Understanding Trump's appeal

[Originalist]

This is a lengthy read, but I recommend it, especially to those who cannot understand why many real conservatives pick Trump over Cruz....


Transcript from Rush Limbaugh show....



Understanding Trump's Appeal

January 20, 2016

RUSH: I want to read something to you. I want you to really listen to this. This was written back in 1996, written by a man named Samuel Francis, who later in life suffered the -- acquired the -- reputation of being a white supremacist. Undeservedly so, but there have been efforts undertaken to destroy his credibility and so forth. He was an advisor to Pat Buchanan.

But don't let any of that cloud what I'm gonna read to you yet. I want to read to you from an essay he wrote called "From Household to Nation." It was published in Chronicles magazine back in 1996. "[S]ooner or later, as the globalist elites seek to drag the country into conflicts and global commitments, preside over the economic pastoralization of the United States, manage the delegitimization of our own culture, and the dispossession of our people, and disregard or diminish our national interests and national sovereignty, a nationalist reaction is almost inevitable and will probably assume populist form when it arrives."

The theory is that this is Donald Trump. The theory is that that (written back in 1996) foretold, if you will, or predicted the arrival of Donald Trump. Not by name, but by virtue of somebody realizing what's happening and taking the bull by the horns and reacting to it this way. "Imagine giving this advice to a Republican presidential candidate: What if you stopped calling yourself a conservative and instead just promised to make America great again?" What do you think might happen in the current climate, where the middle class in the country feels totally left out of everything going on?

They feel like they've been targeted by every liberal Democrat policy that has not been stopped by the Republican Party. What if you dropped [talking] about the free market," stop all of that, "and promised to fight the elites who were selling out American jobs? What if you just stopped talking about reforming Medicare and Social Security and instead said that the elites were failing to deliver better health care at a reasonable price? What if, instead of vainly talking about restoring the place of religion in society ... you simply promised to restore the Middle American core," and everything it stands for?

You "promise to restore ... the economic and cultural losers of globalization to their rightful place in America? What if you said you would restore them as the chief clients of the American state under your watch, being mindful of their interests when regulating the economy or negotiating trade deals?" What if you decided to go to middle America and tell them you're the guy that's gonna make it right, that you're the guy that's gonna speak up for them, you're the guy that understands how they have been targeted, how their lives have been under the microscope, how the establishment has raised their taxes, made health care unaffordable, has caused cultural rot?

You can't send your kids to school anymore, because it costs so much they end up with debt. And besides, what's being taught in college reeks! So what if you come along and promise to fix all that but you don't call yourself a conservative? You just say you're gonna make America great again? This is the advice this man gave Buchanan back in 1996. He said (paraphrased), "This is what you need to do, Pat." Buchanan couldn't do it in 1996 because Buchanan was so identified with conservative policies, conservatism as a conservative.

He couldn't abandon it, because that alone would have destroyed his credibility. Somebody asked Buchanan recently, after watching Trump run around the past few months: Pat, do you get the impression that Trump... I mean, he's talking about same stuff you do it way back when you ran for president 1996, 1992. Why do you think Trump's being heralded and supported and leading, and you weren't? Buchanan said because 20 years ago, he was just sounding the warning. None of this was really happening. He was warning people it was coming. Trump doesn't have to do it. We're living it. There's a 20-year record now.

So Trump doesn't have to warn anybody.

All he's gotta do is let people know he recognizes it. All of this comes from a column called "From Household to Nation," written by this guy Samuel Francis. Pat Buchanan was the target back in 1996, and here's the simplification of the theory. It is that "[t]here are a number of Americans who are losers," economic losers, not sad-sack losers. They just lost out in the enterprise of "economic globalization that enriches a transnational global elite. These Middle Americans see jobs disappearing to Asia and increased competition from" unskilled, uneducated, increasing numbers of immigrants, most of them illegal.

They are stuck right in the middle of cultural rot brought about by liberalism. And the key: "But they are also threatened by conservatives who would take away their Medicare, hand their Social Security earnings to fund-managers in Connecticut, and cut off their unemployment too." Now, that may make you say, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Why would these middle class voters fear conservatives?" Well, because this goes back to the whole thing, folks. There's a lot of conservatives out there; many of you in this audience are.

But the theory now with Trump coming... Let me just cut to the real chase. What the end of all this, people think that the arrival of Trump on the scene and the success he's having has blown whatever alignment there was between the so-called conservative movement and the Republican Party, because what is happening here -- what is being exposed, what's being demonstrated -- is that, yeah, there are a lot of people who are conservative, but many will not call themselves that, and they are not conservatives because of conservative policy.

In other words, they're not wonks.

They don't understand all the ins and outs of classic conservatism. They're just who they are. Therefore, it's not conservatism that is the glue that has this group of people in this coalition held together. It's quite a number of other things, and right now the glue is an absolute opposition to the Democrat Party, to the American left, to the worldwide left, and everything they have done and want to continue doing. As I said yesterday, if somebody comes along and convinces them that they're serious about stopping this and reversing it, they don't care if it's somebody from Mars!

It doesn't have to be a classical conservative promising this. It can be anybody who makes them trust him, anybody with credibility. So the fear is, when you get inside the Beltway, that all of the conservative institutions -- in media and in think tanks, you name it. All the various components are being exposed as really unnecessary and irrelevant, and really haven't done anything for people. One illustration of that is the reaction to Sarah Palin from the Republican establishment.

She shows up... Not the selection, but Palin showing up to endorse Trump. Everybody said, "Why in the world would she do that?" Let me ask you a simple question. "If you're Sarah Palin, what has the Republican establishment done for you -- other than try to destroy you?" The Republican establishment, they assigned people to shepherd her through the McCain campaign who ended up telling the media, "My God, this woman is so stupid, I can't vote for McCain! The thought this woman might become president? Oh, my God, I can't!"

HBO made a movie out of it. So if you're Sarah Palin, you might ask, you're asking me why I'm endorsing Trump? Why don't you ask me what has the so-called conservative Republican Party done for me. Tea Party's a different thing, obviously. So the Trump triumph, the Trump coalition is exposing the fact that it isn't conservative orthodoxy, or conservatism, or any of the hard work of the conservative elite in persuading people and educating them and informing them that is causing people to be conservative.

No, it's something really basic and simple. They are fed up with the modern-day Democrat Party. They're fed up with Obama and all of these people who have set out to transform, which means destroy, this country and rebuild it in ways it was never founded to be or intended to be. They want it stopped. They've shown up at the polls twice, 2010, 2014, to get them to stop.

The Republican Party establishment does not understand this. They do not know who their conservative voters are. They've overestimated their conservatism, and by that is meant they think they're dyed-in-the-wool conservative theoreticians absorbed in such things as the free market and all these other bells and whistles, and they're not. They're not liberal. They're not Democrat. Many of them do not want to be thought of as conservatives, for a host of reasons. So somebody who comes along and is able to convey that he or she understands why they're angry and, furthermore, is gonna do everything they can to fix it, is gonna own them.

So what's happening here, nationalism, dirty word, ooh, people hate it, populism, even dirtier word. Nationalism and populism have overtaken conservatism in terms of appeal. And when this has happened, when it exposes -- what people in Washington are afraid of -- and that that is, you know, all this money we've asked people to send us and all these donations people have made, this movement, promote that movement, where is conservatism in Washington, they're asking. Where is it? The Republican Party isn't conservative. Where are all these conservative people that are contributing to policy being implemented in Congress or in the Senate. They don't see it.



RUSH: By the way, folks, Angelo Codevilla in that original piece he did on the ruling class versus the country class, he predicted this as well. It's not just this guy back in 1996 whose name was Samuel Francis. What's interesting about the 1996 piece is how right on it is in foretelling Trump and the way he's campaigning and what he's saying. This is a guy back in 1996 urging Buchanan to just go all-in. Forget conservatism, Pat, you're gonna turn too many people off, some people who are conservative but they don't want anybody to know it. They don't want anybody to think it. They're embarrassed of it for whatever reason. Don't even go to conservative. Don't even mention the word, Pat, just go pro-America, just go nationalism, populism, whatever, and you'll rake 'em in. You don't need those people, Pat.

This is the summation of his advice. They'll drag you down. All they'll want to get in is on your campaign, be your policy expert. You don't need 'em, Pat. They're not gonna help you. But he couldn't. Buchanan couldn't abandon conservatism; he was too identified as one. But Trump, nobody's ever thought of him as a conservative. Doesn't have to abandon anything. Codevilla predicted this as well more recently. Codevilla said it was only a matter of time, the country class would figure out that the ruling class is not only not listening to them, but is actively suppressing them, and there would be a price to pay for this.

At some point the country class, which considers itself the group of people that actually make the country work, would simply revolt and abandon the conventional arrangements that have always existed, the parties, party loyalty shmoilty. It would come down to who is going to fix the problems that everybody agrees are taking place that we face and are being

[aegsm76]

Good article.
As a life-long conservative, I find myself totally alienated from the elites in the Republican party.
That's why I would strongly consider voting for Bernie over any Republican establishment candidate.

[Originalist]

You would vote for a socialist? You make no sense.

[aegsm76]

Lol!
Don't know if I could actually pull the lever, but my level of disgust with the Repub leadership is immense.

[Jermyn Davidson]

Originally Posted by aegsm76

Lol!
Don't know if I could actually pull the lever, but my level of disgust with the Repub leadership is immense.

I don't think I can vote for Bernie Sanders.

I mean, sure I can physically do it, like a zombie or something, that's about what it would take. Heavy sedation, the incarceration of Hillary Clinton, and a complete failure of the GOP to present someone worth supporting.

[Jermyn Davidson]

Regardless if Trump wins the GOP nomination, a vote for Trump is NOT a vote for a conservative-- not in the least bit.

Conservatives are going to have to "sell their souls" to support Trump.

Remember the logic was just a few months ago that the GOP needs to present a TRUE CONSERVATIVE who can actually win.

Now, the GOP is beginning to line up behind...?

smh

[Jason B]

Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson

Regardless if Trump wins the GOP nomination, a vote for Trump is NOT a vote for a conservative-- not in the least bit.

Conservatives are going to have to "sell their souls" to support Trump

I agree with you on this.

[Monterrey]

Gonna just set back and watch this happen....

But still see HRC winning.

We'll see.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by aegsm76

Good article.
As a life-long conservative, I find myself totally alienated from the elites in the Republican party.
That's why I would strongly consider voting for Bernie over any Republican establishment candidate.

Burn, baby burn! Disco inferno!



Or,..

I came in like a wreckin' ball!

[commonsense]

Lifelong Registered Republican
Right Winger Conservative

And to be honest, none of the true RNC candidates impress me. Yes, many are true conservatives. Good pure ideals.
But would people vote for them??

We can't win with out a few Independents and Dems to vote for our candidate. Guess what folks...
McCain and Romney did not have much support. I did vote for them but it was not in support. It was against the Democratic candidate. If we put a true blue religious conservative candidate on the ballot___it's not going to garner the necessary support.

Idealism! Religion! not gonna carry the necessary votes.
Yes, more and more people are waking up to Hillary and Sanders and the LEFT. But America today is not truly a religious nation (sorry) and if we try to force another " limited national support" candidate on the ballot....it will be another loss.

I would almost vote libertarian, but I know that is truly throwing my vote away. Last 2 elections____many Republicans did not like the candidates forced on them, so they stayed home.

It may sound like giving up but we cannot survive another Leftist running our nation.

Is Trump a true Republican. Maybe not, but who can get nation wide support and not be a puppet for a lobby or corporation?
He is at least able to be free of the RNC control.

jmho