The Ethos of Large Government and Smaller Citizen

     There is an ethos of political thought that postulates our politics has become so consuming in American modernity because government has become so large, thus becoming more intrusive in the lives of its citizens. An ever-increasing federal authority is at least partially responsible for the political season going from occupying the space just before elections, as was the case for much of our history, to gobbling up most of the oxygen in media and elsewhere. It is this ethos of the relationship between a growing government and the importance of politics to the average American that I see as a major reason for the appeal of Donald Trump by some Republican primary voters.
     First some facts. The latest polling data shows that only seventeen percent of eligible voters have voted in the Republican primaries. Of those seventeen percent, only a third have supported Mr. Trump. So in other words the claim by some of his zealots that "America loves Trump," is simply not borne out by the math, which shows he has about six percent support among the total number of eligible voters. Still there is substantial support for part time businessman-part time reality TV star-part time politician.
     When asked why they support The Donald, his votaries can only grasp at the straw of his bombastic invectives as proof of his strength. They see him as some kind of protector, as the simple peasants would have seen a king in a time long ago. It is not important to Trump supporters what he believes (if anything) or what form his policies might take if he is elected president. They are mired in the base instinct of supporting the man they see as the strong horse. This emotional response is a result of the ethos of expanding government, and the corresponding growth in the importance of politics in the lives of the citizens.
     My theory is supported by the fact that those who support Mr. Trump are not concerned with the traditional tenet of conservatism, i.e. limiting the size and scope of the federal government. In fact, Donald Trump's stated policies would actually increase the size of government, not shrink it. His vacuous campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again," is a harbinger of that expansion under a President Trump. Those who think America is not great unless Mr. Trump is president, and only the federal government under his guidance can make it great, have shown a limited understanding of what made America great to begin with.
     The support for Donald Trump as president is not surprising in this Leftist infected culture where the weakening of self reliance has become an epidemic. It is just surprising to me that it seems to have metastasized in what was once the conservative movement. And those calling themselves conservatives, then looking for a father figure as president, is a disgusting development that I find abhorrent. It was not that long ago that a celebrity referred to Barack Obama as a father figure for the country and these same conservatives pilloried him for it. Now it seems they are supporting a man for president whose only apparent qualification for the job is the perceived strength that his followers have lost in themselves. 

March 15-The Death Knell for Trump Campaign

     After the primaries of yesterday, March 15, 2016, the Republican field has narrowed yet again. A field that began some 12 months ago with 18 candidates, is now a three man race, made so with the exit of Marco Rubio after the Florida senator could not garner a win in his home state. Ohio governor John Kasich however proved he could win, albeit in his home state, yet he was the only non-Trump candidate that won a state. Nobody knows how the race to become the Republican nominee will end, although one can make the case that Donald Trump may have reached his peak and is on his way to losing the nomination.
     With many of the remaining states awarding their delegates on a proportional basis, and with Mr. Trump needing 60% of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination outright, there is little chance that the Republican convention in Cleveland this July will not be an open one. Mr. Trump has not even gotten near 60% of the vote in any of the proportional states that have already had their primaries, there is nothing to suggest he will do so in the remaining ones.
     Mr. Trump and his glassy-eyed devotees understand this fact, even if it is on a very basic level able to be grasped by their limited intellectual acumen. This is why they have been lately making noise that if Trump has the most delegates at the end of the primary process, and is short of the 1237 needed to clinch the nomination, he should be awarded the nomination anyway. This ignoring of the rules because they interfere with one's political agenda is not conservative or based on traditional American values.
     Of course no one could accuse the Trump campaign and his deluded votaries of being either conservative or tethered to the values which founded this great nation. That is what makes his campaign so surprising to me, one who always thought this kind of chicanery and deceit was a tenet of the Left and did not have a home in the Republican Party. The Trump campaign, and more importantly the churlish manner in which his supporters have conducted themselves, has illustrated to me that Leftism has indeed infected the Republican Party.
     But I digress. I think the March 15 primaries might just become the death knell for the ill-advised Trump campaign. For if he does not reach the required 1237 delegates, and the convention in July is an open one, he will not survive when delegates are able to vote their conscience and are not bound by polling results. If this happens, John Kasich could be seen as a compromise choice and may just win the nomination. Whatever the outcome, for the sake of the Republican Party, the conservative movement, and the nation, Mr. Trump must not be the nominee.
    

Carson The Anti-Trump

     With the announcement by Dr. Ben Carson that he is suspending his campaign, the field for those seeking the Republican nomination to represent the GOP in this November's general election has once again narrowed. Dr. Carson realized, as all second tier candidates realize at some point, single digit support is not going to win the White House. But with the departure of the good doctor there is a sense of sadness in my heart, for the Republican Party, for the political process, and for the country as a whole. You see, Ben Carson was the anti-Trump. Not just the opposite of the front runner in the level of support for his campaign, but the opposite of the front runner in his maturity, manner, demeanor, and sensibility.
     Where Ben Carson grew up in abject poverty, raised by a single-mom, Mr. Trump was coddled in the palace of wealth built by his father's business acumen. Where Ben Carson struggled as a child (with the constant support and guidance of his mother) to rise from the bondage of the ghetto, Mr. Trump's only struggle was how fast he could return the silver spoon to his mouth once it was again filled with the sweet sauce of wealth he did not earn. And where Ben Carson dedicated his life and career to healing the sick and saving lives, Donald Trump dedicated his to the pursuit of narcissism and self aggrandizement.
     Ben Carson is a warm Summer breeze gently rustling the leaves on the tree of change. Donald Trump is a gale force hurricane uprooting that tree and rendering it useless. Ben Carson speaks with the precision and accuracy of a surgeon's knife. Donald Trump speaks like a shotgun fired into the openness of an empty landscape. Ben Carson is not hurtful, vain, deceitful, vacuous, or possessed of guile. Donald Trump is all of those things.
     Ben Carson is a man who has developed a substantial set of values over a life time of experience. Donald Trump's values are malleable and ephemeral like a high school romance. Dr. Carson manipulates nothing to his own ends. To Mr. Trump, manipulation of anything he can is the ultimate end. Ben Carson is a giant of a man who seeks to build up others to his level. Donald Trump is a small and petty man who seeks to increase his stature by climbing over the bodies of those he tears down.
     Yes, I am saddened by the departure from the Republican presidential race by one of the most decent men to have ever entered a political contest. And I am dismayed and flummoxed by the current front runner having substantial support among people from a Party who claims values as their watchword and decency as their anchor in the sea of political discourse. It speaks ill of us as a Party specifically, and more generally as a nation, when voters choose to support the Trump over the anti-Trump.

The Willful Blindness of Trump Support

     No one with even a modicum of intellectual honesty could have watched or listened to the Republican debate last night and concluded that Donald Trump is anything but an intellectual lightweight and a congenital liar, just like the beneficiary of his political donations, Hillary Clinton. Not only should The Donald have been thoroughly mortified by being exposed as a man of the Left by his fellow debaters, but his supporters, if they were being the least bit rational, should run away from him in droves. From his blatant lie about his position on healthcare exposed by Ted Cruz, to his juvenile response to moderator Hugh Hewitt because he dared ask a question Mr. Trump did not like, once again Donald Trump has shown himself not only to be unworthy of the Oval Office, but any position  in government short of that of Johnny mopping toilets in some remote government installation.
     But it really is not Donald Trump's fault, after all he has more than likely been a defective human being most of his life. No, I blame the those who have bastardized the term conservative in order to feel some self-justification and self-righteousness for supporting a candidate who is as far away from the definition of that word as his likely Democrat opponent, should he actually win the Republican nomination.
     Conservative talk show host Dennis Prager says often that Leftism is the most dynamic religion of the last hundred years because of its ubiquitous presence in education, entertainment, media, and even in this nation's religiosity. Now it appears Leftism has infected the Republican Party and conservative movement, as evidenced by the support for Donald Trump.
     The real delusion of Trump supporters is not only that they believe he can or will actually do what he says, but that they are somehow anti-establishment for supporting a candidate that is far Left of the so-called Republican establishment.  It is probably the biggest political dichotomy I have seen or read about ever. The Trump supporters seem uniquely blind, almost willfully so, to the serious flaws of their candidate that would preclude him from the running for most who call themselves conservative. This kind of willful blindness was not even this hyperbolic in support for President Obama in 2008, a real achievement for Trump supporters.
      The problem with those who say they will vote for Trump against the Democrat, if he is the nominee, is that they miss the bigger picture. If a Democrat like Trump can run for and win the presidential prize as a Republican, what is the point? The president is leader of his Party. In Trump's case he will blend the two Party system into a one Party rule. And that my friends will be much worse for the country than four years of a Democrat president with a Republican congress.

Who Benefits From Bush Withdraw?

     The "Let's make a point crowd" is celebrating Donald Trump's victory in the South Carolina primary last weekend. Marco Rubio and his supporters are also celebrating a second place finish in said primary contest. The Ted Cruz campaign is trying desperately to convince themselves that their third place finish in South Carolina is not a harbinger of a campaign that may be running afoul of a Republican electorate that may be coming to grips with a reality that if the Republicans do not sport a candidate that can win in November, the Democrat will most assuredly win. The Carson campaign, which ever increasingly is an army of one, is vowing to fight until the end. John Kasich is hoping to hang in until the Ohio primary on March 15, hoping for the surge he has promised supporters is coming. And Jeb Bush has called it quits in his bid to be the third Bush to become president.
     The Jeb Bush campaign ending in a crash and burn style reminiscent of the Hindenburg serves to illustrate two very important items. One, that money in politics does not have as much influence as some wish to convince the gullible that it does, and two, that Donald Trump has hit a ceiling in this campaign which may reverse itself into a floor as more candidates drop from the race. I have always maintained that the Trump campaign is one that depends on a crowded field. And that a candidate which has the highest negative numbers in presidential history can not even win his Party's nomination, much less the general election, with such animus aimed at him by a majority of Americans.
     The most likely beneficiary of the Jeb Bush withdraw from the race is Marco Rubio. In fact, with each of the remaining candidates, their exits from the race would most likely be a boon to the Rubio campaign. His recent surge and the sobering up of the Republican electorate that they must nominate someone who can actually beat Hillary Clinton, bodes well for a Rubio nomination. With Rubio poised to gain more support, and Trump having hit his limit of support, the two thirds of Republican primary voters who not only do not support Trump but have a vomiting reflex at the sound of his voice, will inevitably give their support to Senator Rubio.
     Donald Trump is many things, conservative is certainly a proven commodity he does not posses. Marco Rubio has that specific commodity in spades, and provably so. So why do so many so-called conservatives support Trump? It is simple: They care more about making a point and sticking it to the so-called establishment that has been demonized by some in Right-Wing radio, than nominating someone who can win. Not that congressional Republicans have not made mistakes, but the Trump supporters, and to a degree Cruz supporters, have succumb to the temptation of making themselves feel good instead of actually doing what is good for the country.
     The best that Trump can hope for is that Rubio does not get the required delegates, which will mean a brokered convention in Cleveland this July. After which when he loses such a battle he can go third Party based on the Republicans "treating him unfairly." This of course will precipitate a Democrat win and all those self righteous emotional cripples that support Trump can get on their high horses and say they told everyone that Rubio would not win. Not acknowledging that they would be the cause of such a loss. But delusion is the main ingredient in the Trump stew, and his supporters lap it up and ask for seconds.
    

Marco Rubio "Gets It!"

     So the final Republican debate before the nation's first primary in New Hampshire today is over, and the endless analysis has been in full swing since Saturday night. Much of that analysis has focused on candidate Marco Rubio actually using the same words to answer the same attacks from the Republican version of Jabba the Hutt, Chris Christie. My, my where has our politics gone when a politicians actually repeats himself? The fact that Donald Trump's campaign is exclusively anchored in the redundancy of the ridiculous has somehow eluded some of Senator Rubio's harshest (and I might add most childish) critics. But then Trump supporters are nothing if not blind to the same flaws in their candidate that they exaggerate in others.
     No one who is criticizing Mr. Rubio for his repeated answer has actually dealt with the substance of what he stated. This is a tactic learned by the Left from Saul Alinsky and passed to the Right through useful dupes like Mark Levin. I agree that Marco Rubio could have handled his canned response much more effectively, but it does not mitigate the fact that Marco Rubio "gets it," and Chris Christie, et al does not. And the "It" is the fact that Barack Obama is not the disease but just the latest symptom of the disease.
     Barack Obama has executed a brilliant plan that Leftists have dreamed about for generations. He has struck just the right balance in the economy, which encourages dependence, while at the same time is growing just enough to silence critics. He has used race and victim-ology to enact a bigger role for the federal government in local policing. He has been successful in his foreign policy of reducing American influence in world events, which has been a core dream of the Left for many years. He has increased the role of government in individuals lives while reducing it in the world at large. And all this he has done by dancing around the edges of constitutionality.
     Marco Rubio was right and wise to highlight that the Obama America is one of design, not incompetence. And furthermore, that Leftism is the cancer that eats away at the heart of American values and the healthy body of Liberty. Senator Rubio understands better than the spittle-producing Christie how important it is for us as conservatives not to focus on Barack Obama (who is leaving office in less than a year) but on the cause of our discontent and sickness. And that cause is Leftism.

    
    

A Culture of Name-Calling

     Young children on a playground will often participate in a favorite juvenile tradition, i.e. name calling. Usually the target of such an activity is one who is perceived to be different from a norm imposed by the standards of the group. Other times the target is another child who is perceived to be weaker or stronger than the name caller. The act of name calling is meant to achieve two results; a) to marginalize the target from the rest of the group, and b) to make the name caller feel superior. Our recent political debate, especially on the Right, has degenerated into a hyper-version of the school yard tradition of name calling.
     The reckless abandon with which some on the Right have succumbed to the ignorance of name calling is an alarming development. We see this behavior being enacted by some in talk radio, so-called conservatives on social media, and in the general population of those on the Right side of the political spectrum. I have grown ever so weary of the ease with which the insult of Rino (Republican in name only), or "establishment" is withdrawn from the intellectually lazy holster of those who disagree with a Republican leader on even one issue.
     To Witt: Consider the case of Marco Rubio. Here is a guy who most conservatives agreed was the kind of candidate they would want to represent the Republican Party in a presidential election. Senator Rubio makes the "mistake" of trying to work with the majority Party in congress at the time, the Democrats, and a Democrat President, to achieve the best result he could under those conditions to solve the issues surrounding illegal immigration. For that "mortal sin" he has forever been labeled a Rino/member of the establishment.
     The real dichotomy of the position of those who call Senator Rubio a Rino for supporting the Gang of 8 bill, is that they also say the same thing about former Speaker John Boehner, who opposed the Gang of 8 bill and essentially kept it from coming to a vote in the House of Representatives. But this is exemplary of the complete capriciousness of the name calling Right. There is no real rhyme or reason to their tactics. They are more about demoting the esteem of those with whom they disagree in the eyes of others, than they are about promoting any superior ideas or values of their own.
     Another prong of the name calling strategy is to mis-characterize a person's position as something that it is not so they can be figuratively tar and feathered with an untrue accounting of their beliefs. Again, taking the example of Marco Rubio and the Gang of 8 bill, those name callers on the Right characterized the bill as amnesty. This of course is the dirtiest of words for those one-issue voters who think illegal immigration is the most serious issue facing this great nation. But the Gang of 8 bill was not about amnesty at all, as any intellectually honest person who read the bill would acknowledge. But the name callers do not deal in truth, but narratives that they create which advance their political agenda.
     The Democrats and those on the Left have always populated the school yard of political debate. It is just a shame that so many on the Right have now followed them to that playground of the weak-minded and intellectually immature. We can measure our dedication to our Founders' values, and the principles enshrined in our founding documents, by the honesty and decorum with which we conduct ourselves in the public arena of political debate. Under those terms, some of the members of our conservative movement have failed miserably.