The Trouble With Trump

Donald Trump attends the Hank’s Yanks 1st Annual Golf Classic at Trump Golf Links on Monday, July 6, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/APhttp://rack.1.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDE1LzA3LzIzL2E5L0RvbmFsZFRydW1wLmYyMjJhLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTk1MHg1MzQjCmUJanBn/291253b0/6f3/Donald-Trump-1.jpg
I have always considered conservatism to be the political philosophy of the thinking man. We don’t vote on a whim. We research the issues and vet our candidates. Most of us are people who hold ourselves to high moral principles, and we expect the same from our elected representatives. That’s what makes the popularity of Donald Trump so ironic. I understand that Conservatives are tired of the Washington status quo. Tired of Republican politicians who talk a good line and promise what ever to get elected and then don’t deliver. We are disgusted with the disingenuousness of political correctness and long for someone with enough chutzpa to stand up and speak the truth. Donald Trump is not that man.
We’ve all known that the left has its low information voters, people who are not motivated to delve into a candidate’s record, or history. Uncomfortable with the concept of personal responsibility, wallowing in perpetual victimhood, this constituency will vote for the candidate who seems most capable of providing a life free from worry or want. The progressive movement depends on these suckling lambs and leads them, like a herd, to the polls every election. Unfortunately Conservatism also has its useful idiots. People who vote based on emotion. They’ll choose the candidate who says what they want to hear, no mater his background. Trump appeals to these people. A consummate entertainer, Trump knows how to work an audience for maximum response. An inveterate attention whore, he thrives on working an audience into a frenzy. Trump paints himself as a Washington outsider, but from the ham-fisted attempt at quoting scripture at Liberty University, his way of pandering to whatever crowd he encounters, to his passive aggressive style of attacking his opponents, The Donald has proven that he is a very skilled politician. What he is not, is a statesman. Arrogant and petulant, he has at times behaved like a spoiled toddler or a playground bully. While many praise his outspokenness, there is a difference between being politically incorrect and being crass and vulgar. Trump does not know this difference; he says the first thing that pops into his mind however outlandish. No world leader would take him seriously.
Conservatives want a President who understands basic economics. One who will press for a balanced budget and get our fiscal house in order. But is Trump really the type of businessman for the job? Unlike businessmen like Herman Cain or Mitt Romney, who have a history of taking failing businesses, making the tough cuts and restoring them to solvency, Trump is a real-estate speculator. He takes investors money, or takes out loans, then sinks that money into risky ventures. Many times it has paid off big, making him millions, but it has also landed him in bankruptcy four times. Is this really the kind of businessman we want in charge of our tax dollars?
As for his Conservative credentials, Trump is hard to pin down. He has a history of donating to whatever candidate he could get the most use out of whether they were Liberal or Conservative. He donated to Hillary Clinton and Rahm Emanual to name a few. He didn’t make these donations because he believed in these politicians, no, he donated for favors. This is exactly the kind of cronyism that makes our representatives so unresponsive to the needs of the people who elect them. Trump has used the very system that is the biggest problem in Washington. He has supported then unsupported an assault weapon ban, and a single payer health care system. While it might be possible that he has had a change of heart about these issues, the fact that many of the changes are recent, leads one to question whether this is genuine, or just pandering for the Conservative vote.
We slam Ted Cruz because of a couple of campaign faux pas; we don’t trust Marco Rubio because he was part of the Gang of Eight. We scrutinize every facet of the other candidates. But just like Obama, for whom none of his numerous offenses seem to stick, we have simply chosen to overlook all the vast and varied reasons why Donald Trump is the wrong person to be the Republican nominee.
We have let this circus go on far too long. The stakes are far too high. The very future of our once great nation and our way of life are at stake. So confident of his chance of winning, the Donald will most assuredly run as an Independent if he doesn’t get the Republican nomination. This will fracture the Conservative vote, and hand the White House over to a Liberal Crone or a died in the wool Socialist. True Conservatives hoped we would be able to have a real leader, someone we could whole-heartedly support, instead of voting for the lesser of two evils. Looks like we will be disappointed again
The Middle-aged Housewife’s Guide to Political Correctness.
There are a lot of terms used by politicians and the media that may not mean what we think they mean. Political correctness is after all, an exercise in deception. Below is an attempt to cut through the crap and define what these often used words and phrases really mean.
- Amnesty: As it pertains to the illegal immigration debate, amnesty has three different meanings. To those favoring open borders, amnesty means that every illegal alien residing in the United States has a right to stay regardless of his circumstances or behavior. To these people, amnesty is a good thing. To those favoring closed borders, allowing anyone who comes over illegally to stay, regardless of his circumstances or behavior is considered to be amnesty. To these people, amnesty is a bad thing. To the politician, amnesty is a term to be avoided and the term “limited path to citizenship” is preferred. This means that certain illegal aliens who meet prescribed criteria will be allowed to stay while they seek citizenship. How difficult these criteria are to meet depends on how far to the right or left the politician is.
- Women’s Health Issues (aka “Reproductive Rights”): These are blanket terms covering many existing and proposed regulations, serving the purpose of giving women complete sexual freedom, unburdened by consequence, at no out of pocket cost to her.
- Raising Awareness: A Liberal Progressive device that allows a person to obtain the self-satisfaction of addressing a problem or issue without expending any substantial sacrifice of time, money, or resources. The act of “Raising Awareness” is not actually meant to solve the problem, but to deflect the solving of the problem to others who are now “aware” of it.
- Creating a Dialog: Another misleading Liberal Progressive device designed to instill guilt and contrition while masquerading as an open discussion.
- Racism: This term explains that any and all misfortunes incurred by non-whites are the result of the attitudes and ignorance of whites. This term has gained popularity because addressing the attitudes and behaviors of non-whites is difficult and not politically expedient.
- White Privilege: This is the idea that white people, by virtue of the color of their skin, and not because of attitude, work ethics, morals, or economic factors, are magically granted all types of social and economic advantages.
- Unequal Wealth Distribution: Another “divide and conquer” Liberal Progressive device. Those who favor the redistribution of wealth, are motivated by several misconceptions. All wealth is a finite resource unfairly accumulated and horded by a select few at the expense of the majority. Most wealthy persons have obtained their wealth by unfairly exploiting the poor. Once you reach a certain wealth threshold, you no longer have the right to the fruits of your labor. Hard work, ingenuity, and wise choices do not matter, the poor are not able to obtain wealth on their own because the wealthy game the system to keep the poor and middle class down.
To My Friends Outside My Police Family: This is Why We Can’t Stop Talking About It.
Sometimes it seems that the only thing Liberals and Conservatives have in common is their mutual mistrust of LEO’s
You may be my friend in real life. You might just be someone who knew me when I was a child. Maybe we grew up together and we follow each others life through social media. You see pictures of my child and I get to watch as you navigate your way through life. You see my status messages that talk about how my family and I just took our 3 year old to the park or that my husband was just promoted at work. Maybe you witness a birth announcement or the death of a family member as you look upon my life via a social media platform. Either way, I have, for some reason or another, chosen to allow you to be a part of it.
You know I’m a police wife or a police husband. Maybe I’m even an officer and we’re friends outside of my job. You…
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2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 370 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
Stop the Insanity
Last night justice was served. The Grand Jury in Missouri demonstrated once again that a jury of randomly selected private citizens could to look objectively at the facts and reach an unbiased decision. Over the past few years we have had several high profile cases where the verdict was not what the public expected or even wanted. These cases do not show a broken justice system. They demonstrate that the system is working as intended. Juries should not be swayed by raw emotions and threats of violence. They should only judge a case by the facts presented. This is exactly what happened here. It is a comfort to know that an overarching media that now seeks to shape the truth, rather than it’s intended purpose of simply reporting the truth, does not have the power to influence a verdict after all. Darren Wilson’s no bill verdict does not only exonerate him, but his profession as well. So ingrained in the black community is the perception that young black men are gunned down with impunity by the police, that nothing short of a public lynching of a police officer will convince them that our justice system works. Factual evidence is ignored, replaced by conclusions only proven by emotion. The attorneys for Michael Brown’s parents felt that the verdict was not in their favor because of the way the evidence was presented, that the tone of voice and verbal inflections were what persuaded the jury rather than the preponderance of the evidence. Because Grand Jury proceedings are held in secret we cannot know what verbal nuances were used. But we can know how carefully placed emphasis and verbal inflections in the way the mainstream media reported this story, influenced public opinion against Darren Wilson. Black parents worry about what will happen to their children when they have an encounter with the police. The solution is to teach them not to engage in behaviors were they will have such encounters. We hear so much about making the system fair and holding officers accountable. But who is holding young black men accountable? Where are the black leaders who are working to strengthen black families, and encourage young black men to take responsibility for the children they father? Where the politicians who are working to bring jobs and educational opportunities to black neighborhoods? Where are the rap artists, athletes and celebrities that condemn, theft, rape, drug addiction, and assault instead of glorifying it? Who is teaching black children the self reliance, self respect and respect for authority necessary to succeed in civil society? It is a tragic truth that young black men are in danger. But that danger is more from other black men than by the police. No parent should have to live with that kind of worry, but the solution must begin at home.
What’s In a Name?
Homophobe, Islamaphobe, intolerant, racist, bigot, woman-hater, backward, ignorant, redneck, cracker. If you are a white, Christian, Conservative, you have probably been called at least one of those words, or something worse. Here’s a word for those who are quick to throw out the aforementioned terms, hypocrite.
I don’t know about you, but I am getting weary with being told what I think and how I feel from people who have no idea who I am or what I stand for. People who are content to be told by the entertainment industry what to think, not how to think. People who are too quick to believe what they are told, by a media more concerned with pushing a social agenda, than seeking the truth.
I watch everyday, on the news, on the web, and I am astonished that people blame racism, and bigotry in all its forms when they are faced with the consequences of their behaviors. Common sense and civility have been driven from the public square, and I shake my head and wonder, at what point did the Bill of Rights, specifically the First Amendment, become so twisted and perverted that it is now the instrument by which I am stripped of the very rights it was meant to preserve?
Conservatism has always been about protecting the rights of the individual. Every individual, no matter what your personal philosophy. In spite of the picture painted of us, Conservatism is about compassion and compromise, within a framework of self-determination and personal responsibility. It is clear now however, that the Progressive movement, in spite of the narrative pushed for it, is not about compromise, it is about control.
Parents, Nothing More Than an Untapped Resorce
School has started once again and now comes the pile of forms to be signed. Every year, my child brings home something called the “student, teacher, administrator, parent compact”. This pointless exercise in political correctness has a section where the administrator, the teacher and the student basically pledge to make the school a safe, respectful learning environment. These are not bad objectives, but it is silly to have students, parents, and teachers sign a nonbinding agreement. Here is this asinine waste of paper for your viewing pleasure.
There is a section of this compact where there is a list of things that I, as a parent of a student, pledge to do. I do not disagree with what the compact contains, but I do find it particularly insulting that the school board feels it has to remind me what my duties as a parent are.
Signing this paper is supposedly voluntary, but in the past, my child was denied a locker until he brought back the form. When I pointed out to the teacher that it stated on the form that it was voluntary, she said that she did not have the authority to make an exception and would take it up with the guidance councilor. Apparently the guidance councilor didn’t have the authority to apply what was written on the form either, and it took about two weeks before the principle called me and agreed that my child could have a locker. By then, all the lockers had been assigned.
If the school district is going to require us to sign a paper like this, it should be to explain what the school promises to do for the students and parents, rather than the emphasis being the other way around. Here’s what I would like to see this compact contain:
That the administrators promise to:
• Weigh the input of parents highly when making policy decisions, and choosing curriculum
• Recognize the parent as the final authority in decisions about what is best for a student.
• Understand that the school exists to meet the needs of the families it serves, not the other way around.
• To support teachers in their efforts to educate students by giving them the resources necessary to do the job, and by not burdening them with needless programs and procedures that may seem novel and innovative, but reduce the amount of time the teacher has to actually teach.
That the teachers promise to:
• Communicate regularly with the parents.
• Make themselves available in the classroom to answer questions.
• Suggest helpful resources for struggling students.
• Make sure that all students, who put forth the effort, understand the subject matter before moving on to the next thing.
The parents promise to:
• Communicate regularly with the student’s teachers.
• Pay attention to the educational materials and curriculum provided to the student.
• Be an advocate for their student to insure that the school system meets the individual needs of the student.
• Encourage the student to take advantage of tutoring, and other help offered by the school.
The students promise to:
• Respect the persons and property of other students.
• Respect the authority of the teachers and school officials.
• Ask questions when they don’t understand.
• Be prepared with the proper supplies.
• Discuss disagreements with school rules with their parents, then together approach school officials about it rather than simply breaking the rule in protest.
Not Just Another Monday
This Memorial Day amid all the boat filled lakes, bikini filled beaches and back yard barbecues, many of us will take the time to stop and reflect on what this day is really about. We’ll pause and remember the courage and sacrifice of those who paid the ultimate price to preserve the rights and liberty this country enjoys. Rights it seems, that many in this country are willing to just throw away.
We like to plaster bumper stickers on our cars, and sport t-shirts proclaiming, “Support our Troops”. But are we making a real effort to support them? The VA hospital scandal, and the whittling away of our Veterans benefits are truly appalling. However, there is another way that many Americans have dishonored our Vets that maybe we have never considered.
When men and women join the military they take an oath. Not an oath to protect our government, an oath to protect and defend The Constitution of the United States of America. When we treat The Constitution as a “living” document, to be interpreted at whim, we reject the spirit of that oath. When we elect to office, people of questionable integrity, people who care more about their own power and glory than serving their constituents, we tell our Warriors that we do not care about the document they are sworn to defend. When, either through ignorance or indifference we elect government officials whose goal it is to turn our Capitalist, Republic into a Socialist Commune, we tell our military members that their sacrifices were in vain.
As citizens of this country, we all have an obligation to learn about our history, our Founders, and our Founding Documents. We have a responsibly to make wise and informed choices when we vote. And we have a sacred duty to only put into office those individuals who will truly “uphold and defend” The Constitution of the United States of America. To do less is to make the deaths of our bravest, and brightest meaningless.