Realignment

There are many reasons for a conservative not to like Donald Trump.  He is brash and impulsive, given to hyperbole.  He has attacked some of the pillars of American stability—NATO, the Federal Reserve Board, free trade.  He has proposed overly broad solutions to both Mexican and Muslim immigration. He is undisciplined and gets unnecessarily distracted by personal slights against him.  His odd admiration for Vladimir Putin is disquieting.  His recently revealed vulgar tape was disgusting.  Ross Douthat has written excellent back to back columns on the dangers of a Clinton presidency and of a Trump presidency, and I largely agree with his assessments.    The harsh fact is that in this time of economic stagnation and a myriad of real dangers abroad, lovers of capitalism and the Constitution have no good choices.

But despite these risks---and they are legion--Trump has said and done some things that resounded with me that no other Republican candidate has had the courage to do.  The Trump phenomena  has led me to believe that the Republican and Democrat alignment may be an obsolete construct.  Insider and Outsider is a more accurate way to think about our politics now with Insiders fiercely trying to pull power and resources away from individuals and the states and concentrate them in Washington.   I’m not entirely convinced that Trump is the best person to push against the Insiders but it’s clear that the Insiders are trying hard (mainly the Deplorables and Bitter Clingers) to heel.   

Trump has uttered two sentences that caught my attention.

The first was said at the Republican convention, “I am your voice.”  The expansion of presidential power and the relentless push of progressives to sculpt a society to their liking through the courts and regulatory bodies have left us nearly voiceless.   Material changes in our society are being jammed down our throats without any say by the body politic whatsoever, whether it is through nonenforcement of immigration laws, gay marriage, putting women in combat roles, forcing local changes in zoning through H.U.D., changing overtime laws, Big Government has been busy reshaping our lives in material ways without our input.  You know it’s bad when even the liberal New York Times is beginning to run articles sounding alarm bells over Obama’s propensity to govern by pen and phone.  

Perhaps the most egregious example has been in the area of the LGBT agenda. Marriage equality and how to deal with transgendered people in certain circumstances (the military, public restrooms) are major social changes that should be argued and decided upon by We the People.  Instead, the democratic process was rejected in the case of marriage equality and by administrative fiat in the case of transgender issues.  In neither case did We the People get heard.  We may have come out in the same place,  but the people needed to be heard and had their views taken into account.  One of the principal reasons that there is so much stress in our country right now is that major decisions are being dictated with the pen and phone, through the courts, or through regulatory agencies without any of us having any say in the matter.  That is dangerous in an open and free society.  So when Trump says, "I am your voice," many citizens know and understand that they have been completely shut out of the decision making process in our country.

The second assertion that Trump made was directed at African Americans.  His direct challenge to the black community was, “What do you have to lose?” [by voting for Trump] later to be followed up by a “new deal  for black Americans.”  Despite the charge from the Left that he is a racist and a bigot, Donald Trump is the first Republican to have the courage to address the black community directly.  Of course, his efforts were summarily dismissed and slapped back as inadequate and vague.  But that doesn’t matter.  There was nothing   he could say or do to make the black community embrace him with open arms.  But what matters is that he reached out.  And Republicans need to keep doing this and making the case for smaller government.   By almost every measure, black America has lost ground under the Obama administration.    Trump is the only Republican in memory to take his case directly to black America. 

Trump is not an ordinary Republican.  But the Republican/Democratic demarcation may no longer be as relevant.  Despite his liabilities, he is saying and doing many things that need to be said and done, even if the things said aren't said in the refined language of the Insiders.