We need to stop Donald Trump

Seeing the title, many of you will not even read this sentence.  You are convinced that Donald Trump is the answer to our political woes.  He’s not.  He’s a manifestation of the problem.  People have historically turned to charismatic, authoritarian figures when times are challenging, when their culture seems unrecognizable.   One need only look to the 20^th Century for validation.  And that last statement is not made lightly. 

Mr. Trump has little respect for the Constitution.

The most recent anti-freedom position of Mr. Trump is a desire to usurp the First Amendment with promises to change the libel laws in order to attack his critics.   Mr. Trump said, “We’re going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected.”  And recently he attacked a prominent family in Chicago for donating to a Super Pac critical of Mr. Trump with “They better be careful, they have a lot to hide.”  Perhaps he will use an Obama favorite and have the IRS go after them.

And speaking of the IRS, there’s no reason tax returns can’t be released while under audit.  He’s said he’s been audited 12 years in a row and also said for the last 2-3 years.  Ok, which one is it?  And if 12 years ago, release the one from 13 years ago, we don’t mind.

He doesn’t think the 14^th Amendment is Constitutional and because it would “take too long” to amend  he would use his potential presidency to "find out whether or not anchor babies are citizens."  Not sure what he means but I’m sure I don’t want to find out.

So what to do?  For my Democratic friends, vote for Hillary.  Yea, I can’t believe I said that either.  Were we in normal times I’d be encouraging you to vote for Bernie.  But these are not normal times.  We all have a stake in the Donald not becoming the President.

My Republican friends should vote for either Rubio or Cruz, whom ever is in the lead in their particular SEC Primary state.  I’m going to vote for Rubio on Tuesday.  There’s no point in wasting a vote on Kasich.

It’s hard to imagine what a Trump presidency would be like but in the words of John Podhoretz, “a disaster” seems a succinct summary.  

As a Libertarian, Trump may be the best thing that's ever happened to our party.  His election would probably improve its prospects, especially if the Republican Party self-destructs.  But love of country comes before love of party.

GOP Debate 13 February 2016

The Donald is particularly angry this evening.  I've never heard a Democrat say it better, "George Bush lied about Iraq, there were no weapons of mass destruction and he knew it".  But then Donald used to be a Democrat and for all I know may still be one.

Regarding Strassel question to The Donald on Social Security.  Waste fraud and abuse will NOT save Social Security Donald.  Your answer was nonsense.

Just a note about the passing of Scalia.  I'm not a Republican but I'd prefer a Republican President to a Democratic President.  The Donald may win against Bernie because a majority in this country would not elect an avowed socialist.  However, even a damaged Hillary would beat The Donald.  He's not eloquent.  He's a populist aka a demigod.  The only complete sentence he ever says is "I'm going to make America great again." Impressive.

John Kaisch is the voice of reason or at least not shouting and actually completes a sentence...sometimes two, three in a row.  Quite impressive.  He's actually likeable...probably a good attribute to beating Hillary the Likable.  Everyone know how likable she is....Not so much.

Not sure why Ben Carson is still on the stage.  Hillary or Bernie would eat him alive in a one on one debate.

Major Garrett is nailing The Donald.  The deal maker....aka crony capitalist. So, he's going to put in tariffs, this is economic madness and counter-productive.  It's also something Democrats and Unions promote. See the first paragraph.

The Donald.  "I feel I am a conservative."  A complete sentence to be sure but in the passive voice and not the active voice....like "I'm a conservative".

Thank you very much. 2 minutes later. "You are the single biggest liar."  "He's a nasty guy."  The Donald is the nastiest guy on that stage.

Well, at least there's direct exchange between the candidates.  John has totally lost control of this debate.

The decorum of this debate is abysmal...why?  The Donald, of course.  But he's in the lead, that cannot be denied.  He's broken every rule of politics I know and is succeeding.  I'm not sure if that's a reflection of his brillance or the desperation of the American people.  I think the latter.  The man is a chameleon who's hero is P.T. Barnum

Kasich closing statement was excellent.

Carson  so so

Bush better than Carson but not as good as Kasich.

Rubio, passionate but tried to cover too many points and went over his time.

Cruz: makes good points about The Donald.  appealed to the religious of S.C.

The Donald:  Same old same old stump phrases.  And to bring up our $19T in debt when the policies he promotes will increase it another $10T is just amazing.  Why do people trust this guy??

Kasich didn't have near as much time as the others but seems to have made the most of the time he had and just came across as a reasonable guy.  But then, the people who vote in primaries are typically not the most reasonable of the electorate.

All in all this debate provides a good reason to vote Libertarian...go Gary Johson!!  Go who??