Ilya Shapiro presents an interesting thesis: That Donald Trump’s Candidacy is a product of a plurality of Republican voters having become disillusioned with America’s Constitutional form of Government. That the utter failure of the Republican Party to stop any part of Barack Obama’s radical agenda has convinced them that the only way to counter the left is to elect an equally authoritarian “strong man” who will similarly ignore Constitutional Restraints and impose his will on their behalf.
- The Republican Congress has not only been utterly ineffectual in opposing Obama’s policies, but has consistently voted to fully fund them. The one time the Congress very briefly, very tentatively stood up to Obama (the so-called “Government Shutdown” of 2013 that didn’t actually shut down anything), they not only folded immediately, but abjectly apologized and promised that such insolence would never happen again and those responsible (Ted Cruz, Mike Lee) would be punished.
- The Supreme Court … led by a supposedly conservative George W. Bush appointee … saved Obamacare twice through Cirque du Soleil quality legal distortions, overturned Arizona’s illegal immigration enforcement policies (because they displeased Obama), and created a brand new Constitutional Right to “dignity” in upholding gay marriage laws enacted in many cases against the wishes of the citizenry. Thus, the Roberts Court showed it cared not a whit for the Constitution, but would also… most of the time … roll over for President Obama.
- Apologists repeating over-and-over “There’s nothing we can do because we don’t have the Presidency,” is a de facto admission that Congress is irrelevant in the era of the Baracktatorship.
This is a very plausible thesis, and I say that from the perspective of having been at one time sympathetic to the idea of a Trump candidacy (before he got down in the gutter). He was not my first, second, third, fourth, or fifth choice. (FWIW: Paul, Walker, Cruz, Jindal, Perry) But I understood his appeal against a corrupt and ineffectual Republican Establishment, and before I came to the conclusion that his sudden conversion on issues like illegal immigration, trade, abortion, and gun control (the precise opposite of his previous views), was insincere opportunism, I could entertain the idea of a Trump candidacy. It was the sleazy campaign and the mounting evidence of his insincerity that pushed me to #NeverTrump.
But can I understand why someone would turn to Trump after every other instrument of the party had betrayed them? Totally.
I’ve mostly given up on National Review – at least until they shake off their Trump obsession – but I saw a tweet the other day from John Podhoretz lamenting Trump’s lack of conservative ideals…
I replied, mentioning that if you ask the average voter just what, exactly, conservative pols have accomplished lately, the response would be a blank stare.
I didn’t expect an answer – and I didn’t get one.
Meanwhile, despite the drubbing the GOPe and Hillary are getting, our solons are busy figuring out how to import more low-skill labor.
http://www.vdare.com/posts/both-parties-in-congress-we-need-more-low-skilled-immigrants
So, Shapiro may have a point… but I suspect that simple disgust and loathing is the more common explanation.
The GOP has given up on the Constitution for decades.
If you’re not voting for Trump, you’re helping Hillary win. Tell us again how conservative that is
The alt right is very supportive of Trump too. I think I’ve given up on them too.
If only the CUCKS on the right fought Bath House Barry 1/2 as hard as they are going against TRUMP
Ann Coulter is against aborting but she said if TRUMP builds the wall she wont care if he performs abortions in the oval office. If we don’t seal the border American citizens will become a minority, net taxpayers already are.
KCRob I guess I am not the only gay that looks to vdare for immigration info.
@ 4, alt right is nothing more than a cesspool of bitter white guys
Bingo. Or someone for whom she was not a wedding guest. The fact that Trumpets can’t see that an incestuous relationship has long existed between the presumed nominees of the major parties and how that makes them more alike than different defies belief.
John C @ 8: “alt right is nothing more than a cesspool of bitter white guys”
Alt-right may indeed be a cesspool, but why bring “bitter white guys” into your condemnation of them? Are you a leftist, that you should think (which is to say, emote) like one?
@10 cause he is a racist
@10,11. No I’m not a liberal. I’m just stating what the general vibe of the various alt right blogs and websites. This is also coming from other criticisms of these alt right sites which include conservative and libertarian critiques. So with that, go f#%k yourself.
Ah, so John C *is* a leftist, and not as I’d initially figured, simply a regular person who doesn’t (yet) realize that his mind was co-opted (without his knowledge or consent) by leftism during his years in the public indoctrination centers.
“So with that, go f#%k yourself.” And we have a winner for the cesspool comment of the day!!
No TnnSne 1, you’ve always been the winner of that former drug addict.
“No TnnSne 1, you’ve always been the winner of that former drug addict”
Well, that makes no sense at all. Drug addict? Where the heck did that come from?
“… Drug addict? Where the heck did that come from?”
Same place as the “bitter white guys”, maybe?
Our Host: “Does the Trump Nomination Mean the GOP Has Given up on the Constitution?”
Well, why not tell us how a Cruz nomination — he being a naturalized US citizen, rather than a natural born US citizen, as required by the US Constitution … and not even that until he was 16 years old — would not have been an act of “giving up on the Constitution”?
“Natural born” has never been preemptively defined. John McCain was considered a “natural born” US citizen, even though he was born in the current Panama. There was mass outrage when it was suggested that Barack Obama didn’t meet the definition because he was so coy in providing verifiable details of his background.
If people continue to wish to make this an issue, I would suggest that they press for a constitutional amendment to clarify the matter.
Barry Goldwater was born under the US Flag in Arizona Territory.
John McClain was born under the US Flag in the US Canal Zone.
Ted Cruz was born under the Maple Leaf Flag in Calgaray Alberta Canada.
…An unsubtle difference.
All US Citizens by-birth under US Federal Law.
But whether Mr Cruz meets the unique Constitutional requirement to serve as POTUS is still legally ambiguous….and yet-untested judicially.
@16, because you said in another thread that you were a big drug user back in the 70s
“because you said in another thread that you were a big drug user back in the 70s”
Oh my… There is a HUGE difference between a drug user and drug addict.. Grand Canyon huge. And it is now, 2016… To assume I am a drug addict after all this time is HUGE leap. Grand Canyon huge.
“21.Barry Goldwater was born under the US Flag in Arizona Territory.
John McClain was born under the US Flag in the US Canal Zone.
Ted Cruz was born under the Maple Leaf Flag in Calgaray Alberta Canada.
…An unsubtle difference.
All US Citizens by-birth under US Federal Law.
But whether Mr Cruz meets the unique Constitutional requirement to serve as POTUS is still legally ambiguous….and yet-untested judicially.”
Laurence Tribe correctly pointed out Cruz’s hypocrisy on this matter, and Scalia didn’t rebut Tribe, and I believe Scalia helped Tribe write the article. January 2016, Boston Globe.