What Do Conservatives Think About Trump?
If you care about the Constitution, and economic freedom, vote for Trump - or don't.
Having lived under a liberal bubble for five decades due to my upbringing, education, and profession, I know how people on the left think. I have chosen to listen to the other side over the past ten years or so. I can't bring myself to watch cable news. The rabid partisanship repulses me. My information tends to come from several publications. I enjoy reading media that is slightly more conservative than liberal, although I'm interested in thinkers from all political sides.
Family court shattered my worldview. I experience firsthand what "equality" felt like. I stopped trusting people in government, and I became "woke" to human nature's realities. Since then, I've seen the ways both sides rationalize their way out of certain conundrums, and I've seen incredible displays of cognitive dissonance.
I'm enjoying the last days of this election cycle for several reasons:
We will have some stability knowing who will govern the federal government's executive branch for the next four years.
Either the media will be utterly wrong like they were in 2016 - or they will have finally gotten things right.
Democratic legislators will eventually get what they've wanted after all of the stuff they tried - or not.
I'm also interested in how conservatives wrestle with Trump taking over the Republican party. I think it's fun to watch. In many ways, they had it coming. They talked about fiscal responsibility yet never followed through. They spoke a good game when it came to family values but had so many cheaters and liars in their clan. For four years, they reluctantly had to publicly support a man who has systematically attacked every one of our democratic institutions: the Justice Department, the FBI, the Defense Department, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution.
The current GOP has no principles, just like Trump. They've lost all credibility, but I feel they want to restore order. Maybe that's what this election is about for both sides—a restoration.
Conservatives are exhausted by the shenanigans over the past four years. They want the madness to end as much as liberals. I've surveyed several conservative-leaning publications over the past few days, and I've seen a few interesting takes on why Trump should be voted out.
Kevin Williamson wrote in his piece, Hell, No in National Review;
One of the many perversities of Trump's presidency is that Donald J. Trump's core deficiencies as a chief administrator — his ignorance and his laziness — are the chief practical virtues of his presidency. He doesn't know what he doesn't know and doesn't want to know, and this has created the opportunity for some of the people in his administration to get some useful things done. For this reason, the conservative advances that have accompanied the Trump presidency (and it won't do to pretend that these do not exist) mostly have been in the fields in which the president has the least engagement and interest, whereas the catastrophes of the Trump presidency (and it won't do to pretend that these do not exist) are strongly associated with those few areas of policy in which he takes an active interest or is personally and strongly engaged with ex officio.
He goes on to say;
Trump's low character is not only an abstract ethical concern but a public menace that has introduced elements of chaos and unpredictability in U.S. government activity ranging from national defense to managing the coronavirus epidemic. Trump's character problems are practical concerns, not metaphysical ones. Trump is frequently wrong on important policy questions (including trade, foreign policy, entitlements, health care, and many others) and frequently incompetent even when trying to advance a good policy. His vanity and paranoia have made it very difficult for him to keep good people in top positions, and this imposes real costs both politically and as a matter of practical governance. Trump's problem is not etiquette: It is dishonesty, stupidity, and incompetence, magnified by the self-dealing and cowardice of the cabal of enablers and sycophants who have a stake in pretending that this unsalted s*** sandwich is filet mignon.
Ouch!
Charlie Sykes in The Bulwark wrote;
With Trump, it can always get worse, because there is no bottom. In just four years, Trump has already made the conservative movement, dumber, crueler, more dishonest, and more extreme. Rationalization has turned to acceptance. As the toll rises from the pandemic the pro-life party increasingly behaves like a death cult.
Four years into his presidency, Trump can tweet conspiracy theories about Seal Team Six, and Republicans no longer even blink.
What will be the butcher's bill for another four years of Trump's denialism and flimflammery?
Two years of accommodating deception, cruelty, and corruption, can be a temporary bargain.
In four years, it becomes a habit.
In eight years, it becomes a culture.
Other conservatives have a different point of view. They see November 3, 2020, as the "Middle Finger Election." Some say that if Donald Trump wins a second term, it will be an unmistakable countercultural statement in a year when progressives have otherwise worked their will across the culture.
Rich Lowry of National Review writes;
After months and months of statues toppling and riots in American cities and a crime wave and woke virtue-signaling from professional sports leagues and absurd firings and cancellations, the year would end with a stunning, stark rebuke of all of that.
He goes on to say;
No one is voting for his barely sketched-out second-term agenda.
If he wins, it will be despite all that. An enormous factor would be that Trump is the only way for his voters to say to the cultural Left, "No, sorry, you've gone too far."
Besides the occasional dissenting academic and brave business owner or ordinary citizen, Trump is, for better or worse, the foremost symbol of resistance to the overwhelming woke cultural tide that has swept along the media, academia, corporate America, Hollywood, professional sports, the big foundations, and almost everything in between.
He's the vessel for registering opposition to everything from the 1619 Project to social media's attempted suppression of the Hunter Biden story.
To put it in blunt terms, for many people, he's the only middle finger available — to brandish against the people who've assumed they have the whip hand in American culture.
This may not be a very good reason to vote for a president, and it doesn't excuse Trump's abysmal conduct and maladministration.
Most conservatives don't like Trump. They are willing to stay on the ride until the wheels fall off. They just secured their third Supreme Court Justice with him in power. Republicans are getting most of what they want from President Trump.
Conservatives like Ben Shapiro have a different take. Shapiro explained recently that his most important reason for backing Trump in 2020 is because "Democrats have lost their fucking minds."
Four years ago, Shapiro had posted a six-minute video on YouTube titled "Donald Trump is a Liar." The next month, he wrote, "I Will Never Vote for Donald Trump: Here's Why."
Ben now, Shapiro sees Trump's conservative record as justification to dismiss past statements. I understand how people can evolve. That’s why we should never say never. Shapiro explains his reversal by pointing to what he sees as Trump's record as a conservative. He dismisses and rationalizes Trump's mendacity. It doesn't matter to him about the damage that President Trump has done to the USA’s reputation on an international level. He feels the damage cannot be undone. Shapiro sees it as "the new status quo, unfortunately."
Shapiro endorsed Trump in a new video, insisting;
First, I was simply wrong about Donald Trump on policy. Second, I wasn't really wrong about Donald Trump on character, but whatever damage he was going to do, he's already done, and it's not going to help if I don't vote for him this time," he argued. "And third, most importantly, the Democrats have lost their f---ing minds.
I have been very clear on my feelings about Donald Trump's character. I have serious reservations to say the least
You don't have to like Trump's character, you don't have to love his Twitter account to vote for him. You don't have to approve of the crazy or bad things that he says or the way he often acts.
But, if you care about the Constitution, and economic freedom, and the security of the United States, you really don't have a whole hell of a lot of choice. You should vote for Trump.
I understand the notion of the left going overboard. They ARE crazy. It’s why I can’t align myself with progressives. But good grief, I can’t go along with any rationalization for putting Trump back in the office of the presidency. But hey, that’s just my little old opinion. We’ll see what the electorate says on November 4th.
The re-election of Donald Trump is no bulwark against the encroachment of cultural leftism. The idea Trump will contain the same forces that have been driven crazy throughout his entire presidency is self-refuting. To promote the concept that four more years is all that stands in the way of the expurgation of a violent, totalitarian element from within the Democratic Party’s ranks is betrayed by the fact that this is a phenomenon that predates this president. Black Lives Matter began in 2013, and campus radicalism started in 2011. Keeping Trump around isn’t a cure for that disease.
You won’t read about me supporting any team, whether they are Democrats, Republicans, Steelers, Titans, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, or the Hartford Whalers - remember them?
Why? It’s because the players change too often. I’m a person who prefers to support individuals. I rarely support organizations or teams. Some teams have rich histories and outstanding leadership over many decades, but when the people change, and new players come in and out, it becomes difficult for me to stay loyal. It’s usually individuals, and what they do that makes me inclined to remain supportive.
Do you support Trump? If so, why? Leave a comment HERE:
THIS is the best reason to wear a mask:
Find a way to win. Look, there was a lot of rule-breaking going on from the start.
What’s up with the “push-ups?”
What’s up with this?
An Interesting Development:
Eight Small New York Theaters Sue Cuomo Over Pandemic Restrictions
The Jujamcyn’s Nederlander’s and Schubert’s need to do the same!
“We get sued virtually every day for virtually every action taken during this pandemic, and frankly I’ve lost track of all the frivolous suits filed against us,” said Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to the governor.
“Frivolous?” This shows you exactly how much the Cuomo administration cares about the arts. Now that he’s banned 95% of America from traveling to New York, how can NYC survive?
Clayton Craddock is an independent thinker, father of two beautiful children in New York City. He is the drummer of the hit broadway musical Ain't Too Proud. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University's School of Business and is a 28 year veteran of the fast-paced New York City music scene. He has played drums in several hit broadway and off-broadway musicals, including "Tick, tick…BOOM!, Altar Boyz, Memphis The Musical, and Lady Day At Emerson's Bar and Grill. Also, Clayton has worked on: Footloose, Motown, The Color Purple, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, Evita, Cats, and Avenue Q.
My faith in the Balance of Ineptitude remains unshaken. It is stronger than ever, in fact, in the face of a depth of immaturity and a boundlessly amoral hypocrisy which has by now completely overrun all of politics. Anyone who takes the counterfeit ideologies of either faction seriously is a self-deluding moron. The only enduring purpose of elections in this constitutional republic is to prevent any one faction or interest group from amassing absolute power, period. Given the shamelessly opportunistic orgy of approval-seeking and fortune-hunting indulged in nonstop by anyone in politics, of any ersatz persuasion, in recent times, it ought to be obvious that any one of them would be as potentially dangerous as any other, in the event that their personal hold on power might become unchecked. The only use the common citizenry even has for this entire insular and destructive class of villains is in the blunt reality that neither faction is of any use to them whatsoever, besides for the purpose of preventing the other one from grabbing and holding a monopoly on power. It is painfully obvious that we will never be rid of the both of them, so absent that happy outcome their only function is to remain stalemated in this apparently permanent brawling feud with each other, and consequently the hell out of our personal business. Does no one else realize that these are the kind of people who are so bereft of any personal virtue or willingness to contribute to human well-being by any honest means, such as by actually earning their living instead of being paid exorbitantly to make asses of themselves on a continuing basis, that the only place to warehouse them out of everyday society's way, is in politics?