10/27/2017 - David Limbaugh Townhall.com
Despite the
unrequited longings of the left and certain vocal Republicans, there is no
civil war in the Republican Party, and there is not even widespread
disaffection with President Donald Trump among rank-and-file GOP voters.
But this is
not what you would assume listening to Democrats and the mainstream media or
frequenting the Twitter accounts of a number of high-profile Trump-disdaining
conservatives.
Sen. John
McCain has been in a public feud with President Trump, as have Sens. Bob Corker
and Jeff Flake, who both have announced that they will retire, lamenting the
decline in dignity and manners that Trump has allegedly ushered in. And no less
a Republican well-wisher than Hillary Clinton has declared that the GOP is
imploding.
President
Trump, for his part, obviously perceives matters differently, tweeting,
"The meeting with Republican Senators yesterday, outside of Flake and
Corker, was a love fest." Even sometime Trump critic Lindsey Graham
praised the luncheon, saying that Trump was "upbeat,"
"lighthearted" and "funny as hell."
With the
liberal media gleefully showcasing these intramural squabbles and obsessing
over Trump's every tweet and phone call, it's no wonder some might infer that
Republicans are in hopeless disarray and headed for extinction. But outside
their echo chamber and that of the denizens of NeverTrumpistan, I think we'll
be fine.
Victor
Davis Hanson, in a piece for National Review Online, cited data showing that
despite perceptions to the contrary, Trump received roughly the same percentage
of Republican votes as other previous GOP presidential candidates.
Additionally, my own experience tells me that the overwhelming majority of
fellow Republicans and conservatives are supportive of Trump, even if they
don't wholeheartedly embrace everything he may tweet or say.
Indeed,
very few conservatives I've run into are that concerned about Trump's tweets --
even those who would prefer he dial them down a notch -- because they
appreciate that he is speaking their language instead of the guarded language
of the typical politician. Columnist Salena Zito offered a fascinating insight
on this, saying, "The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his
supporters take him seriously, but not literally." Though certain
conservative Trump critics cringe at this, I dare say the rank-and-file
Republican voter understands the difference and isn't sweating the small stuff
-- provided we can move forward on policy and dismantle the Obama agenda.
Trump
supporters don't dispute that Trump's bombastic style provides fodder for his
critics, but they also understand that the political left has mercilessly savaged
every other Republican president for decades. They believe that Trump is the
first one, at least since Ronald Reagan, who gives the left a taste of its own
medicine. This may be cringe-worthy to the Emily Posts of the conservative
chattering class, but many of the rest of us are willing to overlook some of
the distasteful in exchange for someone in our corner fighting back.
This is not
to say that the Republican Party enjoys the greatest reputation these days, but
that's more the fault of the recalcitrant moderates and the establishment wing
than it is of Trump. Trump's most ardent conservative critics are the very ones
who contributed to his rise in the first place -- partly because they didn't
perceive Obama's agenda as urgently destructive or they weren't willing to
oppose him vigorously enough. And let's never underestimate the level of angst
generated by the open-border advocates on the right who besmirched good-faith
immigration hawks as nativists and racists. It's also hard to take seriously some
(and I truly mean some, not all) never-Trumpers' insistence that they are the
true conservatives when you often see them obsessing over Trump, and you rarely
see them criticizing the left; in fact, they frequently retweet liberals with
approval.
What these
critics don't grasp is that the Trump movement transcends Trump. It preceded
him and will survive him. This does not necessarily mean in my view that
populism will replace constitutional conservatism. But it does mean that
rank-and-file conservatives are tired of their politicians talking a good game
during their campaigns and losing their nerve in office and will now hold their
candidates accountable.
As most
recognize, Trump is not primarily ideological, though he does have a set of
strong ideas on certain policies. I disagree with his protectionist bent, and I
don't believe he should cater to the class warriors in promoting his otherwise
attractive tax proposal. I also believe he could have been much more successful
on Obamacare reform if he'd have tried to placate the bleeding hearts less via
pre-existing conditions and mandated coverage and implement truly constructive
market solutions.
But I am
not fretting those differences. I am trying to speak up about them and hoping
in my small way to influence the movement in a conservative direction.
Precisely
because Trump is not a rigid ideologue, the policies of the so-called Trump
movement -- with certain exceptions, such as immigration -- are not set in
stone. Even on foreign policy, Trump has not shown himself to be a pure
isolationist as some feared. He's a strong nationalist and patriot, but so are
most constitutional conservatives. In many areas, Trump is governing as a
mainstream conservative.
So no, the
GOP is not imploding; it is experiencing a realignment whose parameters have
yet to be fully drawn, so let's quit panicking and be constructive forces to
shape this movement into one that's conservative, dynamic and determined to
fight the left with the same amount of energy it uses to fight us. If we do
that, we have every reason to expect to hold on to our governing majority.
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