Dakota Beacon

There is a man who actually has done all the desirable things Trump talks about so bombastically

News anchors and talk show hosts continue to obsess over celebrity superstar Donald Trump and frustrated conservatives and patriots continue to home into his orb like dragonflies seeking their ecstasy in an open flame. I am reminded - ominously - of the recall of California Governor Gray Davis in 2003. His downfall was ironically precipitated by excessive taxation.

The successful recall effort resulted in a lively battle in both parties, with Davis making a futile stab at reclaiming his office against Democrat candidate Cruz Bustamante, and veteran conservative Tom McClintock facing off in the Republican primary against another celebrity superstar - Arnold Schwarzenegger, who brought to the game the added paradoxical Kennedy connection in addition to his Hollywood glitter.  Schwarzenegger quickly consumed the oxygen in the atmosphere while ¨conservatives¨ like Ben Shapiro and Hugh Hewitt asked McClintock to get out of the way and step aside.  What with a combination of low-information and establishment Republicans and star-struck independents, Schwarzenegger won the Republican nomination and, with the Party’s blessing and assistance, went on to win the governorship.

As governor, Schwarzenegger proceeded to destroy the economy of the once Golden State - through aggressive environmentalism, burgeoning growth of government, tolerance (even encouragement) of illegal immigration and its attendant costs, heavy regulation, extension of welfare programs and the inevitable egregious taxation all of this demanded. So the people who threw Davis out over a car tax hike found themselves in a rapidly deteriorating financial disaster, a state going bankrupt and looking every day more like a state-wide version of Detroit. Those of us who remembered Reagan’s Golden State watched its abundance melt away with the exodus of wealth and productivity.

McClintock went on to represent his district in Congress, serving with a sterling conservative voting record and taking a bold stand against the irresponsible environmentalism that has been strangling his state. (In a footnote relevant to this year’s campaign, he also supported a strongly conservative candidate, Chuck DeVore. Devore’s candidacy was thwarted by Carly Fiorina - yes, the same Carly Fiorina who wowed everyone in the recent “matinee” debate. Fiorina, instead of supporting a sound conservative candidate, threw her own hat into the ring and beat him in the primary. She ran against Boxer in the general election and Boxer mopped the floor with her in a resounding defeat. Fiorina, it should be noted, also served on Schwarzenegger’s transition team. So much for her “conservative” politics. Alas, thanks to Fiorina, we have enjoyed several more years of Boxer in the Senate.)

Today we have another celebrity superstar - Donald Trump- grandstanding with explosive bumptious declamations about “cleaning up the mess”. He has enormous appeal with voters who are beyond fed up with fake Republicans who take their votes as “conservatives” and are then led by Mitch McConnell and John Boehner to the slaughter, assisting Obama’s programs all the way down the line. They are tired of watching their nation fall into debt and disrepute; they are in shock at the all-out invasion of their homeland by every sort of illegal alien. They love hearing someone speak the words they’d like to speak, even better, that they’d like to hear their leader speak.

But, like Schwarzenegger, Trump’s “conservative” credentials are dubious, his commitment but skin-deep. He has publicly been on many sides of most issues, including abortion and immigration, two of the top issues today, with a glaring history of using government to expand his own wealth (as through aggressive use of eminent domain doctrine) and carries with him a record of enormous financial contributions to the very people who he tells us made the mess he wants to clean up. When asked about his donations to Hillary Clinton, he says he donates to get something in return. What did he get? He joked about it. He got Hillary to come as a guest to one of his weddings. Great. So we know he’s a “pragmatist”. He pays for play. But, one wonders how such an astute businessman got no more for his millions than acceptance of his wedding invitation from “celebrity guest” Hillary. Others have done better with her. For speakers’ fees, going to the Clinton fund, Russia’s Vladimir Putin got some 20% of America’s uranium. And it wasn’t even hers! One wonders who is the better businessman/tycoon - Vlad or the Donald.

In any case, having helped her into office, from whence she became Secretary of State, she has done America a world of harm. She and her troll, Huma Abedin, were practically complicit in the Benghazi murders, her server has served our nation’s enemies and she feigns idiocy (“you mean wiped it like with a cloth?”), insulting our intelligence while she gets away with it. So, on balance, was Trump’s donation responsible? Well, he did get the celebrity to his wedding. I guess that was worth our national security and a few lives. We can only wonder what he will decide would be fun if he were ever elected President.

Now Trump is playing hard-working, tax-weary American voters whose jobs and personal safety are threatened by illegal immigrants he winked at in the past. He’ll throw ‘em all out, build a wall and then let in only those who can help him and his ilk turn a profit at the cost of our jobs.

There is a man who actually has done all the desirable things Trump talks about so bombastically - Ted Cruz. But he’s a serious man, not an entertainer, so you don’t hear too much about him in the pop press. Yet his record is there for you to see. He stood in the Senate and quite rightly called Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar, point-blank, for misleading our Senators in the matter of the Export-Import Bank. He stood up for the Second Amendment. he stood almost alone in his effort to defund Obamacare and bring down other irresponsible spending. His record is virtually unblemished. He says what he will do and then he does it. He doesn’t lie to us. He doesn’t grandstand. He is forthright and honest and forceful. And he tells us the truth.

We can only hope in the months to come honest conservatives will make a serious effort to separate the goats from the sheep and look deeper and farther into the characters and histories, the acts and omissions, of all of their favorite candidates, and the sooner the better. And then make an informed decision based not on theatrics or the satisfaction of hearing someone “tell off” the people we’re disgusted with in Washington, but on the public records of the men and women who are seeking the Presidency. We have some very good choices and we must not waste the opportunity on entertainment instead of substance.