Friday, March 31, 2017

WTH is up with Trump attacking conservatives? Analysis and advice...

It appears that President Trump considers conservatives to be the deplorables. Millions and millions of conservatives have embraced the principles of federalism, limited government and the Constitution long before Trump became president. If Trump takes conservatives for granted he does so at his own risk, and if he embraces Paul Ryan and the RINOs then he will fail. If Trump tries to wipe out conservatives in the primary, we will not only defend them, but we will try and wipe out the liberal and more moderate elements in the Republican Party. The President sounds like Richard Nixon, and every other moderate, establishment Republican who has ever walked the Earth hating conservatives. ~ MLS, 3/30/17
I sat back throughout the week to see how this would play out, and I see my fears have come to fruition in regards to our new president's direction. I know those who've pledge allegiance to Trump won't like anything that I'm about to point out, but it nevertheless must be said...

First, with a valid question from Ben Shapiro: When does Trump become the Establishment? This is all prefaced on the pretense of what if Jeb Bush had won the presidency? How would Republicans feel if he'd pushed a bill that would supposedly repeal and replace Obamacare, but instead, while making significant changes to Medicaid, re-enshrined the central provisions of Obamacare, thus creating a new entitlement program? You wouldn't like it a damn bit!
… if Bush and his top surrogates had then spent the weekend talking about dumping the Freedom Caucus to work with Democrats, who thinks conservatives would have resignedly nodded along?
Of course not. But Bush isn't president. Donald Trump is.
And because Trump played an anti-establishment figure on TV, too many conservatives assume he is one.

 He isn't. President Trump is anti-establishment when it comes to persona, of course -- he thinks that every governmental Gordian knot can be cut, that he can simply bulldoze his opposition, that deals are for sissies and that tough guys finish first. But the deals he wants to cut look a lot more like former President George W. Bush's “compassionate conservatism” than they do like the Tea Party agenda.

And yet, many Americans keep treating Trump like an outsider. He isn't. He's the most powerful man on Earth, the head of the executive branch. He can't just keep yelling at Ryan and McConnell publicly while dealing with them on legislation that Jeb Bush would endorse in a heartbeat, and then rip conservatives who disagree. That doesn't make him anti-establishment. It just makes him a blowhard.

If Trump wants to represent the outsider, it's about time for him to represent those outside of government. And that means minimizing government power, not maximizing it. But that's the dirty little secret: Trump isn't anti-establishment; he's pro-establishment so long as he's the establishment.
Related links: Party and purity be damned: Repealing Obamacare is about keeping promises
GOP establishment purists already surrendered April budget fight … with control of all 3 branches!

Told you this won't be easy for Trump supporters to hear. But when you're tired and disgusted with the Establishment in D.C., and you supposedly voted for an outsider, you want him to act like an outsider...NOT like the establishment you thought you were draining!

As Steve Deace observes: So much for Trump beating the establishment!
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

A previously moderate-to-liberal politician calls himself a Republican, but spent most of his time in politics actually cozying up to or supporting Democrats instead. Up until prepping to run for higher office that is. Then, once the race begins, he instantly transforms himself into a tough talking campaign conservative. Finally, should he be fortunate enough to get elected, all that conservative talk suddenly goes out the window as he betrays the very people that got him where he’s at.

 This has been the plight of the conservative in the Republican Party for far too long.

However, Donald Trump was supposed to be a paradigm-shifter. He was supposed to be a populist, who would serve the people rather than serve the system. He was supposed to be anti-establishment; a threat to the traditional GOP power structure. He was supposed to be the alpha male, capable of getting results a generation of Republican girlie men lacked the testicular fortitude to achieve.

 “The time for talk is over,” Trump is fond of saying. “The time for action is at hand.”

Turns out talk is all Trump can do, and his talk is cheap at that. Because when you strip away his reality show shtick and fake bravado, all last week’s healthcare debacle proved is Trump ironically is the very embodiment of the derogatory term his cult coined last year for useless Republicans.
Related links: Give freedom a chance: The health care debate America never had
Treating the symptoms and not the disease: Tennessee RINOs introduce Obamacare bailout plan

Chris Pandolfo pointed out that there was a time when Trump once lambasted guys like Karl Rove for not supporting the Tea Party. Trump once loved the Tea Party. Now he’s declared war on it!
Back in 2013, Karl Rove and his allies in the Republican Establishment sought to destroy Tea Party conservatives. ...

Rove wanted to defeat conservative candidates in Republican primaries — candidates like Chris McDaniel in Mississippi. In 2013, Donald Trump was still a businessman, and back then he fought to defend the Tea Party.
Trump objected to Rove’s targeting of Tea Party candidates in the 2014 primary elections.
He even blamed Rove and the Republican Establishment for helping the Democratic agenda.
Trump even went on “The Mark Levin Show” to discuss Rove’s mismanagement of the Republican Party.



“The Tea Party, these people are great,” Trump said. “When I see Karl Rove go and demean the Tea Party after what he did with his lousy record, I was just really angry.”

And Trump swore the Tea Party would fight on.
There's still nearly a half dozen other tweets that recalled Trump's then seemingly staunch support for the Tea Party. The instances above as well as many others are the arguments he once used against Karl Rove. Now, in attacking the Freedom Caucus, in threatening to primary them, Trump has effectively become Rove!
In one swift stroke, President Donald Trump has become the establishment he ran against. The president is attacking the Freedom Caucus again, this time suggesting that they need to be fought in 2018 primary elections.

Mr. President, what is the Republican agenda? Is it a liberty agenda? Is it an agenda that will make life better for the American people? Is it an agenda that supports anything you stood for on the campaign trail?

In the first major test of “the Republican agenda,” Speaker Paul Ryan presented an horrendous health care bill that completely neglected to fulfill your promise to repeal Obamacare.

In its next test, the upcoming budget fight, Republicans in Congress are communicating that border wall funds will not be included in the continuing resolution. And those cuts to government spending you proposed, Mr. President? Republicans are attacking them to defend their favorite pet government programs.

The Freedom Caucus members are your allies. They are the anti-establishment lawmakers that actually want to change the way Washington D.C. works, just like you campaigned, Mr. President.

And you’re attacking them. In doing so, you are empowering the people you incessantly claimed were the problem. You are breaking your promise to drain the swamp.

You are becoming the establishment you said you would oppose.
Related link: Mitch McConnell’s bucket of suck

This leads right back to Levin's Thursday evening topic that I began this post with: If Trump channels Nixon’s hatred for conservatives, he will FAIL.
“Well fellow conservatives, it appears that President Trump considers us to be the deplorables,” Conservative Review Editor-in-Chief Mark Levin said to open Thursday's radio program.

The president has launched an assault on conservative Republicans in the Freedom Caucus, and the Tea Party patriots they represent. Levin said that Trump sounds like Richard Nixon, and every other moderate, establishment Republican who has ever walked the Earth hating conservatives.



“Now Mr. President, if you go out and try and wipe out conservatives in the primary, I can tell you right now, sir, we’re not only going to defend them, but we’re going to try and wipe out the liberal and more moderate elements in the Republican Party,” Levin said.

“Let me be quite blunt about this,” Levin continued. “There are tens of millions of conservatives in this country, many of whom supported you in the Republican primary. They will turn on you in a second.”

“You take the conservatives for granted, you do so at your own risk. You play footsie with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, you’re liable to get burned. You embrace the RINOs like Paul Ryan, you will fail.”
Related link: Purists, low expectations, and the triumph of New York values – The Conservative Conscience Ep102

The Freedom Caucus is NOT backing down. These patriotic Statesmen are standing strong amid attacks from their own president, who first suggested that the Freedom Caucus saved Planned Parenthood funding and Obamacare, and later announced that if conservatives don’t hop aboard the establishment Republican agenda they will be fought in 2018!
Though the Freedom Caucus is under assault from all sides, some of its members who have spoken to the media or made public statements are standing strong — insisting that they are willing to work with President Trump to keep the GOP’s promise to repeal Obamacare.

The media has used the failure of the American Health Care Act — Republican leadership’s phony repeal bill — as an excuse to attack conservatives in Congress.
Related links: Leading Conservative Groups Stand With Freedom Caucus After Trump Attacks
Freedom Caucus SLAMS Trump After Trump Bashes Them


I don't know if the staunchest of Trump supporters have made it this far, but if so, and if there's a willingness to take advice, please, take this: Trump’s agenda won’t be bold or robust if you trust it to RINOs and Democrats!
If the president likes his agenda, he can keep his agenda; he simply needs to stop smearing the few people who are actually dedicated to a bold and robust agenda. ...

If you really want to pursue a bold and robust “America First” agenda, it might help not to carpet bomb the small group of people who are fighting to keep it bold and robust in the first place.
Related links: While Trump attacks conservatives, his immigration agenda burns
Trump is completely wrong on the trade deficit. Let Levin, Sowell, and Friedman explain [VIDEO]
Posted by an ebb and flow at 2:24 PM