The Trump presidency made a deep descent in December. The departures of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, the appointment of senior persons of lesser experience, the abandonment of allies who fight beside us, and the president’s thoughtless claim that America has long been a “sucker” in world affairs all defined his presidency down.
It is well known that Donald Trump was not my choice for the Republican presidential nomination. After he became the nominee, I hoped his campaign would refrain from resentment and name-calling. It did not. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the occasion.
His early appointments of Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Nikki Haley, Gary Cohn, H.R. McMaster, Kelly and Mattis were encouraging. But, on balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions this month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.
Romney does credit, where it is due:
It is not that all of the president’s policies have been misguided. He was right to align U.S. corporate taxes with those of global competitors, to strip out excessive regulations, to crack down on China’s unfair trade practices, to reform criminal justice and to appoint conservative judges. These are policies mainstream Republicans have promoted for years. But policies and appointments are only a part of a presidency.
Romney goes on to say:
To a great degree, a presidency shapes the public character of the nation. A president should unite us and inspire us to follow “our better angels.” A president should demonstrate the essential qualities of honesty and integrity, and elevate the national discourse with comity and mutual respect. As a nation, we have been blessed with presidents who have called on the greatness of the American spirit. With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring.
The world is also watching. America has long been looked to for leadership. Our economic and military strength was part of that, of course, but our enduring commitment to principled conduct in foreign relations, and to the rights of all people to freedom and equal justice, was even more esteemed. Trump’s words and actions have caused dismay around the world. In a 2016 Pew Research Center poll, 84 percent of people in Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Sweden believed the American president would “do the right thing in world affairs.” One year later, that number had fallen to 16 percent.
This comes at a very unfortunate time. Several allies in Europe are experiencing political upheaval. Several former Soviet satellite states are rethinking their commitment to democracy. Some Asian nations, such as the Philippines, lean increasingly toward China, which advances to rival our economy and our military. The alternative to U.S. world leadership offered by China and Russia is autocratic, corrupt and brutal.
The world needs American leadership, and it is in America’s interest to provide it. A world led by authoritarian regimes is a world — and an America — with less prosperity, less freedom, less peace.
To reassume our leadership in world politics, we must repair failings in our politics at home. That project begins, of course, with the highest office once again acting to inspire and unite us. It includes political parties promoting policies that strengthen us rather than promote tribalism by exploiting fear and resentment. Our leaders must defend our vital institutions despite their inevitable failings: a free press, the rule of law, strong churches, and responsible corporations and unions.
We must repair our fiscal foundation, setting a course to a balanced budget. We must attract the best talent to America’s service and the best innovators to America’s economy.
America is strongest when our arms are linked with other nations. We want a unified and strong Europe, not a disintegrating union. We want stable relationships with the nations of Asia that strengthen our mutual security and prosperity.
I look forward to working on these priorities with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other senators.
Furthermore, I will act as I would with any president, in or out of my party: I will support policies that I believe are in the best interest of the country and my state, and oppose those that are not. I do not intend to comment on every tweet or fault. But I will speak out against significant statements or actions that are divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions.
I remain optimistic about our future. In an innovation age, Americans excel. More importantly, noble instincts live in the hearts of Americans. The people of this great land will eschew the politics of anger and fear if they are summoned to the responsibility by leaders in homes, in churches, in schools, in businesses, in government — who raise our sights and respect the dignity of every child of God — the ideal that is the essence of America
I have to agree here, Trump might be good at the deal making and business stuff. But, other than that. I have no use for him at all and I look forward to seeing who runs in the Republican Party in 2020.
I’ve been a conservative my entire life. I fell hard for William F. Buckley as a teenager and my first job was as editorial assistant at Buckley’ s National Review, followed by stints writing speeches for first lady Nancy Reagan and then working for the Gipper himself. Looking toward the 1988 race, Vice President George H.W. Bush wasn’t conservative enough for me . I went to work as a speechwriter for Representative Jack Kemp in 1986.
So you’d think that the Conservative Political A ction Conference , or CPAC, would be a natur al fit. It once was. But on Saturday, after speaking to this year ’s gathering, I had to be escorted from the premises by several guards who seemed genuinely concerned for my safety .
What happened to me at CP AC is the perfect illustration of the collective experience of a whole swath of conservatives since Donald Trump became the Republican nominee. We built and organized this party — b ut now we’re made to feel like interlopers.
I was surprised that I was even ask ed to speak at CPAC. My views on Trump, Roy Moore and Steve Bannon are no secret. I knew the crowd would be hostile, and so I was tempted to pass.
But too many of us have given up the fight. W e’ve let disgust and dismay lead us to withdraw while bad actors tak e control of the direction of our movement. I know how encouraged I feel whenever someone simply states the truth, and so I decided to accept CPAC’s invitation.
Mona Charen, a well-known conservative author and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, was among four women discussing issues of feminism and sexual abuse on the final day of the annual right-wing gathering. Asked by the moderator to name something that gets their “blood boiling” as it relates to those subjects, Charen replied, “I am disappointed in people on our side for being hypocrites about sexual harassers and abusers of women, who are in our party, who are sitting in the White House, who brag about their extramarital affairs, who brag about mistreating women—and because he happens to have an ‘R’ next to his name we look the other way.”
And she didn’t stop there. With the audience silent and seemingly paralyzed by her assault on Trump—whose Friday-morning speech highlighted three days of uninterrupted adulation—Charen added: “This is a party that endorsed Roy Moore for the Senate in the state of Alabama even though he was a credibly accused child molester. You cannot claim that you stand for women and put up with that.” Her final line was interrupted with jeers and boos from the audience, mixed with scattered applause, with one woman near the front repeatedly yelling: “Not true! Not true!”The moderator scrambled to move the panel forward, mentioning the “explosion” of incidents in which “accusation has been equal to conviction.” Many in the crowd continued shouting, several of them about the need to defend men from baseless allegations and separate good guys from bad guys.“Speaking of bad guys,” Charen interjected, her tone louder and more aggressive than before, “there was quite an interesting person who was on this stage the other day. Her name is Marion Le Pen. Now, why was she here? Why was she here? She’s a young, no-longer-in-office politician from France. I think the only reason she was here is because she’s named Le Pen.” A man screamed from the audience: “Why areyouhere?” Charen continued: “And the Le Pen name is a disgrace. Her grandfather is a racist and a Nazi. She claims that she stands for him. And the fact that CPAC invited her is a disgrace.”By the time Charen had finished, boos and taunts drowned out the applause. “You’rea disgrace!” another man shouted.
Waiting for Charen afterward in a hallway inside the Gaylord National Resort, I was surprised to see her surrounded by three security officers. She was surprised, too. Charen told me the detail had suddenly appeared backstage, “seemingly nervous,” having been assigned to protect her on the way out. As we talked, and the detail marched Charen briskly toward the front doors, a few people tried to approach her but nobody got close. “They were acting as if I were in real danger,” she texted me afterward, “which I didn’t feel at all.”
This incident right here is kind of what troubles me about the Republican Party nowadays. Although I will tell you this the only sign that this is, is that the Republican party, at least the Grassroots is not buying the BS of the neoconservative right anymore. You have to understand something the Republican Grassroots we’re the ones who were subjected to the lies of the George W Bush Administration; when they told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and true Mona Charen was one of the ones who preached that Doctrine. Well, nowadays, the Republican Grassroots simply is not open to neoconservative or any sort of progressive thought because the last time they were open to that sort of thought, this nation got dragged into the Iraq War which almost destroyed the Republican Party standing in National politics and put a humongous stain on this country. This lady ought not to be surprised, she ought to be a little more cautious where she appears; because quite frankly her Jewish-first conservatism is simply not wanted anymore in the Republican party or any political party for that matter anymore.
Mr. President, I rise today to address a matter that has been much on my mind, at a moment when it seems that our democracy is more defined by our discord and our dysfunction than it is by our values and our principles. Let me begin by noting a somewhat obvious point that these offices that we hold are not ours to hold indefinitely. We are not here simply to mark time. Sustained incumbency is certainly not the point of seeking office. And there are times when we must risk our careers in favor of our principles.
Now is such a time.
It must also be said that I rise today with no small measure of regret. Regret, because of the state of our disunion, regret because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics, regret because of the indecency of our discourse, regret because of the coarseness of our leadership, regret for the compromise of our moral authority, and by our — all of our — complicity in this alarming and dangerous state of affairs. It is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end.
In this century, a new phrase has entered the language to describe the accommodation of a new and undesirable order — that phrase being “the new normal.” But we must never adjust to the present coarseness of our national dialogue — with the tone set at the top.
We must never regard as “normal” the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country – the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms, and institutions, the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have all been elected to serve.
None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that this is just the way things are now. If we simply become inured to this condition, thinking that this is just politics as usual, then heaven help us. Without fear of the consequences, and without consideration of the rules of what is politically safe or palatable, we must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal.
Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as “telling it like it is,” when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified.
And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else: It is dangerous to a democracy. Such behavior does not project strength — because our strength comes from our values. It instead projects a corruption of the spirit, and weakness.
It is often said that children are watching. Well, they are. And what are we going to do about that? When the next generation asks us, Why didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you speak up? — what are we going to say?
Mr. President, I rise today to say: Enough. We must dedicate ourselves to making sure that the anomalous never becomes normal. With respect and humility, I must say that we have fooled ourselves for long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the corner, a return to civility and stability right behind it. We know better than that. By now, we all know better than that.
Here, today, I stand to say that we would better serve the country and better fulfill our obligations under the constitution by adhering to our Article 1 “old normal” — Mr. Madison’s doctrine of the separation of powers. This genius innovation which affirms Madison’s status as a true visionary and for which Madison argued in Federalist 51 — held that the equal branches of our government would balance and counteract each other when necessary. “Ambition counteracts ambition,” he wrote.
But what happens if ambition fails to counteract ambition? What happens if stability fails to assert itself in the face of chaos and instability? If decency fails to call out indecency? Were the shoe on the other foot, would we Republicans meekly accept such behavior on display from dominant Democrats? Of course not, and we would be wrong if we did.
When we remain silent and fail to act when we know that that silence and inaction is the wrong thing to do — because of political considerations, because we might make enemies, because we might alienate the base, because we might provoke a primary challenge, because ad infinitum, ad nauseum — when we succumb to those considerations in spite of what should be greater considerations and imperatives in defense of the institutions of our liberty, then we dishonor our principles and forsake our obligations. Those things are far more important than politics.
Now, I am aware that more politically savvy people than I caution against such talk. I am aware that a segment of my party believes that anything short of complete and unquestioning loyalty to a president who belongs to my party is unacceptable and suspect.
If I have been critical, it not because I relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United States. If I have been critical, it is because I believe that it is my obligation to do so, as a matter of duty and conscience. The notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep America strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters – the notion that one should say and do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavior is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided.
A Republican president named Roosevelt had this to say about the president and a citizen’s relationship to the office:
“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.” President Roosevelt continued. “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Acting on conscience and principle is the manner in which we express our moral selves, and as such, loyalty to conscience and principle should supersede loyalty to any man or party. We can all be forgiven for failing in that measure from time to time. I certainly put myself at the top of the list of those who fall short in that regard. I am holier-than-none. But too often, we rush not to salvage principle but to forgive and excuse our failures so that we might accommodate them and go right on failing—until the accommodation itself becomes our principle.
In that way and over time, we can justify almost any behavior and sacrifice almost any principle. I’m afraid that is where we now find ourselves.
When a leader correctly identifies real hurt and insecurity in our country and instead of addressing it goes looking for somebody to blame, there is perhaps nothing more devastating to a pluralistic society. Leadership knows that most often a good place to start in assigning blame is to first look somewhat closer to home. Leadership knows where the buck stops. Humility helps. Character counts. Leadership does not knowingly encourage or feed ugly and debased appetites in us.
Leadership lives by the American creed: E Pluribus Unum. From many, one. American leadership looks to the world, and just as Lincoln did, sees the family of man. Humanity is not a zero-sum game. When we have been at our most prosperous, we have also been at our most principled. And when we do well, the rest of the world also does well.
These articles of civic faith have been central to the American identity for as long as we have all been alive. They are our birthright and our obligation. We must guard them jealously, and pass them on for as long as the calendar has days. To betray them, or to be unserious in their defense is a betrayal of the fundamental obligations of American leadership. And to behave as if they don’t matter is simply not who we are.
Now, the efficacy of American leadership around the globe has come into question. When the United States emerged from World War II we contributed about half of the world’s economic activity. It would have been easy to secure our dominance, keeping the countries that had been defeated or greatly weakened during the war in their place. We didn’t do that. It would have been easy to focus inward. We resisted those impulses. Instead, we financed reconstruction of shattered countries and created international organizations and institutions that have helped provide security and foster prosperity around the world for more than 70 years.
Now, it seems that we, the architects of this visionary rules-based world order that has brought so much freedom and prosperity, are the ones most eager to abandon it.
The implications of this abandonment are profound. And the beneficiaries of this rather radical departure in the American approach to the world are the ideological enemies of our values. Despotism loves a vacuum. And our allies are now looking elsewhere for leadership. Why are they doing this? None of this is normal. And what do we as United States Senators have to say about it?
The principles that underlie our politics, the values of our founding, are too vital to our identity and to our survival to allow them to be compromised by the requirements of politics. Because politics can make us silent when we should speak, and silence can equal complicity.
I have children and grandchildren to answer to, and so, Mr. President, I will not be complicit.
I have decided that I will be better able to represent the people of Arizona and to better serve my country and my conscience by freeing myself from the political considerations that consume far too much bandwidth and would cause me to compromise far too many principles.
To that end, I am announcing today that my service in the Senate will conclude at the end of my term in early January 2019.
It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, and who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican party — the party that for so long has defined itself by belief in those things. It is also clear to me for the moment we have given in or given up on those core principles in favor of the more viscerally satisfying anger and resentment. To be clear, the anger and resentment that the people feel at the royal mess we have created are justified. But anger and resentment are not a governing philosophy.
There is an undeniable potency to a populist appeal — but mischaracterizing or misunderstanding our problems and giving in to the impulse to scapegoat and belittle threatens to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking people. In the case of the Republican party, those things also threaten to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking minority party.
We were not made great as a country by indulging or even exalting our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorying in the things which divide us, and calling fake things true and true things fake. And we did not become the beacon of freedom in the darkest corners of the world by flouting our institutions and failing to understand just how hard-won and vulnerable they are.
This spell will eventually break. That is my belief. We will return to ourselves once more, and I say the sooner the better. Because to have a heathy government we must have healthy and functioning parties. We must respect each other again in an atmosphere of shared facts and shared values, comity and good faith. We must argue our positions fervently, and never be afraid to compromise. We must assume the best of our fellow man, and always look for the good. Until that days comes, we must be unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it. Because it does.
I plan to spend the remaining fourteen months of my senate term doing just that.
Mr. President, the graveyard is full of indispensable men and women — none of us here is indispensable. Nor were even the great figures from history who toiled at these very desks in this very chamber to shape this country that we have inherited. What is indispensable are the values that they consecrated in Philadelphia and in this place, values which have endured and will endure for so long as men and women wish to remain free. What is indispensable is what we do here in defense of those values. A political career doesn’t mean much if we are complicit in undermining those values.
I thank my colleagues for indulging me here today, and will close by borrowing the words of President Lincoln, who knew more about healing enmity and preserving our founding values than any other American who has ever lived. His words from his first inaugural were a prayer in his time, and are no less so in ours:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
WASHINGTON — Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.
American law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said. The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election.
The officials interviewed in recent weeks said that, so far, they had seen no evidence of such cooperation.
But the intercepts alarmed American intelligence and law enforcement agencies, in part because of the amount of contact that was occurring while Mr. Trump was speaking glowingly about the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. At one point last summer, Mr. Trump said at a campaign event that he hoped Russian intelligence services had stolen Hillary Clinton’s emails and would make them public.
The officials said the intercepted communications were not limited to Trump campaign officials, and included other associates of Mr. Trump. On the Russian side, the contacts also included members of the government outside of the intelligence services, they said. All of the current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the continuing investigation is classified.
Here is my prediction as to what will happen to the Trump Administration:
Now, based upon the reaction of the leftist media, you would have thought that President-elect Trump donned a Klan uniform and burned a cross on the White House lawn. But, he didn’t. He basically told Lewis to clean up his own backyard, before criticizing him.
President-elect Donald Trump is about to learn a cold, hard lesson in Washington politics, when it comes to race. There are scared cows that you do not tip, and John Lewis is one of them. In fact, half of the Democratic in D.C. won’t be there for his swearing-in.
It is sad really, and it is an example of how bad politics in this century has become.
I am awake very early this morning and I happen to be looking over the headlines here on Memeorandum.
I happen to be reading and looking at theseheadlineshere and I cannot help but think that if, by chance that Donald Trump loses this election; that the Republican Party is going to be totally in a state of shambles for a very, very long time. I mean, even the Wealthy are now looking elsewhere and in a Republican election, that is bad…very bad. I mean, I hate to sound like a “Debbie Downer”, but this really does not look good for the Republicans at all. Because folks, let us just face the facts — There are more wealthy Republicans, than there are grassroots conservatives. The majority of the Conservative Christian Right, is presumably staying home, at least the ones I know.
The reason I say it is not looking good for the Republicans, is that they have totally invested themselves into basically a clown, a showman, an egotistical blowhard — who sues anyone that dare criticizes him. You cannot say, that the Republicans did not try, they did and it was a very valiant effort. But, you would think that they would have selected someone a bit more serious, than who they picked. Ted Cruz was dangerous. But, there were others, Rand Paul, Christie, a few others. Instead we go who we got and now we’re looking at 8 years of a criminal pantsuit.
Gov. Paul LePage left a state lawmaker from Westbrook an expletive-laden phone message Thursday in which he accused the legislator of calling him a racist, encouraged him to make the message public and said, “I’m after you.”
LePage sent the message Thursday morning after a television reporter appeared to suggest that Democratic Rep. Drew Gattine was among several people who had called the governor a racist, which Gattine later denied. The exchange followed remarks the governor made in North Berwick on Wednesday night about the racial makeup of suspects arrested on drug trafficking charges in Maine.
“Mr. Gattine, this is Gov. Paul Richard LePage,” a recording of the governor’s phone message says. “I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you (expletive). I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist. I’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son-of-a-bitch, socialist (expletive). You … I need you to, just friggin. I want you to record this and make it public because I am after you. Thank you.”
Now, where I come from, that is basically a death threat. I think this guy needs to be ousted and quick. This is being worked on now, and that’s good thing.
I mean, if I did something of this nature to, say, the Governor of Michigan; I would sitting in a jail cell. The Republican Party has enough troubleswith Trump, we do not need another distraction. This moron needs to go and I mean quick.
This is possibly the best paragraph that I’ve seen written on this site, in a long, long time.
This is why the GOP has “failed” the Rust Belt. Instead of being in touch with free market principles, Republicans have consistently failed to adhere to them. Maybe that’s the only consistent thing the GOP has been good at: failure to stick to what they believe. But voters have also failed at holding the “leaders” accountable and let them get too cushy in DC. This is why Trump is leading in the GOP race, but Americans need to understand why things are so complicated and how to fix the problem. It isn’t because of “evil corporate leaders,” but a combination of government interference and economics. The key point is figuring out a way to message it towards people in the Rust Belt, whether they’re small business owners or just the guy working a factory plant job. Maybe the solution is just sitting there and saying, “Hey…here’s why things aren’t working,” then going into math, but I’m not 100% sure. The facts are complicated, but the solution is simple IF people are willing to go for it. This means holding politicians accountable for their mistakes and staying involved in politics (and taking the occasional break). There’s responsibility on everyone, it’s just a question of who is willing to do it. – Source: How the GOP failed the Rust Belt and let Trump rise « Hot Air
Washington (AFP) – Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the Republican presidential campaign has descended into “an embarrassment” that raises awkward questions abroad about the reliability of the United States.
Kerry said that everywhere he goes, every leader he meets asks about what is happening in America.
“They cannot believe it. I think it is fair to say that they’re shocked. They don’t know where it’s taking the United States of America,” Kerry said in an interview on the Sunday CBS news show “Face The Nation.”
“It upsets people’s sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability, and to some degree I must say to you, some of the questions, the way they’re posed to me, it’s clear to me that what’s happening is an embarrassment to our country.”
Kerry was asked out the impact abroad of the Republican campaign with its calls for bans on Muslim immigrants, surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods and the return of waterboarding, an interrogation practice regarded as torture.
Frontrunner Donald Trump and his chief rival Ted Cruz have stepped up the anti-Muslim rhetoric since the suicide bombings in Brussels Tuesday that left 28 dead.
I hate to be the one to say it; But, Jerry Kerry is right. The nasty rhetoric coming out of the Trump and Cruz campaigns is sickening. I would imagine that world leaders would be mildly concerned about it too. I wrote something on Facebook last night and I think it fits here:
One more thing before I go to bed.
I have written about this on my blog, but, I thought I would write about it here as well I have officially thrown in the towel with Donald Trump.
He’s got some great positions on free trade, foreign policy and immigration. But, there are other things that he has done, that I really don’t like at all.
Basically, what happened is there was a story that came out in the National Enquirer that basically accused Ted Cruz of having multiple affairs with multiple women
Well, a young lady who I have known via the Internet for a long time got implicated in that story in the National Enquirer. Her name is Amanda Carpenter and I have corresponded with her on the internet on multiple occasions and she’s also happily married with 2 kids
The fact that Donald Trump basically has not really said anything in her defense and the fact that basically the guy is a misogynist when it comes to women; his attacks on Megyn Kelly are a perfect example of that.
I looked the other way when he went after Megyn Kelly, I looked the other way when he said some rather nasty things about Rosie O’Donald and a few other women. I also looked the other way when some very hardcore racist people began supporting him and he basically would not forcefully distanced himself from those kind of people.
I kind of get wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and I also kind of tried to overlook it.
However, when someone who I happen to know is a sister in the Lord Jesus Christ that loves the Lord quite a bit and strives to serve him and make him the Cornerstone of her family; that being her husband and her two children; gets slimed like that and then Donald Trump turns around and says, “well, I didn’t have anything to do with it” and basically in insinuates that Ted Cruz and the rest of those women had it coming…
, ….I’m sorry, but that’s just too much. Not to mention that Donald Trump has cheapened the political discussion. he has appealed to a raw emotion which is populism and there’s nothing wrong with that; as long as it’s done in a positive way. Donald Trump has used it in a negative way and as a result some pretty nasty things have happened.
Having said that, I have rescinded my support of Donald Trump. I will not be voting for him in the general election. I will be voting third-party most likely to libertarian or Constitution party and if the GOP collapses upon itself in November, it will be nobody’s fault, but their own and I will be able to say that I had no hand in that implosion.
if by some chance Donald Trump does win the White House, personally, I think it’ll be a miracle. because if the GOP establishment doesn’t do him in, then he will do himself in with his nastiness and that’s just how I feel about it.
Ronald Reagan conveyed hope, optimism and faith. Donald Trump, the only thing I see that comes out of him his ego nastiness and vindictiveness; that’s not good qualities for a president.
I ask all of you who are Christians and do pray, that do follow me on Facebook, who are friends with me on Facebook; please hold up Amanda Carpenter, her husband Chris and her daughter and young son in your prayers. Because now, Satan is working overtime to try to destroy that marriage and it’s a sad thing, she’s a really nice woman.
This is why I stopped supporting Donald Trump; nothing more, nothing less. Quite bluntly, I have had enough of it. When the GOP finds someone, who is not a clown show, to run for President; I might vote for them. Until then, I will be voting third party. The silliness with Amanda Carpenter was it for me.
