#NeverTrump Conservatives Should Not Become Democrats

[Formerly Once-Ler]

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/nevertrump-conservative-critics-never-become-democrats/

Politico contributing editor Bill Scher isn’t the first to claim that the only responsible way for Trump-skeptical conservative to oppose the president is to register as Democrats, but his is one of the most charitable and honest of those appeals. It deserves a comprehensive response. Toward that end, I’d contend that Scher has conservative thought leaders confused with legislators and political organizers. He has mistaken those who adhere to inviolable conservative principle with influence-seekers who are bound to a constituency, not ideas. Finally, he has adopted a narrow view of the current political moment that has blinded him both to what the Democratic Party truly is and the incentives to which conservatives in political exile respond.

Trump’s critics in the conservative movement abandoned him not just because of his temperamental defects, but because of his progressive impulses. The president’s skepticism toward free trade, his conciliatory posture toward hostile regimes abroad, his Keynesian instincts, his apathy toward budget deficits, and his general amenability toward heedless populism are traits that traditionally appeal to and are exhibited by Democrats. Why would conservatives join that which they are rebelling against?

Trump-skeptical conservatives are ubiquitous features on cable news. Their magazines and websites are enjoying a renaissance. They haunt their comrades who have made their peace with Trumpism. Most critically, they represent the strain of conservatism to which the majority of the Republican Party’s congressmen and women are loyal because it was that brand of conservatism that led them into politics in the first place. The worst-kept secret of the Trump era is that this president receives his highest marks when he’s doing conventionally conservative things. When the president behaves as he promised to on the campaign trail, Republicans rebel and often rein in his worst impulses. It’s not much, but it is a sign that a partial restoration of the status quo ante is not unthinkable.

More at link.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

Trump-skeptical conservatives are ubiquitous features on cable news. Their magazines and websites are enjoying a renaissance. They haunt their comrades who have made their peace with Trumpism. Most critically, they represent the strain of conservatism to which the majority of the Republican Party’s congressmen and women are loyal because it was that brand of conservatism that led them into politics in the first place.

[Formerly Once-Ler]

NATO are our allies.  Good ethics and morals are a virtue.  $20 trillion in debt is bad.  Don't collude with hostile foreign governments.  Tariffs are a tax on the American consumer.  Even Mexican looking judges can be American.  That kind of conservatism.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Toward that end, I’d contend that Scher has conservative thought leaders confused with legislators and political organizers.

No worries.  There's no confusion here.  The American public is coming to accept NeverTrump conservatives are at their core utter cowards afraid of their own shadows.  They are content to hide behind the shield of "principles" while others do the heavy lifting and actually fight the good fight --- like Jim Jordan who's taken the outrageous slings and arrows of a lying opposition AND shows up unannounced at a Trump rally on a Saturday night to support our President and congressional candidates.  And the crowd recognized his courage when he took the stage with its spontaneous chant:  "Speaker of the House! Speaker of the House! Speaker of the House!"

Preserving the GOP’s ideological predisposition toward conservatism is a constant struggle, but it is one that conservative opinion makers relish.

The NeverTrump conservative may not be good at legislating and organizing ... but they sure are mighty good at asinine spin. 

The anti-Trump right is far too small a contingent to have any impact on the evolutionary trajectory of the Democratic Party, even if they were to abandon the principles that led them into the wilderness in the first place. They do, however, enjoy influence over American politics wildly disproportionate relative to their numerical strength.

Of course they do.    Why I'd bet good money tens of people tune in to watch them buff their nails while pontificating and commiserating with Wolf Blitzer.

When the president behaves as he promised to on the campaign trail, Republicans rebel and often rein in his worst impulses

Wow.  This is mind-blowing bullshit.  Maybe NeverTrump conservatives should spend some time investigating a group rate discount for substance abuse rehabilitation.  After all, God helps those who help themselves.  Their only obstacle will be proving they qualify as a "group".

Those who chose temporary isolation in order to shield conservative beliefs from being disfigured by those who do not cherish them might not enjoy the gratitude they’ve earned.

With this the prosecution rests with a recommendation NeverTrump conservatives plead guilty by reason of insanity to abdicating the responsibilities of American citizenship - - - and voluntarily throw themselves into the trash bin of political history. 

[Formerly Once-Ler]

With this the prosecution rests with a recommendation NeverTrump conservatives plead guilty by reason of insanity to abdicating the responsibilities of American citizenship - - - and voluntarily throw themselves into the trash bin of political history.

Thanx for your reply @Right_in_Virginia You made a very strong argument for voting against Trump.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Thanx for your reply @Right_in_Virginia You made a very strong argument for voting against Trump.

   As though there was a snowball's chance in hell that he who spends the wee hours of the morning scouring the Internet for anti-Trump articles to post on TBR would EVER vote for Donald Trump.

Stop trying to sell your  to me @Once-Ler   -- not only am I not buying it, you're embarrassing yourself.

[XenaLee]

NATO are our allies.  Good ethics and morals are a virtue.  $20 trillion in debt is bad.  Don't collude with hostile foreign governments.  Tariffs are a tax on the American consumer.  Even Mexican looking judges can be American.  That kind of conservatism.

NATO are our allies.

Really?  Then they need to start acting like allies .... instead of like liberal, open-borders, globalist leftists that are hostile to the current president.  And they need to start paying their fair share of the burden of being NATO "allies".

Good ethics and morals are a virtue.

Sure, but look around.  Where, exactly, are you witnessing examples of that from any politician in ANY nation right now?  (Hint:  selling out your own country to the pro-suicide-by-immigrant faction is not ethical OR good morals)

$20 trillion in debt is bad.

Absolutely.  But healing the economy via less regulations and lower corporate taxes... so that some of that debt at least 'could' be contained or decreased ... is a step in the right direction.... at least.

Don't collude with hostile foreign governments.

You seem to be confusing diplomacy with collusion.  Sounds like a Democrat kinda confusion to me.

Tariffs are a tax on the American consumer.

True.  But if they are a temporary tool to force the negotiation of terms that would make free trade actually "free" (meaning good for America in the end run).... then maybe not so bad. At least the "tax" comes at a time where the consumers can better afford it.   And I say that with full knowledge that I personally got no such "tax relief" from Trump's tax cuts.

Even Mexican looking judges can be American.

Just like..... even American looking judges can be pro-Mexico and/or anti-American.  Don't see the pertinent point here, though... other than taking a poke at Trump (as usual).

[Formerly Once-Ler]

Stop trying to sell your  to me @Once-Ler   -- not only am I not buying it, you're embarrassing yourself.

Boy I really am embarrassed, and all the more shameful that is YOU that has caught me.

I realized that there is a need for some clarification. It should’ve been obvious. I thought it would be obvious, but I would like to clarify just in case it wasn’t. In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word “against” instead of “for.” The sentence should have been, ‘You made a very strong argument for voting FOR Trump.’”

[XenaLee]

Boy I really am embarrassed, and all the more shameful that is YOU that has caught me.

I realized that there is a need for some clarification. It should’ve been obvious. I thought it would be obvious, but I would like to clarify just in case it wasn’t. In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word “against” instead of “for.” The sentence should have been, ‘You made a very strong argument for voting FOR Trump.’”

LOL!   Nobody loves a smart-ass.

Well.....

almost nobody. 

[Formerly Once-Ler]

Sounds like a Democrat kinda confusion to me.

Except for that part you wrote a substantive reply.  Good job.

[XenaLee]

Except for that part you wrote a substantive reply.  Good job.

Lol....thanks.

Pretty good considering.... I haven't had one sip of java yet.

[LMAO]

[quote author=XenaLee link=topic=327298.msg1760458#msg1760458 date=1533469262

Absolutely.  But healing the economy via less regulations and lower corporate taxes... so that some of that debt at least 'could' be contained or decreased ... is a step in the right direction.... at least.


[/quote]

No

Not without cuts in spending. Something Trump and Congress not only don’t want to do but they actually want to increase spending

[XenaLee]

[quote author=XenaLee link=topic=327298.msg1760458#msg1760458 date=1533469262

Absolutely.  But healing the economy via less regulations and lower corporate taxes... so that some of that debt at least 'could' be contained or decreased ... is a step in the right direction.... at least.




No

Not without cuts in spending. Something Trump and Congress not only don’t want to do but they actually want to increase spending

Well... cuts in spending would be nice.... for a refreshing change.   But not since Contract With America have we had Congress-critters concerned with that.   I fear it's a trend we will be unable to reverse (voting ain't working).

[INVAR]

If NeverTrumps vote for or become Democrats, they were never Conservative in the first place.

They were likely liberal big government Republicans in the first place.

There are other parties whose platforms and planks are what the Republican Party now holds in contempt and has discarded.  The same party that told lifelong members who balked at their big-government liberal compromising to sit down and vote the way they are told and to shut up about God and morality or get out of their party.

So get out of their party.  They are simply morphing into the liberal Democrat party of the 90s.    But if you are truly a Conservative, you don't go Democrat.  You go to a Conservative party.