The Donald

TrumpIt seems that yet another incredibly… Interesting? Presidential Campaign season is off to a ridiculous start. I’d love to make this writing a scathing rant against liberals, poke a lot of fun at Democrats, and all those fun recreational activities, but I’m not going to do any of that (This Time!). Conservative folks, I’m pointing my cannon in your direction today, because we have some serious house cleaning, laundry airing, and good old fashioned realistic reevaluating to do!

What in the world are you people thinking? In this question, I am (Should read OBVIOUSLY!) referring to the incomprehensible affection for The Donald. Do anyone really believe that Mr. Trump represents good conservative values and Constitutional principles? If you are thinking that, you might want to reevaluate the opinion.

Let’s take a look at just a couple of things that should get your ears up. First, Mr. Trump has been a major contributor to past Clinton campaigns. Conservative? He would argue that he was just buying favor, had nothing to do with core beliefs. OK, I have a problem with that, buying politicians IS NOT a conservative value, and it is an activity that The Don has openly bragged about.

Crony capitalism and crony politics are a couple of the only issues that the Tea Party Movement and the Occupy Movement were in agreement on. Such activities erode the basic foundation of a Representative Republic (Which is what we have here folks, not a democracy, but that’s a whole other topic). Donald Trump is a big player in both of these cronyisms, and he thinks it’s pretty cute.

Strike one.

Issues?

Mr. Trump claims to be a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, but he is in favor of limiting certain “assault weapons”, and he would like to see an increase in waiting periods for firearms purchases. Seems rather contradictory to “…shall not be infringed.”

Strike two.

Take whichever side you want on the issue of abortion, that isn’t the current topic. Trump is. In the past he has been firmly “Pro Choice”. Suddenly, when he is trying to appeal to a conservative base, which is staunchly Pro Life, he becomes… Pro Life! What does he really believe? Again, not the issue here, the issue is character. It seems that Trump’s character is to say what needs to be said to get what he wants. I don’t want to say I don’t care about the issue of abortion, because I do (It’s murder, sorry. I have a BS in Zoology and an MS in Marine Biology, I’m here to tell you that life begins at conception. That isn’t a theological opinion but a biological fact. For another time.), but regardless of the belief I think that actually holding to one is a lot better than changing it every time it becomes expedient.

Strike three.

Now for the intangibles, or at least the less tangibles. Capitalism is a conservative value, greed and avarice are not. The Trump fortune is a testament to the dark side of capitalism. Trumps money has shady, though marginally legal, origins. His father was essentially a slum lord in the low income areas of New York. He built his tenements using, get this, Government Grants for the creation of low income housing! So, the elder Trump used tax dollars to finance his empire building. Once the building was complete, by all accounts, he ran his holdings in typical slum lord fashion with the added bonus of blatantly racist practices. Whites only low income housing financed by the government and making a family rich in the process. Not at all good stuff from any angle. Woody Guthrie (I know, uber-liberal, but not half bad as a folk musician!) was tenant in a Trump building, you can Google his opinions on the matter!

Personality wise, I’m not a big Trump fan either. I will concede that no one aspires seriously to the Presidency without a healthy measure of ego, but Donald passes ego and heads straight into arrogance. In fairness, he isn’t alone in that. If he and Hillary were ever in the same room together, it might cause some sort of world ending critical-mass-of-arrogance cataclysm. That notwithstanding, it is not an admirable quality.

The next bit applies to most of the candidates, but in a healthier measure to Trump. Our candidates are standing in front of us rattling off strings of “I’m gonnas” that are outside the powers granted to the President by The Constitution. We are already seeing the demise of the Constitutional Presidency, the diminishing of the separation of powers, and an inversion of the flow of authority framed by the founders. I have a very sneaking suspicion that if Trump found himself in office he would issue executive orders in a volume that would Make our current president look like a lightweight in that department. I don’t think The Don really wants to be president, I think he wants to be king! Dangerous precedents have already been set, and I think that Trump would do nothing but run with them.

I could keep going, but I hope you already see my point. Trump is not a good conservative candidate, he would not be a staunch follower of the constitution, and his character is questionable at best. Who do I like? My favorites are Paul and Carson, but I’m not holding out much hope at this time. Sadly, I think that this time around the best choice we’re going to be offered is “Not Hillary”

36 Comments

Leave a Reply to stephanieCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.