BEN SHAPIRO: Conservatism's Sad And Ugly Transformation Into Trumpism

[RAT Patrol]

Conservatism's Sad And Ugly Transformation Into Trumpism

By Ben Shapiro
August 3, 2016

If elected, Trump would destroy conservatism, the only solution to our country’s woes. Another week, another Donald-being-Donald moment. For many years in baseball, Indians, Red Sox, and Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez became a running joke in the fan community. That wasn’t because he couldn’t hit — he was a tremendous hitter. It’s because Ramirez was a kook. He’d throw to the wrong base, then shrug awkwardly. He’d take a stroll into the Green Monster, then fail to reemerge even as the game continued. He’d steal second base, then get confused and wander back toward first base before being thrown out.

These moments became known as “Manny being Manny” moments: If you want the good, they came along with some of the bad.

Donald Trump is the same way. Every few days, Trump does something so inexplicable, so morally and politically reprehensible, that conservatives end up stunned. The difference between Trump and Ramirez: Ramirez’s job was to hit a baseball; Trump’s job is to not have these moments. Imagine if Ramirez had batted .190. It would have been difficult to laugh off “Manny being Manny.” Trump doesn’t even bat .190. He’s the 2013 Dan Uggla of politics.

And yet Trump keeps having these Donald-being-Donald moments, and we’re supposed to just keep laughing them off. The latest: This week, Trump attacked a Gold Star family by saying, of the mother of a slain soldier, “She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say” — presumably thanks to her religion. He also attacked not one but two fire marshals and said that Vladimir Putin had not invaded Ukraine. Trump simply can’t stop himself.

Which leaves Republicans in an awkward position. After the respective party conventions, Trump is the only viable electoral alternative to Democratic lying harridan Hillary Clinton, the most corrupt major-party nominee in modern American history. And yet Trump is so wildly unpalatable as a presidential candidate by any normal conservative or rational standard that many conservatives find themselves unable to vote for him.

These conservatives are now under heavy pressure to pull the lever for Trump. There are two main arguments advanced by Trump voters: first, that Trump will be better than Hillary Clinton; second, that anyone who refuses to vote for Trump bears moral responsibility for Hillary Clinton’s subsequent presidency.

Both of these arguments fall short.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438623/conservatisms-moral-crisis-defending-trumps-lies

[guitar4jesus]

Anyone who is "transforming" is not a conservative.

[INVAR]

Trump is just another form of apostasy of once-Constitutional principles being discarded for demagogic vengeance masquerading as pragmatism.

[Hoodat]

Shapiro nail it, as usual.

In short, too many conservatives seem perfectly willing not only to pull the lever for Trump — understandable — but to lie for him, to justify his foolishness and ignorance and instability and overall insanity. That’s why the second justification for voting Trump — that if you don’t vote Trump, you’ll be responsible for Hillary’s presidency — destroys the first rationale: It suggests that anything that harms Trump, including honesty, must be morally deficient.

[skeeter]

Anyone who is "transforming" is not a conservative.

I don't disagree with Shapiro often, but I think he's mischaracterizing conservatives here. Trump is a populist.

[guitar4jesus]

I don't disagree with Shapiro often, but I think he's mischaracterizing conservatives here. Trump is a populist.

I think he is aiming at pundits and "conservative leaders."  Not the best example of true conservatives.

[geronl]

Trump is just another form of apostasy of once-Constitutional principles being discarded for demagogic vengeance masquerading as pragmatism.

 

[geronl]

I don't disagree with Shapiro often, but I think he's mischaracterizing conservatives here. Trump is a populist.

I think that was about Trump supporters more than Trump.

[HonestJohn]

I think that was about Trump supporters more than Trump.

That was my take as well.

[skeeter]

I think that was about Trump supporters more than Trump.

I understand, but a populist is what he is because his rhetoric appeals to popular thought.

Conservative implies a specific set of beliefs that do not necessarily correlate to popular thought.

As is only too painfully clear these days given the fact we cannot get a conservative nominated anymore.

[INVAR]

Conservatism cannot be transformed into 'Trumpism'. 

ConservativeS can surrender their principles and adopt Nationalist/Populist Fascism - but that does not make it 'Conservatism', even though it will be perverted into such via an apostasy that preaches that what Trump represents is 'Conservatism'.

Overall, it's the Republican party itself being transformed, Conservatives being effectively neutered and run out of that party.

Which is why Conservatives need to rally around the idea of belonging to a new party - such as the Constitution Party (which I think holds the majority of the principles that Conservatives believe in).

Not that any party at this late date is going to save us from what is coming - because it is too late for that now.

[Polly Ticks]

He’s the 2013 Dan Uggla of politics.

That's going to leave a mark.  (Speaking as a Braves fan, of course.)

[Vulcan]