Sunday, January 31, 2016

Will Iowa Choose the Salesman or the Statesman?

On Monday, Iowa Republicans will cast the most impactful Presidential caucus vote that they’ve ever made. Some will try to downplay the importance, but the ebb and flow of the 2016 election will tilt dramatically based on whether Iowans decide they want the salesman Donald Trump or the statesman Ted Cruz.

We’re seeing a perfect storm that was brewed just prior to the Iowa caucuses that is attempting to take Cruz down. This has been so universal in its scope that one might look at it from a 30,000-foot view and believe that it was coordinated. It has nothing tangible to latch onto but has still been able to cast doubts on Cruz at a time when conservatives, Christians, and pragmatic moderate Republicans should be coalescing around him.

  • Small government conservatives should be realizing that Cruz is the first like-minded candidate since Ronald Reagan who actually has a chance of winning the nomination and the Presidency. Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, and Rand Paul supporters should make their votes count towards the cause of bringing conservatism back to the White House.
  • Christians should wholeheartedly embrace that a true Evangelical with a proven record of defending religious liberties against an activist Supreme Court can actually be our nominee. Ben Carson, for all of his great qualities, simply doesn’t have the experience to fight those battles or to take down Trump. Thankfully, he will make a great Surgeon General for Cruz when Obamacare is finally repealed.
  • Pragmatic moderate Republicans should realize that the Establishment’s failures since 1992 have yielded four losses to liberal Democrats. The two victories by George W. Bush will be turned against moderate Republicans by Trump who has openly attacked Bush since 2003. This means that Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich will not be able to defeat him. Their supporters should rightly see Cruz as their only hope to stop him.

The perfect storm is trying to convince Iowans that none of this is true. They are painting Ted Cruz is so many different colors for a reason. When the cacophony of accusations and mudslinging overpowers the message of proper conservative values, we’re left with the type of election chaos that we’ll be seeing at caucus. It’s going to be difficult to hear the truth when so much spin-doctoring is taking place, but the consistent voice of stability and leadership must be allowed to have its say.

Cruz is being attacked from every angle. As Michael Warren from the Weekly Standard noted, it’s Cruz versus everybody.else. They are using attack angles with different end goals but with the unified temporary goal of taking Cruz down. The Trump campaign is doing what they’ve always done by getting as ludicrous as possible to cast doubt on Cruz with everything from the silly birther idea to the concept that he’s too wacko to be in the White House. The other campaigns are attacking Cruz on more mainstream issues, but their arguments are hampered by Cruz’s record of consistency. Then, there’s the media itself which perceives Cruz as a threat to their desire of having Trump as the nominee so they can keep a Democrat in the White House. Finally, we have the Republican Establishment itself which is arguably more fearful of a Cruz administration than a Democratic administration.

In Iowa, Cruz and his supporters are being put on an island with the rest of the players taking shots at them from the surrounding sea. Some would see this as unfair. We see it as an opportunity to shine. This is why the real question for Iowans remains: do you vote for the salesman or the statesman?

The Salesman Donald Trump

Never in the history of Presidential politics has a candidate been so adept at the art of the sale. This is ironic because we are currently seeing the results of the second best salesman to make his pitch for the office. President Obama is a master salesman as well, but Trump is better. Obama sold hope and change while Trump is selling anger and winning. Both are powerful, but Trump’s pitch is missing one thing that Obama’s did not: universal appeal.

Trump’s message resonates with angry Republicans. It gives them a way to vent their frustrations that have been accumulating for the last seven years whether it pertains to immigration, Muslims, or the economy. This is great for winning a Republican nomination. It’s disastrous in a general election because the majority of Americans aren’t looking for the type of rhetoric that Trump espouses.

His biggest strength is that he recognizes the reality that American politics hinges on promises whether they’re tenable or not. Hyperbole works wonders in sales and political campaigns. Bigger is better. If he thinks he can build a pretty good wall that’s not too expensive and won’t be an eyesore, he’ll present it as a wonderful wall that will look beautiful and will be paid for by Mexico. In other words, what he does if he gets to the White House won’t have to match what he says on the campaign trail because very few politicians keep their promises anyway. If you’re going to lie, you’ve got to lie big.

Calvin Coolidge kept his campaign promises. John F. Kennedy kept his campaign promises. Ronald Reagan kept his campaign promises. Ted Cruz kept his campaign promises in the Senate and will do so again as President.

One thing that everyone considering Trump should understand is that he’s been here before several times. He’s pitched his abilities in real estate and entertainment as reasons why he would be successful in other endeavors. He pitched his way into the airline industry. Trump Air failed in less than three years. He pitched his way into guiding the USFL. They went from thriving and rising to a catastrophic failure based solely on his directions. He pitched his way into a huge mortgage endeavor. Trump Mortgage was on of the biggest debacles leading up to the recession. Time and time again, people have listened to his sales pitch. Time and time again, those people have been hurt by their choice. It wasn’t Trump who was hurt the four times that his sales pitches turned into bankruptcies.

The portion of this article pointing to reasons to not vote for Trump could easily be turned into a book, but we’ll leave it here for you to do your own research.

President Obama sold Americans on emotion. Trump is doing the same thing. How gullible are we?

The Statesman Ted Cruz

In the other corner, we have a man who has spent most of his adult life trying to change things in Washington DC. It wasn’t in his victories but in his failures that we get to see what molded Ted Cruz into the statesman that he is today.

Whether it’s working on the George W. Bush campaign to solidify his Presidency or taking on opponents to the Constitution at the Supreme Court as Texas Solicitor General, Cruz has learned what it takes to get things done in DC. Those lessons yielded a sad reality that could have derailed him before he even ran for the Senate: getting things done in Washington DC often means making deals that hurt Americans. Thankfully, he chose to stay the course through integrity to prove that there’s a better way.

We could have seen a very different Ted Cruz today if the realities of DC politics changed him. Believe it or not, there are plenty of people who go into DC with the right ideas and the right heart, but it changes people. We’ve seen this very clearly with Rubio who won his Senate seat on the backs of the Tea Party and an anti-amnesty platform but who turned away from both when political expediency reared its ugly head.

Cruz learned all of this over the last three years when he chose the tough road of keeping his campaign promises and following the path that was best for Americans. It has made him a pariah among his colleagues in the Senate. If you want to make the Republican Establishment upset, all you have to do is keep your campaign promises and call out those who don’t. They hate that.

Rather than going into a long list of reasons why Ted Cruz should earn the votes of every Republican in Iowa and America, I’ll sum it up in one sentence:

The fact that nearly everyone in Washington DC and the mainstream media is against Ted Cruz should be a clear indicator to Iowa Republicans that he’s the right guy for the job. The people they hate the most are conservatives that keeps promises.



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Friday, January 29, 2016

Ben Carson should be in DC… as Ted Cruz’s Surgeon General

Ben Carson is a brilliant man. He’s a Christian. He’s probably the most ethical of the GOP candidates. In a different world, he might even be a great President, but today’s geopolitical dynamic requires a leader that does not need on-the-job training.

It’s no secret that I’m a Ted Cruz supporter. One look at my Twitter feed would reveal that I’m practically obsessed. The reason is because this election is the most important one I’ve been involved with and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve seen many over my life. This is more important than 2008 when we tried to keep Barack Obama out of the White House. It’s more important than 1980 when we ejected Jimmy Carter in favor of a real conservative. The difference this year is that the things that made each of those two elections important are in play. We have an existential threat in either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders that is actually worse than President Obama. Moreover, we have a Statesman as a candidate that can be the next Ronald Reagan. Ted Cruz is the right leader for this time in history.

Then, there’s Ben Carson. He’s been my second choice for some time, occasionally shifting to my third choice behind Marco Rubio. They are both far behind Cruz when it comes to dedication, values, and proper conservative ideology, but they will both make excellent pieces of the Republican government picture in the future. For Rubio, I think he’s a great successor to Cruz as the 2024 candidate. For Carson, he needs to be in Washington DC in 2017 as the Surgeon General.

Many don’t realize the importance of having a highly ethical and respected doctor in the role. He represents the field of medicine and the morals of conservatism better than any other doctor in the public eye. This should make him an easy choice for just about any candidate, but it’s in a Cruz administration that the potential for Surgeon General Carson is at its highest. They like each other and Cruz has likely been in contact with him about the possibility, particularly ever since the neurosurgeon started falling in the polls. Unbeknownst to the rest of us, there is very likely a gentleman’s agreement in place that when Carson’s campaign fades, he will line up with Cruz.

It’s unfortunate that Carson can’t win the nomination. Donald Trump made sure of that by issuing a scathing barrage of attacks that made Carson look bad. Alone, it didn’t kill his chances, but it was the first domino that sent it down this dark path. The consolation for him and his supporters is that he’s poised to join a Cruz administration if Trump can be stopped.

When Cruz repeals Obamacare, he’ll need someone like Ben Carson to help architect the replacement. Carson’s caring, intellect, and conservative values will be the best combination for this and the many other things that he can accomplish as Surgeon General of the United States.

The post Ben Carson should be in DC… as Ted Cruz’s Surgeon General appeared first on We Heart World.



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Thursday, January 28, 2016

Ted Cruz Shows How Great Presidents Handle Attacks: No Tantrums

When one compares the “unfair” question that drove Donald Trump to boycott the Fox News GOP debate to the questions and attacks that Ted Cruz was getting from every possible angle, it’s easy to see that Trump crumbled under the lighter version. Cruz faced much tougher scrutiny from Megyn Kelly and addressed them like an adult rather than throwing a tantrum like Trump.

For Trump, the mere mention of his past attacks on women was enough to send him over the edge. For Cruz, Kelly came prepared with video and very poignant questions, not just for him, but allowing openings for other candidates to attack as well. It was effective; Cruz was forced to defend himself. In the end, he came out as the most Presidential of the candidates.

Following the debate, he was Kelly’s guest. He didn’t berate her or talk about different places where she may have been bleeding, as Trump did. Instead, he took his knocks and by the end of the interview had Kelly acknowledging that his record on amnesty was exactly as he has claimed all along.

It wasn’t just the moderators. Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie all fired very direct attacks on him. With no Trump at the debate, Cruz’s status as the other frontrunner made this an inevitability. Perhaps his best line of the night came following an attack when he described how he would truly rebuild the military and fight ISIS by rebuilding the economy first like another President, Ronald Reagan.

Ted Cruz GOP Debate 1

The President of the United States is going to face heat from every angle. Can we really afford to have someone who bails out at the first sign of unfairness or someone who handles it with a level head and a sharp intellect to actually solve the problems?



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Despite Attempts by MSM to Dull the Edges, Faith Matters in a President

One does not have to hit their knees before bed and read the Bible daily to see the clear need for Judeo-Christian values within the Oval Office. Faith matters, but many in the mainstream media are trying to downplay the importance of faith in a President. Believing this fallacy may be the biggest mistake an American can make.

We’ve seen what can happen to a country when faith is downplayed by a President. Ronald Reagan was the last President to emphasize it and a case can be made that we’ve been heading down a moral and ethical black hole ever since he left. It’s not about religion. It’s about values. When the leader of the country bases his values on something other than the God-given laws written on our hearts and embodied by Jesus Christ, we end up with the debacle that we’ve had for the last seven years.

This isn’t about getting department stores to say, “Merry Christmas” as Donald Trump has proposed. It’s about the righteous values that the Bible instills within its readers that prevents them from ever being pro-choice, anti-gun, and morally inept. Trump’s three marriages are acceptable in today’s world, but they shouldn’t be acceptable in a President. His boasts about sleeping with hundreds of women is practically admired in today’s world, but it shouldn’t be admired in a President. Sleeping with married women and bragging about it – that may be frowned upon in most men but it should be a clear indicator of the lack of moral compass that a Presidential candidate has displayed.

The Excuses

Some will say that Trump is not like Obama from a political perspective even if he’s arguably less faith-driven than the President. On immigration and national security, they would be correct. On progressive tax plans, affirmative action, socialized healthcare, eminent domain, and a handful of other issues, Trump is very close in perspective to Obama.

Some will say that Trump is a winner and we need a winner to take on Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. They’ll say that he’s not perfect but at least he’s not as bad as them. There are two problems with these thoughts. First, Ted Cruz (who I support) and Marco Rubio (who I do not support) are both far better positioned to defeat either Democratic candidate. Trump is considered a non-option by over 60% of the voting population while Cruz and Rubio are each under 50%. Second, the Democratic candidates are weak enough that we don’t need a wildcard to take them out. We need a solid candidate. A wildcard like Trump would have been nice in 2012 or even 2008, but this year Republicans have the advantage.

Some will say that the separation of church and state means that Trump’s lack of Biblical knowledge is ideal. Be careful with this line of thinking. While I would never promote a theocracy of any form until Jesus Christ returns to reign, the need for faith-driven values to operate from the White House should be the highest priority, not one that is dismissed. Faith is powerful. It affects those who have it on a regular basis. To say that it won’t or shouldn’t affect the decisions of the President walks us rapidly towards a dangerous time in history. I believe that there will be a time when faith is abandoned in the White House, but I will fight to prevent it. The separation of church and state is almost always misunderstood. It’s not in the Constitution and the premise was established to prevent the state from influencing the church more than the other way around. Again, no theocracy, but faith-based values are required.

Lastly, some will say that they believe Trump is a man of faith. After all, he received an endorsement from Jerry Falwell Jr. Whether you respect Falwell or not is up to you, but it’s conspicuous that a man of God would endorse someone with Trump’s unethical history, a man who has an inability to properly recite a Bible verse, and who claims that he has never and will never ask for forgiveness. Like his father, Falwell is money-driven more than he’s faith-driven. That’s the nature of televangelism. I do not consider this endorsement to be a positive reflection of Trump’s faith.

Why Mainstream Media Attacks

I won’t link to the articles that are coming out daily with attacks on faith. They have their agenda and right now Trump fills one of the needs for their agenda. Mainstream media wants Trump to be the nominee because they’re generally liberal and they want to see the Democrats retain the White House. It’s crystal clear to anyone who can discern the truth in their agenda by watching their actions. They know that if they can get Trump to win the nomination, they’ll be able to attack him more fervently and decisively than any other GOP candidate. They’ll march out women he’s hurt, minorities he’s offended, business partners he’s screwed over, and lines of other people who will help paint the picture that Donald Trump is not fit for the office or President. They’re already lined up. They’re just waiting until no other GOP can defeat him before they utterly destroy him. If he’s a non-choice for over 60% of voters today, just wait until the mainstream media really goes to work on his character.

The best chance for the liberal mainstream media’s agenda to be fulfilled is to convince Evangelicals that it’s okay to vote for Trump because faith is secondary to being a winner. In reality, the GOP will win the White House if we select a candidate of true faith and Biblical values. The media will do everything they can to convince us otherwise.



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It isn’t about the veterans. It’s all about Trump. Veterans, you’re being used.

This article represents my personal views and should not be considered an endorsement from this publication. With that said, it’s starting to become clear that if we’re going to pick a responsible and capable candidate to lead this country back to exceptionalism and our choices are Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, it has to be Cruz.

I didn’t really know this for sure until today.

Donald Trump will say that he is doing a better thing by avoiding the debate and focusing on veterans. This is a silly excuse. He can support veterans at any time that’s not during the final debate before the caucus and primary season starts. He’s using veterans as cover for his real motive which is to avoid the scrutiny from the debate and to focus as much attention himself as possible.

It should absolutely offend any veteran knowing that your service to this country is being used as a political toy. I don’t doubt that Trump cares about veterans. He’s not a bad person and it would take a bad person or a liberal (one in the same?) to not care for the amazing sacrifices made by the men and women of our armed forces. This is why the move is so distasteful. He could hold this event at any time. Instead, he’s using veterans to try to attack other people at Fox News as well as the other candidates, people who also support our veterans. I would contend that many of them support veterans even more than Trump.

Some might say that anything that brings the spotlight to the challenges faced by veterans is a good thing. Again, the logic is sound on the surface and abysmal when you dig a little deeper. It’s a purely self-serving move that taints the cause of veterans issues by dragging it through the mud with Trump’s version of childish, dirty politics.

This comes from a candidate who TWICE confused US veterans with Russian and German military in campaign ads:

Do we really believe that Donald Trump isn’t using veterans against Fox News? I would contend that if he really felt so strongly about veterans’ issues, he would have done so when he could have had the broadest audience. He wouldn’t make people choose between his “righteous” cause and gathering information about the people who will affect veterans and the rest of us for the next 4-8 years.

This is all part of his plan. It’s not about the veterans. It’s about covering up his weaknesses, particularly in Iowa.

Donald Trump is a master marketer. He knows how to manipulate people by pulling at their heartstrings and tapping into their anger. This time, the anger should be directed at him for desecrating the service of the people in our armed forces by making them pawns in his game of brinkmanship. Today, I’m switching my support to Ted Cruz.

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Why Rubio’s supporters are running to Cruz

Marco Rubio Supporters Shifting to Cruz

Marco Rubio was supposed to represent a new type of Republican Presidential candidate, one who could appeal to the masses and unite the party. As this campaign has shown, he’s been at best a disappointment and to some he’s been an outright failure. What happened?

As we’ve seen from the campaign trail, he and his team are lazy strategists. They make a lot of moves but their failure to understand the economy of nationwide political campaigns has kept them from focusing in the areas that need the most attention. When he should be voting on the Senate floor for the sake of his campaign, he was fundraising. When he should have been fundraising, he was making his case for endorsements. When he should have been fishing for endorsements, he was back in DC. It was as if they planned his schedule around convenience rather than sound campaign strategy.

This was the flaw of the campaign, but it’s deeper than that. Rubio has had a robotic approach to campaigning in general. He either hasn’t allowed his strengths of passion and eloquence to come out at the right times or his skills were overestimated. Whichever one it is, the results have been lukewarm. By this time, Mitt Romney and John McCain had positioned themselves as the clear Republican Establishment choice. Romney was doing okay in the polls and McCain was further back than Rubio at this point, but both had solidified their credentials as the prudent choice among a sea of rightwingers. This year, despite having a single strong rightwinger and a real estate mogul to contend with, Rubio still hasn’t emerged. He hasn’t transcended to be the pragmatic Republican’s choice.

All of this favors Ted Cruz. While the moderate lane is still up for grabs between Rubio, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and John Kasich, Cruz stands alone as the only true conservative. This means that many of the voters who are looking for a strong choice to take against the Republicans are considering leaning a little further right than normal.

Cruz has demonstrated that he can have universal appeal despite his conservative views, a trait that pretty much nobody saw coming. He’s not the Establishment and has fought them tooth and nail, but many voters who would normally vote for the Establishment candidate have shifted to Cruz because he seems to have his ducks in a row while the Establishment candidates are a hot mess.

Then, there’s Donald Trump. His base is unwavering. It would seem that any attempt to draw them into another candidate is challenging because they represent the “low information voters” the helped put President Obama in power. Just as his base is locked, so too is the base of voters who are absolutely against him. If they can’t find an alternative that can beat Trump for the nomination (and it appears that they can’t), the Cruz is the only way to oppose the Donald.

Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada represent the prelude to the big “SEC Primaries” on March 1. With Rubio showing no signs of winning any of them, his supporters are looking for the best anti-Trump candidate. That candidate is Ted Cruz.

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Eminent Domain Must Be Redefined

As a Constitutional conservative, the very thought of changing things in the Constitution gives me pause. I’m reluctant about “modernizing” as a trend towards the Constitution based upon what we’ve seen done by the Supreme Court over the decades as well as our current President. The SCOTUS took advantage of the Constitution with rulings such as gay marriage last year and the POTUS has tried to do anything he can to circumvent the Constitution.

With all of that said, responsible and conservative adjustments should be made to the Constitution. One such issue that needs clarity is eminent domain. I’m not one of those purists who believes that private property should under absolutely zero circumstance be taken from individuals. There are extreme situations when such a need applies. For example, if the Keystone pipeline is to ever be built, we would need to use eminent domain to properly install it.

That is the least extreme concept that I can think of that would be acceptable in a new form of eminent domain. In other words, the case needs to be clear that it is overwhelmingly for the greater good that eminent domain is invoked.

The second thing that needs to be changed is a redefinition of fair returns. If someone is going to be compelled by the courts to give up their property for the sake of the common good, they shouldn’t be compensated fairly. They should be over-compensated. They should consider themselves blessed that their land happened to be in the right place at the right time in order to give them a windfall return. I’m not talking a percentage above fair market value. I’m talking about a factor. If the factor were set at five and someone’s land is worth $100,000 on the free market, the government should pay them $500,000 for the land.

Again, I cannot stress that with dangerous waters such as the ones we’re discussing, this would have to be done perfectly. Amending the Constitution is no light matter. Redefining it by establishing a rock solid precedent could work, but it would be better as an Amendment. Most uses of eminent domain are righteous, but as we’ve seen with Donald Trump, there are times when it’s abused for frivolous reasons. This cannot be allowed to be corrupted by billionaires or corporations that have connections, bribe officials, and make a good sales pitch.

If you’re not familiar with the dastardly use of eminent domain by Trump, here’s a recap:

As Reuters rightly points out, this could be one of the minor but singular and defining concepts that Cruz could use. It’s not just about attacking Trump for his past. It’s about defending citizens in the future who could find themselves on the receiving end of another billionaire’s greedy whims. A President Cruz should strive to narrow the scope of eminent domain as a tool for good that is immune to the evils that it can be used to perpetrate.

Eminent domain is a necessary tool, but it’s something that needs to be tightened. The next President must be willing to take on the issue before another billionaire uses it to attempt to hurt people for the sake of greed.



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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Five Misconceptions About Donald Trump

It’s futile to try to post a short list of the misconceptions that surround GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump. We’ve tried to narrow it all down to the top five biggest things that most people get wrong about him. He’s not a bad guy, nor is he our savior. He’s somewhere in between and completely misunderstood by friends and foes.

With these misconceptions comes a handful of certainties. He has changed the conversation in the Republican party to focus on issues that are important to many Americans. He is a brilliant campaigner who has natural talents in predicting the way that people will react to his actions. Perhaps most indisputable is the fact that when he gets hit, he hits back harder.

These are things we know for sure about him. We aren’t deep cover biographers following him around taking notes. Most of these things would be obvious to anyone paying enough attention, but with so much coverage on the guy these are things that can easily be missed, apparently.

Remember, these are misconceptions. We’re trying to bust the myths.

“Donald Trump Will Fight the Establishment”

The campaign started off as one of protest against the Establishment. Like Ted Cruz, he pointed to corruption on both sides of the political aisle and ran his campaign as the outsider who will get in there and clean up Washington DC.

This concept didn’t last long. Early on, he started saying things that made him seem more inline with the Establishment than his campaign pledges seemed to indicate. It all came to a head in Iowa when his full-blown Establishment tendencies came out. When Cruz made his move to take the lead in Iowa, Trump turned not towards conservatives or reformists but to the Establishment for help.

Governor Terry Branstad, who’s son is part of the Big Corn lobby for ethanol subsidies, wasn’t going to endorse a candidate. Then, things changed. Trump came out opposite of Cruz by saying that not only does he want to continue ethanol subsidies, he actually wants to increase the ethanol mandate. Suddenly, Branstad goes after Cruz.

Trump’s quick switch to support ethanol subsidies wasn’t just a play at Iowa voters. It was a message to the Establishment that he was willing to play ball to get the nomination. Bob Dole popped in to help. Sitting members of Congress stepped up to the plate for him. The attacks from Senators against Ted Cruz intensified. Trump embraced it all. He IS the establishment.

“Everything Trump Touches Turns to Gold”

In the worlds of real estate and entertainment, Donald Trump is arguably the king of both hills. He has made some real estate deals that boggle the mind and would make his father not just proud but probably a little stunned. In entertainment, he’s the ticket to success when it comes to ratings.

In every other endeavor that Trump has attempted, he’s failed miserably.

When he got into the airline business, he was going to build an empire. It took three years and dozens of documented mistakes for his dream to come crashing down.

When he bought a USFL team, the league was thriving. It was heading in the right direction and was likely less than three years away from becoming the NFL-approved spring farm league, a major coup for the owners. Unfortunately for them and the league, Trump convinced them that they could accelerate the process by switching to a fall league and suing the NFL. They won the lawsuit and were awarded a whopping $3.00 (as in 300 pennies). The league dissolved a year later.

Trump Vodka, Trump Mortgage, Trump the Board Game… he has an exceptionally long list of endeavors outside of real estate and entertainment that were disasters. He touches a lot of things that turn to gold, but he also has many more things that turn to dust after he touches them.

“The Media Hates Donald Trump”

Just stop. This pervasive fallacy is so bad it’s almost laughable. The media absolutely adores Donald Trump for two reasons. The first is obvious: he draws in viewers. Whether you love him or hate him, you’re reading and watching about him. The media isn’t in the game of truth. They’re in the game of eyeballs. They adore that aspect of Trump.

The biggest reason that the media loves him is because they are, for the most part, liberal. Sure, there are conservative publications like National Review and Red State that take up the William F. Buckley mantle, but 90% of journalists are Democrats. They want a Democrat in the White House.

Unfortunately for the media, they have a pair of weak candidates at the top of their heap. This is why they want Trump. They’re begging for Trump. They’ve been holding back hit pieces for months that will destroy him because they need that ammunition in the hopes that he wins the nomination. They don’t want to destroy him before he’s the Republican choice. They want to destroy him after he has the nomination locked.

They will roll out women he’s hurt, minorities he’s insulted, business partners he’s screwed over, employees whose lives he’s ruined… the hit pieces that will come at him once he has the nomination will boggle the mind. The way they see it (and they may be correct), a Trump nomination will mean that they could win 41 or 42 states in the general election whether it’s Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.

“The Democrats Fear Donald Trump”

I won’t say much more about this because the perspective above with the media is echoed by the Democrats, but there’s one more thing to note. They realize that his net favorability is the only one lower than Clinton’s. They realize that many Independents and moderate Republicans who voted for Obama actually hate Clinton. They see Trump as the countermeasure to this hatred. If given the choice between Clinton and anyone else, they’ll choose anyone else, but if given the choice between Clinton and Trump, they’ll err on the side of Clinton.

“Donald Trump is a Conservative”

No. He’s not. On immigration and taxes, he leans conservative. His proposed wall is conservative. On nearly every other issue, he’s moderate at best and often even liberal. When he discusses tariffs, he’s echoing Bernie Sanders. When he talks about supporting affirmative action, he’s echoing Hillary Clinton. When he supports single-payer health care, he’s echoing President Obama.

Keep in mind that we’re not even looking back at his past. Right now, today, his views are often to the left of Clinton. The media won’t tell you this (as we’ve discussed above) because they want both conservatives and liberals to think that he embodies the conservative movement. He absolutely does not.

Conclusion

It’s impossible to appeal to Donald Trump’s supporters because they’re very firm in their support. That’s the trait of authoritarians – they don’t change their minds very quickly because they don’t want their minds changed at all. The same can’t be said about their chosen one, of course.

Those who support Trump will do so to the bitter end. That’s the type of dedication that he draws from his people. Rather than leaving him as his views change, they will change their own views right along with him.



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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

How Trump Responds to ‘Pressure’: The #TrumpTantrum

This post isn’t for Trump supporters. I’ve learned over the last month that he can do literally anything to demonstrate his inability to be an adequate President and you will support him even more. This is for those with an open mind who are considering Trump as a valid option.

He’s not.

His weapon of choice when handling even the most inane criticism is the “Trump Tantrum.” It’s a form of chaotic discourse that sucks all of the intelligence out of the room and replaces it with fodder for the trolls. We’re seeing it in play with the Megyn Kelly debate debacle. She asked a reasonable question, one that was far less aggressive than what he’ll face on the general election campaign trail, yet his response has been nuclear. To say he has the temperament of an Kindergarten student would be an insult to five-year-olds.

Here’s the second saddest part of this whole ordeal. He isn’t hiding it. He’s wearing his infantile mentality like a badge of honor. How he handles himself on the campaign trail is supposed to be at least partially an audition for the role of President of the United States. As with everything he does, his apologists will say that they’ll vote for him because he’s “keeping it real” rather than folding to false facades that politicians like to erect.

Now, let’s discuss the saddest part about the Trump phenomenon. It’s working. Anyone who believes that this tantrum will cost him his supporters does not understand their mentality. Trump does. As he said, he could shoot someone and not lose a voter. It’s true. On the surface, Trump’s inability to handle pressure without going nuclear would seem like a disqualifier to anyone who’s not under the influence of his magic spell. To those under the influence, every disqualifier is something new to spin and defend as a virtue rather than a detriment.

If you supported Trump yesterday, you’ll likely support him even more today after his tantrum. If, on the other hand, you’re a discerning individual who holds Trump as one of your options, I hope this latest debacle disqualifies him from consideration.

Let’s end take a moment to admire some of the replies on Twitter.

Some are pointing to the obvious conclusion:

Others, predictably, are loving on Trump and taking it out on Kelly for having the gall to ask a question that will DEFINITELY be asked by the Democrats if he wins the nomination:



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Conservatism was on the Brink of a Breakthrough Before Populism Reared its Ugly Head

Conservatism is dying. None of us want to hear it, let alone admit it, but the Donald Trump phenomenon represents this death in multiple ways. As the Republican Party reverses its course from heading towards conservatism two years ago to embracing populism today, we are faced with a catastrophic scenario that makes the old school neocon-fueled Republican Establishment look like the not-so-bad-guys.

We’ve seen Trump act as a gravity well for many who have been caught by its sales pitch. It’s not one side or the other that is falling in. From former-conservative Sarah Palin to former-pragmatist Bob Dole, the list of people captivated by this new wave of populism is growing at an alarming rate. Most of them don’t even know why because there are multiple reasons for it happening. Some are embracing it as the rallying cry to beat the Democrats no matter what. Others are hearing about it all for the first time through Trump and associating him with conservatism, thus polluting their views and making them unwittingly embrace populist ideas. Then, there are those who think they have a better agenda, who believe that can use populism to their advantage for now and then revert back to the right when appropriate.

If this were Star Wars, populism would be the dark side of the force. It’s not liberalism or even mainstream moderate perspectives that are risky. With the populist mindset, one gets sucked into believing they can convert back when in reality it’s harder to come back from populism than to convert from pure liberalism. It’s too enticing because it plays on the fears of the electorate rather than the goals of helping the country to return from the brink.

It’s important for people to understand that populism cannot work in America. We have proof of that in the Senate and Congress right now as many of those who once fought for ideological conservatism have shifted to self-preserving populism. They know they shouldn’t have given President Obama a blank check but they feared the repercussions. They know they should oppose the President’s initiatives but they act like they don’t have a majority in the House and the Senate. They watch Trump promise to increase ethanol mandates in order to cater to Big Corn and the Governor of Iowa, but instead of chastising him, they cheer. We already have a mild form populism at play in Congress and even that little bit is blurring the lines. It’s hard to tell where Nancy Pelosi ends and Paul Ryan begins.

Imagine a world with principled conservatives calling the shots. Would many people feel uncomfortable following values and strong results rather than the misguided public opinion on heavy topics? Absolutely. President Reagan had to deal with it. In Congress, Newt Gingrich had to deal with it. There’s a reason that conservatism made things happen for the mid-90s Congress and the last great Statesman to sit in the Oval Office. That reason is conservatism. They didn’t cave to the media, liberals, and the Republican Establishment to bend towards the mushy middle. They stayed the course and stuff got done.

Populism thrives off of fear. It’s governing by knee-jerk reactions. There are many who are saying the people like Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Ben Shapiro, the 22 conservatives from the National Review, and others who support conservatism are part of the out-of-touch intelligentsia. Those who believe this are being manipulated by Trump, the media, and the Republican Establishment to think that “we the people” know better how to fix the country and that the intelligentsia has no idea. This is ludicrous. I’m not suggesting that the American people are stupid, but in scenarios such as handling the Islamic State, the solution is not that we should “bomb the sh-t out of them.” When it comes to fixing our economic woes, the solution is not to hand the reigns over to someone who knows how to file four bankruptcies and run every endeavor he’s ever attempted into the ground other than real estate and reality TV.

Populism doesn’t work because it’s guided by a decision-making perspective that works from as little information as possible. For example, one possible conservative perspective on the Islamic State would be to determine how to utilize the Kurdish Pershmerga with or without the support of Iraq’s government while keeping Turkey confident that it won’t carry over to become assistance for the PKK. On the other side, we’d need to abandon support for the Syrian al Qaeda rebels and turn towards working with Russia and the Syrian government to prevent the Islamic State from spreading to the west. The geopolitical ramifications are high and the dynamic includes more moving parts than Trump has ever had to attempt to understand. Hopefully, it wouldn’t involve the nuclear triad since he’s not sure which button is which.

The populist strategy for fighting the Islamic State is to bomb the sh-t out of them, take Iraq’s oil, and kill the families of the terrorists. There are times when the simple answer is the right answer. In fact, this is the case in most aspects of business and it’s why Donald Trump has thrived at real estate. When the dynamic became more complicated in other endeavors, he couldn’t handle it. He sold a bunch of people on the idea that he would be the best leader of an airline. The dynamic was too complex for him and it failed in three years.

Simpler can be better, but not with running an airline. Unfortunately, running the United States is exponentially more complex than running an airline. Trump was out of his league trying to take the populist approach to running an airline, a mortgage company, a football team, an adult beverage product line… pretty much every time he’s anything more complex than the moderately-complicated real estate deals he’s done has ended in complete and utter failure. Hundreds of people lost money from him. Thousand of people lost jobs in his failures. He came out relatively unscathed because he knows when to hit the eject button.

There’s no eject button in the White House.

The hardest thing to accept is that conservatism has been on the rise. After failed attempts by John McCain and Mitt Romney to sell their moderate wares to voters, it seemed like the Republican party was finally ready to listen to reason and vote conservative. We were so close. This was our year. A better America is within our grasp and it’s in the process of being stolen away by bad ideas and a Pied Piper’s sales pitch.

The concept of populism makes sense on the surface. However, an inch below the surface its merits break down more quickly than socialism or even communism. If populism worked, we’d have a pure Democracy rather than a Republic. Conservatism is the only ideology that has been proven to handle the crisis in America today and it’s quickly being snuffed out by a master salesman. A Trump nomination would mark the end of conservatism just when it was on the verge of a breakthrough.



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Why Breitbart Turned Populist

There was a time not too long ago when Breitbart.com, the site that was supposed to continue the conservative fight that Andrew Breitbart fought before his death, could be counted on to be a strong source of material for those who lean very right. Things have changed. They’ve adopted much more of a populist view. Is it all because of Donald Trump?

While Trump would certainly claim that he’s the cause of everything that he mentions, there are more factors for the Breitbart business model. They’ve performed well as a news site under the Obama administration and would probably do even better if Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders were to be elected, but the powers that be at Breitbart are betting against that notion. They believe the Republican will win and if it’s a Republican that sits in the White House for at least four years, the publication must be prepared to be a voice of the Populists.

Those who followed Andrew Breitbart before his death know that this would be an insane notion if he were still running the show. He would make the decision that helps America and the conservative cause. The current management thinks differently. They’re running it like a business and Obama has been great for business. In preparation for the change to another President, they’re betting on it being a Populist Republican. They’re banking on it being Trump.

Many who noticed the uncanny shift towards supporting Trump and his liberal perspectives last year started thinking conspiratorially. Did Trump buy them off? Despite the clear support for Trump without making an official endorsement, I have to believe that they were not bought. It’s more likely that they feel he’ll either be the next President or he’ll lose to the Democrats. A Populist Breitbart would be prepared for a Trump victory. If the Democrats win, it will be easier to shift back to conservatism. Either way, it makes business sense for them to support Trump.

Nobody can know how Andrew Breitbart would react, but based upon his conservative perspectives that ran contrary to the ideas that Trump has been putting out there on the campaign trail, we have to hope that he would stick to his guns and keep the publication conservative.

The post Why Breitbart Turned Populist appeared first on Conservative Haven.



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Monday, January 25, 2016

To Santorum and Huckabee Supporters in Iowa: Make Your Voice Count with Cruz

In 2008, I supported Mike Huckabee and in 2012 I supported Rick Santorum. I didn’t like the Republican Establishment’s choice of John McCain and Mitt Romney. I definitely don’t like their current choice of Donald Trump. It’s time to turn your support towards the conservative Christian who has a chance of beating the Republican Establishment’s choice for the first time since Ronald Reagan.

Ted Cruz shares many of the same perspectives as Huckabee and Santorum. Don’t be fooled by their Super PACs’ attack ads against him or their accusations against him. That’s politics. George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan had some of the most volatile battles before they came together to lead the country for twelve years. There’s a place for Santorum and Huckabee in a Cruz White House as well.

I’m not simply looking at the polls. In fact, I’m not a big fan of polls even though they show Cruz with 8X more support in Iowa that Santorum and Huckabee combined. I’m looking at the path of the race that will highly favor one of two candidates: Trump or Cruz. It all comes down to Iowa; if Trump wins, he’ll be well-positioned to hit the March 1 “SEC Primaries” with a ton of momentum. If he loses, he’ll try to recover in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada.

If, with the help of Santorum and Huckabee supporters, Cruz is able to defeat Trump by a large margin, then there’s a chance that it will shake up Trump’s campaign to an irrecoverable level.

There are many who will say that they don’t like Cruz. Even though he has the highest favorability rating of 76% positive to 19% negative, there are those who wonder if he’s even eligible. Here’s the thing, and it doesn’t take a political pundit or a law professor to realize this. If any candidate, including Trump, really believed that Cruz wasn’t eligible, they would have sued already. Why would they allow him to linger? The reason is because they realize he would likely be vindicated in Federal court, but we can’t find out unless they sue. Despite what Trump claims, Cruz cannot get a Federal judge to simply declare him eligible without a lawsuit from an “adverse” party.

They’d rather have him in limbo rather than giving him the opportunity to prove it. They’re taking a risk, but it’s less damaging to them than if they sue and initiate the most likely path: a judgement declaring him eligible.

This year, Iowa is too important for any voters to be wasting their votes on people who can’t win. Santorum and Huckabee would be great Presidents, but they have no path to achieve this goal. Instead, Cruz should be the choice for Iowans and for America.



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Why is Donald Trump Still Whining About Megyn Kelly’s ‘Unfair’ Question?

Will the next President of the United States be the type of person who harbors resentment about a legitimate question regarding the defense of his character? The same question in another way: why is Donald Trump so easily shaken by Megyn Kelly and pretty much anyone else who he deems doesn’t treat him fairly?

He has swatted away the feeble attacks that the other Republican candidates have lobbed at him, but there’s a huge difference with the attacks that will come if he’s nominated. The mainstream media is 90% liberal. They want him to be the nominee so they can unleash hell on him in the general election. Why? Because they want a continuation of the policies of their anointed one, President Obama.

If he can’t handle Megyn Kelly asking him how he would handle their attacks, how does he expect to handle their actual attacks? If he believes that she was being unfair, all of the bluster and false campaign promises exuding from his ego-driven ambition to be President will be laughable once the real battle begins. He’s easily shaken. He’s worse than John Boehner and Howard Dean combined when it comes to criticism. He thinks so many people are unfair to him and he handles this unfairness very poorly.

Now, he’s considering boycotting the upcoming debate because Megyn Kelly is still going to be a moderator. Why is he so afraid? How can any voter expect him to handle the hot seat in the Oval Office if he can’t handle the hot seat at these debates?

Let’s be very clear. He’s making a huge deal about a question that wasn’t unfair at all because, as with all bullies, his biggest fear is being challenged. People like Trump are great at dishing out the attacks but they cower at the prospects of having to take their own medicine.

What Kelly asked Trump in the Fox debate last year was 100% legitimate. The Republican nominee has to be able to handle tough situations without being a weak child. If he can’t handle Megyn Kelly asking about his history with women, how will he survive the onslaught of attacks from the Democrats if nominated? Answer: he’ll fail miserably and produce another Democratic White House.



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The Ugly (and necessary) Game of Political Endorsements

As a Ted Cruz supporter, I love the fact that former Texas Governor and two-time Presidential candidate Rick Perry just endorsed him. As a student of how politics and cronyism works in America, I really wish that all endorsements were transparent, organized by type, and consolidated into a single area not dissimilar to how LinkedIn handles recommendations.

It will never happen so I’ll keep this article short. If anyone wants more details of this hypothetical structure for campaign governance, please feel free to reach out.

In a perfect world, there would be a single website for the majority of people and a catalog mailed out to those who prefer analog that allowed every candidate to state their stance on every issue that’s important to the people. On this website would be the endorsement statements and videos from those who qualify as thought-leaders. Celebrity status doesn’t count (sorry Duck Dynasty fans).

All endorsements should be categorized by type. Who is endorsing, why are they endorsing, and how far are they willing to go with their endorsement. For example. Sarah Palin, as a former politician and currently unemployed, should say that she’s (a) endorsing Donald Trump because (b) he has promised to make her his Energy Secretary, so she’s (c) willing to go all the way, even campaigning with or for him on the trail.

Another example would be Iowa Congressman Steve King, who (a) endorses Ted Cruz because (b) his ideas match what King wants to accomplish as a Congressman and (c) he’s willing to do interviews and campaign for Cruz occasionally.

I don’t know how far Perry is willing to go. It’s most likely that he prefers Cruz over the competitors including a strong disliking of Donald Trump. He’s not going to do much campaigning for him and he has no real incentive other than helping a fellow Texan. What I’d really love to see is that he’s offered the job of Secretary of Defense under a Cruz administration, but that may be wishful thinking.

What’s the point of this exercise? Nothing, really. All hypothetical in a fantasy world that would never happen. I’d love to know what Jodi Ernst gets out of endorsing Marco Rubio. I’d love to hear Iowa Governor Terry Branstad address questions about his son’s connections to Big Corn. I’d want to hear the 22 writers for the National Review tell the world that they have no reason to back Trump other than common sense because for some reason that fact is getting questioned.

Again, all frivolous talk for a Monday morning. Congratulations to Cruz for another solid endorsement in Perry.



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Sunday, January 24, 2016

As Trump Shifts Left, His Supporters are Changing their Tune Instead of Changing Their Minds

They say the best salespeople can sell ice cubes to Eskimos. In politics, the best salesman is Donald Trump and he’s pulling the ‘bait-and-switch’ on his own supporters. First, he convinced him he was conservative. Now, he’s convincing them that he’s the Establishment and they should ditch conservatism for populism.

Apparently, it’s working if one were to look at the most recent poll numbers.

Trump has been coming in and out of Iowa for months promoting his conservative mindset, particularly on immigration and terrorism. With Ted Cruz coming in and taking some of his and Ben Carson’s most conservative supporters, he felt the need to shift. Today, he’s endorsing an increase in ethanol mandates in order to get the approval of Bob Dole and Governor Terry Branstad. More importantly, he’s sending a message to the Republican Establishment that he’s not as conservative as they feared.

Apparently, this is working as well, not just with his own supporters but also with the power brokers in the Republican Establishment. Over the next week, we will see messages coming from most corners of the GOP moderates claiming that they’d rather have Trump than Cruz. They fear Cruz, of course, almost as much as they fear the Democrats. For some of them, they’d actually rather see a Democrat in the White House than a principled conservative who actually does what he says he’s going to do from the campaign trail to the office itself.

How is this sitting with his core supporters? Anecdotally on Facebook, it would appear that the message is resonating. Many who were promoting Trump as the best conservative a month ago are now claiming to have embraced his populist leanings. If Trump says jump, the ask him which bridge to jump from, even if it’s off the conservative platform into the land of the Republican Establishment.

The silver lining for Cruz supporters is that the more that Trump and his supporters shift, the less likely it is that they’ll be a force at during the Iowa Caucus on February 1.

Some say we need to make more deals. Those who say that haven’t been watching. For the last 9 years, all we’ve been doing is making deals. Instead, we need a principled conservative to take the helm and reduce government rather than the populist perspective of increased government manipulation over our lives.

The post As Trump Shifts Left, His Supporters are Changing their Tune Instead of Changing Their Minds appeared first on Conservative Haven.



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Discernment and Diligence: If Cruz Supporters Resist Manipulation, He’ll Win Iowa by a Wide Margin

In Iowa, there are two opposing factors at play that will determine the result of the February 1 caucus. The first is manipulation by the media and the Republican Establishment. The second is the passionate hope of an amazing turnaround for the United States of America. The stakes are high. This isn’t just about Iowa. For the first time in decades, this first caucus will have a tremendous influence on the entire race.

Donald Trump has embodied the extreme angst that voters across the spectrum have been feeling for nearly two decades. The faith they had in a system of government that has helped this nation succeed in the past has been shaken by poor choices and an unfortunate lack of talent in Washington DC. Ronald Reagan was the last American Statesman to sit in the Oval Office. There have been others since he left office who picked up the mantle and did what they could, but none of them ran for President. This has built up a righteous anger towards politicians on both sides. It’s a hunger that has made the electorate cranky; we’ve been eating hamburgers and hot dogs for a while and we’re starting to forget what it’s like to eat a juicy political steak.

In many ways, Trump should be commended. He has changed the conversation. Perhaps more importantly, we will be able to look back at the Trump phenomenon and see that his entry into the election has been the herald to alert conservatives that we can win this election is we believe and act, thereby shielding Ted Cruz from attacks and scrutiny until the time was right for him to emerge into prominence. Now, the only question is whether the herald will be seen as more than the messenger. The bearer of good news has turned to attack the embodiment of the news itself. Will voters be able to tell which candidate is saying the right things and which will do the right things?

Let’s examine the four dynamics of the race that will determine what happens in Iowa and beyond.

Power of the Poll Interpreters

In Matthew 7:16, we read: Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

When reading or hearing the narratives being painted by thought leaders in the media, it’s important to dig into their agendas to determine how much credence should be given to their message. Today, I read a story that took the current Iowa poll numbers and presented them in a way that every Republican voter in Iowa must understand. It surprised me because it was on Breitbart, a publication that has been favoring Trump for a long time. As I read through and became impressed with the insights, my surprise about the fairness and insights in the piece faded. The author is Ben Shapiro. I should have known him by his fruits.

The irony, of course, is that I’m invoking a verse from the New Testament to give credit to an Orthodox Jew. As far as America is concerned, it’s our Judeo-Christian heritage and the values of faith embodied by the Old and New Testament that have contributed to unprecedented prosperity. This is at risk as the Obama administration turned our alliance with Israel into a relationship and they’re systematically making that relationship into a bad one. It’s one of the biggest reasons that we need Cruz in the White House, but I digress.

Shapiro is absolutely correct when he notes the importance of the caucus format. Cruz and Trump are neck-and-neck in the polls, but the important numbers to look at are in the sentiment:

Beyond that, Trump has the highest negatives of any candidate in Iowa outside of Jeb Bush – he’s at 54 percent positive and 45 percent negative. Cruz, by contrast, has the highest positives: 76 percent to 19 percent. This means that Cruz is everybody’s second pick – so as the field narrows, Cruz should gain.

Moreover, he points out that dedication required to spend time at caucus is greater than the effort in most states to run down to the ballot box on a lunch break. One must commit themselves to caucus in Iowa. It’s not a task. it’s an experience, one that should favor the passionate conservatives following Cruz. There’s passion for Trump as well as can be seen on social media, but is it enough to bring them out caucus? Since we’ve never seen a phenomenon like Trump in Iowa politics, there’s no way to no for sure. However, the process likely favors Cruz.

We will hear many pundits and thought leaders in the coming days touting how Trump is moving up in the polls and that it spells doom for Cruz. Don’t be fooled. Whether by ignorance or agenda, they will paint Trump as having a huge advantage that isn’t really there. Their fruits are veiled but easy to understand if you’re watching carefully.

Détente: Mainstream Media and the Republican Establishment

We are witnessing something that hasn’t happened for years. The liberal mainstream media has put their normal barrage of attacks on the Republican Establishment on hold for a while in an effort to take down an element that is more dangerous to the status quo than anything they’ve faced in a while. It’s hard to tell who fears Ted Cruz more: the liberal media or the Republican Establishment.

Their goals are different but the paths to achieving their goals are both being blocked by Cruz.

The media is foaming at the mouth to get Trump as the GOP nominee. It isn’t out of affection or support nor is it a coordinated effort for the most part. Some want to see him in there because they view him as the easiest (only?) path to victory for the Democrats to win the White House. Others see him as a constant flow of readers/viewers for their attacks that will come once he secures the nomination. Some see no downside to a Trump nomination at all; they win politically and they win with more readers/viewers. They won’t even have to try very hard to manufacturer content because he’s a goldmine for them. Trump is their ticket to reach anti-Republican journalistic nirvana.

The Republican Establishment fears a Cruz Presidency. They suffered a terrible loss in 1980 despite efforts similar to what they’re mounting against Cruz. What conservatives need to understand is that Mitch McConnell, Karl Rove, Reince Preibus, and the other members of the GOP Getalong Gang would rather support someone like Trump who they feel they can control rather than a Cruz or a Reagan who they know they’ll never control. They crave power more than anything else and a true conservative in the White House would disrupt the state of affairs.

They have seen how quickly Trump went from not understanding ethanol subsidies to suddenly calling for increased ethanol mandates. This wasn’t just to appease moderate Iowa Governor Terry Branstad or anti-Reaganite Bob Dole. It was a not-so-subtle message to the Republican Establishment that he’ll make deals, that he’ll play ball. In case the message wasn’t received, he made it crystal clear. In other words, Donald Trump IS the Establishment. even if he’s not their ideal choice. To the Getalong Gang, it’s better to have a temperamental, unpredictable, inexperienced, egotistical destroyer of common decency that they can control rather than a principled conservative with a history of keeping his promises.

As long as Cruz is in the picture, the media will give their old foes in the Establishment a pass to use their platforms as they see fit. If Trump gets in, the cease fire will end as the status quo will have been preserved.

Real Hope and Better Change

In 2008, the rallying cry for hope and change helped to propel Barack Obama to victory. “Yes we can” was the slogan and it worked despite long odds against a famous figure.

He was a Constitutional scholar and 1st term Senator in a major state. As long as he had a teleprompter, he could deliver incredible speeches. He had extreme views that were thought to be too polarizing for general election victory, but as a minority that graduated magna cum laude at Harvard Law School where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review, he was able to parlay his youthful ideology and passion into lopsided nomination and general election wins.

The clever reader will see what I did with the previous paragraph. If you take out the teleprompter jab, the description could be applied to Ted Cruz if he’s able to win. Their paths are very similar and should help to dispel misconceptions that he can’t win in November if nominated.

The similarities will end there. President Cruz would take the polar opposite approach to hope and change that takes them out of the context of campaign slogans and turns them into actions. First, he’ll attempt to undo or correct every damaging aspect of the Obama, Bush, and Clinton administrations. Then, he’ll work towards initiating a government that acts in the best interests of the people from a principled perspective.

Americans in general and Iowans in particular need to rally behind these ideas rather than allowing the barrage of attacks to steal your hope. Cruz is positioned to win the nomination based upon his character, but perhaps more importantly based upon the logistics of the race. The “SEC Primaries” on March 1 include several potential victories in Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Arkansas. He has an opportunity to have a large delegate lead in the first week of March that will cause many if not most of the candidates to drop out.

It all starts with an Iowa victory. This is crucial because of the psychology of Trump and his supporters.

Trump Can’t Handle Losing

A loss in Iowa would make Trump turn very ugly towards Cruz, the media, and Iowans (yes, even uglier than he is today). He will send out a barrage of insults. He will point to Iowa’s recent history of picking losers. He will talk about the difference between “Iowa values” and “American values” (remember that when you see it happen). He will take his campaign up a notch.

That’s what would happen if he loses. On the other hand, if he loses badly, he could actually be done. That’s right. If Trump suffers defeat, he’ll lash out, but if he suffers a humiliating defeat that points to the frailty of his precious polling numbers, he will be so deflated that he might not even make it into March. As impossible as it is to conceive, Iowa could be the catalyst that leads to a very early exit for Trump.

Trump is a prudent man when it comes to winning and losing. He tends to bail out quickly when faced with eventual defeat as we can see with his four affiliated bankruptcies and how he abandoned Trump Air and Trump Mortgage so quickly. Remember, he’s a billionaire with a gargantuan ego. He has no incentive to suffer for a cause.

A defeat in Iowa will also have a dramatic effect on his supporters. Many of them are authoritarians who can only be enlightened by seeing their chosen one fall from grace. This is why Trump can get away with mocking his own supporters.

Iowans who support Cruz must fight as hard as they can for every vote possible. They must talk to those who are considering throwing their votes away on Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, or Rand Paul. They must talk sense into Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, and Jeb Bush supporters who need to know why Establishment candidates must not earn their vote. They need to appeal to Ben Carson supporters who love him for his ideals but who need to vote for someone with similar perspectives that has a better chance of winning.

For Trump to suffer a crushing defeat, the Iowa Caucus starts immediately.

The Way Forward

The path for America will either be laid out by the Democrats or by Ted Cruz. Donald Trump is very unlikely to garner enough support outside of his base and party-line Republicans in the general election if he is nominated which means that Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, or even Michael Bloomberg would be the next President.

The only thing that can prevent a major win for Ted Cruz in Iowa is if voters are made to believe that Donald Trump has already won. Reality is very different from what’s being sold to voters as “truth.” Either Trump will become a self-fulfilling prophecy or Iowans will see through the con.



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Faith Will Help the Right Candidate Emerge as the Nominee and President

There’s only one reason that I don’t really worry more about Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, or Bernie Sanders. As much as I would dislike any of them becoming the leader of the country, I have faith in God’s Will. As Christian conservatives, we are charged to pray daily for our Father’s Will to be done and we have to know in our hearts that whatever happens, it was meant to be.

That absolutely, positively does not give us license to not get involved. It’s not for us to know our place in this world or how our participation (or choice not to participate) will affect the outcome. We will fight tooth and nail both in the world, online, and in our prayers to see Ted Cruz as the nominee because we feel that he’s the right man for the job. If he isn’t nominated, we will determine how to move forward based upon the circumstances.

As hard as it is to believe for some Christians based upon what we’ve seen in this country for decades and in particular over the last seven years, there’s a plan in place for all of these things. It’s not a stretch to find the silver lining that President Obama, as poorly as we perceive him, may have been ideal for the last few years. Personally, his Presidency has acted as a wake up call to stand strong in my faith and political beliefs rather than being as passive as I had been for years prior. Had John McCain or Mitt Romney defeated him, things may be different. It could also be said that both Romney’s and McCain’s losses have contributed to the opportunity we now have in this country to elect a true conservative and unabashed Christian into the Presidency.

Again, it’s above our pay grade to know why things that seem bad happen at any given moment. It’s our belief that this moment was made for Ted Cruz, but we’re not going get down for long if he isn’t chosen. Doing so would be to lose faith that our Father has a plan that goes well beyond our understanding.

Pray and act. These are the things that give Christian conservatives the best chance to help this country correct its path. The prayer part is easy – the Lord’s Prayer will do. As for action: keep fighting for the first principled conservative since Ronald Reagan to sit in the Oval Office.

To that end, here’s a little video we compiled.

Trump vs Cruz in 8 Minutes

As #Iowans prepare for caucus, the two top choices for Republicans are Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. This year, the Iowa vote is more important than it's been in a long time, perhaps ever. Which candidate should earn your support?

Posted by Social News Watch on Sunday, January 24, 2016



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If you still think Trump’s not a liberal, you’re too gullible to be swayed by the truth

Donald Trump's Gullible Supporters

Affirmative action. Eminent domain. Single-payer healthcare. Touchback immigration. Progressive tax plans. These aren’t old ideas before he “evolved” to become a Republican. These are all part of Donald Trump’s current platform for his Republican nomination campaign. To his supporters who still believe he’s a conservative based upon the sales pitch he’s been trotting around the country, you probably won’t be swayed by this video.

To the rest of the thoughtful, intelligent Republicans out there who are willing to see the truth and find a real candidate to support, this video should end any lingering inclination to consider Donald Trump as your choice:

For the first time since Ronald Reagan, we have the opportunity to look at intelligent, conservative-leaning candidates like Marco Rubio (though he’s starting to look more like a moderate every day), Ben Carson (though he has even less political experience than Donald Trump), and Rand Paul (though his poll numbers indicate he can’t win). Of course, I would encourage you to take a look at the only real conservative in the race who has a chance of winning: Ted Cruz.

As Trump said himself, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” His mocking of his own supporters and their ignorance in thinking this guy can fix America is both hilarious and sad.

The post If you still think Trump’s not a liberal, you’re too gullible to be swayed by the truth appeared first on Uberly.



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The MIchael Bloomberg Factor: If He Runs, He Would Beat Trump and Clinton

There’s a dynamic that isn’t being discussed on mainstream media right now that could very well turn the tide of the entire election. It’s not the fact that Michael Bloomberg is considering an independent run for President. It’s that in the right situation, he would actually win.

That right situation is if the two current frontrunners are the eventual nominees. Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton are both facing stiff challenges, but they each have a favorable path to their respective nominations. This is what Bloomberg hopes will happen. If Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders, or both win their party’s nominations, a Bloomberg run is unlikely because he would lose.

Like Trump, he’s loaded. Unlike Trump, he has political experience as the popular former Mayor of New York City following 9/11.

In a dynamic that would pit the three New Yorkers against each other, Bloomberg has the advantage with both Independents and moderates in each party. He’s the epitome of a political centrist. This plays well against the moderate but brash politics of Donald Trump. His integrity is much higher than Clinton’s. He would be the first President to win without the backing of a major party.

Sanders and Cruz would each pose a problem. They are ideologues, giving their support the passion required to defeat a third party candidate. Bill Clinton was able to do it when H. Ross Perot ran against him twice, but his wife has a different path in front of her. She would not be able to counter Bloomberg the way that her husband handled Perot because Bill was more likable than Perot. Hillary doesn’t have the same advantage over Bloomberg.

Whether or not Bloomberg runs will rely largely on the status of the frontrunners. If they hold, he’ll run. If Sanders or Cruz win their nominations, Bloomberg will likely pass.

The post The MIchael Bloomberg Factor: If He Runs, He Would Beat Trump and Clinton appeared first on Conservative Haven.



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Saturday, January 23, 2016

The Secular Education Model that should Terrify American Christians

Conservatives and Christians have been concerned about the education system in the United States for decades. Some would say that when we took the Bible out of schools, we started the downfall of American culture. At this point, I won’t even try to stir up that discussion. The battle lines have been drawn much further to the left. Today, we must start by trying to prevent America from becoming like Iceland.

Yes, Iceland.

The results of a disturbing study show that in less than one generation, Iceland has gone from 87% “religious believers” to 46%. That’s bad enough, but when we realize that their education system has made it to where literally 0% of young Christians in the country believe that God created the earth, it’s easy to see that this trend will have the country as a completely secular religion within a couple of decades at the latest.

It comes down to education. We took the Bible out of the schools and it will likely take a Biblical event to put it back in the schools. However, we’re seeing that the left is pushing for an education system that doesn’t just remove God from education but that attempts to wipe the possibility of Creation from the minds of our youths before they ever have a chance to come to their own conclusions.

This is not a problem that can be addressed through politics alone, though politics will play a role in a Christian family’s ability to teach our own children properly. We can and should fight to prevent the theories of evolution and the Big Bang from becoming doctrine. As any honest scientist would acknowledge, neither concept is proven. In fact, both have flaws that should give pause to any thinking human, but that’s not stopping the education system from declaring that the debate is settled.

Teaching those concepts as the unproven theories that they are is only part of the problem. Allowing room for the truth of Creation to even be considered is the other need and at this point, it would seem that the political structure of America will not allow that to happen. We have to keep trying. At the national level, it’s a tougher fight, but at the local level the fight must continue until it’s won.

The most important thing to remember is that there’s really only three options for parents and their children:

  • Ideally, one or both parents will commit to a Bible-driven homeschool program for their children. It’s not for everyone, but it’s ideal when appropriate.
  • If homeschool is impossible, a good Christian private school is acceptable, but be sure to constantly check their hermeneutic on a regular (daily) basis.
  • If the situation is too dire for either of these options, then you must guide your children through the perverse public school system by equipping them with the Biblical fortitude required for them to make it out properly.

If that last option seemed to be demonized a bit, it’s because that was the intention. The American public school system is designed to indoctrinate first, educate second. If you are in a position that requires the use of public schools, then taking your kids to church on Sundays (or Saturdays) is not enough. Things are different. There are militant atheists and secularists controlling the school systems today that will do everything they can to prevent your children from coming out with the proper Biblical worldview.

The War on Christianity starts at the schools. The left is building a generation that is much more secular than any before it. We’re not talking about the gradual shift that has happened for decades. They are in the process of a clean sweep within a single generation. One only has to look at Iceland to see the model for what’s being attempted in America today.



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