Identifying the Rubes

If there is one useful thing that Donald Trump is doing, it’s identifying who in the Republican Party and the conservative movement the true rubes are.

If you go on Twitter or on Facebook, you see so many conservatives who are talking about Trump in glowing tones. They talk about how fearless he is, how he can’t be bought off by donors, and how he is the only candidate who has the courage to stand up to the special interests in both parties.

Unfortunately, many of the folks who are doing this are part of the more conservative, Tea Party-oriented wing of the Republican Party. And it’s unfortunate mainly because some good people are losing their minds boosting the candidacy of a candidate who doesn’t even believe in the things that they believe in. Because tea parties don’t believe in:

• Expanding Abortion access to,
• More gun control,
• Higher taxes
• Canadian-style single-payer health care system; or
• Giving large donations to Hillary Clinton and other Democrats.

Donald Trump is an entertainer, a showman. In 1999, he was saying many of those things that I just listed above when he was running for President, ostensibly as a candidate of the Reform Party. Whether he believed those things in 1999 or whether he believes what he is saying now is inconsequential. People who like Trump because he “tells it like he is” must have forgotten about all of those other times were he was telling them he supports the exact opposite of what they support.

Trending: President Trump Must Be Reelected

The real kicker about Trump is the inability for some people to rationalize their support for Trump. When pointing out that Trump is basically a crony-capitalist Democrat masquerading as a Republican, their line of attack immediately turns to the Republican establishment, and calling everybody RINOs. It’s patently absurd in this context, of course, because Trump is the one standing up for the left, and the RNC and other “establishment” Republicans are pointing out that our party doesn’t believe in the nonsense he’s throwing out, but never let the facts get in the way of the good story.

The point that I am getting as is that the Trump campaign has given us an opportunity to determine who in the conservative movement is who. We are now able to identify those who are truly conservative versus those who are merely against the Republican establishment. Because the actual conservatives are supporting other, conservative candidates, and the anti-establishment types are supporting Trump. And the anti-establishment Trump supporters are showing that their focus is not and will never be on winning elections and implementing conservative principles, but in merely bitching about the establishment. Because some of these folks flocked to the most liberal candidate in the field partially in order just to stick it to those “establishment Republicans.”

If the Trump supporters wish to support him, they can do so. But they should know they’re helping everybody identify who the rubes really are.