FIRST Donald Trump is all the rage this week.
The political establishment class can’t stand him, the media is trying to destroy him, companies he has business relationships with in the past (Macy’s, ESPN, NBCUniversal) have run the other way, and a groundswell of support from the people looking for someone to say what they believe have elevated the political novice to the top of the polls.
Quite an opening few weeks for Donald Trump.
What Mr. Trump has been able to do is tap into the psyche of the conservative base, among others, who are fed up with both parties, the GOP in particular, for not getting serious on closing the border and doing something about illegal immigration.
One party (Democratic) wants amnesty for votes, the other party (Republican) wants the cheap labor and get the issue of immigration off the table so that the Latino population will love them and vote for them instead.
But millions of Americans aren’t interested in either party’s position. They care about the rule of law. They want the border closed and the current laws on the books enforced.
Donald Trump’s comments on Mexican immigrants coming into this country were careless and arguably insensitive. Also, from a standpoint of how they were perceived, he had to have known (though he no doubt doesn’t care) that the media and establishment would denigrate him for saying that Mexico sends their rapists and criminals to the United States.
He is brash, he is outspoken, and though we have our concerns about a Trump presidency (mainly his true stances on the issues), Donald Trump is taking on one of the most important domestic issues this republic faces at the moment and getting the people to talk about how we deal with it.
And as Mr. Trump’s rise in the polls has shown, regardless of the sustainability, immigration seems to be at the forefront of the political debate.
When a young woman, Kate Steinle, was tragically murdered in San Francisco recently, gunned down by an illegal alien who had been charged with seven felonies in his criminal past and deported five times prior, an already simmering issue was thrown to the front burner.
Now all of a sudden, sanctuary cities have become an issue. Nearly every GOP presidential candidate is calling for the end of these cities who harbor illegals. It is quite a shame that it took an innocent young woman to lose her life to an illegal immigrant for it to happen.
When the other 2016 GOP candidates attack Mr. Trump for his comments concerning Mexican immigrants, they are more concerned with political party jockeying than actually solving the problem.
Forget what the media and the establishment are saying about Donald Trump, here is what the 2016 presidential candidates need to understand: the reason he is resonating, and subsequently has seen his poll numbers rise, is because he is saying what millions of Americans are dying to hear. They are tired of rhetoric and want action and problems solved.
If the other GOP candidates fail to talk about the issues that the primary voters care about, Donald Trump could be the nominee.
This is getting fun. When is the first debate?
Jeb Bush, the establishment’s favorite candidate this presidential cycle, met with 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney and his wife Ann over the 4th of July weekend at the Romney’s New Hampshire vacation home.
Then on Monday of this week, Mr. Bush returned the favor and hosted Mr. and Mrs. Romney in Kennebunkport, Maine, where Jeb’s parents, former President George H.W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush, reside.
In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier that will air in its entirety next week, the former Florida governor was asked what advice Mitt Romney offered him. Mr. Bush said this:
“I got a lot of good advice from the last candidate who I wished was president right now, the last Republican candidate, and he validated a belief I have, which is that at some point we have to start campaigning in a way that’s beyond the base. I think you have to be respectful of conservatives, and you have to campaign hard, convince them that you’re the right guy to unite the party. But there also always ought to be an eye on the ball of the next group of people that actually decide who the president’s going to be.
Translation:
“I know I need to be somewhat nice to the conservative base so they don’t completely alienate me but the people who will really elect me as president are the establishment party types, moderates, and the country club elites. And that is who I am going to appease.”
As we wrote about back in January on this blog, Jeb Bush is the “anointed one”, at least within the Republican Party and by the mainstream media. But as we saw just four short years ago, another moderate, prolific fundraising former governor ran for president and was anointed the frontrunner and “the one to beat.”
We have just two questions for the former Florida governor: 1. Why take advice from someone who lost a very winnable election? 2. Do you realize that being condescending to the conservative base will probably cost you the general election if, God forbid, you are the nominee?
As the great Winston Churchill once remarked, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Unless the conservative base can rally around a solid constitutional conservative and defeat Mr. Bush in the primaries, history will be repeated just four short years later.
Fareed Zakaria, the host of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”, is also a columnist and an unabashed liberal. And in his recent column this week, he wrote that the only way to defeat terrorists is…get ready…to sit down with them and talk. Huh?? As outrageous as it sounds, this was the second such idiotic statement from an appeasing liberal.
On Monday, President Obama held a press conference after meeting with officials at the Pentagon and said this:
“This broader challenge of countering violent extremism is not simply a military effort. Ideologies are not defeated with guns, they are defeated by better ideas and more attractive and more compelling vision. So the United States will continue to do our part by continuing to counter ISIL’s hateful propaganda, especially online. We’ll constantly reaffirm through words and deeds that we will never be at war with Islam. We are fighting terrorists who distort islam and its victims are mostly Muslims.”
Radical Islamists who behead and rape can be defeated by better ideas, a more compelling vision, and an online counter-insurgency??
Whether the words are read from an article (Mr. Zakaria) or read from a teleprompter (the president), both statements are outrageous.
The American people aren’t interested, as the opposition to the Iranian nuclear talks indicate for example, in appeasement or sitting down with an enemy or with the terrorists. The people don’t want to know why they hate us, why they behead innocent civilians or why they rape and kill women and children.
They just want them defeated, killed, and wiped off the face of the earth. Sitting down with terrorists as if they are schoolchildren who need to be reasoned with for putting gum under their seats is complete insanity.
But as we have seen for the past six and a half years with this administration and have written on this blog before by calling for an overhaul of the State Department, appeasement is an easier choice than actually making tough decisions and defeating the enemy before they destroy you.
Sorry Mr. President, better ideas will never defeat radical Islam and those who exploit it for terrorist purposes.
In fact, it was you in 2008 who said, “if they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”
Do you still mean it? Or does that only apply to your political opposition?
Final One of the biggest concerns we have is the lack of leadership coming from Washington D.C. Whether it is the obvious (White House) or the expected (Congress), leaders in this republic are unfortunately scarce.
Fortunately, as strong supporters of federalism, there are the states. And that is where you will find that missing leadership.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin is one such example. This week, she publicly stated that she will disobey an order handed down from the Oklahoma Supreme Court which says displaying a Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds is unconstitutional and must be removed. The governor said the monument will stay pending the appeal process.
Gov. Fallin took a stand against a soft tyranny: now that’s leadership.
Well done governor.
