American Thinker: I was wrong about Trump

I was wrong about Trump

I recently wrote a column about why I believed Trump should not run in 2024. I was wrong. I allowed my distaste for Trump’s personality to override his virtues, which are considerable. Some people want Trump without his vices. I was among them — until yesterday, when I watched and listened to Tom Klingenstein’s speech titled “Trump’s virtues.”  It was masterful and shamed me that I did not make the distinction between Trump’s character and his virtues, the former being deeply flawed, the latter being almost perfect. I need to man up in my defense of the former President’s virtues. The speech was among the most pointed I have heard and deserves some exposure. Klingenstein says:

Other Republicans say some version of “I like Trump policies but I don’t like the rest of him.” This gets it almost backwards. Although Trump advanced many important policies, it is the ‘rest of him’ that contains the virtue that inspires the movement… Trump was born for the current crisis, a life and death struggle against a totalitarian enemy I call woke communism… that control all the cultural and economic powers in America…

[Trump] revealed, not caused, the divide in this country. In war, you must make a stand… Trump is a manly man… traditional manhood, even when flawed, is absolutely essential… Trump plays to win… There are no clean hands in a fistfight…Trump is unreservedly, unquestionably pro-America… Trump is a refreshing break from the guilt and self-loathing that marks our age…

It is anti-Americanism that makes so many of us very angry: The Left have trashed America’s Founding and her history to the point where some believe it virtuous to hate America. Rather than advocating forgiveness for sins, the Left are advocating hair shirts, self-flagellation, and perpetual guilt. It is un-American and certainly un-Christian.

Trump thinks we can vanquish all comers if we just put our minds to it, and he’s right… Courage never demands perfection… Trump over and over said exactly what political correctness prohibits one from saying… Trump said Haiti is a shithole and that representative Maxine Waters has a low IQ. These were not racist lies. They were uncouth, politically incorrect observations that most of us would agree with but would not dare say.

In 2016, we loved Trump for his outspokenness. But many seem to have changed their minds without cause; Trump is the same today as he was before he was elected. The very things we disdain today are the things that made him the man for our time.

From morning to night, we were told that Trump is a racist. But endless repetition does not make it true. It isn’t. Trump’s contempt for political correctness showed patriotic Americans that its ever-tightening grip could be loosened… It is difficult to overestimate the significance of Trump’s fight against political correctness, a fight which most Republicans are reluctant to engage… Trump treated the woke media with the same contempt he treated political correctness, provoking their outrage and revealing their utter corruption… it must be defeated.

I take back my unwillingness to engage Trump on his own terms. It is the Left, not we, who are politically correct. They are the ones restricting speech, cancelling and censoring, not we on the Right.

Unlike most politicians, when Trump sees a problem, he goes out and fixes it. He fixed our porous borders. He moved our Israeli embassy to Jerusalem after decades of inaction. He eliminated hate-America critical race theory in his administrative agency. He developed a vaccine in record time. He achieved energy independence and much, much more.

His accomplishments far outweigh his personality quirks. No other president did so much in so little time.

Trump smoked rats out of hiding places. Because of Trump we know our intelligence agencies are corrupt. We know also that the mainstream media is not just biased, that it is the propaganda arm of the Democratic party.

Had it not been for the vehement and irrational hatred of Trump, we never would have discovered that our own security and intelligence structures are compromised. I blame #NeverTrumpers for corrupting these Agencies. This unprecedented breach of the very security of this nation is unprecedented and deeply dangerous, leaving us open to the espionage of courtesans who prey on politicians who think with their private parts.

A large part of Trump’s appeal was that he was a bona fide outsider. He distrusted the experts who believe they knew better than the average American how to run the country. This distrust was appealing to Trump’s base who believed, and with good reason, that is the experts who created the despotic mess in which we find ourselves.

We always knew but never had anyone champion that we, not the Swamp, knew better how to manage our money, our time, our personal lives, our resources and our families. In their authoritarian mindsets, the Left wanted to take over all these very personal, uniquely American functions and replace it with governmental overreach. They nearly got their wish, had it not been for COVID’s home zoom classes where we found out that very young children are being sexualized, perverted, deliberately alienated from their parents and taught to hate America and white people.

…They know that Republicans will lose all further elections until they get to the bottom of the last one.

This most sensitive area of politics is a disaster. I believe the election was stolen and millions of others do. We now have evidence from many quarters that this is so. It cannot be permitted a repeat or there will be severe repercussions that will dwarf the current ones.

Some will say that Trump is a bad man and that disqualifies him. I do not think Trump is a bad man, but for those who do I remind them that a bad man in some circumstances can be a good president. If you’re dying of thirst and there is only one person offering you water, you accept the water gratefully without much concern for the character of your rescuer.

We wanted Trump not only to fix things; we wanted him to be perfect while doing it. That is unrealistic in the average family, the average relationship, the average business and the average political or cultural milieu. Yet some of us wanted Trump to be perfect enough to invite to tea. He is not that man. But he is the man for our tumultuous times.

This enumeration of Trump’s virtues does not fully capture his uncommon courage and firmness of purpose. Trump is the most towering political figure in living memory… Trump inspired a movement. If properly deployed this movement might challenge the woke-comms, and God willing, save the country.

These very things are what the Left hate, yet it is not their favor we need to care about. They will not embrace anyone on the Republican ticket and certainly not one they cannot bully. We need to stop worrying about acceptance of our candidates by the Left or they will have won.

Republicans, however, should not forget that it is his support and the spirit they embrace that have become the life force of the Republican party. Among the talked-about alternatives to Trump I have not yet seen anyone who possesses or even understands Trump’s virtues. Nor have I seen anyone with his backbone and fortitude. One does not appreciate the strength of relentless gale-force winds until one is in the eye of the storm.

…which is exactly where Trump and we are at this moment. We have to prepare for the gale-force winds we will encounter. To not do this is to ignore the lessons of the recent past and it will be forever to our sorrow to ignore them.

His virtue must be the standard by which we judge other candidates.

Amen and amen. We don’t have to like his personality but his virtues far outweigh it. I humbly stand corrected and offer my mea culpa.

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

13 Comments

  1. Izod July 28, 2022 at 04:59

    I was with you till you lauded Trump’s role in bringing forth the mRNA “vaccine” in record time. If Trump were to admit his mistake in trusting the C19 response to the one guy who brought the plague upon us, Fauci, I could jump on his band wagon. I agree that we don’t need to be best friends with our presidential candidate, but I should be able to trust that he won’t hire people that will actively seek my demise.

    • G-Rat Stickler July 28, 2022 at 06:41

      I don’t blame you with the clot shot, but it wasn’t NCScout that wrote it. And every other point made was true. Trump, like most others, myself included, have been deceived about the shot. Trump’s ego just doesn’t let him say “I was wrong about it”

      • NC Scout July 28, 2022 at 08:06

        No, the author is clearly listed at the top.

  2. Peter July 28, 2022 at 05:06

    America Thinker: Trump may be a nice man in some respects with some virtues, however as President he full well new the election was stolen & did not have the fortitude courage & guts to stay put but chose to walk out guttlessly thus leaving America in a very bad way. He also fully supported jabbing folks with this evil covid jab= you cannot tell me he is unaware of the fact that it is a death jab? He made so many terrible mistakes & refused to rectify the situation. He had the chance to sack so many bad actors but chose not to. No excuses he failed badly so if he were to come back he could not do anything effective now a tall as the country is way toooooo far gone down the cesspool & in a state of total non recovery.

  3. No One Is Perfect July 28, 2022 at 05:59

    Just for Section F he is worth it. Look it up if you haven’t heard of it.
    It was Pence the RAT that convinced him to trust bureaucrat apparatchik Fauci.
    You could see at the podium just by the look on his face that Trump was not happy with Birx and the rest of the globalist fellow travelers.
    They used his love for America as it was founded against him with the COV-LARP.

  4. rto-jerry July 28, 2022 at 08:46

    One the one hand folks want to boast about Trumps IQ and certain he is a brilliant man no doubt about it. He has surely executed some foolish moves while president. I don’t trust him for the following: exonerating Hillary Clinton on election night 2016, swamp creatures cabinet, proponent of the death vaxx, January 6th “shit show” betrayal of monumental voter fraud. This lesser of two evils” voting bullshit needs to end PRONTO!!

    • NC Scout July 28, 2022 at 08:53

      While we can make that assertion, at this juncture, little to no other option is present.

      Those that advocate singular views are failing to recognize the populism behind the larger movement, and that is a grave error on your part.

      • Oughtsix July 28, 2022 at 10:26

        Thank you, Scout! That is indeed the salient point in all the tug of war on Trump’s virtues and failures.

        To those who sit in judgement I offer this: It is a miracle that, while surrounded by an endless parade of traitors, spies, enemies and betrayal on all sides, Trump was able to get anything done. But he did. If you, as an outsider inexperienced with the ways of the swamp, were thrust into that pressure cooker, would you have done any better?

        I also believe that he won’t make those mistakes again. I also believe that he is not a man to be thwarted and betrayed, that he will never forget who did all of that to him and to America, and that if we help him and give him the chance, he will make them pay.

        If they kill him, it’s Go Time… written in stone, absolute, unavoidable, no excuses or doubts, irrevocable and the most Now Or Never moment in history, for those who value Life and Liberty.

  5. Al July 28, 2022 at 09:54

    This roughly aligns with what I think of Trump, that his individual flaws and quirks matter less than what he introduced as a political force, which is working class patriotic populism. People fail to realize what a change Trump made in divorcing the multi-generational attachments rooted in the 30s New Deal (or even older Southern Democrat) and organized labor from the Democrat party. One example is Elliott county KY, who until 2016 and 2020 had never voted Republican in around 150 years. It also showed Republican voters that they didn’t have to put up with the “graceful losers” who’s whole MO was to write strongly worded letters to the other side and then quietly sell us out through “compromise.”

    I certainly wish Trump had accomplished more and had not placed his trust in so many snakes. But I give him some benefit of the doubt just based on the size and motivation of the opposition, which included not only the entire mass media, the entire DC administrative state, and the entire uni-party apparatus.

  6. Oughtsix July 28, 2022 at 10:11

    Hell, I love his personality! Lots of real men and many women do as well. It’s what makes him ready, willing and able to take on the leftist character assassins and cancellers, call /em out and accurately name and describe them.

    We should all be doing the same and any rebub squish unwilling or uneasy about this has outed themselves a rino and default traitor.

    This article dovetails perfectly with the one by Peter Navarro posted here earlier. Send ’em both to everyone you know.

    • NC Scout July 28, 2022 at 10:25

      Amen!

  7. RP July 28, 2022 at 11:15

    I was simply wrong about Trump as well and voted for him simply out of the lesser of 2 evils, thinking in the end he would probably be impeached and Pence made President, all of which was a better option than a Hilary Clinton presidency. Now you have the inept and corrupt FJB which is every bit as bad as anything I have everseen. And I simply love this by the author: “It is anti-Americanism that makes so many of us very angry: The Left have trashed America’s Founding and her history to the point where some believe it virtuous to hate America. Rather than advocating forgiveness for sins, the Left are advocating hair shirts, self-flagellation, and perpetual guilt. It is un-American and certainly un-Christian.”

  8. MTHead July 28, 2022 at 14:28

    We all error. But were all not president. The truth is Trump had every chance to kick ass. And refused to do so. And that was pure hubris. It got used against him. And I would posit that almost everything he did was un-did in the first 70 executive orders from Biden.
    Trump also refuses to admit the hatred of communists. If he runs he drags out millions of so-so’s on the left that might otherwise stay home.
    If he truly loved this country he would realize that. And throw in behind the scenes as George Soros has done so successfully.
    He could quietly work with someone like DeSantis that would kick-ass. Build a conservative executive branch he takes to Washington with him to replace the swamp-rats right off the top. And be ruthless about anyone that doesn’t comply.
    Jeff Sessions should have been out front of the capital with a broom. He might be the AG. But he wouldn’t have an office to work in. Or a government device to comm with.
    I don’t think Trump can be as ruthless as America needs. Or demands. He wants to be liked. And that would have worked 20 years ago. Not anymore.

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