Make America Great Again is not an "empty" cause, which renders your point a bit moot.
Well, it wasn't the first time around... You know... Back in '80...
And now who's splitting hairs...Reagan's popular appeal was "incidentaL". Perhaps...and yet was instrumental to his achieving conservative goals. One could and should argue that Trump's popular appeal is likewise "incidental" and that its the "achieving of conservative goals...aka MAGA" that is at point.
You misunderstand me. Reagan's popularity in politics was centered in his governance of California. He had the chops, and he earned it. His wider popularity as a movie star is what I am saying is incidental... Exactly as is Tumpy's.
Securing the border...which was as secure as its ever been by 2020...is not a bumper sticker. Putting the interests of American businesses...corporate tax rate cuts and massive deregulation...is not a bumper sticker. Attaining energy independence...which we did...was not a bumper sticker. Looking forward...putting an end to atrocities like Critical Race Theory...is not a bumper sticker. Ensuring freedom of speech and an end to online partisan censorship...as Desantis is attempting in Florida and which Trump is the leading advocate...is not a bumper sticker.
All hot air. All gone. Dubya did the same dang thing. That's why governing by EO means nothing and does not count. I know y'all can't stand it, but it is damnwell true. And not long ago that was what every Conservative knew. So quit ticking on your fingers the things he made temporary gains in... That's the candy from the clown at the front of the parade. Soon enough, you'll get a belly ache from that. Tell me the things we get to keep. That is what would make him different from the Moderate Wing presidents we have had since Reagan. And that is the performance I demand.
I respect your opinion a great deal, roamer...
Despite our contention, I offer the same respect. You are pretty singularly the only inner-circle die-hard Tumpist that offers argument and some sort of half-assed defense. Well, that didn't come out to mean you are half-assed... That is not what I mean. You DO strive mightily and with fervor, and with intelligent, well meaning arguments. But they are the very same arguments as always. The very same attempts to color me the RINO, the very same attempts to justify an altered, hyphenated conservatism - Just the very same as the fanbois for Boosh, McCain't, and Romulus. It is the same old pragmatist/populist song. THAT is what is half-assed, and hard to defend.
I can and will tear that down, every time. But I respect your position, all the same. And you are always pretty easy to talk to, and I believe your intentions are good.
which is why I continually try to argue the President's case and persuade you to at least a tolerance of president Trump. I realize its an uphill...perhaps hopeless struggle...
Absolutely hopeless. I have been seared by the nuclear blast of twenty trillion dollars going up in smoke. And a gazillion small businesses shuttered - Including mine. There ain't a single chance in hell you can put a red bow on that.
but the conservative movement can't succeed if we are fragmented and at war with each other.
Yours is not a Conservative movement. See fiscal conservatism. See libertarianism. Then look at who is represented in the Conservative Coalition. ALL of them must be represented to call it a Conservative movement. First do no harm... Oops! Too late for that.
And here's a truth you may find uncomfortable...in terms of policy...there's not an inch of space between Desantis, Hawley, Cotton...and President Trump. Despite that, this silly NT movement continues to ensure the Right remains fragmented and at war with itself. That makes...not just you...but all of us...useful idiots of the Left.
Doesn't make me uncomfortable in the least. Every RINO out there says the same thing in the silly season. That's why hawking policy is bullcrap. Show me the money.
So my efforts to persuade you will continue against all odds...because you are needed in this fight. I believe in the same principles that you do...in fact I admire your tight hold on principle...but we cannot so narrowly define
conservatism as to ensure we lose every political struggle.
Quite the other way around. The minute you give in and compromise any principle thing, you have already lost, and there is no way I can support that. Any good that comes of it is offset by what was lost in the compromise - and chip by chip, those losses continue to erode away the foundations - To include your movement. In the grand total, liberalism won during the Tump administration. The ball went LEFT.
We cannot support only the "perfect" candidates, or we will have a handful of the perfect vs a mob of Leftists as our end result. Populism is about appeal...it reaches out and offers a vision of conservatism to those who otherwise would remain "in the cave, fearing the light"...populism is not in any way a counter to conservative thought, it is simply the promotion of that thought to a wider audience of voters.
Pragmatism yet again. If only I would compromise...
It is compromise that has brought us here. It is compromise that has filled the Republican ranks with RINOs. The stench of it makes me wretch.
Do you understand what conservative policies we can put in place when we lose elections?
Not at the expense of other Conservatives and their policies. Carving off fiscal conservatism and libertarianism is exactly the same approach as is ALWAYS the argument toward compromise. Without those two, you are just another advocate of Big.gov... And I will not lend my endorsement to that. All or nothing pal... Because if you won't support all, you deserve nothing. Y'all are fond of this 'hang together or hang separately' bullcrap until I point out that y'all are the ones dividing off the Ficons and Civcons. It's y'all that are causing us to hang separately, not me.
And to be clear. No one...sure as hell not myself...is advocating we surrender ANY of our conservative principles. Period. What I'm advocating is quite the opposite...that populism is the means by which we educate the middle class as to what those principles are and why they matter.
Don't you see? You already have.