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Corrupt Government Title: Know Why Voters Cheer Donald Trump, GOP? Because Of Immigration! Most Republicans running for president have only one idea: Be like Reagan! Unfortunately, they seem to remember nothing about Reagan apart from the media-created caricature of a slightly addled old man who somehow mesmerized an imbecilic public with his sunny optimism. ¡Jeb! goes around saying, I believe were on the verge of the greatest time to be alive. Marco Rubio answered a question in the first debate about God and veterans, saying: Well, first, let me say I think God has blessed us. He has blessed the Republican Party with some very good candidates.
And I believe God has blessed our country. This country has been extraordinarily blessed. And we have honored that blessing. And thats why God has continued to bless us. John Kasich responded to a question at the New Hampshire presidential forum about why he was running, saying: Well, Jack, look, were allweIve received blessings. Most of us here have been very, very blessed, and when you get that way, you have to figure out what your purpose is in life to make the world a little better place. They all sound like Barney, the purple dinosaur, singing, I love you, you love me! The other problem with the Be Reagan strategy is: Its not 1980 anymore. Reagans election is as far away today as the defeat of Hitler was then. Gov. Scott Walkers answer to whether hed invade Iraq, knowing what you know today, was: Id point out that in the overall issue of foreign policy, Id say in my lifetime, the most impressive president when it came to foreign policy was a governor from California. What does that even mean? Is he going to invade Grenada, fund the Contras and put missiles in Western Europe? Back in 1996, when Bob Dole said, Im willing to be another Ronald Reagan, if thats what you want, at least people laughed. When Moammar Gadhafi was under siege in 2011, Rick Santorum said: Ronald Reagan bombed Libya. If you want to be Reaganesque, the path is clear. On the other hand, in the quarter century since Reagan bombed Libya, Bush invaded Iraq, prompting Gadhafi to end his WMD program, invite in U.N. weapons inspectors, and pay the families of the Lockerbie bombing victims $8 million apiece. Nonetheless, bomb Libya is exactly what our feckless commander in chief did. Obama sent American troops to participate in the NATO bombing of Libya which helped oust Gadhafi, which led to Islamic lunatics running the country, which led to the murder of four Americans, including our ambassador, in 2012, and the refugees flooding Europe today. Formulaic applications of Reagans policies from the 1980s dont always work the same way they did in the 1980s. (Similarly, Duran Durans new single was kind of a dud.) I used What Would Reagan Do? as a joke back in 2005; these guys think its an actual governing philosophy. When Reagan was running (three and a half decades ago), there was a real fight in the Republican Party over abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, guns and foreign policy. Reagan had to face down elements in his own party to be pro-life, anti-ERA, pro-gun and to pursue an aggressive anti-Soviet foreign policy. Reagan won. Its over. The ERA is gone. The Soviet Union is gone. The GOP is unquestionably the party of life and the Second Amendment. (If only fetuses could get their hands on a gun!) Ever since the hero of 9/11, Rudy Giuliani, couldnt get out of the starting gate in his presidential bid because he was pro-abortion and anti-gun, no serious Republican candidate is ever going to waver on those two issues again. So why did Marco Rubio find it necessary to stress that he opposed abortion even in cases of rape and incest at the first GOP presidential debate? Did he not live through that whole Todd Akin thing, like the rest of us? Today, the fight in the Republican Party isnt over abortion, guns or the Sandinistas; the dividing line is immigration. Will we continue to be the United States, or will we become another failed Latin American state? On this, its Donald Trump (and the people) vs. everyone else. Trump announced his presidential campaign by talking about Mexican rapists. Immigration is the only policy paper hes put out so farand hes been crushing the polls. He got his one sustained standing ovation from 20,000 cheering fans in Dallas Monday night when he talked about stopping illegal immigration. But James B. Stewart[Email him] gasses on in The New York Times about Trumps namecalling, personal attacks and one-liners that have vaulted him to the top of the polls. In the entire article, Stewart never mentions immigration. Perhaps some minority of people will vote for Trump because of his personality. But I notice that its his position on immigration that gets thousands of people leaping to their feet. The media will talk about anything but Trumps specific, detailed policies on immigrationall while claiming he doesnt have any policy details. The very fact that the entire mediaincluding most of the conservative commentariatobdurately refuse to acknowledge the popularity of Trumps immigration plans is exactly why Trump is exploding in the polls. Trump isnt trying to imitate anyone. Hes leading on the seminal issue of our time while the rest of the field practices looking optimistic in front of the mirror. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top Page Up Full Thread Page Down Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 3.
#3. To: nativist nationalist (#0)
(Edited)
Trump's statements on immigration are courageous and correct, but he needs to boaden his campaign to demonstrate understanding of other major issues that are equally important.
#4. To: rlk (#3)
He's had a position on trade that is opposed to the free trade theology of the GOP ruling class. They've pissed away big industrial states like Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania when they transformed the arsenal of democracy into the rust belt.
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