The conservative pundits are going with Trump – but we could do so much better

I listen faithfully to Mark Levin’s radio show each night, at least enough of it each night to pick up all his themes. And while I have great admiration for his insight, his integrity, and his courage, I part ways with him on how he’s reacting to Trump.
Back on Monday, December 14, Mark came out on his show with a blistering criticism of Trump. Trump had three sins over the weekend–he piled on with unfair criticism of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, he backed ethanol subsidies, and he went negative on Ted Cruz. But then in the CNN debate the next night, Trump made nice with Cruz, and before the week was over Mark was back to defending Trump.

I was disappointed with Mark over that. All Trump’s reaction showed was that he’s a savvy campaigner. That counts very little in my book. I try to cut through the campaign schmooze talk and assess what kind of person the candidate is.

As I size up the candidates, I see two outstanding conservatives running, both with high integrity. And while I love the strength with which Donald Trump stands up against the establishment and I think that would be a great attitude to have in the presidency, we have both Ben Carson and Ted Cruz who not only will stand firmly against the establishment but have deep commitments to liberty and the Constitution and will be careful to appoint Supreme Court justices with that same commitment.

Trump’s business for his adult life has been real estate, entertainment, and casinos. Think about the ethics of the casino business. It’s one business that has an adversarial relationship with its customers, and it must be deceptive to survive. It brings in its customers with the promise of winning, but happy customers who win will drive it out of business–it makes its money on customers who lose. Take almost any other business, say a company that manufactures garden trowels. The customer buys the trowel, goes into the garden, and uses it. We have a happy customer and a company who made money by making the customer happy. Not so with the casino industry. The customer is lured by the promise of winning, but comes out having lost $500. The casino owner is happy, the customer is miserable.

This election cycle, the public is ripe for a strong conservative. Either Ted Cruz or Ben Carson, in my estimation, could potentially win a landslide victory against Hillary. And in the face of this, every time Trump says something a little over the top, pundits like Mark Levin are saying that he’s not as bad as Clinton, or Bush, or Lindsey Graham. And I think those views are having a strong impact on the electorate.

We could do so much better. But if the pundits keep defending Trump, it looks like he’s a shoe-in for the nomination.

Do you agree? Disagree? I welcome your comments.


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About mesasmiles

By Dr. David Hall. Dr. Hall runs The Website Factory, a digital marketing agency. He has had a long-standing interest in politics. As a college student he was Utah State Chairman for both Young Americans for Freedom and Youth for Nixon, and toyed with the idea of a political career.
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