Friday, August 28, 2015

Why Trump?

I think Jim Antle has the answer.

When pundits call Donald Trump a "know-nothing," they are not just using a historical if pejorative term to describe his immigration stance. They really mean that he appears to know nothing about public policy or governance.

On the charitable assumption that his blustery, content-free stump speech isn't an act, you'll get no argument here. But Trump does seem to know a lot more about politics than many of his detractors, including those critics who are well versed in the finer details of entitlement reform or international trade policy....

(Such as Karl Rove and the rest of the NeoCon crowd of yappers and whiners.)

...Pat Buchanan gave us a hint in his 1992 Republican National Convention speech, when he spoke of "conservatives of the heart" whose political convictions were more visceral than intellectual. "They don't read Adam Smith or Edmund Burke, but they came from the same schoolyards and playgrounds and towns as we did," he told the delegates.

Many Americans, even those engaged enough to identify as liberal or conservative much less Republican or Democrat, aren't systematic political thinkers.

There was a reason that Buchanan thumped GHW Bush in New Hampshire, people!

...in terms of policy, it isn't just that some conservatives haven't read Hayek. They fundamentally disagree with him. At the grassroots level, the American right has always had strong strains of nationalism and moralism. That's not an inherently bad thing, but the modern conservative movement has generally tried to wed these tendencies to a more limited or even libertarian view of government....

We're looking at you, Free Traders, Mass-Immigration Bonzos, and "Law of the Land" queer-marriage shufflers.

...Many Americans think the people running their government are jokes, self-promoting blowhards with bad, expensive haircuts engaged in pointless political theater....

Easily the best short sentence to describe Boehner & McConnell and their obsequious, obedient, "majorities."  That means YOU, RoJo and Ryan.

Read the rest!!

4 comments:

  1. So he knows nothing about public policy or governance.....
    With the ability to issue executive orders this is not important.

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  2. Who is the Republican candidate with the largest amount of donations from the Beltway Lobbyist ?
    and who is currently beating the crap out of golden establishment candidate? This is a good thing.

    Hint: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/donald-trump-jeb-bush-rivalry-2016-213122

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's all well and good, and it's wonderful if a movement like that is standing up at the grassroots level. The problem is that Trump himself is a stalking horse. He's not to be trusted -- he's a Bill and Hillary guy from way back. This movement needs to get itself organized around someone who really does believe in the things they want to fight for.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yup. That's why I'm a Cruz fan. And yes, I have disagreements with him, too.

    ReplyDelete