"So, even if we will never fully admit this, even quietly to ourselves, we should acknowledge that this man's unorthodox and somewhat checkered past, does impact the way that we view both him, and his candidacy,..."
Of course we do. There is no more accurate indicator of an adults future behavior than his or her past behavior. The past becomes a 100 percent predictor when you are talking about a being that is not only NOT ashamed of his past behavior,but even brags about it.
BTW,it is MY opinion that traditional conservatives (people's who main focus is on protecting and restoring the Bill of Rights and reducing the power of the feral government) either win the WH in 2016 or America is over and just waiting for the final fall. Assuming of course that it isn't already too late to recover.
Sneak, sage statement. I personally think we are past the tipping point and we are going down, be it sooner with HildaBeast at the helm or post a GOP win.
Katz, interesting piece, worth the read.
Trump: The first thing all must accept is that he is a Democrat, is now and has always been. Has not voted in a GOP primary in over 30 years. That said is not a Liberal or a Dimocrat, he more of an old line Democrat would most likely conduct his term similar to Billy Klinton's 2nd term when he made a hard right turn.
One also had to remember he is a Capitalist and capitalism is the ONLY economic activity that is organic to humans, every other form of economics is a man-government creation. Capitalism was born the day that a man dressed in animal skins carrying 2 hindquarters on his shoulders met a group haling skins full of berries and nuts on the trail. When they parted each group had a hindquarter and a skin full of berries and nuts. Its the very organic thinking that makes capitalism so successful. That said it works will under any form of govt, so its really neutral as far as political policy goes and yes even under Socialism it thrives, just like it did in the USSR by going underground or what is commonly called the Black Market.
Trump is a Democrat and a Capitalist!
Why Trump did not debate and left Fox:
I will make the call:
This was a calculated move, planned in advance and it has a purpose and reason.
Given that at this point Trump is not likely to get much on air face time at Fox. Nor does he want it. Trump is a Democrat, always has been and has no intention of changing now. That said he lands squarely in the Dem party of Klinton's 2nd 4 years. Trump is not a liberal even remotely touching the boundaries of HildaBeast.
What Trump NEEDS is the Dem vote, not the far left Berine or Hilda, but he needs the rest to win. So he has ditched Fox and will not get BooKoo face time on all the other media outlets, THUS showing his Dem roots and in hopes of gathering the Dems that are center -moderate and would only hold their nose to vote for Hilda or Bernie.
Trump is no dummy and he knows he needs about 64 M votes to win and he cannot get it unless he can walk both sides of the aisle and this is how he has planned to do it.
Will it work? Who knows but I am not sure most Dems want the far left running things for a third term, nor do they want a true conservative up there. I think he has a decent shot, since most GOP will vote for him if he is the nominee even if they have to hold their nose. So he gets the Dem and GOP vote and walks in the door.
This begs the question: How will he rule? For that answer, you can go to his website and he will tell you!
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions* China [He hates China and knows he can out deal them]
* Veterans Administration [He like Vets, he knows the VA is broke Richard and he intends on fixing it]
* Tax Reform [Its broke, unfair and he will revise it]
* 2nd Amend [Trump is no dummy here, don't touch the 2nd or don't become Americas top gun salesman like Obama did]
* Immigration Reform [Everybody knows we need this!]
Everything else will be ad hoc
Look at the list, neither GOP nor Dem, we can all agree some or a lot. Trump is smart, he is taking common issues and using them to propel his candidacy and popularity across the Dem/GOP party lines.
If he is smart, really smart, he will grab Cruz as his VP. Cruz is a Cuban (minority/Latino) and he is smart and he has a working knowledge of the top levels of the Govt. If Trump fails to grab someone who lacks the knowledge of how the govt works at that level he is doomed to fail before he gets started good. Trump if he wins would be a one term Prez as I doubt he has the stomach for anymore than that. In fact I see the GOP we win as a one term unless they can produce a Reagan level economic growth or even a Klinton second term economic engine.
I don't see that happening, in fact we may well be on the brink of a long possibly slow spiral into the pit of failure. Why?
1) We just broke $19 Trillion in debt (does not include long term debt). Obama will hand us another Trillion or near it before he leaves office.
2) The US is getting ready to slam HARD in a solid wall. Under Obama our Govt Opns have spent over $1Trillion over and above revenues to the tune of (see 1 above) and this cannot go on forever. Putting this into perspective: We have a govt that has expanded to fill the void that $1 T has created, our govt has been on a drunken binge for almost 8 years. The govt is faced with 3 options: Increase taxes to cover the $1T+ shortfall, decrease Govt spending by $1T+ or some combo of the two. Maybe Trump can fix this mess, I would like to think so, but I doubt it.
3) Takers Vs Makers: 161 Million are receiving Govt benefits, of that about 100 M are receiving means tested payment, goods and services and to offset that there are only about 106 M that are paying taxes.
We also hear a lot about the Medicare (so called) problem (costs). Think so? Lets take a look: 100% of those who draw Medicare (56.8 M folks) paid into Medicare and 100% are also over 65 and guess what, your Medicare bill does not go away, its comes out of your monthly SS check!!!! Vs Medicaid folks (72.7 M) who have never paid in a single dime and never will. The gross costs to support the Takers is just over $1 Trillion per year!
Is Trump the man with the plan. Don't bet on it. Business is not run like the govt and the govt is not run like a business. As we said in the Army: They take welders and make them fry cooks and fry cooks and make them welders. Its not a good fit for either of those and I doubt if its a good fit for Trump...