Trump Embattled

The problem with Trump, of course, is that he's not reliably conservative, and despite his very sincere-sounding promises there's always reason for caution when it comes to political promises.  We've heard lots of promises before that never materialized.

But what's different about him is his aggressive passion for issues that matter to us on the right. He says what we've been feeling and he says it with the same anger we've been feeling, and above all he doesn't shrivel when he's accused of the whole leftist arsenal of political correctness.

It's sad to think there are so many Republican leaders now determined to get rid of him, the best thing we've got, however imperfect, better than any of them, and better than any of the other candidates if only because of his complete lack of the wimp factor we've become so used to over the last decade.

I liked Ben Carson for a while too, but by now he's shown too much complete ignorance of things that do matter in spite of his appeal as another non-establishment candidate that tells it like it is. When I read that he thinks it's "unconstitutional" to oppose the acceptance of Muslim refugees just because they're Muslims, that was the end of his appeal for me.  The very reason for caution about admitting Muslims is that they are Muslim, there is no other reason, because although many of them don't fully follow their religion or even fully understand it, it's always there as a potential radicalizer for anyone who might be moved in that direction some time down the road.   And our Constitution does not protect foreigners, let alone potential enemies.  The refugee situation needs some extremely careful attention and at the moment I don't know what direction to go with it.  I'm glad to hear there are Christians working among them.

 For all I know Trump has similar weird blind spots though.  Although he finally came through with a very rousing and reassuring speech on behalf of Israel, I still have to wonder where that idea came from that supporting Israel would be an insult to the Palestinians.  He didn't explain that, and who knows if it might suddenly surface again when he's in the middle of dealings with the Middle East?  The pro-Israel rhetoric was very relieving, though.  I want to believe it.

There are some great articles getting at all the pros and cons about these things at Front Page Magazine.  One of the themes is that the election is about passion and caring about the nation, and knowledge about the issues is almost secondary.  Unfortunately perhaps, that's true.  What we want this time around is no-holds-barred commitment to what matters to us.  As one of the articles points out, the Democrats treat elections as war and try to destroy their opponents.  That is certainly how it feels.  To fight that sort of thing needs verbal power of a sort we don't usually get from the Republicans.

Anyway I'm praying for Trump, that some of his rough edges will be smoothed a bit, that if possible he'll learn how to be diplomatic without losing his main appeal as a no-compromising defender of the issues the right cares about most, and if that's not possible I'll take him as he is.  Also for wisdom of course, perhaps he could even learn to pray himself, and certainly for good advisors, lots of good advisors. My prayer was answered for a strong positive position on Israel. If enough of us pray in faith I have no doubt we can move all the mountains we need to move in this election.