So Conservatives, What Have We Learned From This Trump Thing?

[Idiot]

Gallup: this GOP convention is first *ever* where more say they are now less likely to vote for the party's nominee.

All of those bitter Cruz supporters.   

[unknown]

That a New York Liberal who calls himself a Republican is still just a New York Liberal.

The GOP liberal who calls himself a Republican is still just a GOP liberal.

[unknown]

There was a video clip of Cruz clearly outlining Constitutional Conservatism to a group of Trump followers.  It was intelligent, clear, not condescending, and all the little mob did was scream "LYIN' TED!  LYIN' TED!!"  (blinding regurgitating the lie of their "leader")

I saw that, I was totally flabbergasted by what I saw! I learned a lot about the Trump "movement" from that video clip.

[musiclady]

I saw that, I was totally flabbergasted by what I saw! I learned a lot about the Trump "movement" from that video clip.

All we need to know about the Trump "movement," IMO...........  blind, ignorant rage screaming against Constitutional Conservatism.

It was disgusting.

[guitar4jesus]

I saw that, I was totally flabbergasted by what I saw! I learned a lot about the Trump "movement" from that video clip.

Yep, it confirmed a few things for me too.

[unknown]

Answer: because the GOP has no core principles that it's willing or able to defend; nor any leaders capable of carrying the message in any case. 

That is absolutely correct. The GOP has no core principles except those that will and can keep any member of the GOP in power. This why the GOP has become so liberal. In order to maintain their power, they try to out left the left without trying to look left.

Remember the exchange that Bohner gave as recalled by Cruz. Boner was telling the to GOP to abstain and not vote on something to allow a liberal policy to pass, and then Boner told the GOP to go back home and tell their constituents that they did everything they could to stop the bill. CRUZ stood up and said bullshit, he wasn't going along with this kind of crap. And CRUZ made it very clear and public what was going on. CRUZ has written about this exchange in his book.

So this is why we have Trump.

People are sick and sick of liberals (corrupt GOP) and more liberals (Dems). So they are trying something new and shiny - Trump!

[Sanguine]

Its far more complicated than that.

I don't know if even Reagan could win the nomination today - not because conservatives are less flexible than they were in 80. I believe they have acquiesced to the moderate/liberal wing far more than is fair to ask  - but because the GOP has become a finely tuned machine specifically geared above all else to prevent an actual small government conservative from winning anytime in the future.

Together with the media bias representing an impossible obstacle to overcome.

Personally I do not believe the GOP, at least, will ever represent my political interests again. I'm more convinced than ever it'll have to be a third party.

 

[Victoria33]

We are dealing with a group of people who cannot be won over by logic and reason, no matter how well communicated because their brains have shut off, and their emotions are running wild.

@musiclady

Trumpers have "Trump Disease", an infection Trump has that is terminal in his case.  Only "Critical Care EMTs" (that is all non-Trumpers) can save the population from this infection.  As CCEMTs, our job is to save as many citizens as possible.  You are an excellent CCEMT.  We need a CCEMT badge to identify us as political life savers.

[geronl]

We have learned that America has successfully been dumbed down

That "conservatives" include a big portion of nut cases.

Cult-worship is not just among the left.

[mlizzy]

So we can either try to figure out what happened or keep rending our clothes and gnashing our teeth about how our own voter base took one look at us and rejected us like any sober, sighted guy in a bar at 7 p.m. would reject Lena Dunham.

Imo, not that hard to figure out; it's because patriots [even women!] in America have positive things to say about the following linked video:

https://www.facebook.com/obviousmag/videos/10154030741928089/

And some of those people are Republicans! If I had a dollar for every "conservative" who has said, "Melania is hot!" or similar, I'd have enough to buy a couple of cars, at least.

[libertybele]

That a New York Liberal who calls himself a Republican is still just a New York Liberal.

Absolutely! 

[Taxcontrol]

What have I learned?  That the GOP is not a conservative party and does not want anything to do with conservatives as long as the shut up and vote for their GOPe selected candidate.

I also learned how easy it is for me to change my party affiliation.

[Idiot]

How is it ever possible to beat a party that promises free healthcare, free food, free housing, free cell phone?  Oh and by the way...bring your family right on over to the U.S.  It is not possible and it's likely there will never be another conservative elected as president.  They vote their pocketbooks plain and simple.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Also from the article:

And did we listen when our base asked the establishment to show some fighting spirit?  Or are we driven to effectively vote for Hillary because somebody scandalized out tender sensibilities by using the verb “schlonged?” Our base demanded someone who wouldn’t be intimidated, who would fight. Instead, the establishment was dead set on dumping a steaming pile of Jeb on our collective lawn, the same durrwood you can watch on YouTube hanging a medal around Hillary Clinton's wrinkled neck. That pompous geebo can’t even take his own damn side in a fight; why is anyone shocked that our voters saw he would never take theirs?

So what have we learned about ourselves? Maybe that many of us are snobs. There's a lot of class warfare going on here, a lot of backroom snark, with a lot of conservatives who want to believe that the only people who could ever support Donald Trump are knuckle-dragging morons who can't cut it when it comes to anything besides digging ditches. Too many of us choose cultural solidarity with the liberals we live among over political solidarity with the people we expected to vote with us.

“Gosh,” we tell ourselves. “These people can’t even see what’s in their own best interest.” Except maybe they don’t like what they see. Maybe it’s because they decided we aren’t worth listening to. Maybe they don’t like us conservatives. And maybe we better figure out how to fix that instead of whining.


http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2016/08/01/so-conservatives-what-have-we-learned-from-this-trump-thing-n2200195?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

[GrouchoTex]

Trump won 19 out of 28 closed GOP primaries. Trump won 13 out of 18 open primaries. Trump won 4 out of 4 mixed primaries.

Trump won 36 out of 50 total primaries.

Next solution?

May not be a 100 %solution, but still a good idea.
It should happen.
Why have parties if the members of them have no benefits derived by being a member?

[truth_seeker]

Through 44 posts, the ONE thing not present, is the slightest admission of how screwed up the GOP and so-called "conservatism" have become.

Almost every post reads thusly: "We are okay, you are not." (That is "denial", e.g. defense of the status quo)

The reason Trump and populism won, is total rejection of "same old, same old."

But your responses are "same old, same old," nonetheless.   You cannot admit, Trump figured it out, when nobody else did.

[Right_in_Virginia]

The article in full .....

The primaries are over and Trump is the nominee, and instead of whining about it like a Millennial faced with having to get a job we need to step back and ask ourselves if we have learned anything from this bizarre turn of events. The GOP – our GOP – has nominated someone who is not a traditional conservative. He’s not even an untraditional conservative. Hell, there’s probably not even a “c” or a “v” in whatever he is. So we can either try to figure out what happened or keep rending our clothes and gnashing our teeth about how our own voter base took one look at us and rejected us like any sober, sighted guy in a bar at 7 p.m. would reject Lena Dunham.

What have we learned from this? We can’t answer that unless we get beyond the natural tendency to assume that the problem is that everyone else is wrong: “Gosh, if the voters weren’t so stupid they would have totally fallen in line with our commands and right now we’d be watching Jeb Bush being fitted for a gimp suit by Hillary instead of seeing Trump [checks current polls] uh, cleaning her clock. Wait, what?”

Did we ever actually listen to our people? I mean all our people, not just the people who went to the same colleges as us and who hang with us at the same awesome restaurants and read National Review. I mean the actual voters out there in wherever actual GOP voters live. Did we pay attention to them and their concerns? Did we listen to them about illegal immigration, about the impact of free trade, about the wars we supported? And did we fight? I don’t mean just give lip service to how bad and unwashed liberals are, but really get in there and stand up to these flag-hating, gender-inventing, God-booing jerks? Or did we look down on the very people we were depending on at election time?

In short, did we completely screw up? Nah, it’s clearly everyone else who’s wrong. They’re just too stupid to understand that they need to obediently fall in line. After all, their real interests are actually – and super conveniently – our interests.

Seriously – is that where we are at? Because I’m hearing a lot of such nonsense from people horrified at Trump and, by extension, the GOP voters who nominated him fair and square. Can we really blame them for voting for the one guy who actually paid attention to what they were saying?

Did we listen about illegal immigration? Heck, illegal immigration is just wonderful for us. We get cheaper restaurant food, cheaper houses, cheaper maids, and if we own companies we get cheaper workers. So what’s not to love, right? Except maybe you didn’t go to a university and wanted to work with your hands and found that you can’t get a job because all the companies are hiring cheap illegal alien workers. Or your truck got hit by an uninsured illegal. Or your daughter got killed by an illegal who should have been deported. Well, if you have concerns about these things, clearly you’re a racist.

And our response to their massive law breaking is “Well, we can’t possibly enforce the law! [clutches pearls tightly] Why, that would be mean!” Do you think that when some red state Republican voter breaks the law he gets a pass? You think the IRS isn’t going to empty his bank account to pay overdue taxes because he carries a sign reading “I didn’t cross the tax code; the tax code crossed me!” We can’t deport an illegal because his family, that shouldn’t even be here, might be sad, but do you think anyone working for Uncle Sucker gives a half damn about an American’s family if he steps out of line? Our response to the legitimate grievances of the people we counted on in this election was to call them stupid and racist and people are surprised they flocked to the one guy who listened to them?

We love fair trade. But what about the guy whose job that he support his family with gets outsourced because of NAFTA? What are we supposed to tell him? That in aggregate fair trade is beneficial? Yeah, but what if you’re not in the aggregate? I don’t know the answer, but I do know that so far we've been telling him “Suck it up cuz you’re obsolete. Go retrain on computers, dummy.” Yet we’re stunned that our voters have failed to embrace our innovative two-prong approach of ignoring their grievances while heaping abuse upon them?

And let's talk about wars. Generally, it’s our base that fights wars and we haven’t won one on the ground since Desert Storm. Our base doesn’t mind fighting for a cause, but if we're not as dedicated as they are, if we can't even commit to win when they commit to doing the dying, why are we shocked when instead of answering the call for the umpteenth time they let it go to voicemail? And the stuff about NATO and Trump – you know, our voters are not blind. If our allies were doing their fair share, his criticisms wouldn't resonate.

And did we listen when our base asked the establishment to show some fighting spirit? Or are we driven to effectively vote for Hillary because somebody scandalized out tender sensibilities by using the verb “schlonged?” Our base demanded someone who wouldn’t be intimidated, who would fight. Instead, the establishment was dead set on dumping a steaming pile of Jeb on our collective lawn, the same durrwood you can watch on YouTube hanging a medal around Hillary Clinton's wrinkled neck. That pompous geebo can’t even take his own damn side in a fight; why is anyone shocked that our voters saw he would never take theirs?

So what have we learned about ourselves? Maybe that many of us are snobs. There's a lot of class warfare going on here, a lot of backroom snark, with a lot of conservatives who want to believe that the only people who could ever support Donald Trump are knuckle-dragging morons who can't cut it when it comes to anything besides digging ditches. Too many of us choose cultural solidarity with the liberals we live among over political solidarity with the people we expected to vote with us.

“Gosh,” we tell ourselves. “These people can’t even see what’s in their own best interest.” Except maybe they don’t like what they see. Maybe it’s because they decided we aren’t worth listening to. Maybe they don’t like us conservatives. And maybe we better figure out how to fix that instead of whining.


http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2016/08/01/so-conservatives-what-have-we-learned-from-this-trump-thing-n2200195?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

[geronl]

I want a President who won't insult 13-year old girls on Twitter.

[geronl]

The reason Trump and populism won, is total rejection of "same old, same old."

Trump is the same old, same old. Same old tired liberalism, he is now sympatico with the same tired old RINO's like McConnell and the other GOPE.

[Timber Rattler]

Meaningless, because I'm not a Republican anymore.

[musiclady]

Through 44 posts, the ONE thing not present, is the slightest admission of how screwed up the GOP and so-called "conservatism" have become.

Almost every post reads thusly: "We are okay, you are not." (That is "denial", e.g. defense of the status quo)

The reason Trump and populism won, is total rejection of "same old, same old."

But your responses are "same old, same old," nonetheless.   You cannot admit, Trump figured it out, when nobody else did.

Trump IS the "same old, same old."  He is an establishment Democrat, an insider donor to the Dem party.

It was Cruz who was different.

And yet you despise him........

[Idiot]

Meaningless, because I'm not a Republican anymore.

[r9etb]

Through 44 posts, the ONE thing not present, is the slightest admission of how screwed up the GOP and so-called "conservatism" have become.

To be fair, several of us did say that.

[libertybele]

Trump IS the "same old, same old."  He is an establishment Democrat, an insider donor to the Dem party.

It was Cruz who was different.

And yet you despise him........

People despise Cruz because he represents the Constitution and the principals and morals upon which this country was founded.  Our public school system, the MSM and the DEM party have convinced the masses that the Constitution was written too long ago to be applicable to modern society and the principals and morals upon which this country was founded are no longer politically correct.  Blatant lying and denying  by the left has become acceptable and so common place that their lies and deceptions are now mistaken as the truth. 

[XenaLee]

I would suggest that for anyone who truly believes that the Trump candidacy was nothing more than a scam to elect Hillary, the most logical move is to thwart that scam by voting for Trump.

Re: voting for Trump.....I no longer reward bad behavior by voting for and supporting it (been there, done that, done with that).  For those that prefer and choose to do so, knock yourselves out.