OPINION:
Donald Trump isn’t just hijacking the Republican Party, he’s hijacking the Democratic platform as well.
Asked to name the three functions of government at a CNN town hall on Tuesday, the GOP presidential front-runner initially said “security, security, security,” however, when pressed, he added health care and education. He also threw in housing and “great neighborhoods,” for good measure.
You’d be hard pressed to find one Republican within the conservative movement who could agree with the last three — in fact, conservatives have made it their rallying cry to oppose Obamacare and Common Core educational standards, believing private enterprise and states are better equipped to handle the issues, not the federal government.
True conservatives believe in a very limited government, with strict adherence to the Constitution. No where in the Constitution does it mention health care, education or for the federal government to provide “great neighborhoods.”
Mr. Trump’s popularity isn’t based in conservative ideology, that much is clear. On Tuesday, he also criticized Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for not raising taxes to cover his state’s budget deficit. No Republican believes the government’s role should be tax and spend.
“There’s a $2.2 billion deficit and the schools were going begging and everything was going begging because he didn’t want to raise taxes cause he was going to run for president,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with radio host Michael Koolidge. “So instead of raising taxes, he cut back on schools, he cut back on highways, he cut back on a lot of things.”
This is a sentiment I’m sure Hillary Clinton or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders would agree with.
Matter of fact, many of Mr. Trump’s policy prescriptions are more in line with the traditional Democratic platform than they are Republican.
He praised President Barack Obama’s stimulus saying it was “what we need …. building infrastructure, building great projects, putting people to work in that sense.”
Mr. Trump has said he “very much agrees” with Mr. Sanders’ position on trade, a self-identified socialist. Asked how he would differentiate himself with Mr. Sanders on the issue, Mr. Trump promised only he would be able to make a deal to correct trade imbalances.
And on the bank bailout, which Mrs. Clinton voted for and Mr. Obama advocated, Mr. Trump told Larry King in an April 15, 2009, interview: “I do agree with what they’re doing with the banks. Whether they fund them or nationalize them, it doesn’t matter, but you have to keep the banks going.”
In a debate in New Hampshire, Mr. Trump defined what he believes constitutes a conservative.
“I view the word conservative as a derivative of the word ’conserve,’ ” Mr. Trump explained. “We want to conserve our money. We want to conserve our wealth. We want to conserve. We want to be smart. We want to be smart where we go, where we spend, how we spend. We want to conserve our country. We want to save our country. And we have people that have no idea how to do that, and they are not doing it, and it’s a very important word, and it’s something I believe in very, very strongly.”
No where in his answer was the mention of the Constitution, liberty or justice.
In Mr. Trump’s worldview, I guess it doesn’t really matter.
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