It’s tough to be a conservative Republican these days. The media is so obsessed with ‘getting’ President Donald J. Trump that it is all but impossible to hear anything above their noise. Cartoonist A.F. Branco illustrates it thusly:
And in truth, some of his agenda is getting through, although mostly in the form of executive policy changes. Congress is about worthless and is getting little done, even though they are controlled by Republicans.
It is very difficult to find anything positive being written about the President these days unless you read/listen to bootlickers like Sean Hannity and his ilk. But there are a few places where you can get honest, balanced conservative commentary on Mr. Trump.
I’ve never been a big fan of Erick Erickson, formerly of Red State, now at The Resurgent. But between the greater wisdom that normally comes with age and his (and his family’s) health battles, his writing is no longer 100{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} bomb throwing and yelling. As a #neverTrumper, he is actually defending the President better than most, even as he points out his weaknesses. His column ‘A Fundamental Aversion to Truth‘ makes more sense than most things written about our President these days. I share his frustration.
Whether it is their bunker mentality or their moral code, the Clan Trump has a fundamental aversion to truth and it keeps getting them into trouble.
…
Right now, to believe the Trumps is to believe so much that is not so. There is an increasing hesitancy, even among their core loyalists, to defend them because the story could change on a dime and everyone now has a sense they are withholding key details.
Like I said earlier, it is tough to be a conservative Republican with President Trump as the face of our party, given the attacks from the press and his own vulgarity. And as a #neverTrumper, it would be easy for me to say, I told you so. But the plain truth is that those of you that voted for him in November were correct. Although Congress is failing, the executive policies that he is changing will help our nation move forward. You know, like Make America Great Again. You can see it all around if you take the time to look. Fewer illegals crossing the southern border. Quicker deportations. Fearless deportations. He did follow through on nominating a conservative to the US Supreme Court. He is reducing regulations across the bloated Federal government, which ultimately will benefit all of us. So, mea culpa.
If you are disheartened about President Trump, Unca Darrell has some words to help you see the bigger picture.
Donald John Trump on Western Civilization
WE WRITE SYMPHONIES. We pursue innovation. We celebrate our ancient heroes, embrace our timeless traditions and customs, and always seek to explore and discover brand-new frontiers.
We reward brilliance, we strive for excellence, and [we] cherish inspiring works of art that honor God. We treasure the rule of law and protect the right to free speech and free expression.
We empower women as pillars of our society and of our success.
We put faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, at the center of our lives.
And we debate everything. We challenge everything. We seek to know everything, so that we can better know ourselves.
And above all, we value the dignity of every human life, protect the rights of every person and share the hopes of every soul to live in freedom.
That’s who we are. Those are the priceless ties that bind us together as nations, as allies, and as a civilization.
What we have, what we inherited from our . . . ancestors has never existed to this extent before. And if we fail to preserve it, it will never, ever exist again. So we cannot fail.
(Donald John Trump, Warsaw Remarks, July 6, 2017)
Amen.
I voted for Mr. Trump with reluctance. His greatest claim to office, in my view, was that he was less unfit than his adversary. Mr. Trump’s faults remain. He is loud and vulgar. He is not a conservative. He is unprincipled. But I would vote for him again against the same opponent or anyone like her, now with greater assurance.
The Warsaw speech is one reason. However inartfully and incompletely, he embraced Western Civilization. Neither his predecessor in office nor his opponent last November ever did or would ever have done the same. This difference alone is sufficient to justify a preference for him over them.
The cultural and progressive left disdain the very civilization whose air they breathe and on whose soil they live. They cannot speak of Western Civilization without sarcasm or anger. The massive backlash against Mr. Trump’s speech proves this point. What was once an unexceptional opinion — think of the well-received Kenneth Clark television series in the 1970s, “Civilisation” — has now become a touchstone of political and cultural correctness. Today, no self-respecting left intellectual can speak of Western Civilization — as expressed in art, learning, law, religion, history, economics, and politics, and as proved by the superiority of daily life in America and other counties that have adopted the Western model — without sarcasm or anger.
Unca Darrell has preached from this sermon book for years. See the “in love with” clause in the masthead, then click “civilization” in the “Categories” cloud at the bottom of the right column of this blog. Click and reread some of the old stories.
This debate is not a new one. And the outcome of the debate is far from inconsequential. Mr. Trump is and always will be a flawed champion for Western Civilization, but he’s on the right side of the question.
Your choice is whether to join him or the naysayers — folks who noisily reject their great civilizational inheritance while living off its wealth.
I think that Unca Darrell makes the best argument possible for supporting this President. And we can do it without losing our own integrity. Will it be a balancing act? Sure. Will we sometimes end up looking foolish because of his temper tantrums? Yes. But if we care about our past, if we care about our future, if we care about the fundamental value of Western Civilization, we must join and fight back against the falsehoods that stem from the press’s obsession to ‘get’ him. Just my two cents.
Mark says
Great article. I wish I had written it.
DanMan says
The best part of Trump winning? Hillary lost. The MSM lost. Liberals in the GOP are being exposed. Perhaps we can turn this thing around after all.
Dee Smith says
Great read I am glad to see Eric Erickson coming around. I still think if she would have won we would be done. Just look at these protestors (rioters) what a disgrace true Marxist surrounding these demorats. Thanks for uplift!
johngalt says
If you have thrown your lot in with Donald Trump as the defender of Western Civilization, a crass, unprincipled, lying buffoon, then you need to take a hard look in the mirror. If you believe that collusion – even a suggestion of it – with a hostile foreign government is conservative, then you deserve to have a difficult time. If you believe that shutting a free press out of the White House because its reporting is inconvenient (or event wrong) is conservative, then you deserve to have a difficult time. If you believe that the resignation in frustration of the director of the Office of Government Ethics is consistent with conservative principles, well, I think you get the point.
fat albert says
“If you have thrown your lot in with Donald Trump”. . . No, I haven’t “Thrown in my lot”, but the fact of the matter is that he is the duly elected President of the United States. And, as of this date, while there is a lot of storm und drang about “collusion”, there is absolutely no evidence (that I can find) that an actual crime has been committed. If there was ANY actual evidence of a real crime you’d have dozens of Democrats filing articles of impeachment instead of 2 idiots whining about “obstruction of justice”.
“a crass, unprincipled, lying buffoon,” Yep, absolutely! You can add, self-serving, self-aggrandizing, arrogant, ill-prepared, and a dozen other unflattering descriptors. He’s still better than the alternative we were offered last November.
As for kicking CNN not of the White House – tough. He didn’t stop them from reporting, or broadcasting or anything else, he simply removed a privilege (after several warnings) because they abused it outrageously. Do you really think the country is less well informed now than it was 2 weeks ago?
I applaud the Director of the Office of Government Ethics. I wish more of our civil servants had his ethical and moral courage.
You might want to go back and read the above article and try to brush up on your reading comprehension. Nowhere does it claim that Trump is conservative. It doesn’t claim that Trump is a paragon of moral integrity. It simply says that more often that not Trumps policies (not necessarily) tend toward the conservative rather than the liberal. His speech in Warsaw was excellent.
Would it be better perhaps if Trump left office and Mike Pence took over? Perhaps. No one can see the future. But until that happens I will continue to take heart in the positive things that occasionally come from the White House, and remind myself that it could have been so very much worse had the Nov. election gone the other way.
johngalt says
Does it have to rise to the level of a verifiable crime to acknowledge that even discussing the possibility that Russian agents could help discredit a candidate for President of the United States (which Trump Jr. admitted in full) is not in the best long-term interests of this country?
Do you really believe that CNN – a legitimate press organization whether you like it or not – in a government building is a privilege? That’s a pretty damn slippery slope.
I don’t really accept the argument that Trump (or anyone) is a horrible, no good, reckless person, that you absolutely could not support, except the other one was worse. Conservatives voted for him so he is now your standard bearer, like it or not.
Fat Albert says
“Russian Agents could help discredit a candidate. . . . .” Really? What did they do? If you’re complaining that they helped to make public facts which Ms. Clinton would have preferred to keep secret, then Methinks that your issue is with Ms. Clinton. Honestly, a lot of folks seem to running around proclaiming that they’re “shocked, shocked I tell you” that the Russians would dare to meddle in our election process. How dare they!! And yet nobody seemed to mind a bit when Barack Obama did EXACTLY the same thing to Israel. The Russians (nee USSR) have been futzing in our elections for years. But now, NOW it’s too freaking much.
Hillary’s been taking cash payoffs from any foreign government that she could get her hands on. Sure she laundered it through the Clinton Foundation, but does anybody really believe that actually means something?
As for CNN in a public building: It’s the Presidents residence, and he has the privilege of briefing whoever he wants, whenever he wants.
As for accepting the idea that Trump, as bad as he is, is still better than Hillary, well that’s your privilege. You can feel otherwise. Would I have preferred another candidate to vote for? Well, yes. In my personal opinion both parties picked their absolute worst. But that’s not the way the system works. There were two viable names on the ballot. Pick one, or don’t vote at all.
There’s a great vote from Robert Heinlein that is specifically tailored to this situation: “There’s always a choice! This one is between ‘bad’ and ‘worse’ – which is a difference much more poignant than that between ‘good’ and ‘better’.” He was speaking specifically of political elections and he’s right.
Is he the “Conservative Standard Bearer”? Possibly, I know that’s what you and most liberals like you would like. But if he’s our standard bearer, then Hillary Clinton, and Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are yours. Like it or not.
johngalt says
The president lives in the White House. He also works there. He doesn’t own it, you and I do. What goes on there is public business.
The Clinton Foundation has never paid a nickel of salary to a member of the Clinton family and uses 90{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of its income for legitimate charitable purposes. I am aware that this does not fit your narrative, but it is not the same as lining Trump’s pockets paying rack rate at Mar-a-Lago for the Secret Service detail or paying for Don Jr. to open a Trump branded hotel in Canada.
Is Trump the de facto leader of the GOP. Not in a conventional way, of course, but has there been a president in the modern era who was not considered to be the leader of his party? The GOP is certainly not publicly renouncing him. You will likely come to regret that. I don’t know too many Democrats who would regret Elizabeth Warren, or Hillary, for that matter. I’m neither, but would far prefer to be led by Warren, who is at least smart and well informed, regardless of her politics.
fat albert says
“The Clinton Foundation has never paid a nickel of salary to a member of the Clinton family and uses 90{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of its income for legitimate charitable purposes.”
If you really believe that you’re dumber than Sheila Jackson Lee.
“but would far prefer to be led by Warren, who is at least smart and well informed, ” Hey she’s also .009{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} Indian, so she’s got that going for her. . . .
johngalt says
https://www.charitywatch.org/ratings-and-metrics/clinton-foundation/478
This is one of several independent and non-partisan organizations that grades charities to see if they actually use their donations for the intended purposes. They rank the Clinton Foundation highly. It’s 88{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}, not 90{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} as I wrote earlier.
DanMan says
“If Hillary Clinton does not win the presidency, Mr. Borochoff’s already modest budget and operation is certainly destined for the same fate as one third of America’s legitimate charitable organizations over the past decade. Out of business.”
https://medium.com/@ASterling/charity-watch-and-clinton-foundation-c1dc646e1fa5
Note that Cuffy’s link is dated April 2016. Guess what happened in October 2016…
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/clinton-foundation-refiles-three-years-of-tax-forms/article/2603667
oooofff!!!
johngalt says
Don’t like Charity Watch, based on someone’s blog post (a rather incoherent one). Try another charity rating agency:
Charity Navigator: 94.74/100.
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=16680
The Clinton Foundation is still in existence. It shut down the Clinton Global Initiative part of it. I have no idea why Charity Watch’s existence would be linked to who sits in the White House. No, of course, I do. You’re one of those people who thinks everything having anything to do with anyone with a “D” after their name is a giant conspiracy (while wearing enormous blinders when it comes to Republicans). What an incredibly lazy world view.
David Jennings says
Mr. Galt, we do not insult each other here. I would very much appreciate it if you would not do that. Thank you.
DJ
DanMan says
well looky here, it’s our liberal buddy Cuffy Meigs! yo Cuffy, do you recall the issue related to Obama telling Russian President Medvedev he would be flexible after the 2012 election during a hot mic admission prior to said election?
And Cuffy, have you heard of Uranium One?
Say hi to the gang.
johngalt says
Charming as always, Dan. Been kicked off of any more political sites recently?
DanMan says
Nope. And guess what Cuffy, never been doxed by anyone other than Chris Ladd either.
johngalt says
Chris is one of the few political bloggers with standards. Most are happy to let trolls gin up the comments to generate page views.
N.M. Horwitz says
I don’t get people like David going full-Vichy now, especially after remaining NeverTrump throughout the election. I actually can understand voting for Trump because you hated his opponent even more. I thoroughly disagree with the rationale, but it is cogent nonetheless.
But if Trump is impeached now for his crimes? Mike Pence becomes president. I feel like David would agree that Pence is a real conservative. Hillary Clinton would not retroactively become president. And Neil Gorsuch would continue serving on the High Court for life. Trump’s impeachment would not annul that.
When Watergate occurred, Rehnquist and Burger didn’t get replaced by Burger. McGovern did not become the president. Conservatives with conservative views who appreciated Nixon’s conservative accomplishment were appalled nonetheless by lawbreaking. That it seems more NeverTrumpers than not appear unwilling to accept this disturbs me to no end.
David Jennings says
LMAO, you went totally Godwin’s law in 8 words on your comment. Not a record but close. Cheers.
Manuel Barrera says
If Bill or Hillary were like Trump, the “Conservatives” would be in the streets. I think that a recent article by a none conservative best explains the the Trump supporters.
But as Pitts stated, “But people who dislike Mexicans and Muslims, people who oppose same-sex marriage, people mortally offended at a White House occupied by a black guy with a funny name, they voted for Trump.”
Like Trump did state about “Mexicans” there may be some exceptions.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Fat Albert says
With all due respect Manuel,
Mr. Pitts can take his opinionated, ignorant, biased opinion, fold it until it’s all corners and shove it in an uncomfortable place. It’s a ridiculous statement. It’s no more true than an observation that people who like killing babies, people who think that all white people are racist, people who believe that all men are rapists, people who believe that Muslim “Freedom Fighters” were justified in the atrocities of 9/11, they voted for Hillary.
Mr. Trump may indeed be guilty of a crime. If so, produce the evidence, file the Articles of Impeachment and remove him from office. I suspect that there will be plenty of Republican Congressmen and Senators who are willing to act on the merits of the charges.
In the meantime there is no doubt that Mr. Trump is guilty of numerous political missteps. They will quite likely limit his effectiveness as a President. He certainly seems to have remarkably poor judgement in selecting the people who work for him.
But here’s the think that Democrats need to be considering. If Trump is impeached, or resigns, Mike Pence will be President. He’s certainly more conservative than Trump, and probably less likely to compromise on social issues. The Republicans also have a solid bullpen of potential candidates for 2020. The Democrats have Hillary, a socialist old man and a college professor who’s so stupid she doesn’t know whether she’s a Native American or not.
A big part of the reason that Hillary lost last year is she spent all of her time pointing at Trump and shouting “he’s a bad guy”, while Trump spent his time talking about how he was going to make things better.
People pay attention to that kind of thing. . . . .
Manuel Barrera says
But just to remind some of you “Conservatives” that are willing to open their eyes are seeing things that are deplorable.
A Fox News legal analyst believes there’s enough information out there to “commence a criminal investigation” into accusations of collusion between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia.
“It is a crime to receive something of value, when you’re a campaign official, from a foreign person or a foreign government,” Judge Andrew Napolitano said Monday on “America’s Newsroom.
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/07/17/judge-napolitano-trump-jr-kushner-russia-meeting-suspicious-should-be-under-criminal
Trump and any supporter is aiding and abetting Russia, they are traitors in my book.