The Unshakable Appeal of a Trump Candidacy

If establishment Republicans have their way, the history of 1995 and 1996 will repeat itself, which portends that despite their enormous mid-term gains, Barack Obama will be reelected in 2012. While this is an appalling possibility to the mainstream of the country, those at the innermost circles of Republican hierarchy nevertheless seem determined to deny the American people a real alternative to the acceleration of government bloat and encroaching socialism from the political left. Thus they give credibility to the abhorrent and extra-constitutional actions of the Democrats and Obama since his inauguration.

The people of the Heartland made it inarguably clear last November that they want no part of Obama’s “hope and change” bilge water. Yet this message has somehow failed to penetrate those politicians ostensibly on the right who, had they been predisposed towards courage and leadership, could now wield it like a mace against the liberal Democrats. Instead Democrats have renewed vigor and are enjoying unwarranted success at forcing compromise and capitulation from the GOP. And with each Republican effort to avoid political impasse, chances for Obama and his Democrat minions improve for next year.

Throughout all of this, “business as usual” Republicans are again proving to be Obama’s biggest allies. Perpetually living in fear of scorn and ridicule from the “mainstream” media, they squander their political capital in a futile effort to stay in the good graces of the so-called political “center” (as it has been defined by the left) while flippantly disparaging or trivializing the conservative base.

So it should surprise no one that, amidst a current field of prospective Republican presidential hopefuls who promise little more than a continuance of the insipid “moderation” of George W. Bush, the mere possibility of Donald Trump entering the race is sending shock waves that reverberate on a tectonic scale. After all, Bush’s rejection of real conservatism was what ultimately brought us Obama. Now America genuinely and desperately seeks real change before it is too late.

It is inarguable that Trump’s past “conservative” credentials are less than sterling. Few if any ever considered him an icon of the Republican philosophy prior to his recent dalliances with presidential politicking. Nevertheless his appeal is broad and growing. And despite all the derision coming from GOP “experts” (or perhaps because of it) his momentum is real, and the Republican nomination may be within his grasp.

But if he has not historically carried the conservative water on any reliable basis, just what is it about him that seems to be resonating with Heartland America? More importantly, what lessons should real conservatives learn from him that could bolster and strengthen their own efforts to advance the conservative agenda?

Perhaps that question could better be answered by identifying and quantifying the leadership void that currently exists at the highest levels of Republican politics. And that appalling circumstance can best be revealed by considering the true character and underlying motives of Trump’s fiercest “Republican” critics.

Bush crony Karl Rove is among those most stridently attacking Trump, having dismissed him as “a joke candidate” and “inconsequential,” particularly on account of Trump’s dogged pursuit of the Obama birth certificate issue. Yet it is Rove who no longer holds any credibility with conservative America, in the aftermath of last year’s electoral controversies, and his complete betrayal of the “Tea Party” movement.

Few grassroots conservatives will ever forget how Rove did his best to undermine Christine O’Donnell in the Delaware Senate race after she unseated liberal RINO Mike Castle in the primary. Any pretenses of “party unity,” or those overblown and distorted references to Ronald Reagan’s “Eleventh Commandment” were summarily abandoned, once Castle, the preordained establishment candidate, was rejected by voters. In light of this, Rove’s derision may in fact boost Trump’s standing among those on the right.

More significantly, Americans are encouraged by Trump’s refusal to allow the liberal media to dictate to him the subjects he can and cannot discuss. The left has enjoyed far too much success in totally framing the debate on virtually every significant issue merely by castigating or mocking any who might ascribe to an opposing viewpoint. So it is a great encouragement to see someone stick to his guns, in complete indifference to the cat-calls of the “politically correct.”

Some, such as radio talk show host Mark Levin, have rightly pointed to Trump’s moral flexibility as cause for real concern. Unfortunately, as elastic as Trump has indeed been over the years, any such scrutiny will automatically contrast him against the disgraceful back peddling and waffling by entrenched Congressional Republicans whose track record is inarguably worse.

Trump offers bold and decisive plans to unleash America’s entrepreneurial spirit by rolling back government taxation and regulation. The specifics of these plans notwithstanding, in the wake of the recent surrender to Obama and the Democrats by House Speaker John Boehner and the Republican Congressional “majority,” even a dubious plan from Trump does not seem completely insupportable. Any “convictions” on Trump’s part, though deviations from his past stances, are still likely to remain more stable and steadfast than the Republican’s 2010 “Pledge to America,” the fundamental principles of which were unceremoniously jettisoned within weeks of the 2010 elections, out of a visceral fear of a government “shutdown.”

It is not yet settled whether Donald Trump is truly serious about running for the nation’s highest office. Nevertheless, his forays into the political arena have already had a positive effect on the conservative movement, and even if he does not actually intend to run, several invaluable lessons can be gleaned from his recent activity, and the public’s response to it.

His meteoric rise to political prominence reflects a scarcity of inspiring leadership among the standard players in the party. America is crying out for courageous and unapologetic conservative leaders who will not run from critical issues of the day each time the left resorts to its Alinsky tactics of vilification and marginalization.

The nation is fast approaching a “point of no return” from which the left hopes to send it down an inexorable path into socialism and servitude. And those who intend such a course for it will not be stopped through standard political give and take. Conservatives who intend to prevail must rise to something higher, more principled, and more resolute than the “status quo” inside the Beltway. To the degree that Donald Trump gives an appearance of representing this, America shuns the sanctimony and pontificating from the elitists, and welcomes his entry into the fight.