President Trump may not have used the words from your textbook @INVAR , but he spoke of individual liberty and constitutional limits on government a few times.
Okay, let us be brutally honest here.
It does absolutely NO SERVICE to the cause of Constitutional Principled Conservatism to apply what we want to hear onto words that do not expressly state Conservative principles. Because to do so illustrates devotion to a man, and not to the principles you say you are governed by.
Trump spoke in Nationalistic Populist language that any Leftist could have easily said themselves and received applause for from their own acolytes.
"We are one nation -- and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams; and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny."How is that any different than Bill Clinton telling the country he 'feels their pain'??
Their Pain is 'our pain'??? Their 'dreams' are 'our dreams?' Their success will be 'our success'??? That is raw, unadulterated Collectivism from a slightly different perspective than what Hillary would have spoken from. The last 8 years have illustrated with perfect clarity that not everyone's 'dream' is my dream. LaRaza's 'dream' is certainly not MY dream. BLM's 'Dreams' are not 'our dreams'. HALF the population of this land does NOT have the same dreams Americans used to have.
The plights and poverties of those groups Trump listed are the results of Collectivist government handouts and interventions - picking winners and stealing from producers to give to a chosen Constituency. Trump did not speak about those, or Individual Liberty - but rather he spoke of THE COLLECTIVE, and that IS NOT Conservative.
REAGAN spoke about getting the monkey of Government OFF OUR BACKS, thereby creating OPPORTUNITY to forge our own destinies. Reagan did not speak of using the government to create a 'shared destiny'. The 'shared destiny' was simply that we had the opportunity and risk to craft our own. Trump never touched that truth.
The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans.
Trump's oath was supposed to be to the Constitution - NOT to the people. WHICH people will Trump be beholden? HIS people? Obama said as much in his inaugurals.
spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.
2009 Stimulus anyone?? Anyone??? Buehler? Buelher?
They had APPROPRIATED and SPENT BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS for "infrastructure". Where did it all go? Why did Trump insinuate that all the money was spent on overseas adventures while not spending anything for infrastructure??
Trump did not discuss WHY companies have shuttered their doors and WHY a lot of industry has to operate outside the country. He did not discuss the punitive regulations, taxes, and government red tape that created a hostile environment for business. He spoke about bringing all the jobs and businesses back here - simply by demanding everyone buy American.
Well what if I don't want to buy American and I want to buy something made in Japan, or Germany or Russia??? Do I have the liberty to do that or not anymore - or do I get to be punished for wanting to?
The power to force companies to build and operate here or face punitive tariffs is NOT pursuit and protection of individual liberty. Trump was talking Protectionism, Nationalism - and those things tend to lead to world wars.
He spoke of this not as a preacher or an "I know better than you pseudo-intellectual", but in a way that reaches the American heart; and this is something conservatives would do well to learn and understand.
Trump spoke to the heart of Collectivist Nationalism, which has apparently become the 'American heart'. He spoke to a people who are ignorant of, or by and large see no use for Constitutional Conservatism or Christian Principles and morality. To a large segment of the population who thinks pragmatic 'government should be empowered to do this' and 'punish those'. They are in many ways, no different than the Left - they simply differ on which prism to see things through - but act in much the same way.
At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.
That there is one of the most alarming things he said.
The bedrock of our nation was the bible and the Christian religion that birthed the entire concept of individual liberty via a civil society. Without that bedrock you have an uncivil society and liberty cannot exist. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of Masters, and thus begets Big Government Statism which a corrupt and vicious people will applaud in whatever hues it is offered.
A total allegiance to the state is blasphemy.
My total allegiance and loyalty is to God alone, first and foremost, then family and then the Constitution. Demanding loyalty to country in such manner is no different than other dictators demanded in the past. A nation that abides in the confines of the Constitution and the Moral Law, rightly deserves my loyalty. A nation that does not - will not.
Loyalty to one another comes OUT of a shared community of faith and belief that once forged our politics - not this bass awkwardness Trump spoke of. Demanding fealty to country in the aims of unifying a people is how hard tyrannies are established.
When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.
Really? We are to open our hearts to God - not to a flag. When you make Patriotism and Nationalism your religion - you commit Idolatry as far as God is concerned. And, nationalism always breeds the worst kind of prejudices. Realizing we are all of God, and that His justice and His Righteousness are what makes life a blessing, is what eliminates prejudice.
It's beyond stupefying how so many well-intentioned conservatives have so quickly succumbed to the very ideas and concepts that are anathema to a Constitutional Republic much less whatever biblical religion or tradition they assert they abide by.
