Trent Franks Demonstrates How Trump Is Destroying the GOP

by Dave Blount | September 23, 2016 4:24 pm

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.
Ayn Rand

If Trump wins in November, the GOP is finished as even a moderately conservative party. Arizona Congressman Trent Franks illustrates why:

A brewing civil war within the GOP has House Republicans picking sides, with plenty of members backing up party Chairman Reince Priebus in threatening consequences for those who don’t get behind nominee Donald Trump.

“Any person in this party that does not support Trump at this point is increasing the chances of Hillary Clinton becoming president and destroying the Constitution,” Arizona Rep. Trent Franks told CNN Wednesday. “Therefore they are betraying this party. They are betraying the Constitution.”

This hyperbole on behalf of a guy who is explicitly running as a dictator and has zero respect for the Constitution is what we have come to expect as cowards scurry to toe the new line. But I didn’t expect it from Trent Franks, a respected “conservative, Reagan Republican” who backed Ted Cruz in the primaries.

Hot Air’s Allahpundit considers some of the implications:

If you want to understand why #NeverTrumpers like me suspect congressional Republicans will rubber-stamp anything and everything Trump does, all you need is this quote and the logical conclusion it leads you to. … If President Trump decides that he meant what he said about the military obeying his orders even if they’re illegal, congressional Democrats will revolt and demand action to rein him in — hearings, court challenges, maybe impeachment. Trump will sustain some political damage from it. Whom does Rep. Franks side with in that case, his president or the other party? If he and other Republicans side with Democrats on principle, Democrats will use it to bludgeon Trump in 2020 with the argument that he’s lost the confidence of both parties that he can govern responsibly and constitutionally. If Franks sides with Trump, he’s blessing the practice of illegal military orders. By his own logic, he’s forced to choose between “betraying the Constitution” and betraying the Constitution.

Also consider that Trump was a liberal his whole life prior to trying to pass himself off as a conservative to secure the Republican nomination. He learned the tactic from fellow New Yorker Michael Bloomberg, who switched to the Republican Party to achieve the office of Mayor, then renounced his party affiliation afterward. Trump’s views have not been moderately liberal; they have been hardcore, including support for partial birth abortion, wanting Bush impeached for removing Saddam Hussein from power, and denouncing America for being too racist to appreciate Obama.

Over the past year, the mask has slipped many times, revealing the leftist behind it. Examples include:

9/11 conspiracy crapola, spewing Code Pink talking points during a debate, praising Planned Parenthood in the aftermath of the body parts scandal, supporting the intolerable Kelo decision, averring that our fundamental right to bear arms should be contingent on not having been arbitrarily placed on arcane government watch lists, backing wasteful crony capitalist ethanol subsidies, siding with the worst of the so-called GOPe against conservative resistance, calling for increasing the national debt, promising to raise taxes, denouncing Antonin Scalia for opposing Affirmative Action, supporting the large-scale importation of “refugees” from the Islamic world, et cetera.

Already he has proposed another federal entitlement, even as we plunge toward national bankruptcy.

We have seen how fast invertebrates like Reince Priebus scuttle to line up behind Trump, and how avidly talk radio personalities who formerly opposed him kneel to kiss his ring. If Trent Franks is doing it too, there is little doubt that Trump will enjoy Republican support even for a progressive agenda once in power.

Franks et al. will justify it by asserting that people like Shrillary are even worse. Maybe they are, if that’s possible — except for one thing: when Democrats force us toward ever greater collectivism and authoritarianism, Republicans often put up some resistance. No one will resist when both parties are controlled by progressive statists. Our national future will be bankruptcy and tyranny, regardless of who wins our meaningless elections.

Trump supporters sneer at the concept of principles. That is like a farmer sneering at the concept of food. Principles are the sole point. The moment you abandon them, the game is over and you have lost. It is not as if those who have surrendered them to support Trump can ever get them back.

Now even Ted Cruz has knuckled under to endorse Trump, effectively signing his name to everything Trump is. Rest in peace, Grand Old Party. Time for a new party.

lesser-evil

On tips from Varla, Torcer, and TED. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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