Do you remember Chris Christie? You know, he of “abortion is self-defense” fame?
Yeah, that guy. Left the GOP field after a whipping in New Hampshire about a week ago. Except not really.
He’s still lurking around in different form, proudly telling you he’s a conservative but on issue after issue is proving over and over again that he’s not, never was and never plans to be.
The doppelganger’s name is Donald Trump.
And with Trump as with Christie, you can expect all the bluster and the ideological chaos to translate into a big, fat loss in the end.
Sure, Christie’s loss came after being a consistent debate-time success story who could nonetheless never earn any serious points from the voting public. Trump, on the other hand, while having an undeniable fan base that seems to have attached itself to the 2016 presidential race like a parasite to a host, will also lose in the end. Because he will have burned the same invaluable bridge that Christie did over the course of his governorship.
You can’t douse the conservative base in gasoline, light a match and ultimately expect to earn a trip to the White House.
So if you know anything else about Donald Trump at this point, know this: He, like Chris Christie, John McCain, and Mitt Romney before him, is an all-too-certain, not-really-conservative, hates-your-principles, gonna-make-the-base-stay-home mistake of a candidate.
For if there ever was a path to victory open to Trump, one no longer exists for a man who — as with the madness of his South Carolina debate performance — seems ready and willing to embrace the George Soros-subsidized progressive talking points. Yet we’ll except his New York values because they’re packaged as a bully masquerading as an alpha male voters are desperately seeking. It’s Chris Christie’s modus operandi as well. Be a total liberal, but call some disliked liberals names to try and convince those nitwit conservatives your bluster should be mistaken for courage of conviction.
In other words, it’s all an act.
Remember, folks, Trump said it himself: He can be anything he thinks he needs to be in order to win. Anything at all. And he’s got the out-of-bounds track record to prove it.
On abortion, for example, he once made Chris Christie look like Lila Rose by comparison during an interview with the late Tim Russert:
RUSSERT: Partial-birth abortion — the eliminating of abortion in the third trimester. Big issue in Washington. Would President Trump ban partial-birth abortion?
TRUMP: Well, look. I’m very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it, I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I hear people debating the subject. But you still — I just believe in choice. And again, it may be a little bit of a New York background, because there is some different attitude in different parts of the country, and I was raised in New York, grew up and worked and everything else in New York City. But I am strongly for choice, and yet I hate the concept of abortion.
RUSSERT: But you would not ban it.
TRUMP: No.
RUSSERT: Or ban partial-birth abortion.
TRUMP: No, I would — I would — I am pro-choice in every respect, as far as it goes.
Oh, and that means allowing taxpayer money to continue to subsidize the baby-killing trade as well, according to Trump (otherwise known as “Planned Parenthood’s favorite Republican”).
Then there’s Trump-Cult claiming anyone opposing their progressive demigod is a “RINO.” Except the Daily Caller reports that Trump just isn’t an ideological liberal, but he even helps fund Democrats running for office too:
“Between 1989 and 2010, The Donald gave $314,300 to Democratic groups and candidates … Records show that in June 2006, Trump donated $20,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That was in addition to the $5,000 he sent in April 2005 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee … Topping the flamboyant former TV celebrity’s roster of Democratic benefactors is scandal-plagued New York U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel. Records show the Harlem-based Democrat has received $26,250 in Trump cash since 1989. Trump Jr., has given heavily to Rangel as well. New York Sens. Kristen Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer have received $7,950 and $7,900, respectively, in Trump money. And two liberal lions, former Massachusetts Sens. John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, received $5,500 and $5,000.”
USA Today also reports that “In fact, his political contributions over the last two and a half decades show that prior to the 2008 election cycle, Trump favored Democrats. He donated more than $10,000 to Hillary Clinton between 2002 and 2007.”
Trump is fond of saying that the problem with politicians is they are controlled by special interests. Yet if the special interest par excellence falls in the forest but nobody is there to hear it, except Republican sellouts and Trump-cult slappies, does it make a sound? Until general election day in November, that is, when even the likes of Hillary Clinton and her crime syndicate will be enough to take Trump out to the electoral woodshed. Just as the Democrats always do every time we nominate one of these liberal Republicans.
Like, hey, remember four years ago when we nominated the guy who thought of Obama’s worst idea (Obamacare) before he did? From 60 minutes here’s Trump on “fixing” the health care sinkhole:
Trump: I would make a deal with existing hospitals to take care of people. And, you know what, if this is probably—
Scott Pelley: Make a deal? Who pays for it?
Trump: — the government’s gonna pay for it.
Hey, that’s you, by the way – the taxpayer. Thanks for the awesome deal-making, Mr. Trump! Now take my firearms, please, after you are done patting gun-grabber and soda-stealer Michael Bloomberg on the back, whom you claim “will go down as one of the great mayors, if not the greatest, in New York City.”
See, ladies and gentlemen, Trump isn’t a revolution. He’s just a rebrand of the same not-conservative candidate who loses every time we nominate them. He’s the candidate Christie would’ve been, if he’d not been held accountable for his scandals the way Trump hasn’t been held accountable for his.
• Steve Deace is a nationally syndicated radio host and the author of the new book, “A Nefarious Plot,” about Hell’s plan to destroy America.
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