Last week, Donald Trump did wonders for Fox News’ ratings and Megyn Kelly’s stardom.
But “The Donald” has done himself, the Republican Party, and conservatives no favors.
Millions of viewers saw clear evidence that Trump is not a sedate Republican candidate or really a conservative.
He did not advocate conservative principles or policies. He offered no ideas or specific conservative solutions to any domestic or foreign problem.
He only proved – as if the entire television audience didn’t already know – that he is an egomaniacal billionaire who is sure he would make a good Republican president.
During the debate, he repeated his shallow generalities about building a high wall to stop illegal immigration, making better trade deals with China, and the serial incompetence of our leaders in Washington.
And he boasted that “I am rich. I buy candidates. The government is broken. I can fix it.”
Because he appeals primarily to people who listen to conservative talk radio 24/7, Trump has endeared himself to enormous numbers of Republicans and conservatives who mistakenly think he is one of them.
Since last week, Trump’s poll numbers have increased in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere. They remain embarrassingly high for the Republican Party, but will soon start to come crashing down.
This will happen when his Don Rickles routine wears off, his liberal tendencies emerge, and the GOP’s bloated preseason lineup is whittled down to Jeb, Scott, John, Rand, Ted, and possibly Carly.
Meanwhile, Trump threatened the Republican Party.
He said if he is not treated “fairly” or “respectfully,” whatever that means, he may seek the nomination next fall as an independent or third-party candidate.
Trump calls his threat “leverage,” but I think others would call it “extortion” or “blackmail.”
If he doesn’t get his way, he would be willing to sabotage the GOP in 2016 and will almost certainly hand over the keys to the White House to Hillary, Joe Biden, or even Bernie the Socialist.
Meanwhile, as if Trump wasn’t causing enough trouble for the GOP, the party must deal with a chronic problem within its own conservative ranks that cost it the last presidential election.
For some reason, many Republicans and conservatives have become their own worst enemies.
If they don’t agree 100 percent with everything a major candidate says or does, they call him a “Republican in Name Only” and are against them.
This was completely crazy and suicidal. As a party, we praise Jeb for his many successes as the conservative governor of Florida.
However, because he supports Common Core or immigration reform, some conservatives consider him a RINO unfit to be president.
It’s similar with John Kasich.
Conservatives love him because he delivered a balanced budget for us in Washington as a congressman and then turned Ohio into a governor.
But because he recently accepted federal Medicaid money for Ohio, some conservatives believe he shouldn’t be president. There is a RINO.
Worse still, if their favorite doesn’t win the primary, many conservative Republicans won’t show up in the general election to vote for president. Ask Mitt Romney how it works.
Conservatives love to drop my father’s name and try to find candidates who act and think like him. But they forget that Ronald Reagan was an 80-20 year elderly guy.
He was joyful to agree with 80 percent of the Republican candidate’s views because he knew he would never find someone he agreed with 100 percent.
He did not make the perfect conservative the enemy of the good conservative. And he always, always supported the Republican Party’s final choice – even when they defeated him in the primary.
Finally, I will remind everyone that as governor, Ronald Reagan, a great conservative, raised taxes and signed the abortion bill.
By today’s standards, this would disqualify him as a RINO. But he was the best president in our lifetime.
