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.

Trump and the Christian

I'm not completely decided about Trump, but since many Christians are taking sides against him I thought I should ponder the situation and give an opinion.

Even at this point, though, my opinion is pretty clear. I might be talked out of it I suppose but what I think right now is clear enough:

A Christian can't vote for someone who advocates policies that violate God's Law, such as abortion, fetal stem cell research, gay marriage etc. If I find out he supports issues I consider to be contrary to Christian standards then I couldn't vote for him.

As for the man's many sins, it would be nice to have a squeaky-clean one-woman man with no adulteries or divorces, but although character is important I don't think it should be a barrier to voting for him.  At least he seems pretty stable at the moment.

What about the bullying style? My feeling about that is that it's geared to the situation he's challenging. In other words I suspect it's a strategy more than it is a personality trait. That is, he's up against Leftist political correctness which answers all conservative concerns with personal accusations of racism or Islamophobia or xenophobia or homophobia or prejudice, or hatred or bigotry and so on. All personal smears meant to discredit and intimidate instead of responses to the issues. Trump's aggressive rebuffs to Leftist arguments in general seem to be the only thing that's ever worked against that kind of tactic. He doesn't back down in the face of those personal smears. I think that's admirable, or at least impressively effective.

The main thing I've heard that gives me pause about supporting him is that he isn't on Israel's side, which he thinks insults the Palestinians, which shows an abysmal lack of understanding of the Middle East situation that could turn me against him. Perhaps he can be persuaded out of it if he gets to know more about the true history of the region.

He has other flaws and I suppose I might eventually have to vote against him for those or others as I find out about them, but at the moment his attitude toward Israel is the only potential barrier.

So at the moment I'm for him. He's the most effective voice out there for issues that concern conservatives such as national security, illegal immigration and so on. It would be very nice to have a President who cared about protecting the nation instead of protecting our enemies against us.

Sometimes I think Trump is God's mercy to the nation. Other times I wonder if he's a test. I hope it's the former, but either way he's the most interesting thing to happen to politics in a long time.