Trump’s Understanding of the Economy is Astoundingly Bad

Even if you dismiss the fact that Donald Trump has failed at literally every business endeavor outside of real estate and entertainment, you still have to look at his business decisions with skepticism. His supporters see a rich man who must be good at business – after all he’s rich! Of course, had he taken the tremendous empire he was born into and invested his riches into simple index stocks, his fortune would be at least double what it is today.

What cannot be forgiven is his disastrous miscalculation regarding his bread and butter – real estate. His decision to start a mortgage company at the beginning of the most foreseeable housing market crash in history is a testament to both his ego and his failures in critical thinking. Even the kindest economic analyst looking at his history would come to the conclusion that if he hadn’t been born rich, he would have probably been a mediocre life insurance salesman whose only real talent was delivering a good sales pitch.

Fortune Magazine does a nice job of point out his economic ineptitude.

Why Donald Trump Is Wrong About the U.S. Economy https://t.co/zD6yRzV9q5#NeverTrump#SECPrimary#TCOT http://pic.twitter.com/eNgJKbN5iU

— JD Rucker (@0boy) March 1, 2016

The notion that he knows what’s best for the economy is ludicrous based upon his history and outrageous when you look at his tax plan that is projected to add more to the national debt than even President Obama’s disastrous Presidency. But hey, he’s rich, so his supporters don’t need to look at pesky facts.

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Stop Comparing Trump to Hitler. He’s Really More Like Nebuchadnezzar.

There’s one thing that truly separates Donald Trump from Adolf Hitler. Both rose through fear and lies. Both were narcissistic. Both were authoritarians. However, Adolf Hitler was evil. Say what you will about Donald Trump, but his self-serving delusions of grandeur and failures of leadership represent a bad President, not an evil one. Comparing them without acknowledging this extremely important portion of their character is, as Trump would classify it, completely unfair.

Perhaps a better comparison would be to compare Trump to ancient Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar II. Bible readers might point out that it’s not exactly a more flattering comparison; Nebuchadnezzar would have people killed because they couldn’t accomplish the impossible. However, that was a different time and based upon what we know, I believe that Nebuchadnezzar was misguided and didn’t respect the sanctity of human life beyond how it could be used to serve him, but he wasn’t evil like Adolf Hitler.

In the Book of Daniel, we learn a lot about Nebuchadnezzar. He was a mighty leader who wielded his power well. That’s not to say that he wielded it properly by any means, but he built great things (like Trump) and was able to leave his personal trademark across the land (like Trump). The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were his Trump Tower.

Nebuchadnezzar also had a penchant for condemning others as losers just because they weren’t born into the privilege that he enjoyed. He once demanded that his advisers not only interpret one of his dreams, but actually recall what he had dreamed without him telling them anything about it. He was out of touch with reality; even when his advisers told him that what he asked was impossible, he continued to make his demands and threatened them with their lives.

He surrounded himself with the smartest people he could find (like Trump) and used them as extensions of his own wisdom. As far as his people, he demanded that they worship his idols regardless of their heritage or background, condemning those who held different beliefs.

In the end, Nebuchadnezzar failed to realize that everything he had thought he built himself was actually done by the Grace of God. His lack of humility was punished harshly.

Donald Trump isn’t part of the donor class, though he’s used donations to get his way. He’s not a part of the oligarchy, though he can call on the oligarchy at will to do his bidding. He’s best described as being part of the “entitled class” (not to be confused with the “entitlement class” that fills our colleges today) of people who believe that their way is the only way because they’re due respect for their accomplishments. This is where the resemblance to Nebuchadnezzar comes most squarely into view.

I may not support Donald Trump, but I would never compare him to arguably the most evil leader of the modern world. It’s not only an insult to him. It also gives him more credit as a manipulator than he deserves.

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Dear Republican Establishment: Stop Looking for a Loophole and Pick a Side

There are only two acceptable conclusions as far as Republican voters are concerned. If Donald Trump wins the nomination, it would be bad but at least the party won’t fracture. If Ted Cruz beats him fair and square, it’s the only alternative for Trump’s supporters that they will accept and not push for a breakup of the party. Every other scenario will destroy the Republican party. There seems to be a growing number of party insiders who haven’t gotten this memo.

Whether through a brokered convention, open convention, contested convention, or whatever type of convention loophole you concoct, the voters will no longer follow your lead. It doesn’t matter if it’s Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, or Peyton Manning. Any attempt to bypass the will of the voters will be met with the most complete rejection that the party has ever seen.

I understand their frustration. After all, Ronald Reagan was the last nominee to earn the spot through the will of the people rather than the manipulations of the Establishment and they were nearly destroyed as a result. They continued to fight Reagan into the middle of his first term before coming to grips with the fact that he wasn’t going to destroy the country as they expected. The same thing can be said about Ted Cruz, the candidate that they should be supporting if they really want to stop Donald Trump.

At this point, I don’t care whether they support Trump or Cruz. I’d assume if they accepted that those were the two choices that their ranks would split between the malleable but unpredictable Trump or the conservative but sane Cruz. That’s why they’re so reluctant. It kills the Karl Rove types in DC that someone other than they’re anointed loser is going to get the nomination, which is why they’re perpetuating the narrative that stealing the nomination at the convention is a good thing. It’s not. It will do more damage than nominating Trump. At least with a Trump nomination the party stays mostly together and he gets obliterated in the general election. Then, they can start over to rebuild the party. However, pushing it to the convention and trying to slip through a candidate that didn’t the votes will allow us to once and for all dissolve the notion that the Republican Establishment is worried about anyone’s interests other than their own.

The voters must be allowed to decide who our nominee is. If it’s stolen, the damage that will be done to the party and the country will be unfathomable. The donor class always wins. The last time they lost was 1980 with Reagan. Accept that it’s going to happen again and pick Cruz or Trump. Just don’t try to force another loser down our throats.

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Thomas Sowell on Fighting the Establishment

There’s a difference between the Establishment sheep at Fox News and the real conservative commentators who are unifying around the reality that Donald Trump would destroy the Republican party and cripple America whether with his own liberal policies or by allowing Hillary Clinton to win the general election. Thomas Sowell falls into the latter category. Few are as intelligent and honest about the true ways to repair this country than Sowell.

In two short sentences, he emboldens those who are leaning towards voting for Ted Cruz and then shatters the false ideologies that have made many believe Trump is somehow going to solve all of our problems for us.

You can read his most recent post from which this quote was pulled right here:

New Article – ‘Anyone But Trump’ Becomes ‘Anyone But Cruz’ – It is desperation time for the Republican Party es… https://t.co/O7LMHvjTSv

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowells) March 8, 2016

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Why I’m finally ready to embrace Ted Cruz

This has been the first Presidential primary season that I didn’t know who I was supporting before Iowa. Usually, it’s pretty clear cut and since I almost never support the “Establishment” candidate, I almost never get my wish. C’est la vie. This year, though, life has given me an opportunity to support a winner and that winner is Ted Cruz.

For full disclosure, I’ve been a Cruz supporter for a couple of months. Technically, he was my second choice behind Marco Rubio, but nearly a month ago they switched positions in my hierarchy. Before I go into the biggest reason that I have chosen to be all in for Cruz, I’m going to go through the obvious reasons to do so even if none of them are my reason. Consider it a good exercise in realizing what should be obvious but that’s apparently not clear to enough people thus far.

1. Cruz can Win the Nomination and Rubio Cannot

With every fresh and embarrassing loss, it’s becoming more clear that Rubio’s only path to the nomination is through a brokered convention. Even that is becoming less likely for him with rumors of Mitt Romney being drafted by the Establishment. As of the time of this writing, Rubio has won Minnesota and Puerto Rico and is polling behind Donald Trump in his own home state. That doesn’t bode well for any path to the nomination, brokered convention or not.

2. #NeverTrump

This should be the most obvious reason. Cruz is closest to Trump in delegates and has demonstrated an ability to beat the polls. Trump was ahead in the polls going into every state that Cruz has won other than Texas and technically Maine (only because they didn’t really have a reliable recent poll). Donald Trump is not a good leader (acting tough is not a quality of good leadership and is often a sign that he’s not a real leader), he’s not a good candidate (his shenanigans have prevailed in gathering his sheep so far but the same tactics will not be tolerated in the general election), and he would make a terrible President (to the point that some Republicans are hoping that he’d lose to Hillary Clinton in the general election rather than imposing his disastrous policy proposals).

3. The One True Conservative

While I’ve never been much of an Establishment guy, I’m also not a rock-ribbed conservative that believes in chopping taxes to the bone and removing every government program that requires money to operate. Rubio appealed because he seemed like a pragmatic conservative, though he came close to losing me altogether with the Gang of Eight debacle. Now that Rubio is professing to be against amnesty, I’ve called that a mulligan and lined up with him again based upon his voting record. Cruz seems to be a little too conservative for my tastes, at least on the surface. That’s a perfect segue to the one reason I now support him…

Ted Cruz is Real

While the previous three reasons are common among those of us converting to Cruz, they didn’t really work for me. As I’ve said, I’ve been backing losers all the way back to Pat Buchanan, so the fact that he can win the nomination is not really a factor. While I don’t want Trump, I’m still of the belief that he can implode before the convention, so #2 isn’t my reason, either. I already debunked #3, the reason that most of his supporters adore him, as a non-reason for me.

At the end of the day, the reason I support Ted Cruz for President is because he’s demonstrated an authenticity that runs at a stark contrast to the narrative created by the Trump campaign (and, unfortunately, perpetuated by the Rubio campaign). Cruz didn’t lie about Ben Carson in Iowa. First, it wasn’t a lie. It was a CNN report. Second, it wasn’t him. He was at caucus speaking. To say that he somehow had something to do with the release through their app is like saying that John Kasich commits domestic violence because one of his staffers was arrested for it back in November.

Despite the lies coming from the other campaigns, Ted Cruz says what he means and means what he says. He embodies the principled person that we’ve always wanted in a President but that we’ve only actually seen three times in the last century (Reagan, Kennedy, Coolidge). He, like many running for Senate in 2012, promised to go after Obamacare. He followed through with everything that he had even when every single other Senator abandoned the effort. He stood alone. That type of courage, the political suicide he committed for the sake of doing what was right for the people, is the one reason that I’ve decided to vote for him. My only qualm is that I didn’t do enough research to come to that decision from the beginning.

Don’t listen to the lies from Donald Trump and his supporters. He’s the best salesman that the political world has ever seen and he’s old the narrative that Ted Cruz, the most honest man to run for President in decades, is somehow considered to be a liar. It’s a tactic that anyone could see through if they took a moment to look at the facts.

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Donald Trump has Already Accomplished More to Harm the Republican Party than President Obama

To understand what Donald Trump will do as President, all we have to do is look at what he’s already done as a candidate. The narrative change that’s happening within the circle of his supporters is almost as alarming as his policy proposals themselves.

We’ve heard these types of statements coming from Democrats for years. Hearing them coming from former-Republicans turned Trump supporters is a testament to his ability to sell better than even the master salesman in the White House today.

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To Beat Donald Trump, Every Discerning Republican Must Coalesce Around Ted Cruz

Forget a brokered convention. It would do as much if not more harm to the Republican party and the country as nominating Donald Trump. Forget a third-party run. Whatever Mitt Romney is thinking, it’s wrong. Lastly, forget voting for John Kasich or Marco Rubio. Their chances are approaching absolute zero. The only thing that can prevent Donald Trump from getting the GOP nomination and handing the country over to Hillary Clinton is if discerning Republicans coalesce around Ted Cruz.

There’s an important qualifier in that last statement: discerning Republicans. What is the difference between a discerning Republican and a regular Republican? It’s an important distinction, albeit arbitrary, that stems from understanding what has happened this election cycle. A discerning Republican is one who:

• takes the time to understand the issues and explore the candidates’ solutions
• compares what candidates say to their history, political record, and proposals
• votes with their conscience based upon a desire to fix what President Obama and Congress have tried to destroy, not out of a misplaced desire to burn the whole thing down
• looks at the primaries realistically and doesn’t waste their vote on a candidate that simply cannot win

This pretty much eliminates all Donald Trump supporters. I’m not trying to insult them, but I find it hard to believe that more than a small percentage of his supporters have looked at their candidate through a lens of discernment and still come to the conclusion that he’s what’s best for the country. On an emotional level, he can be very appealing. He’s rich and successful, bold and different, therefore his supporters can admire him and even idolize him as the manifestation of their anger and weakness. Even when his policy proposals are embarrassingly bad and worthy of one of his famous midday flip-flops, his supporters are protected by a shroud of blissful ignorance. They are locked in, Kool Aid cup in the left hand and hand raised loud and proud in a pledge of support to their chosen savior.

For the rest of us, we have to decide. Is it worth fighting the very clear fact that Ted Cruz is the only candidate that can beat him? Some will inevitably do so based upon a heartfelt desire to support their candidate or an unwillingness to support Cruz for whatever reason. It’s my hope that these passionate supporters of Kasich and Rubio will be discerning and realize that a vote for their candidate is a vote for Trump. There’s no other way of looking at it. The writing is on the wall.

Kasich and Rubio are fighting for their lives to win their home states… at least that’s the narrative. The reality is that Kasich is fighting for a VP spot (despite his protestations against the notion) and Rubio is fighting for a brokered convention that would destroy any possible hope of stopping Clinton in November. If you’re one of those who believes that either of these scenarios is worth having Trump as the nominee, then so be it. There’s nothing I can say to dissuade you from promoting that disastrous path. However, if you’re one who realizes how bad a Trump nomination would be for the party and the country, then please refer back to the list above and start looking into what Ted Cruz represents and how he will fight for Americans.

The Republican party has reached a point of futility that must be reconciled immediately. Voting for Ted Cruz is the only path that will end the Trump menace and keep Clinton from the White House. It’s time for Republicans to be discerning.

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As Oklahoma Shows, Some Democrats are Trying to Sabotage Republicans By Nominating Trump

We’ve never believed that polls are very accurate, but it’s conspicuous that Donald Trump majorly underperformed in Oklahoma to the tune of over 17%. Could it be that with Oklahoma’s closed primary, Democrats weren’t able to sabotage the nomination process by helping him win the GOP nod? The answer seems to be complex, but the simple version is, “Yes.”

Trump was up by 11.4% in the 3 Oklahoma polls this week, then lost by over 6%. The fact that Democrats could not vote for him in Oklahoma, Iowa, and Alaska is conspicuous. Supporters will say, “See, he converts Democrats to wanting to build a wall and deport people!” Intelligent Republicans will cry, “Sabotage!”

His supporters will point to Ronald Reagan who brought in his “Reagan Democrats” to vote for him. The difference is that Reagan was following a very unpopular President who had a 57% approval rating among Democrats – the lowest in modern history. By contrast, President Obama has an 80% approval rating among Democrats, the highest since John F. Kennedy. With Hillary Clinton vowing to keep his policies rolling if she’s elected, it’s practically impossible for Trump to be pulling in Democrats the way that the narrative is being painted.

What is very likely is that in open primaries, Democrats realize that Hillary Clinton is going to be the nominee over Bernie Sanders. All of the chips are stacked against Sanders, so whether they like Clinton or not, she’s their nominee. Knowing this, their best bet for winning the general election is to help Republicans nominate the only candidate who consistently polls under Clinton in head-to-head matchups. They know that Trump cannot win the general election, so they’re voting for him in open primaries.

This isn’t as complex as it initially sounds. It’s called opponent crafting and it’s very clearly happening in this race. The question is whether or not Republicans are going to allow Democrats to pick their nominee.

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The Glaring Difference Between Reagan Democrats and Trump Democrats

There’s a silly narrative being passed around by the media right now that wonders if GOP frontrunner Donald Trump is pulling in the “Reagan Democrats” of the 1980s to account for his success in states that have open primaries but his losses in closed primaries and caucuses where only registered Republicans can vote. This narrative has several fatal flaws, but we’re going to focus on the most glaring.

Ronald Reagan himself was the prototype of a Reagan Democrat. He watched as his party shifted away from the values that he believed in, even famously saying that “I didn’t leave the Democratic party. The party left me.” This is an important distinction already from Trump since Trump was supporting Democrats as recently as four years ago while Reagan won the White House 18 years after his evolution, but I digress. Reagan’s shift was less pronounced than the shift of his party that recognized the potential that leaning far-left could bring in the way of minority voters. Reagan was actually very conservative even as a Democrat and continued to evolve his ideologies, albeit mildly, over two decades.

With him came other Democrats who were seeing the reality of the party’s shift. Then, Jimmy Carter happened. What Carter brought to the table was the last straw for many registered Democrats who were seeing that the economic policies which were holding them to the party were not effective. Like Reagan, they didn’t really shift their views as much as they came to the realization that the party’s views were shifting under their feet. Thus, the Reagan Democrats were born.

Trump’s situation is completely different. Barack Obama, for all of his shortcomings that conservatives hate, is not an unpopular President within his party. There isn’t a groundswell of white collar workers disenchanted with the President and his policies the way there was with Carter. In fact, Obama’s appeal to Democrats is the highest since John F. Kennedy (yes, even higher than Bill Clinton’s by a fraction of a percent) at 80%. Carter, by contrast, averaged 57% approval rating among Democrats and helped to usher in the Reagan Revolution with the help of Democrats.

If Trump’s support from Democrats isn’t coming from a magical conversion that has them believing that we should build a wall and deport 11 million illegal immigrants, why is he polling so well and winning open primaries where Democrats can vote. The answer should be obvious.

Trump Democrats are Saboteurs

Bernie Sanders can hold on all he wants, but the deck is so stacked in favor of Hillary Clinton that Marco Rubio or John Kasich probably have better chances of beating Trump or Ted Cruz than Sanders has of beating Clinton. The Democrats know this. They realize that their votes in primaries aren’t very important for their own party, so they’re crafting their own opponent.

It’s the only way to explain Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas, and Maine. In the first three, Trump was ahead in the polls (Maine didn’t have one but most expected Trump to continue his Northeast domination there). In Oklahoma, Trump was ahead of Cruz by an average of 11.4% in the three polls taken within a week of Super Tuesday before losing by 6%. Iowa was closer in the polls. Kansas is the starkest shift; Trump was up by nearly double-digits before getting less than half of the votes, losing by over 20%.

Maine might be the most telling because it’s a state where Governor Paul LePage actually endorsed Trump, only to watch as Republicans gave a clear mandate with nearly half of them voting for Cruz. The Democrats couldn’t shift the numbers to their favor in Maine, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa, the way they have in nearly every other state so far. This bodes well for Cruz as most of the upcoming contests are closed primaries and caucuses. With Republicans only picking who they want as their candidate, we expect to see a different picture than the one that has been painted so far.

In polls, anyone can claim to be a Republican. In open primaries, anyone can vote for the Republican nominee. The Democrats have taken advantage of this both in polling and in open primary voting. This is exceptionally clear based upon the results. To see for certain, look at the polls. If only Republicans were claiming to be Republicans in the polls, then there wouldn’t be such a huge discrepancy whether it’s a closed primary or not. Democrats are pretending to be Republicans in polls and they’re only able to sabotage the Republican nomination process in states that allow such things.

Or, you could be one of those who believes that Democrats have abandoned their ideologies and now support Trump’s hallmark policy on immigration. Trump is persuasive, but he’s not that persuasive.

Reagan Democrats were converts. Trump Democrats are Clinton supporters who know the only hope they have of their corrupt candidate winning the general election is if the Republicans nominate someone even more corrupt. With polls showing that Trump is the only candidate that loses to her head-to-head, they’re pushing him to be the GOP nominee in every state that has open primaries.

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