I did not support Donald Trump in the primaries. I am now a full throated supporter and Donald Trump enthusiast. This last week in the Supreme Court has overcome any reservations I might have had. In the year and a half that he has been President, Trump has done more to advance the conservative cause than anyone else in recent memory. He is actually reaching (at least in my mind) Ronald Reagan territory.
Admittedly, he entered a different world than Reagan did. When Reagan began, conservatism and love of liberty was isolated to a few places in this country (and, by the way, the Republican Party was NOT one of those places). Reagan transformed the party and made conservatism and love of liberty rational and respectable. His sunny personality and calm demeanor moved conservatism into the mainstream and began a transformation in this country that is still ongoing. He also persuaded a young lawyer in Riverside that the Democrat party he had been a part of in his youth was not the way to make this country better. That young lawyer re-registered as a Republican and got himself elected in Riverside.
In my first term as a legislator, I introduced legislation to eliminate the agency fee that every state employee was required to pay to the union that allegedly represented them. I had no idea such a thing could occur in this land that was known as freedom and thought who in their right mind would think this was the right thing to do, that is, force somebody to pay somebody (other than the government) money. That bill was the most eye-opening experience of my lifetime. I realized then that government unions were little more than functionaries of a communist style collectivist political system, and that, if we didn’t eliminate the agency fee that financed so much of the left’s political agenda, my generation might be the last that experienced true freedom. Today, the Supreme Court accomplished what I could not, that is, eliminate someone being forced to finance left wing political activities simply because that someone happened to work for the government.
A year and a half ago, with the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, Donald Trump did more to advance freedom in this country than all his conservative naysayers combined. George Will didn’t eliminate the compulsory fee collection that, more than anything else, financed the left in this country. Erik Erikson has not, nor has John McCain or the array of Republican politicians who don’t like Trump’s style, complain about him constantly, and stand in his way.
I don’t like his style, either. But my style didn’t change things the way his style has. The “style” of the Republican whiners and complainers has not either. Trump has. I can admit when I was wrong. It’s time for conservative naysayers to do the same.
I was wrong about Trump. I thought he was going to be another Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger, who campaigned as Conan the Barbarian, turned into Conan the Librarian. Schwarzenegger’s Governorship, which, when he campaigned, promised us an action movie “Die Hard” type government gave us in California a chick flick “The Bridges of Madison County” type Governor. Because of that, he did more to destroy the Republican Party in California than any other single individual. I thought Trump was going to do the same.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Trump has done more for conservative policy than any other politician I can name, both in his appointments and in his actions on policy issues. Has he been perfect? No, but no one has. At this point, however, publicly complaining about his imperfections is counterproductive to the conservative movement, at least in my humble opinion. We don’t have to “jump” behind every utterance he makes, but we don’t attack the quarterback simply because he occasionally throws a bad pass.
Politics is a lot like football, and Trump is our quarterback. It is a team sport, where team members, in order to win, have to support each other, even when they make a mistake. Whether you like Tom Brady or not, you must admit he is very good at what he does, and he wins. Whether you like Donald Trump or not, you must admit he has been good for conservative policy initiatives in this country and he wins.
I have to admit, I’m getting a little tired of winning, because we’ve been winning so much.