I think the Trumpism movement was rooted in a personality cult; it stood for Trump the man, and it's not yet in the past tense. It is motivated by the frustration millions honestly felt in not having a leader speak for them, and seeing Trump finally say what they had felt for years, and saying it without apology. Consequently the movement is willing to overlook Trump's character and personality flaws, even to deny and invert them and to interpret them as virtues, and to excoriate anyone who refuses to join in that fantasy.
I think that's pretty well right - I think people were happy to see somebody dot the eye of the liberals, and in their glee confused bellicosity and belligerence with serious cahones. I find that quite the other way. The loudmouth is the last one to worry about. But then there is a disconnect between my way and most folks it seems. I am more a 'walk softly and carry a big stick' kinda guy. It's the quiet one that is the curly wolf. He'll have nothing to prove. 'He fights' would have no need to be emphasized because it would just be a matter of course. And when he lets loose the results are self evident. There is blood on the ground.
Hill folk know what I am saying, and cowboys do too. But it seems that posturing is taken for manhood in many places. Titillated by the knife fight in 'Grease', as it were. Never found that sort of thing to be of any worth at all myself, not to mention being attractive. So maybe I am the wrong one to say.
But it did identify and reinforce ideas that American Conservatives should take seriously, and include in our orthodoxy : main-street-America-first, in both trade policy and immigration policy; a serious reduction in the burden to freedom and prosperity posed by Federal regulation; and an intentional withdrawal from the idea of the American military as the guarantor of other people's freedoms. On fiscal policy serious Conservatives can only regard "Trumpism" as a failure, but that doesn't negate the areas where it has clarified what the American people want from the Federal government.
Well that is true and self-evident. And all of the above are present in Conservatism - But that does not credit the Tumpist movement with much. A broken clock is right twice a day after all. It isn't THAT it's right, but WHY it's right. 'America First' is a bumper sticker, not an argument.
I've been clear here more than once about my criticisms of Trump. But if we "real Conservatives" really have this figured out, then we have to ask ourselves honestly why we can't get a "real Conservative" elected. We had a clear real Conservative choice during the 2016 R primaries, whom I supported, yet he was defeated. Some of us might consider Trump the man unworthy, but if Trumpism is empty as well, why did so many choose Trump over Cruz?
Again, I am probably not the right guy. I am particularly sensitive to con jobs, and I smell that sort of thing coming. I see Tumpy as a chaos player following up with a martyr con. Throw everything at the wall, piss everybody off, and then going all crybaby and underdog because everybody is picking on him... Playing off of sympathy and creating a defensive reaction... And I saw that in him early on. He's a one trick pony... and he always plays the public.
And the drama always plays better with the public than someone who is straightforward like Cruz. However, I am continually surprised by how many that claim conservatism will be so easily swayed to sacrifice the very things they claim to stand upon for the expediency of the moment. And worse than that - The main motivator, the overweening lever is fear. Fear has never made a proper decision.
