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The Desperate Attempts to Separate Trump From Conservatism

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The harder the left goes after someone on the right, the more squishy people on the right desert that person. Instead of circling the wagons and supporting our own, RINOs and moderates leave some of our top shining stars high and dry. We’ve seen this pattern happen for years, it’s nothing new. The more successful a conservative leader is, the more likely they are to become a target, so this is a real ongoing problem. Unfortunately, there are a lot of self-righteous people in our party who care more about donations for reelection from powerful special interests than promoting real conservative values, so when they see someone like former President Trump getting beat up in the MSM, they use the ruse that he’s not conservative to desert him. 

 

Now that Trump is no longer in office, the revisionists are coming out in full force. There is currently a split on the right between those who think Trump defines Republicans now, versus those who think he is toxic and must be deserted. The latter derogatorily refers to anything he does and those who approve of him as “Trumpism,” as if it’s a cancer that must be purged from the party.  

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One of the most popular accusations is that Trump is a populist, not a conservative. What is the definition of a populist? Someone who cares about the little people, who is concerned about their interests and rights being exploited by a privileged elite. This sounds merely like a tenet of conservatism, not a completely different philosophy. The left and MSM always pretend that Republicans are the party of the wealthy, but that’s not true. Republicans are about treating everyone the same and giving everyone the same opportunities, no matter how poor. Regardless, while Trump seemed to care a bit more about the average Joe than the previous two Republican presidents, there wasn’t a huge divergence in policy implications.   

 

Another popular criticism is that Trump approved of large spending increases. If this was the criteria for being a conservative, then what about Ronald Reagan? Under Reagan, spending increased by 2.7%, higher than under George H.W. Bush and even Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. 

 

A third criticism is that Trump doesn’t have a deeply held ideology. Then why did he come down on the conservative side of issues consistently for four years? These critics would have you ignore his actions and instead tell you what they say he is thinking. The truth is, Trump pursued a very conservative agenda. All of the main tenets of modern day conservatism were there in his record as president: Second Amendment, pro-life, religious freedom, individual rights, lower taxes, decreasing regulations, strong military, opposition to authoritarian government, rejection of globalism, etc. 

 

Some quibble that his rejection of globalism was not conservative —  but the antithesis of that would subvert U.S. patriotism for values like the Paris Agreement on climate change, or condone rights abusing countries on the U.N.’s Human Rights Council who denounce the U.S. Trump has been critical of so-called free trade agreements like NAFTA because they aren’t purely free trade, they subvert U.S. sovereignty to foreign interests in ways that must be addressed. He rightly saw that we don’t want our environmental, labor and consumer protection laws dictated by authoritarian countries. Ultimately, Trump kept almost all of NAFTA in place, renaming it as the USMCA.

 

Trump’s patriotism merely harkens back to the Founding Fathers. But the RINOs attack even that, claiming that Trump’s patriotism is a form of nationalism, a word they have cleverly pounced upon because it can mean not just patriotism but also fascism or National Socialism. It’s nothing more than clever word plays. 

 

Many of those on the right accusing Trump of not being a conservative aren’t very conservative themselves. They generally fit into one of two categories: 1) RINOs who caved in to obtain special interest money a long time ago and so want to pretend those positions are the status quo for Republicans, or 2) RINOs who enjoy the fawning attention from the left and MSM for attacking real conservatives. Many of the latter refer to themselves as intellectual conservatives, and fool people because they write for elitist news sources, some ostensibly on the right. 

 

But the real intellectual conservatives, like the late William F. Buckley Jr., acquired this title because they thoroughly understood conservative principles, wrote about them intelligently and could trounce the left in debates. The snooty wannabe intellectual conservatives point to one derogatory remark Buckley made in 2000. Buckley called Trump a narcissist. But they fail to point out that Trump was not a Republican at the time, he was registered with the Independence Party and had no conservative record, so of course Buckley was going to criticize him. 

 

Critics of Trump in this area even try to have it both ways. On the one hand, they say he is too liberal to be a conservative, cherry picking things he’s said in the past before he aligned with the right to run for president. On the other hand, they say he’s gone too far to the right, such as by demanding that Mexico pay for a border wall. So which is it? You can’t have it both ways. It shows the shallowness and desperateness of their criticism.  

 

The reality is, Trump brought a coalition of those on the right together, uniting the party like we haven’t seen since the Reagan coalition of the 1980s. He brought in minorities including conservative gays, demographics which had been ignored for years as unattainable. His fans are both blue collar workers and the wealthy, also not easy to do. The Republican establishment couldn’t stand it because Trump can’t be bought; he wasn’t dependent on contributions from special interest groups like they are, which exposed them. Let’s hope they aren’t able to throw away all the accomplishments he’s made by replacing him with what they really want, an updated version of John McCain.   

 

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Rachel Alexander is a conservative political writer and pundit. She is the editor of Intellectual Conservative and a recovering attorney. She was ranked by Right Wing News as one of the 50 Best Conservative Columnists from 2011-2019.



 
 
 

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Life

Give Thanks and Carry On

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, if you can

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Thanksgiving: that joyous time of the year when families get together, have a wonderful dinner, catch up on what everyone other is doing, give thanks for all that they have, and perhaps watch some football.

Up for the Challenge?

This Thanksgiving might prove to be a challenge for many people. For one, the cost of the turkey, the bird traditionally served, in some locals cost between 50% to 80% more than last year, and turkey was already expensive.

Among your relatives a few might be vegans or vegetarians. If you have a vegan enforcer in the family, this person will rail on and on against eating meat, and about how turkeys have lives just like we do.

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One of your vegan or vegetarian relatives might offer a discourse on how cranberries should be harvested a different way, the dangers of turkey stuffing, and the problem with vegetables that you might be serving, the risk of having too many starches – potatoes or rice – and the evils of wine, beer, and other alcoholic drinks.

Topics Worth Avoiding

The politics to consider abound. Since roughly half of the country votes Democrat and half votes Republican, the odds are overwhelming that you’re going to have somebody with opposing politics at the table. During Trump’s years as president, many families had to navigate around the topic of the presidency, prevailing policies. and so on.

Today, while there’s no question that Joe Biden is completely inane as leader, the same delicate navigation needs to occur. As miraculous as this might seem, some on the left actually approve of what Biden has been doing. Note: don’t be concerned about the Bidens going hungry. With all those under-the-table payment from Ukraine and China, they can EASILY afford a huge, expensive turkey with all of the trimmings.

If you can avoid discussing the eight million invaders illegally crossing our borders, rampant inflation, the U.S. Afghanistan withdrawal, the crisis in Israel and potential for World War III, drag time story hour for children, transgenderism, the bogus lawsuits against Donald Trump, the unending crimes of Hunter Biden, the payola to Joe Biden, FBI corruption, the historic unpopularity and ineptness of Kamala Harris, and about 30 or so other topics, your dinner should go smoothly. Enjoy!

A huge current wrinkle on the political scene is that recent surveys reveal at least one-quarter of Democrats actually approve of Hamas, atrocities and all, and side with Palestine on all issues large and small. They believe that Israel is an apartheid state and that Jews are today’s Nazis. Apparently they’ve never visited Israel and have no Jewish friends.

Depending on how many Democrats attend your Thanksgiving gathering, if it’s four or more, mathematically speaking you have a decent chance that one is a pro-Hamas Democrat. Wooo…  Now, you really have to stay clear of current issues or your dinner table might be as inflamed verbally as the Middle East is with armaments.

Insufferable Stuffing

After everyone is stuffed with turkey, vegeburgers, or whatever the people who like rabbit food eat, you might sit in the den and turn on a football game. Quickly, you’ll have a stark reminder of how far political correctness has infected society.

If the Washington Commanders are playing, it’s hard to forget that they used to be called the Washington Redskins until the wokesters among us demanded that the name must be changed. Not so ironically, 90% of native Americans actually want the name Washington Redskins reinstalled, and currently are petitioning for it.

In baseball, the Cleveland Indians “had” to be renamed to the Cleveland Guardians. Potentially, there’s no end of this malarkey. Should the Minnesota Vikings change their name? After all, people from Scandinavia might object to the term “Vikings.” While we’re at it, consider college basketball. The Wake Forest University Demon Deacons are due for a name change, if you’re on the Left. So, too, the Duke University Blue Devils, the Arizona University Aztecs, and on and on.

Landmines to Side Step

With all these potential land mines to side step, and all the ways that otherwise pleasant conversations on a pleasant day could occur, you have to be on guard.

Nevertheless, I wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving. May you survive the day, fully intact, and ready to have a decent Black Friday.

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Military

Biden Boondoggles Imperil the U.S. and the World

The Biden Administration is the picture of futility and incompetence, mixed with corruption and persecution of its political opponents

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On my last day following a long sojourn abroad, I met a wonderful woman from North Dallas, had dinner with her, and memorized her email address.

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When I arrived home the next day, I emailed her to see if she had had a decent trip back. A couple of minutes later, my email bounced back to me as undeliverable. Realizing my mistake of failing to write down her email address or the spelling of her last name, over several weeks I tried numerous alternative methods at length for finding that information, but with no success.

I had not handled it right and I could not later correct the mistake. You’ve long heard the phrase by the late, legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” I would add, will you have the opportunity to correct the damage done or even to try again?

Macro Level Bungles

It’s hard to even imagine the frustration and problems for all of us considering the never-ending missteps we watch every day from our president!

Biden and company have engaged in macro-level failures for nearly three years now. Their repeated failures to take early appropriate steps, domestically and internationally, has had serious ramifications for the nation and the world.

In chain-like fashion, their ineptness, unintentional and intentional, has spun out of control and led to one unpalatable situation after another. Then they spend untold labor hours and multi-billions of dollars, not to mention American lives, seeking to correct what they could not get right in the first place.

The disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan caused the loss of American lives and $85 billion dollars worth of military equipment to the Taliban. This ‘gift’ is ultimately finding its way to our enemies throughout the region and, arguably, globally. It also has signaled to the rest of the world, particularly Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad, that American military effectiveness is questionable.

As a result of not adequately planning the withdrawal from Afghanistan, as President Trump had already outlined, the Biden Administration has been scrambling ever since. Following our Afghanistan withdrawal Russia’s invasion of Ukraine under a false pretext, and the resulting multi-billions we have spent propping up Ukraine, are major unfortunate results.

Middle East Madness

Another result of our ineptness is the spate of attacks, now several dozen, on U.S. Armed Forces throughout the Middle East following the barbaric Hamas attack on Israel.

China’s forays into the Middle East and its support of Iran further imperil Israel and, by extension, the U.S. In considering the Biden Administration, China is emboldened. They are in partnership with Russia ostensibly for one reason: to hasten our declining power. They have ramped up spying on us via “weather balloons,” university “research centers,” exchange “students,” industrial spying, and, of late, the influx of more than 17,000 Chinese nationals at our southern border – all single men of military age.

Because the Biden Administration intentionally has not secured the southern border it has subjected American citizens to crime, fentanyl addiction, and massive numbers of deaths, as well as bursting federal, state, and municipal budgets in the attempt to house, feed, and safeguard swarming numbers of illegal immigrants.

Biden’s porous border policies have invited terrorists, weakened any notion of U.S. homeland security, heightened child trafficking, accelerated drug cartel activity, and aided gang-related connections throughout our county.

Poor Planning, Execution and Follow Up

Across the board, in examining the policies and programs of the Biden Administration and how poorly they’ve been designed and initiated, it is now apparent that everything they do today represents one attempted, hopeless ‘correction’ after another.

These attempted corrections are long drawn out, invariably with no end in sight. Whether it is on the world stage or domestically, each boondoggle after another leads to protracted, expensive, questionable attempts to resolve what didn’t need to occur in the first place.

It is not an exaggeration: the entire Biden Administration is the picture of futility and incompetence, mixed with corruption and persecution of its political opponents. This is no way to run a country or display to the world how an effective representative republic operates. It is no way to deter our enemies from taking bold steps. It is no way to guide us safely into the future.

Indeed, the entire world is now less safe.

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