Art of Conservatism--Trump Revisited

Art of Conservatism--Trump Re-visited

It's been a long time since I've heard this saying, but maybe it's time to dust it off: “Time heals all wounds, and wounds all heels.” And, as I think about it, time has not dulled the veracity of that saying one bit.

Which brings me again to Donald Trump. The political pundits are watching, some with wonder, some aghast, that no matter what Trump says, no matter what he threatens to do to his rivals in the Republican side of the contest for President, nothing seems to turn off the voters who are so enamored with him. It's the darnedest thing, they say. In the face of that, what can we do to trip him up? 

 

My response is, you may not have to.

Mr. Trump has been making a lot of noises, not just noise, lately, about suing to get Ted Cruz thrown off the Republican ballot(s) because he was born outside of the United States to an American Citizen and a Naturalized American Citizen. Many of us are already aware that this issue was settled, in the courts, quite a number of years ago, that Ted Cruz is a bona fide Native-born Citizen of the United States, his physical birth in Canada notwithstanding. End of story, except to Trump. Trump continues to threaten that lawsuit, and now legal scholar after legal authority after legal expert has come on the record stating that any such lawsuit against Cruz has no merit, to the point where it descends to the level of frivolity.

It matters not whether The Donald gets the message. That won't stop him from doing it. As a matter of fact, he's stated his conditions for not filing said suit---that Ted Cruz must be 'nice' to him, and stop 'lying' about him. In other words, “Capitulate to my will, or I'll sue to get you thrown out of the race”. Oh, really.

One of my opinion leaders when it comes to the law is the national talk show host, Mark Levin. Mark was very succinct on this point: “Go ahead, Mr. Trump. Bring your damned lawsuit. Don't threaten to do it anymore, just do it.” Mr. Levin knows exactly what will happen if he does. If the judge hearing the case doesn't laugh it out of the courtroom, he'll yell it out of the courtroom. Heck, just for good measure, he may compel that Mr. Trump has to pay for the costs of Mr. Cruz' defense against that lawsuit. On top of that, he may also have a reprimand in store for Mr. Trumps lawyers as well. Who knows? But I wouldn't bet against that.

The spectacle of that court case may just be the straw that breaks the camel's back with the public, and may provoke the public to take a second look at Mr. Trumps bombastic ways and temperament. While indeed that may not be the way to bet, for a lot of us, it just may be the way to pray. And, if that example doesn't make folks sit up and take notice, some other incident or Trumpism, down the road, just may.

The American people are waking up to a lot of realities which they had ignored in a kind of mass stupor across the few decades. A lot has been taken for granted, and now more and more people are realizing that the country is at stake here. The mistrust of the news media has been gaining more and more credence, for one thing, but now the realization that the two major political parties are more into government for themselves than they are for We The People is also taking hold. People are more skeptical now than they've been in years, and while they see Donald Trump as a breath of the fresh air of candor on the one hand, they are now becoming more nervous with the notion that maybe he, too, is into it more for himself than for the country. Conservatism is starting to become more in vogue, and The Donald is smelling less and less like one. Meantime, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are becoming more and more attractive, and I suspect that one of them, not The Donald, will be the Republican Standard Bearer this fall. What chance would any of them have against the likes of the two candidates on the Democrat side? That will be the subject of a forthcoming Art of Conservatism.

For Art of Conservatism, I'm Art Reis