Prudence says…
There was a meeting of the Sam Adams Society in the Holy City of Lowell the other day (hey, it’s as holy as any holy city in the Western Hemisphere) and in the process of a 2-hour lunch the 4 members pretty well dissected current events and partially predicted the future. Because we are conservatives we tend to be right about many things. Anyway, one of the members is very close to Prudence’ heart.
Naturally, the “Trump situation” was discussed, along with a number of “RINO” machinations, world economic problems, tax policies and self-driving cars and other robots.
None of this is meant to imply that Trump is a robot – far from it. In his way he’s brilliant, as only a human could be.
Some have wondered if Mr. Trump is a plant, intended to destroy conservatism… or to destroy the Republican party (the two movements being only vaguely congruent), or to help Hillary in some way? Do you really think the Clintonistas are that devious, that Machiavellian, that mendacious? Well, okay, but do you think they are also clever enough to do it? Maybe, but I doubt that Trump would be the guy to try it with. Like I said, he’s pretty sharp.
He’s also stubborn, acerbic, annoying, independent and brash… and he’s on a mission. Men like him because he sounds like an actual guy instead of some feminized fop who’s afraid to offend someone. Women like him because he sounds like he won’t take any guff from anyone who’d threaten their safety or that of their families.
At least two of the Sam Adams members voted for Cruz, so the meeting was not a Trump lovefest. However, the possibility of his candidacy doing damage to the Republican party seems quite real. As one functionary with a good view of it says: If he wins the nomination it MAY hurt the party; if the insiders yank the nomination away from him, it WILL hurt the party. Talk about the horns of a dilemma.
On the other hand, there is no way Trump can hurt conservatism. Conservatism is a body of age-old truths about history and human nature. Neither Trump nor anyone else can shake its foundations. Nor does it matter if Trump is, himself, a staunch conservative! That argument is a bright, crimson herring among dozens strewn by the Republican establishment.
Trump’s main qualities to conservatives include the fact that he can work with them – unlike the establishment RINOs and unlike establishment liberals and socialists. And, he does have some instinctively conservative ideas which damn few others have or are willing to express. This is said in the sense that the first task of conservatives is to conserve the integrity and ideas of
America that make us a great nation.
Finally, it can be said that of all the people vying for the world’s biggest job, we know more about what Trump will DO if elected than we know of ANY other, mendacity notwithstanding.