At the Watchers’ Council,
Every week on Monday morning , the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher’s Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week’s question:Is The Movement Conservative’s Attack On Donald Trump Justified?
The Independent Sentinel: It’s justified because they have a right to their opinion and they back it up. I am not saying I agree or disagree, but these attacks on people for expressing their opinions is the same kind of intolerance we see from the leftists.
The problem is National Review Online gave up all semblance of neutrality.
The Daley Gator : Hell yes it is justified. We want to nominate, then elect the most principled person running. And every candidate should understand, as should their supporters, that their candidates record will be looked at. The very reason I do not support, or trust Trump is his lack of any Conservative record, as well as his lack of consistent, principled positions. Throw in his penchant for being about himself, and his nasty habit of attacking anyone who dares disagree with him, and there you go. And do not even get me started on this birther crap!
GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD:Justified? Well, it is politics. And cats have a right to be heard with their caveats and concerns. National Review’s issue on Trump featuring tons of real live conservatives from way back is an interesting example. Nearly 2 dozen bits about how Trump is at best semi conservative – at worst a full blown progressive liberal in sheep’s clothing.
The effect of that issue may have been blunted by GOV Palin. The commentary on these articles online is all over the place. Besotted paleo cons, grass roots conservatives, new time conservatives some neoconservatives, plenty of Paul Bots etc.
It’s justified, sure. The real quiz is – will it be effective? Will people switch over to the half Canadian guy instead? Or go all the way the Rubio way? Or will people gird their loins, stick with the cat that brought them to the hoopla so to speak?
We are all fixing to find out!
JoshuaPundit : Allowable? Certainly. Justified? That’s a different question entirely.
This jihad against Donald Trump wasn’t sparked by honest disagreement. It was sparked by supposedly irrelevant Sarah Palin endorsing Trump. Yeah, she’s irrelevant all right. Governor Palin is so irrelevant that the panicked phone calls and e-mails went out the same night to muster the troops to put this together. And so Donald Trump is now referred to by the so-called GOP intelligentsia as ‘Mussolini, ‘ a ‘nativist,’ ‘a two-bit Caesar, ‘ America’s ‘Moqtada al-Sadr‘ and of course, ‘not a conservative.’
And make no mistake, Ted Cruz is a target as well. They’re just more subtle about it so far, mainly focused on rumors on how many Republican figures would refuse to support him and would even vote for Mrs. Clinton if he were the nominee. But expect those to get even more pronounced, especially if Senator Cruz should squeak out a win in Iowa. Both Cruz and Trump are not part of the elitist establishment, and they need to be removed so a reliable product can be substituted.
This makes even more sense if you do a little research and find out that the majority of the GOP intelligentsia writing this tripe support – wait for it – Marco Rubio, who strongly favors amnesty and increased H1b visas to put more Americans out of work and please the donor class. Magazines like theNational Review and the Weekly Standard as well as a lot of the foundations and think tanks many of these people draw a paycheck from depend heavily on contributions from the elitist donor class, you see. Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina have the same views, which is why they also had major support from these people going in until they realized neither could cut it on the national stage…which is when they began touting Marco Rubio, who they now have decided to deem a ‘conservative.’
And weren’t these the same people who told us how ‘conservative’ Bob Dole, the Bushes, John McCain and Mitt Romney were? You bet it was.
I trust Governor Palin’s instincts a lot more than I trust the willing galley slaves at NRO and elsewhere,thanks. Unlike these so-called arbiters of ‘conservatism’ she understands that what we’re seeing here is a total remaking of what was the GOP, one that will actually represent the interests and concerns of the people who vote for them.
Do I have reservations about Donald Trump? Of course I do, just as I have reservations about Ted Cruz, the only other candidate I’d consider voting for. His insulting the people of New York and attempting to mine an 18-year old interview of Trump’s for ammo is one of the silliest unforced errors I’ve seen in politics for a long time. But that’s just the usual campaign fracas. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them running together if Trump gets the nomination.
The real battle is between the elite of the GOP establishment and the revolution emerging from what Angelo Cordavilla presciently called ‘the Country Class’ which cuts across all the lines of party, gender, economic class, race and locale. Their agenda involves saving the country and their liberty from what they see as a death spiral, and they could care less about what some think tank inhabitant labels it as.I couldn’t agree with them more.
After being cynically lied to in 2014 (‘Oh, just give us the senate and we’ll stop Obama’s agenda’) they’re not buying the merchandise anymore, having found out that the so-called lesser of two evils is cut from the same cloth. Donald Trump might be lying, but they know anyone backed by the GOP establishmentdefinitely is. And keep in mind that if either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump gets the Republican nomination, the GOP elite will do everything they can to undermine them, even if it means putting Mrs. Clinton in the White House.
And after this, we obviously know where the Weekly Standard and NRO stand, don’t we? They certainly have the right to pick sides to feather their own nests, but I based on what I’m hearing and seeing, that’s going to come with some unpleasant and very well deserved consequences.
Greg @ Rhymes With Right : Of course it is. It was accurate and based upon principle.
What’s more, it is essential that we who are conservatives act now to begin the work of preserving conservatism in some form or fashion in the face of the impending catastrophe that a Trump nomination would be.
If Trump gets the nomination, America will have a new political alignment — the nationalist progressive GOP and the internationalist progressive Democrats. There will be no conservative alternative that supports, protects, and defends the Constitution at the ballot box.
If conservatism is to survive — either in temporary exile from electoral politics or in the form of a new conservative party to replace the formerly conservative GOP — we must lay the groundwork now.National Review’s effort should therefore be seen as akin to Noah building the Ark.
Laura Rambeau Lee,Right Reason : Yes, the attacks are justified. Donald Trump is not a conservative. He is a populist capitalizing on the anger in the country over what the current and previous administrations have done to weaken America. Trump rambles when he speaks and says nothing of real substance. His use of vulgarity proves he is not a person qualified to be president. Just this week he stated he could go out and shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York and he would not lose a supporter. That is a scary statement; looking both at the man who voiced it and at the people who are captivated by this cult of personality. I am hoping at the next debate the moderators ask good questions drilling down the details of all of the candidates’ proposals and platforms. Some pointed questions about the constitutional role of the president and the rule of law should be asked of all of the candidates. At this critical time in our nation’s history we need someone who fully comprehends the real challenges of the position to which they aspire and their understanding of the constitutional limitations on the office of the President of the United States of America.
The more Republican “establishment” types come out against Ted Cruz, the more I believe he threatens their POWER. Because ultimately it is all about power for both parties, and right now the Republicans think they have a chance to have complete power over the presidency, House, and Senate. This leads me to believe Cruz is who we need to nominate and elect to upset the balance of power in DC and restore it to the people.
Well, there you have it!
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