Trump and the True Basis of Conservatism

Once and future President Donald Trump addressed the Libertarian Party convention on May 25. He was reaching out to unify all who oppose a second term for Democrat president Joe Biden. It was not a success, as he was jeered and heckled. Disagreements among the delegates regarding Trump spawned fistfights the day before. Exasperated, Trump told the crowd "Maybe you don't want to win. Keep getting your three to four percent every year." Yet that is exactly what the Libertarians are happy with, wedded to an ideology that rejects being practical in a world they reject.

Trump’s visit demonstrated the fundamental divide between “classical liberals” and conservatives which should inform the latter going forward as to what must be done to Make America Great Again. It is not to make common cause with those for whom America has no meaning as a national society based on tested principles that produce prosperity and security. I have spent half a century as a conservative activist in academe, think tanks, and government, working within the Republican Party. I backed Trump as soon as he came down the escalator because he was poised to finally shift the basis of the movement from capitalism to nationalism, broadening the movement both in its reach and moral basis. Not that the hyper-successful billionaire was going to abandon capitalism, which is clearly the strongest horse in the economic race. But he was going to put it in its proper place as a means to an end, not an end in itself. The end being the continual development of the United States as a place worth living in.

#AmericanThinker #DonaldTrump #Conservatism #Liberals #Politics

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