Lloyd Marcus at the American Thinker:
Trump’s speech revealed a far more ideologically conservative Trump than he was is 2016. When Trump ran for the presidency, he was not ideological. His leanings appeared to be towards the left. He probably thought conservatives were a bit paranoid and over-the-top sounding the alarm about how Democrats seek to undermine our country’s best interests. But when the American left responded with furious wrath and anger against Trump for his “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan, Trump’s eyes were opened. Incredibly, the American left’s vitriolic, insane 24/7 relentless rebuke and hatred for everything Trump does for America has pushed Trump further to the right.
Ehhh… No, not quite.
What’s done that is the wild popularity he has received every time he’s gone right. Trump is if nothing else a pragmatist. He understands that you go with what’s worked for you. It is precisely that wild popularity that Trump sees every time he goes to the right which has made the Democrats so scared and angry, (aside from the looming threat of jail time for a large number of them.)
Marcus has this one at least partially correct…
Back in 2016, Donald Trump was aiming at the mythical political center. However, almost immediately upon arriving in the oval office Trump began to realize that his real strength came from the long ignored and long castigated right.
For the last several generations, since before Ronald Reagan, both Democrats and Republicans have been trying to convince America that the popular mood of the country was at or near what both parties defined as the center. What Trump has discovered is what I’ve been saying since Reagan… That the political center as defined by the establishment of both parties does not exist. ….that the American electorate is much farther to the right than anything that either party has coughed up since Reagan.
Which, in turn, explains the wild cultural popularity of both Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. ( And thus, their political popularity.)
For generations now the electorate has felt itself disconnected from the establishment of both parties. Along comes Donald Trump who shares in that disconnection and puts a thumb in the eye of the establishment of both parties, reminding both parties who it is they’re supposed to be working for.
I still insist that Donald Trump is no Ronald Reagan. You see, Reagan understood these equations as one does the matter of breathing, as does Ted Cruz. (Which explains my support for Ted Cruz in the last cycle.)
Trump, meanwhile, understands it only as a matter of political calculation. Thing is, that still puts him head and shoulders,at this point, above anybody else in the field.
The Democrats understand this too, which is why we see the party leadership essentially rejecting the far left.. the Bernie Sanders /Cory Booker/ Pocahontas/ etc crowd, and trying desperately to hang on to the only hope that they’ve got… Joe Biden… Scant though that hope is.
It’s becoming increasingly clear they won’t succeed in getting Biden nominated…. and even if they do, he won’t win in the general.
All that to the side, the speech in Orlando reveals and reinforces everything that I’ve been saying about all these things for the last three years now.
