Douthat: The Conservative Case Against Trump
Russ Douthat notes that you can’t be a Reagan conservative and support Donald Trump. Nor can you be a patriot.
Click here for reuse options!…for conservatives to support Trump himself, to assist in his election as president of the United States, would be a terrible mistake.
It would be a particularly stark mistake for conservatives who feel that the basic Reaganite vision that’s dominated their party for decades — a fusion of social conservatism, free-market economics, and a hawkish internationalism — still gets things mostly right.
In large ways and small, Trump has consistently arrayed himself against this vision. True, he paid lip service to certain Reaganite ideas during the primaries — claiming to be pro-life, promising a supply-side tax cut, pledging to appoint conservative judges. But the core of his message was protectionist and nativist, comfortable with an expansive welfare state, bored with religious conservatism, and dismissive of the commitments that constitute the post-Cold War Pax Americana. And Trump’s policy forays since clinching the nomination have only confirmed his post-Reagan orientation.
… to Trump himself, there is no patriotic answer except “no.”
Copyright 2016 Liberaland
5 responses to Douthat: The Conservative Case Against Trump
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Buford2k11 May 8th, 2016 at 10:46
Ross Douthat is someone worthy of ignoring….For all that I have read from this guy…He is never correct, nor is he good enough to sacrifice brain cells for…Some day, historians will look back at this point in time, and see some of Douthat’s squawks, they will wonder how this nation ever survived the “Era of Derp”…
arc99 May 8th, 2016 at 11:08
True enough. There is one blogger, I think it is the guy who runs Little Green Footballs, calls Douthat the dumbest man on the internet.
But I think we do learn something from Douthat’s column. A subset of the far right fringe wants nothing to do with Trump. That can only help us in November. Maybe it was an outlier, but I saw a poll yesterday that had Georgia within the statistical margin of error 41% Trump 40% Clinton and a boatload undecided.
Suzanne McFly May 8th, 2016 at 12:04
But, but, but….he’s not a politician and that’s good right?
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bpollen May 9th, 2016 at 00:17
In large ways and small, Trump has consistently arrayed himself against this vision.
One of the few times Trump and reality end up on the same side.