Conservatives against Trump, National Review

[homersapien 12,851]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430126/donald-trump-conservatives-oppose-nomination

[RunInRed 19,637]

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

The far left and the far right don't like Trump. That might leave the middle for Trump.

[selias 2,398]

Trump is a bigoted jack wagon who plays on people's fears in the worst way. Stop Muslim immigration, build a giant wall on the Mexican border, make Mexico pay for it, etc...

The fact that the neocon rag, NR, had to come out against him is a sad state of affairs. In fact, I think him being a "viable" candidate is an indictment of how divisive and sad our country has become.

[homersapien 12,851]

The far left and the far right don't like Trump. That might leave the middle for Trump.

That's funny.

[homersapien 12,851]

Trump is a bigoted jack wagon who plays on people's fears in the worst way. Stop Muslim immigration, build a giant wall on the Mexican border, make Mexico pay for it, etc...

The fact that the neocon rag, NR, had to come out against him is a sad state of affairs. In fact, I think him being a "viable" candidate is an indictment of how divisive and sad our country has become.

I think it reveals how many Americans have a reality-show perspective. Emotion rules intellect with these folks.

[cooltigger21 0]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

I agree. They haven't learned that a far right conservative can't win the POTUS

[AURaptor 1,137]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

I agree. They haven't learned that a far right conservative can't win the POTUS

They didn't like it when Reagan won, and they were all too eager to declare the ' era of Reagan was over '. Ever since then, well, it's been one dismal GOP candidate after another.

[homersapien 12,851]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

I agree. They haven't learned that a far right conservative can't win the POTUS

They didn't like it when Reagan won, and they were all too eager to declare the ' era of Reagan was over '. Ever since then, well, it's been one dismal GOP candidate after another.

Even I don't put Reagan in the same category as Trump and Cruz.

[cooltigger21 0]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

I agree. They haven't learned that a far right conservative can't win the POTUS

They didn't like it when Reagan won, and they were all too eager to declare the ' era of Reagan was over '. Ever since then, well, it's been one dismal GOP candidate after another.

Even I don't put Reagan in the same category as Trump and Cruz.

Whether that's true or not doesn't matter. The blue blood country club Republicans don't like conservatives period. They think all conservatives are kooks and weird. They don't understand the opposition to massive government and things like amnesty and open borders. They want to rid the Republican party of conservatives and establish a new base that looks alot more like fhem and the rest of the inside the beltway crowd. They'd rather lose this presidential election with a McCain type than win with a conservative.

[selias 2,398]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

I agree. They haven't learned that a far right conservative can't win the POTUS

They didn't like it when Reagan won, and they were all too eager to declare the ' era of Reagan was over '. Ever since then, well, it's been one dismal GOP candidate after another.

Even I don't put Reagan in the same category as Trump and Cruz.

Whether that's true or not doesn't matter. The blue blood country club Republicans don't like conservatives period. They think all conservatives are kooks and weird. They don't understand the opposition to massive government and things like amnesty and open borders. They want to rid the Republican party of conservatives and establish a new base that looks alot more like fhem and the rest of the inside the beltway crowd. They'd rather lose this presidential election with a McCain type than win with a conservative.

Don't get sucked into the lie that Trump is a conservative

[AUUSN 823]

Awesome!

[homersapien 12,851]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

I agree. They haven't learned that a far right conservative can't win the POTUS

They didn't like it when Reagan won, and they were all too eager to declare the ' era of Reagan was over '. Ever since then, well, it's been one dismal GOP candidate after another.

Even I don't put Reagan in the same category as Trump and Cruz.

Whether that's true or not doesn't matter. The blue blood country club Republicans don't like conservatives period. They think all conservatives are kooks and weird. They don't understand the opposition to massive government and things like amnesty and open borders. They want to rid the Republican party of conservatives and establish a new base that looks alot more like fhem and the rest of the inside the beltway crowd. They'd rather lose this presidential election with a McCain type than win with a conservative.

Truly amazing how the term "conservative" has evolved to mean "wacko".

But it's fine by me.

[selias 2,398]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

I agree. They haven't learned that a far right conservative can't win the POTUS

They didn't like it when Reagan won, and they were all too eager to declare the ' era of Reagan was over '. Ever since then, well, it's been one dismal GOP candidate after another.

Even I don't put Reagan in the same category as Trump and Cruz.

Whether that's true or not doesn't matter. The blue blood country club Republicans don't like conservatives period. They think all conservatives are kooks and weird. They don't understand the opposition to massive government and things like amnesty and open borders. They want to rid the Republican party of conservatives and establish a new base that looks alot more like fhem and the rest of the inside the beltway crowd. They'd rather lose this presidential election with a McCain type than win with a conservative.

Truly amazing how the term "conservative" has evolved to mean "wacko".

But it's fine by me.

As a conservative, I am embarrassed by most people who consider themselves conservatives. The conservative mantle has been usurped overly religious, neo-con, busybodies. I now just say I'm a moderate libertarian, and avoid calling myself conservative.

[Guest NC1406]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

I agree. They haven't learned that a far right conservative can't win the POTUS

They didn't like it when Reagan won, and they were all too eager to declare the ' era of Reagan was over '. Ever since then, well, it's been one dismal GOP candidate after another.

Even I don't put Reagan in the same category as Trump and Cruz.

Whether that's true or not doesn't matter. The blue blood country club Republicans don't like conservatives period. They think all conservatives are kooks and weird. They don't understand the opposition to massive government and things like amnesty and open borders. They want to rid the Republican party of conservatives and establish a new base that looks alot more like fhem and the rest of the inside the beltway crowd. They'd rather lose this presidential election with a McCain type than win with a conservative.

Truly amazing how the term "conservative" has evolved to mean "wacko". <_</>

But it's fine by me.

As a conservative, I am embarrassed by most people who consider themselves conservatives. The conservative mantle has been usurped overly religious, neo-con, busybodies. I now just say I'm a moderate libertarian, and avoid calling myself conservative.

And I thought I stood alone. Glad to have some company.

[AUDub 12,283]

More from David Boaz, a prominent libertarian that was featured in the National Review on this matter:

Today I join some 20 other writers in making the case against Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy. The venerable National Review, founded by William F. Buckley, Jr., assembled a group of diverse critics to argue that Trump is not a conservative, not an advocate of limited government, but rather (as the editorial asserts) “a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones.”

The symposium is understandably being described in the media as “conservative thought leaders take on Trump.” I of course consider myself a libertarian, as my book The Libertarian Mind would indicate, and not a conservative. But part of the impact of this symposium is that people of such widely varying views – I have a lot of disagreements with religious rightist Cal Thomas and neoconservative Bill Kristol – nevertheless regard Trump as dangerous.

In my own contribution I emphasize two points:

From a libertarian point of view — and I think serious conservatives and liberals would share this view—Trump’s greatest offenses against American tradition and our founding principles are his nativism and his promise of one-man rule.

Not since George Wallace has there been a presidential candidate who made racial and religious scapegoating so central to his campaign. Trump launched his campaign talking about Mexican rapists and has gone on to rant about mass deportation, bans on Muslim immigration, shutting down mosques, and building a wall around America. America is an exceptional nation in large part because we’ve aspired to rise above such prejudices and guarantee life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to everyone. Equally troubling is his idea of the presidency—his promise that he’s the guy, the man on a white horse, who can ride into Washington, fire the stupid people, hire the best people, and fix everything. He doesn’t talk about policy or working with Congress. He’s effectively vowing to be an American Mussolini, concentrating power in the Trump White House and governing by fiat. It’s a vision to make the last 16 years of executive abuse of power seem modest.

This isn’t my first sally against Trump. After hearing him in person at FreedomFest in July, I wrote about his nationalism, protectionism, and megalomania in the Washington Times. And in August I reviewed his support for and use of eminent domain at the Guardian.

The National Review symposium was posted last night at 10 p.m., and I took note of it on Facebook and Twitter. It drew a lot of reaction. And I must say, I was surprised by how many of the responses, especially on Twitter, were openly racist and anti-Semitic. That did nothing to make me reconsider my deep concerns about the damage Trump is doing, and could do, to America’s libertarian heritage.

[AURaptor 1,137]

Even I don't put Reagan in the same category as Trump and Cruz.

Trump isn't any stretch of the imagination a conservative.

Cruz is.

Many of the ideals Reagan spoke of, going back to the 60's , I also see in Cruz.

Truly amazing how the term "conservative" has evolved to mean "wacko".

But it's fine by me.

Look at who is using that term... " progressives " , on both the Right and the Left. BIG GOVT types, who reject what true conservativism means.

Name calling is Sal Alinksy, 101, which is meant to distract away from substantive details. The BIG GOVT types want govt to grow, but each want it for their own devices. When a Cruz or a Rand comes around, and reminds folks of how this nation was SUPPOSE to be set up, and why it is suppose to be different from old Europe, it's easier to ignore the finer points, and just call them kooks or wackos.

But you're just fine w/ that, huh?

[homersapien 12,851]

Even I don't put Reagan in the same category as Trump and Cruz.

Trump isn't any stretch of the imagination a conservative.

Cruz is.

Many of the ideals Reagan spoke of, going back to the 60's , I also see in Cruz.

Truly amazing how the term "conservative" has evolved to mean "wacko".

But it's fine by me.

Look at who is using that term... " progressives " , on both the Right and the Left. BIG GOVT types, who reject what true conservativism means.

Name calling is Sal Alinksy, 101, which is meant to distract away from substantive details. The BIG GOVT types want govt to grow, but each want it for their own devices. When a Cruz or a Rand comes around, and reminds folks of how this nation was SUPPOSE to be set up, and why it is suppose to be different from old Europe, it's easier to ignore the finer points, and just call them kooks or wackos.

But you're just fine w/ that, huh?

I never knew you were a devotee of Saul Alinsky.

(And please, setting up ridiculously false premise and then implying someone is "fine" with it is so sophomoric and lame. Try to find a new style. You've beat that one to death.)

[aujeff11 6,243]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

I agree. They haven't learned that a far right conservative can't win the POTUS

They didn't like it when Reagan won, and they were all too eager to declare the ' era of Reagan was over '. Ever since then, well, it's been one dismal GOP candidate after another.

Even I don't put Reagan in the same category as Trump and Cruz.

Whether that's true or not doesn't matter. The blue blood country club Republicans don't like conservatives period. They think all conservatives are kooks and weird. They don't understand the opposition to massive government and things like amnesty and open borders. They want to rid the Republican party of conservatives and establish a new base that looks alot more like fhem and the rest of the inside the beltway crowd. They'd rather lose this presidential election with a McCain type than win with a conservative.

Truly amazing how the term "conservative" has evolved to mean "wacko". <_</>

But it's fine by me.

lol

[TitanTiger 22,249]

The far left and the far right don't like Trump. That might leave the middle for Trump.

That's funny.

I love the fantasy genre.

[homersapien 12,851]

The far left and the far right don't like Trump. That might leave the middle for Trump.

That's funny.

I love the fantasy genre.

I'd like to have some of what he's smoking.

[TheBlueVue 177]

The far left and the far right don't like Trump. That might leave the middle for Trump.

That's funny.

I love the fantasy genre.

That is funny because the ones that hate him the most passionately are the ones worried the most that their grip on party power will be lost with a Trump Presidency. From my perspective, Trump's popularity is a function of a discontented conservative electorate. They're completely fed up with politicians telling them what they want to hear in order to get elected and then watch them fall in line with the globalist establishment agenda once in Washington. Conservatives are sick to death of a bunch of liars hijacking their party and ignoring them. Trump's popularity, more than anything else, IMO, is a collective middle finger to politics as usual insofar as the way republicans have conducted business for the last 20 years or thereabouts. A LOT of people are sick of seeing EVERYONE in Washington playing on the same team. That being said, I'll be somewhat surprised if he doesn't with the nomination rather easily but, Im not convinced he's the best guy for the job, however, he'd be much better than Hillary.

The fact that several republicans are stepping forward and saying they'll support Hillary before they'll vote for Trump tells you ALL you need to know about the current state of the republican party. I've been shouted down for calling them quislings but, what name better describes them.?

[AUFAN78 4,258]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

I agree. They haven't learned that a far right conservative can't win the POTUS

They didn't like it when Reagan won, and they were all too eager to declare the ' era of Reagan was over '. Ever since then, well, it's been one dismal GOP candidate after another.

Even I don't put Reagan in the same category as Trump and Cruz.

Whether that's true or not doesn't matter. The blue blood country club Republicans don't like conservatives period. They think all conservatives are kooks and weird. They don't understand the opposition to massive government and things like amnesty and open borders. They want to rid the Republican party of conservatives and establish a new base that looks alot more like fhem and the rest of the inside the beltway crowd. They'd rather lose this presidential election with a McCain type than win with a conservative.

Truly amazing how the term "conservative" has evolved to mean "wacko".

But it's fine by me.

Whats even more amazing is those who define conservatism as such are really wacko. I don't know what it says that you picked up on this homes.

[cooltigger21 0]

I'm not crazy about Trump but you have to give him his due. He has completely flummoxed the professional political operatives and the establishment Republicans as well. The idea of someone who doesn't follow the traditional route and go outside the usual system scares the crap out of these people. A large chunk of the opposition to him, and Cruz too, comes from the ones that gave us McCain and Romney.

I agree. They haven't learned that a far right conservative can't win the POTUS

They didn't like it when Reagan won, and they were all too eager to declare the ' era of Reagan was over '. Ever since then, well, it's been one dismal GOP candidate after another.

Even I don't put Reagan in the same category as Trump and Cruz.

Whether that's true or not doesn't matter. The blue blood country club Republicans don't like conservatives period. They think all conservatives are kooks and weird. They don't understand the opposition to massive government and things like amnesty and open borders. They want to rid the Republican party of conservatives and establish a new base that looks alot more like fhem and the rest of the inside the beltway crowd. They'd rather lose this presidential election with a McCain type than win with a conservative.

Don't get sucked into the lie that Trump is a conservative

I know he's not a conservative. He's never been one. The establishment has actually started to realize that and they've been coming out in his favor. The interesting thing will be the reaction of a lot of Trump supporters to this.