Despite registering as a member of the Conservative Party in
1976, I have always had a deep and abiding sympathy for Republicans, who in
reality are ersatz conservatives who want to play the game more than they want
to stand by their beliefs.
Who
can blame them? Everyone wants to sit at the cool table for lunch.
Yet that seat ain't free. For many, the price is a moderation of their
beliefs. Hence, they let progressives dictate not only the game, but the
rules as well, and then they make Republicans feel that if they don't play,
they are not worthy of the game or their seat at the cool table, their invites
to all the cool parties, and all that comes with being one of the cool kids.
This
is one of the reasons why there often doesn't seem to be much of a difference
between Republicans and Democrats. Sure, they sound different, but
invariably, when in control of the levers of power, they govern in a similar
fashion. Perhaps it can be argued that Republicans move the nation down
the progressive rabbit hole at a slower pace, but down that hole we go.
Sure,
some will say politics ain't high school, but it is – it truly is.
Everything in life can be reduced to the schoolyard. If you don't punch
the bully in the face that first time, you will have a bully problem. The
greatest continuing success the Democrats have ever had is their unending
ability to bully the Republican Party into something more akin to being
Democrats.
Maybe
they think to sink to the Democrats' level is beneath them – or maybe they are
simply afraid of what the press will say about them if they actually stand up
for themselves and fight for what they believe in.
When
Mitt Romney had Barack Obama on the ropes during the 2012 presidential debates,
he didn't go for the kill. He held back because that's what good
Republicans do. They don't fight; they practice self-restraint. All
this while Dems were calling him the cruelest man who ever lived, who would put
blacks "back in chains."
Despite
serial eviscerations by the Democratic Party wing that is the media, and
Democrats themselves, Republicans do not understand that in limiting the rules
of engagement, they have actually constrained their ability to win. Now,
that's fine if perpetually your goal is to be a good loser. The high road
is filled with good losers.
Let's
hope it's not too late for Republicans to turn themselves around and fight back
against progressives using the same tactics the left uses against them.
Maybe they should take a page from Trump's election playbook.
Victor
Davis Hanson said, "The problem with the election of President Donald J.
Trump was not just that he presented a roadblock to an ongoing progressive
revolution. Instead, unlike recent Republican presidential nominees, he was
indifferent to the cultural and political restraints on conservative
pushback." He then added, "Trump brawled in a way McCain or
Romney did not. He certainly did not prefer losing nobly to winning ugly."
While
that's true, the true problem with Donald Trump and the reason the left pursues
him with such ardor is that he is not a Democrat – and to progressives, that is
the greatest sin of all.
Now,
Donald Trump, who won the presidency by telling people he wouldn't take crap
from anyone and would put America and Americans first, has seemingly put a
little pause on his game. Leaks, fake news, recusals, endless hearings,
and a special counsel have hindered his ability to get anything done
legislatively. The Republicans in Congress seem entirely unwilling to
stand up for their president.
As
soon as Trump was elected, everyone, Republicans as well as Democrats, started
telling him he had to play the game – but the heck with their game;
he needs to make them play his game. No matter how
much he tries to fit in, he will never be accepted, and he will ever be
pursued.
Fight,
damn it – it won you the presidency. Why stop now? Don't stop
tweeting. Say what you want to say. You have excellent instincts,
as the latest CNN "fake news" kerfuffle has shown.
Mr.
President, you have to understand that the people who are telling you to stop
tweeting or are telling you to tweet with no offense are attempting to disarm
you of the most effective weapon you have, and that is the "No BS
Zone." Bill O'Reilly had the "No Spin Zone"; you need to
own the "No BS Zone." That is your biggest strength. You
cannot let anyone tell you anything different. Call a spade a
spade. America craves a president who calls it the way he sees it,
without pretense and without political correctness.
They
are coming for Trump. If he wants to win, he will need to fight, and he
will need to fight with what he has. Sure, he may say some things that
are not relevant and perhaps even outright wrong, but as the holder of the Bully
Pulpit, he needs to say what he think. The left won't like it because
they are all about silencing the opposition (see college campus dogma
today). Who cares about the ululations of the left? Trump's tweets
are the best way to bypass the media and change the conversation from the one
progressives want to have to the one he wants to have.
The
worst decision Donald Trump made upon becoming president was not to pursue
criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. Needless to say, the criminal
investigation would have been open and shut, and Ms. "Thing that Won't Go
Away" would now be chugging her favorite chardonnay behind the bars of her
federal prison cell.
I
think the president showed infinitesimally more prosecutorial discretion than
any elected Democrat would show any Republican guilty of far less serious
infractions. What did it get him? Look around at what's going on
today. Trump is the target of a witch-hunt investigation by Special
Counsel Mueller. Mueller has his verdict; now what he needs is a crime.
When
the Democrats are in control of the presidency, the left is all about
"civility" and "can't we all just get along?" Yet
when they are out of power, it's "Resist" and comedians holding the
bloody, severed head of the president. If anyone had done that with
Obama, he would probably still be in federal prison. I seem to recall a
rodeo clown who had the audacity to wear an Obama mask not only being fired,
but also suffering through multiple interviews with the Secret Service.
Every
day you hear the Trump administration and the Mueller investigation compared to
Watergate, the hands-down high point of the Democratic Party. As far as
spying on American citizens for political gain and the weaponization of
American institutions such as the IRS to pursue political opponents, it's the
Obama administration that most effectively channeled its inner Nixon.
Mr.
President, they started this fight. It's time to take the fight to them.
With
that in mind, how about appointing a special counsel for Hillary?
How
about appointing a special counsel for Loretta Lynch and her obstruction of the
Hillary investigation...oops, matter?
How
about appointing a special counsel for Susan Rice and the unmasking of American
citizens?
How
about appointing a special counsel for Lois Lerner of IRS fame?
How
about appointing a special counsel for Eric Holder and the Fast and Furious
gun-walking?
Last
but not least, how about a special counsel to investigate Barack Obama and the
spying on Americans for political purposes? Wasn't that part of the
impeachment charges against Nixon?
The
American people voted for Donald Trump because he said he would fight.
It's high time he started.
