The Conservative Movement Is Donald Trump

[INVAR]

Yeah it's Politico-buro - but Alberta has a few comments that echo what many of us Principled Conservatives have warned and have said was going to happen with redefining Conservatism to be whatever Trump declares it to be - mostly about himself, and even when it's Liberal Statism or the Democrat Agenda renamed into the image of Trump and his party.

Democrat-Lite is the new 'Conservatism' in the era of Trump.  Deficit spending, gun control, Amnesty...

It's amazing what fills the vacuum left behind when principles are discarded for 'winning'.

I think this is Rush Limbaugh's new motto given his fanboy swooning of all things Trump.

The Conservative Movement Is Donald Trump

Trump’s takeover of conservatism is faster and more decisive than anyone expected.



...The president’s counselor, Kellyanne Conway, set the tone Thursday morning when asked to assess Trump’s impact on the conservative movement. “Well, I think by tomorrow this will be TPAC,” she said. The moderator laughed and so did the audience members, but it wasn’t a joke: Anyone searching for a brand of conservatism independent of the new president would have walked away sorely disappointed.

...More consequentially, on the question of whether Trump is “realigning the conservative movement,” 80 percent agreed and only 15 percent disagreed. Both statistics were met with cheers inside the main ballroom.

“In many ways, Donald Trump is the conservative movement right now,” Jim McLaughlin, the Republican pollster who conducted the survey, told CPAC attendees. “And the conservative movement is Donald Trump.”

...Trump, however, has encountered scant dissent from his party’s ideological base. So he came to CPAC not to pay homage to the traditions of conservatism, but to bask in the supremacy of his own movement, one that he and his allies believe will supplant the outdated orthodoxies peddled for decades by the very people who greeted him like a conquering hero on Friday morning.

In his meandering 48-minute speech, Trump did not once use the words “liberty” or “constitution.” He did not invoke the name of Ronald Reagan, the last Republican president to address CPAC during his first year in office, and to whom he was incessantly compared throughout the week. He made no reference to “government,” in terms of keeping it small, limited or otherwise. And the only time he uttered the word “conservative” was in reference to his triumph at the ballot box. “Our victory was a victory ... for conservative values,” Trump declared.

...When I asked Jenkins, the flag-waving Marshall University student, whether he thought Trump is a conservative, he grinned. “I think Trump is redefining what it means to be a conservative.”

[Smokin Joe]

Reinventing is for Liberals.

[DCPatriot]

@INVAR @Smokin Joe

 

[Smokin Joe]

Only someone who isn't a Conservative would celebrate the demise of Conservatism (Amnesty and against the RKBA!).

Perhaps those of us who stand on Principle will simply start calling ourselves "Americans" and let the rest of you find a new name.

[Concerned]

Since Trump's idea of conservatism obviously includes the continuation of deficit spending and massive increases in the national debt, there seems little difference, fiscally, between the Democrats and Trumpism (at least relative to the debt and deficit spending).  Where's a real fiscal conservative to go with their support?

[Cyber Liberty]

So the "Trump" flag is Russian?



It's amusing, but it lacks subtlety....

[libertybele]

Only someone who isn't a Conservative would celebrate the demise of Conservatism (Amnesty and against the RKBA!).

Perhaps those of us who stand on Principle will simply start calling ourselves "Americans" and let the rest of you find a new name.

   Those who stand on Principle ARE American Patriots!

[INVAR]

@INVAR @Smokin Joe

Reminds me of the gleeful ridicule flung at parishioners and brethren in churches who refuse to surrender doctrinal positions when their church leadership embraces homosexuality as a tenet of Christian faith.

Apostasy tends to breed contempt and exodus.

[INVAR]

So the "Trump" flag is Russian?



It's amusing, but it lacks subtlety....

It showcases the abject ignorance and stupidity of Trump's rabid fanbase, who are so easily beguiled into a trap set by the Left, that their fawning worship of a man has emptied their brains of wisdom for the illusion of 'winning'.

1.5 TRILLION dollars in deficit spending later.

[corbe]

@INVAR @Smokin Joe

 

      Sometimes I feel like a Witch in 1692 Salem.

[Emjay]

      Sometimes I feel like a Witch in 1692 Salem.

Not one post on this thread has made any sense at all so you might as well join the crowd.

[Stevensr123]

No such thing as a conservative these days, that goes for most governments in the world. They are all in the pockets of corporations, right wing nuts, let wing nuts etc

The fact trump was willing to spend EVEN more money is a pointer to that. biggest flip flop politician going. 

[libertybele]

Welcome to the Briefing Room.  I believe we have a select few politicians in Congress that I would consider conservative, but the vast majority are indeed in the pockets of corporations.  As for Trump, he isn't going to do anything that's not going to make him money and his agenda of Making America Great Again is to also make his wealth greater.  I have absolutely no doubt.

[txradioguy]

Only someone who isn't a Conservative would celebrate the demise of Conservatism (Amnesty and against the RKBA!).

Perhaps those of us who stand on Principle will simply start calling ourselves "Americans" and let the rest of you find a new name.

Sounds like a good idea.

[EasyAce]

Trump’s first-year accomplishments testify to the conservative movement’s momentum . . . That is Trump’s business, and America’s. But what has
Trump done to conservatives?

One of Trump’s abilities, which he possesses at the level of genius, is finding and naming the weaknesses of enemies: Low-Energy Jeb, Little Marco,
Crooked Hillary. Related is his ability to create weaknesses in his supporters. A weak man needs weak supporters; strong ones might make him feel
insecure, or differ with him. And so, whether from design, or simply because it is the way things work, Trump’s conservative admirers have had to
abandon and contradict what they once professed to hold most dear.

The most egregious example is the religious Right. The religious Right is the latest version of an old model of American politics, variously incarnated
by Puritans, abolitionists, and William Jennings Bryan. It, like its predecessors, has argued that America and individual Americans need to have a
godly or at least moral character to thrive. Now the religious Right adores a thrice-married cad and casual liar. But it is not alone. Historians and
psychologists of the martial virtues salute the bone-spurred draft-dodger whose Khe Sanh was not catching the clap. Cultural critics who deplored
academic fads and slipshod aesthetics explicate a man who has never read a book, not even the ones he has signed . . .

. . . In three years (maybe seven), Donald Trump will no longer be president. But conservatives who bent the knee will still be writing and thinking.
How will it be possible to take them seriously?

The short answer is, it won’t . . .

---Richard Brookhiser, in National Review.

[Sanguine]

The left would like to re-define conservatism as Trumpism.  Conservatism is their eternal enemy, and they would like to transfer the disdain and contempt they feel for Trump to the existential enemy of leftism.

Trump is fairly unique in the POTUS arena, but he is not a conservative.  And, he may turn out to be the best choice in our current socio-political climate.

[truth_seeker]

Conservatives eating their own, as usual. During the Johnson administration, considering the Vietnam war, a question was raised: Can we have "guns AND butter?"

It was raised but not really ever answered. Not under Johnson, not under Nixon (who both continued the war).

Under Reagan we escalated military spending (defeat the Soviets, in long running Cold War), cut taxes, and the deficit grew. Still not answering question.

Following 9-11-2001, Bush grew military spending, cut taxes...and the deficit grew.

Of course we know Obama effectively cut military spending, raised taxes, and still drastically grew the deficit.

Thirteen months in to his first term, Trump is responsible for all of the errors, of the last 50+ years.

And I am assured this is not a #nevertrump site !!

[GrouchoTex]

The left would like to re-define conservatism as Trumpism.  Conservatism is their eternal enemy, and they would like to transfer the disdain and contempt they feel for Trump to the existential enemy of leftism.

Trump is fairly unique in the POTUS arena, but he is not a conservative.  And, he may turn out to be the best choice in our current socio-political climate.

Well said.

[EasyAce]

Conservatives eating their own, as usual.

Holding their feet to the fire isn't quite the same as eating one's own.

During the Johnson administration, considering the Vietnam war, a question was raised: Can we have "guns AND butter?"

It was raised but not really ever answered. Not under Johnson, not under Nixon (who both continued the war).

(And, metastasised the welfare state.)

Thirteen months in to his first term, Trump is responsible for all of the errors, of the last 50+ years.

For those of the last fifty-plus years, no.

For his own (economically, his tariffs, actual and intended; his "infrastructure" hopes; and, his gas tax hopes, to name three), yes.

[Cyber Liberty]

And I am assured this is not a #nevertrump site !!

And yet here you are.

[roamer_1]

Conservatives eating their own, as usual.

They ain't my own.

It takes more than SAYING one is Conservative to BE a Conservative. This administration is antithetical to Conservatism. Those who laud it are either foolishly duped, or something far worse.

[RoosGirl]

And yet here you are.

Amazeballs.

[Cyber Liberty]

Amazeballs.

I guess he's made it his personal quest to enlighten us feebs.  The way Jazz does it.

[Right_in_Virginia]

So he came to CPAC not to pay homage to the traditions of conservatism ...

What traditions of conservatism would those be --- losing national elections?

[RoosGirl]

What traditions of conservatism would those be --- losing national elections?

Hey, there are those of us who will settle for any old slob and there are those of us who hold out for Mr. Right.