Trump Courting Bernie Voters at the Expense of His Principles – Wait, Never Mind - See more at: https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/05/trump-courting-bernie-voters-at-the-expense-of-his-principles--wait-never-mind#sthash.75g7Q2PP.dpuf
Jen Kuznicki
Conservative Review
May 26, 2016
Why are Trump supporters working overtime to get conservatives to vote for Trump when he himself admits he’s really not that into us?
We keep hearing that it’s our job as conservatives to try to get Trump to come around to our side of things, you know, to work to get a seat at the table. Funny, we hear that stuff from people who call themselves conservatives who have already jumped on the Trump train. It’s almost like they left work early to go to the club, and we have to stay behind, finish the dishes and vacuum and reset the entire restaurant.
But hey, we’ve done the responsible thing many times, mostly because our conscience won’t allow us to do otherwise.
But in all the confusion, what with Trump supporters guilting, shaming, and prodding conservatives on Twitter and in the blogosphere, something should be made clear. This presidential race is not between a Republican and a Democrat, nor a conservative and a liberal; it is between two ends of the liberal spectrum. So far, conservatives are split on whether to vote for Trump—one side figures he’s better than Hillary, while the other is struggling with lending credence to his stated policies that are proven to destroy the free market and cause massive economic and diplomatic problems. This is serious stuff that merits real thought. Still though, Trump isn’t really trying to mend fences with conservatives, and that, along with all the abuse conservatives are taking online from his supporters, begs the question, “Why isn’t Trump trying to get our votes?”
Perhaps because Donald Trump is a very different kind of Republican (just ask him), and one would think at least part of the hesitation toward voting for him would be that he is courting Bernie supporters.
Not that it’s a bad thing in itself to court Bernie supporters, but Trump isn’t trying to sell them on any Republican-centric messaging—he is trying to capture them by parroting Bernie. In fact, he told MSNBC, "Bernie Sanders has a message that's interesting. I'm going to be taking a lot of the things Bernie said and using them." And so he has.
Last night, Trump had a rally in New Mexico where he talked about Bernie supporters and Bernie himself a lot. As if he has the utmost respect for him, Trump said that Bernie was getting the short end of the stick—just like he himself did—that the system was rigged against him and poor Bernie. The difference is Trump beat the system, and Bernie can’t make good deals. Trump said that he is getting 40 percent of the Bernie supporters, too. For about a month, Trump has been talking a lot about Bernie, including that Bernie is being denied the nomination because he’s telling the truth.
According to People Magazine, 20 percent of Sanders voters will vote Trump, Nate Silver expects they will go to Clinton or sit out, and has numbers that only 15% will vote Trump. Some Democratic strategists believe the Berners will become Trumpers, some think it’ll never happen, and some are pushing to vote for Trump because he’s the empty vessel they can fill up with progressive groupthink.
So knowing that Trump reads all this stuff, it’s clear he believes that the more he offers them a spot, the more Berners will be by his side in November.
Think about this: Bernie is an avowed socialist and Trump and he overlap on trade. Trump has already “pivoted” on raising the minimum wage, and rejected the Citizen’s United case; in fact, the far-left MSNBC made the point that he is wrong on everything except that notorious freedom of speech case, that hinged on banning speech.
but Trump isn’t trying to sell them on any Republican-centric messaging—he is trying to capture them by parroting Bernie.
The thing is, I’m not sure there is enough Republican identity left for most Republicans who’ve jumped on the train to know why all that would be bad. It’s gotten to the point that nothing he says matters anymore—which used to be why we all marveled at how his supporters weren’t using their heads—but apparently that brain-drain is more catchy than the Zika virus.
It’s bad that Trump seems to want to replace conservative voters with Bernie supporters, because that would mean he will be out there promising socialism to get votes. And it also means, if you have already endorsed the Donald, then you have bought the ticket to ride the socialism rail car where everyone is promised everything and nobody learns anything, as they get nearer and nearer to Utopia which, for some reason, always looks like Siberia. That way, the mindlessness of socialism is reinforced within the Republican Party rather than rebuked.
Yet this relationship between conservatives and the Republican Party is over-the-top dysfunctional. For me, I find myself shaking my head over how great the party could be if it just did what it says it’ll do, champion conservative governance and stand up to the Democrats. But then, when reality hits, I know they’ll never do that… so why do I dream?
It’s bad enough that the same philosophy that founded America can’t seem to get decent treatment by a group of people who claim they can make America great, maybe even better than ever before, as Trump said last night. But it’s worse to know that there is a massive number of people who believe a president is their ruler, and not the other way around, and that the Trump train to Utopia doesn’t want or need conservative influence.
Trump is actively pursuing unity with Paul Ryan (who is far-left on amnesty), the tech industry, GOP insiders, the GOP elite, and Bernie supporters. While his SCOTUS list was supposed to be the reason conservatives would flock to him, the problem that he has abused fellow Republicans won’t go away until he himself buries it. Then there is the fact that much of his record suggests pathological deceit...
While there remains little faith among conservatives in the direction of the Republican Party in the first place, for Trump to want to take it in the direction it is already going without apology isn’t surprising when you consider human nature. But if the destination is America, the train is heading in the opposite direction. Those that climb aboard now when it is unclear where the train is headed are doing so for the wrong reasons, fear being at the top of the list. But they should not feel fear, but grief instead, grief for the sorry mess that was made of things.
- See more at:
https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/05/trump-courting-bernie-voters-at-the-expense-of-his-principles--wait-never-mind#sthash.75g7Q2PP.dpuf
