump would have more ex-wives than the previous 44 presidents combined.
But my objection isn’t to the political analysis of Trump supporters. It’s their judgment of the man that stews the bowels.
The Purest RINO
Which gets me back to the grifter thing.
I’ve written many times about how I hate the term RINO because conservatives should consider themselves Republicans in Name Only. The Republican Party is a vessel, a tool for achieving conservative ends. It’s nothing more than a team. Conservatism is different. It’s a body of ideas, beliefs, and temperaments. The amazing thing is that Trump is both a RINO and a CINO. I’m sure he has some authentic and sincere conservative views down in there somewhere. But the idea that he’s more plausibly conservative — or more loyally Republican — than Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, or any of the others is just flatly absurd. It is vastly more plausible that he is a stalking horse for his dear friend Hillary Clinton than he is a sincere conservative.
Trump supporters need an intervention. I want to sit them down at the kitchen table, reach into a manila envelope, and pull out the proof that he’s a fraud. The conversation would go something like this:
Immigration: You seem to think he’s an immigration hardliner, and he’s certainly pretending to be. But why can’t you see through it? He condemned Mitt Romney as an immigration hardliner in 2012 and favored comprehensive immigration reform. He told Bill O’Reilly he was in favor of a “path to citizenship” for 30 million illegal immigrants:
Trump: You have to give them a path. You have 20 million, 30 million, nobody knows what it is. It used to be 11 million. Now, today I hear it’s 11, but I don’t think it’s 11. I actually heard you probably have 30 million. You have to give them a path, and you have to make it possible for them to succeed. You have to do that.
Question: Just how many rapists and drug dealers did Donald Trump want to give green cards to?
Abortion: In 1999 he said, “I’m totally pro-choice. I hate it and I hate saying it. And I’m almost ashamed to say that I’m pro-choice but I am pro-choice because I think we have no choice.”
Man, it’s like he’s channeling Thomas Aquinas there.
Now he says he’s pro-life. But I’ll spare the mocking on this because at least he’s flip-flopping in the right direction, and I don’t like to second guess peoples’ professed religious convictions.
Obamacare: The man wrote in his own book and said elsewhere that he was in favor of Canadian-style socialized medicine — which would put him to the left of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and on pretty much the same page as Bernie Sanders.
Hillary: Speaking of her, Trump praised Hillary Clinton and her health-care reform plan — in 2007! She attended his (most recent) wedding. He donated to her campaigns and to the Clinton Foundation. In 2008, he couldn’t get his head around the fact that Obama didn’t pick her for VP. “I’m a big fan of Hillary. She’s a terrific woman. She’s a friend of mine.”
Economics: People tout the guy’s business record. But he represents almost exactly what his supporters think he opposes. He’s a crony capitalist par excellence. He gives to whatever politician can grease the skids for his next deal — and he makes no apologies for it. He’s an eminent-domain voluptuary. He abuses bankruptcy laws like a stack of homemade get-out-of-jail-free cards.
Parlez vous Conservative?
The most troubling defense is this claptrap that he “tells it like it is.” Well, first of all, no he doesn’t. He tells it the way you want to hear it, which is an entirely different thing. He is like William Jennings Bryan, only his cross of gold has an all-you-can-eat buffet under it, and looks remarkably like a capital “T.”
He is like William Jennings Bryan, only his cross of gold has an all-you-can-eat buffet under it, and looks remarkably like a capital “T.”
“The people of Nebraska are for free silver, and I am for free silver,” Bryan announced. “I will look up the arguments later.” That is Trump’s approach. He’s saying what understandably angry people want to hear him say.
He reminds me a lot of Mitt Romney, at least in one respect. I always said that Romney “spoke conservatism as a second language” (a line some people ripped off, btw). That’s why Romney called himself a “severe conservative,” talked about how he “likes to fire people,” and anathematized the “47 percent.”
Trump is even less truly conservative, but he’s trying to speak in an even grubbier dialect of conservatism. And, having grown up in the tabloid politics of New York, he’s better at faking it.
Eventually, I suspect, this will be the cause of his undoing. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know about conservatism, and at some point he will say something that even his biggest fans will recognize as a damning revelation about the real man beneath the schtick. The only question is whether he implodes before or after he does permanent damage to the GOP’s chances in 2016.
The Conservative Heart
Look, these are rough times for conservatives, for reasons too lengthy, and all too familiar, to go into here. But none of our problems — demographic, political, cultural — can be solved unless conservatives take the cause of persuasion to heart. All of our problems can be fixed by convincing people to join our cause. That is what politics is about — persuading people that their interests and concerns are better addressed by coming to our side. And, given the degraded nature of our culture, I won’t deny that having a celebrity on our side has its utility. But it’s only helpful if that celebrity convinces people to switch sides. As a purely mathematical proposition, it is insane to believe that Donald Trump will convert more voters than he will repel.(2 images)
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Have you every seen an intelligent post he made?
#18. To: Gatlin (#17) (Edited)
Have you every seen an intelligent post he made?
All he does is shit on the forum like he shit on Goldi until she died.
He adds nothing to any forum but disruption and troll like behavior.
But in his defense, he ain't the only one. Bucky does as well.
I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
#19. To: GrandIsland (#18)
"Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones"
#20. To: Gatlin, GrandIsland, hondo68 (#17) (Edited)
Have you every seen an intelligent post he made?
Oh, the irony!
Get back to us when you post something intelligent yourself, Gatslime.
You and GED-educated cop-boy FireIsland are the biggest retards at the site.
It's no wonder you two clowns are taken in by the carnival barker Trump.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
In a Cop Culture, the Bill of Rights Doesn’t Amount to Much
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts#21. To: hondo68 (#0)
Trump is a Billaries mole in the REP Party. A deal has been made bewteen the two truly scummy camps.
потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
#22. To: SOSO (#21)
A deal has been made bewteen the two truly scummy camps.
Due to Trump's extensive experience with bankruptcy, Hillary will make him Sec of Treasury.
#23. To: hondo68 (#22)
LOL. I thought perhaps Labor.
потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
#24. To: SOSO (#21)
Trump is a Billaries mole in the REP Party. A deal has been made bewteen the two truly scummy camps.
What a dumb theory. I mean really dumb.
#25. To: sneakypete (#1)
I truly, honestly, and with all my heart and mind think Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters are making a yuuuuuuge mistake. I think they are being conned and played. I feel like a guy whose brother is being taken advantage of by a grifter. I’m watching helplessly as the con artist congratulates him for taking out a third mortgage. Ya think?
Lets see if Ya can think.
Tell us how we are being played and taken advantage of.
#26. To: A K A Stone (#24)
Trump is a Billaries mole in the REP Party. A deal has been made bewteen the two truly scummy camps.What a dumb theory. I mean really dumb.
We will see.
потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
#27. To: A K A Stone, sneakypete (#25)
Tell us how we are being played and taken advantage of.
Trump is a mega promoter of.....wait for it........himself. He is flim flam. I hope that you are not one of those suckers born every minute that P.T. Barnum tells us about.
потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
#28. To: SOSO (#21)
Trump is a Billaries mole in the REP Party. A deal has been made bewteen the two truly scummy camps.
This explanation makes more sense all the time.
We saw in recent years how Buffet ran around begging for taxes to be raised on tycoons like him (knowning he'd never pay any higher taxes because he arranges his finances specifically to avoid such tax increases). And Buffet scored a big reward: his Burlington Northern gets more years of lucrative contracts to haul Canadian oil to the west coast and the southern coast.
Trump will blow through a measly hundred million or two and score contracts and deals with other Dem tycoons worth billions after Hitlery becomes prez.
#29. To: TooConservative (#28)
This explanation makes more sense all the time.
To a moron.
Someone helping Hillary doesn't attack her. I thought you were brighter then that. Obviously not. Bottom line is it will be Trump or Hillary. Your Bush doesn't have a chance.
#30. To: TooConservative (#28)
Trump will blow through a measly hundred million or two and score contracts and deals with other Dem tycoons worth billions after Hitlery becomes prez.
So when that doesn't happen. It will not because democrat big wigs hate Trump.
You do sound an awful lot like a government plant.
#31. To: SOSO (#27)
Trump is a mega promoter of.....wait for it........himself. He is flim flam. I hope that you are not one of those suckers born every minute that P.T. Barnum tells us about.
So he promotes himself. Who gives a shit. You jealous?
When Trump becomes President the Bush and Clinton era is over.
Who cares if Trump isn't perfect. Because you surely aren't.
Your PT Barnum routine shows you have no substance.
I guess are ok with Hillary.
#32. To: A K A Stone (#30)
You do sound an awful lot like a government plant.
Uh-huh. Because the powers that be are so worried about the threat posed by your dusty little forum of elderly cranks, running Web 1.0 forum software and getting a few dozen readers a day.
I'm sure this scenario makes sense to you.
#33. To: A K A Stone (#30)
You do sound an awful lot like a government plant.
One must wonder why the so called "two party, RINO and Republican" haters would ever spit towards Trump, whether they like him or not. Should make you question the real motives of some of the posters who only post animosity towards everything that isn't (D).
The libtards surly hate Trump... and that's good enough for me. lol
I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
#34. To: A K A Stone (#25)
Tell us how we are being played and taken advantage of.
That would be like trying to explain to a child that Santa doesn't exist.
If you can believe that a life-long denizen and trust fund child from NYC that specializes is theft via bankruptcy and threats of bankruptcy who is a personal friend of Hillary Clinton and every other prominent east coast Dim politician is a conservative,you don't understand what being a conservative means.
Or much of anything else.
Hell,compared to him,Chris Christy is Ronald Reagan.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
#35. To: TooConservative (#28)
Trump will blow through a measly hundred million or two and score contracts and deals with other Dem tycoons worth billions after Hitlery becomes prez.
And just like so many others that have ran knowing they had no chance at all,he's there for the payoffs.
Hell,being president is the last thing he would want because he would have to put all his financial dealers on hold the entire time he would be in office,and unable to run any of his scams. Worse from his POV,he would have to put others in charge of the daily operations and decision making.
It could help him out in the long run with international pay-offs/business deals and his massive ego would be stroked by being called "Mr President",but he is too much of a ego-maniac and control freak to let others make business decisions for him. He will be satisfied with the ego boost and the financial boost a run for the WH gives his trademark and then amuse himself giving speeches about how "I could have done it better if I had been elected" speeches for the rest of his life.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
#36. To: A K A Stone (#31)
I guess are ok with Hillary.
The very words you are going to use to justify your support when you fall behind JEB or Lady Lindsey and condemn others for not following along also.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
#37. To: sneakypete (#36)
Lady Lindsey
There you go lying again. You're not an honest person. You have no insight.
You are the fag lover that thinks fags need special rights.
And if you give me bullshit about equal rights. I will suspend you for a day. That is what I 'm going to start doing when you lie.
#38. To: sneakypete (#35)
And just like so many others that have ran knowing they had no chance at all,he's there for the payoffs.
Trump knows that Adelson ($37 billion in resort/casino operations) and his RJC backers really want a GOP prez, mostly for the sake of Israel. Then there are the Koch brothers ($80 billion) who also badly want to elect a GOP prez.
How much is it worth to Adelson to get Trump out of the race? Will he offer Trump a sweet casino/resort deal to get him out of the race? Or would Soros and other Dem tycoons offer Trump a bigger deal to stay in the race or even run as an indy candidate like Perot?
It's not difficult to see how Trump could play R and D tycoons against each other in this scenario. I wouldn't put it past Trump to set out deliberately to monetize a run for prez. Maybe that's the deal he's really after.
#39. To: sneakypete (#34)
Chris Christy is Ronald Reagan.
Sneakypete-Chris Christy is Ronald Reagan.
That is all we need to know about you. Well we already know you bent over for fags and went against America.
#40. To: A K A Stone (#39)
????
#41. To: TooConservative (#38)
How much is it worth to Adelson to get Trump out of the race?
In your establishment wet dreams.
#42. To: buckeroo (#40)
Sneaky thinks Chris Christie is Ronald Reagan.
#43. To: buckeroo (#40)
#44. To: A K A Stone (#43) (Edited)
The Clinton Family
#45. To: hondo68 (#44)
So he is a big wig and met Bill Clinton. Who cares. That is the price of doing business. Yawn.
Your candidate you promoted last year hangs out with aborted kids.
#46. To: A K A Stone (#37)
You are the fag lover that thinks fags need special rights.
I ain't the one living in a closet,closet-boy,and I have never ONCE suggested that homosexuals be giving special rights. It's fools like YOU that think YOU have special rights other citizens don't have.
And if you give me bullshit about equal rights.
Yeah,who the hell is for any of that anti-'murikan "equal rights" stuff,anyhow? Surely not YOU.
I will suspend you for a day.
Figures. You can't win any argument using logic,so you being the little bitch that you are,you suspend people.
Speaking of lies,PLEASE point out where I have EVER demanded special rights for homosexuals.
Either do it,or suspend yourself,hypocrite.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
#47. To: TooConservative (#38)
I wouldn't put it past Trump to set out deliberately to monetize a run for prez.
NOTHING is out of the question when it comes to Trump promoting Trump.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
#48. To: A K A Stone (#39)
Chris Christy is Ronald Reagan.Sneakypete-Chris Christy is Ronald Reagan.
On top of being a Trump fan boi,you also either have a reading comprehension problem,or are purposely lying by posting some words I have written out of context. The CORRECT context is that to YOU Chris Christy is as conservative as Ronald Reagan.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
#49. To: buckeroo (#40)
????
He's lying. Look for my post to him where what I actually wrote that if he thought that Trump is a conservative,he no doubt thinks Chris Christy is as conservative as Ronald Reagan.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
#50. To: A K A Stone, TooConservative, Sneakypete (#41)
In your [Tooconservative] establishment wet dreams.
You are flying off the handle with Tooconservative just as with Pete. You have fallen for a loud mouth Billionaire that may have addressed one or maybe two of your concerns about America, but Trump is not presidential material. The only way he is going to become the US President is by paying down the nearly 20Tr debt is from his own pocket.
By that tyme, you shall be wearing a trump wig as a requirement for US Citizenship.
#51. To: A K A Stone, sneakypete, hondo68, war (#37)
And if you give me bullshit about equal rights. I will suspend you for a day.
Pebbles, you shouldn't be acting like a third grader. Just free advice from an adult observer.
#52. To: buckeroo (#50)
but Trump is not presidential material.
buckeroo, you couldn't tell the difference between presidential material and a seersucker suit.
#53. To: Percy Misanthrope (#52)
Are you looking at the world through "rose coloured glasses" yet again, Percy? It is pretty bad when you take the opinions of leadership in any political party to heart.
#54. To: hondo68 (#0)
Now, before I go on, let me clarify a few things. I get it. The base of the party is angry. They’re angry about Obama’s lawless chicanery on immigration. They’re angry about the GOP’s patented inability to cross the street without stepping on its own d*ck and then having to apologize for it. They’re angry that the Left’s culture warriors are behaving like an invading army that shoots the survivors even after they’ve surrendered. They’re angry that Republicans have to bend over backward so as not to offend anyone, while Democrats have free rein (and at times free reign) to do and to say as they please.
I think more than just the base of the party is pissed off about this..
“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.â€
#55. To: hondo68, SOSO, Liberator, redleghunter, A K A Stone (#22)
Speaking of CTs what about DeBlasio and (Fauxcahontas) Warren teaming up to make a run for Pres/Vice Pres once Hitlery falls on her strapon?????
“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.â€
#56. To: CZ82 (#55)
Speaking of CTs what about DeBlasio and (Fauxcahontas) Warren teaming up
Nothing I would vote for, but Jeb! (and Trump) have such high disapproval ratings, almost anyone could beat them.
Hillary's not well liked either, but probably not as unpopular as a Bush. I'm sticking with my original prediction of Jeb dropping out, and Rubio losing to Hillary. Marco is sort of a Cuban Bush/clone.
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