Whether or not Donald Trump decides to run for the presidency again, Dov Fischer explains at The American Spectator what was wrong with the GOP before Trump, and why Trump is owed so much for the Party’s revival. He writes:
In great measure, the Republicans were smitten by two illnesses:
- The mainstream media just overwhelmed the GOP. The monopoly of the ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post — especially before Rush generated the incredible conservative takeover of talk radio and before Fox News emerged as an alternative voice on television. Those media so dominated public communications that Republicans were terrified to go too far to the right lest they get wiped out electorally. They truly came to believe that normative conservatism was a prescription for disaster.
- The people of New Hampshire and Iowa were destroying everything. Inasmuch as those darn New Hampshire primaries preceded all else since 1952, the Granite State came to superimpose an inordinate impact on all else. What’s worse, New Hampshire’s is a an “open primary,” meaning that Democrats may vote in the Republican primaries. Therefore, the more conservative GOP candidates would get knocked out early before the 48 other states could make noise. Just a few wrong steps in New Hampshire, like Democrat Edwin Muskie crying in 1972 or George Romney telling Detroit TV a month before New Hampshire in December 1975 that he had been “brainwashed” by generals in Vietnam, was enough to wipe out a candidacy.
As a result, the Republican Party repeatedly presented weaker candidates for GOP voters seeking the conservatives they preferred, and that came to define the GOP, with moderates and even liberals at the top. We almost even got Jeb! in 2016. To better appreciate Jeb! remember that he was the RINO ready to open the borders altogether, with Ana Navarro as his leading advisor on Hispanic affairs at the southern border. Consequently, Rush and Newt were telling us on radio and Fox News that we should vote for such electoral drivel.
Until Trump.Many deep-down conservatives like me initially were very hesitant to vote for Trump. He had donated boatloads of money to the Clintons during his real-estate days in Manhattan. He had taken lots of photos with them. Yes, he had pizza with Sarah Palin, too, but there was that discussion in that trailer about women. He also spoke about naming his sister, a liberal, to the U.S. Supreme Court. What really did he offer? But we were told he was tougher than Romney would be. And he fought. Trump also was something we were told comprises a “populist.” Unlike country-club Bush 41 and Bush 43 and McCain, we took our chances. We agreed that Jeb! was low energy. We liked that Trump had attacked Rosie O’Donnell.
And he was a fighter — something we were told McCain still was. He was a man of the people. He was not beholden to the “Free Trade” philosophy that fears creating tough borders and even imposing trade barriers. He talked tough. And he not only talked the talk but also walked the walk.
Some of us waited for the inevitable RINO in him to emerge — but it never did. Okay, he never followed through on his promise to expel the Illegals, but he did the best he could, trying to impose executive orders aiming to drive out those from certain countries where terrorists are trained and based. His judicial candidates truly aligned with suggestions proffered by the Federalist Society. No Justices Brennan or Souter but true conservatives. His nominations, also on the district judge and appellate circuit judge levels, proved to be hardline conservatives. Trump named solid conservative Supreme Court justices. He was tough on crime, banned critical race theory from being taught in federal programs, encouraged oil drilling, fracking, and building oil and liquid gas pipelines, and exploring in ANWAR. He proved so tough on foreign terrorism that he had Qassem Soleimani and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi rubbed out, and so much more.
In taking on these targets, Trump made intense media enemies. They aimed, and he remained. Nancy Pelosi even tore up his State of the Union speech, a uniquely well-crafted work. But he left his mark, embedding it in his every idea. Whether Trump gets to run again in 2024 or the Republicans instead run a Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, or other such candidate, it is a different GOP. It no longer is the Koch Brothers and Romneys. The thinkers no longer are the Romneys but the talk radio conservatives, national figures like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Sebastian Gorka, and Mark Steyn and the local radio hosts like Nevada’s Alan Stock. There is a new Republican Party. We get real conservatives from whom to choose.
We owe Trump so very much for this. He changed the GOP for us, for America. Hopefully, for once and for all.
Rabbi Dov Fischer, Esq., a high-stakes litigation attorney of more than twenty-five years and an adjunct professor of law of more than fifteen years, is rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County, California. His legal career has included serving as Chief Articles Editor of UCLA Law Review, clerking for the Hon. Danny J. Boggs in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and then litigating at three of America’s most prominent law firms: JonesDay, Akin Gump, and Baker & Hostetler. In his rabbinical career, Rabbi Fischer has served several terms on the Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America, is Senior Rabbinic Fellow at the Coalition for Jewish Values, has been Vice President of Zionist Organization of America, and has served on regional boards of the American Jewish Committee, B’nai Brith Hillel, and several others. His writings on contemporary political issues have appeared over the years in the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Jerusalem Post, National Review, American Greatness, The Weekly Standard, and in Jewish media in American and in Israel. A winner of an American Jurisprudence Award in Professional Legal Ethics, Rabbi Fischer also is the author of two books, including General Sharon’s War Against Time Magazine, which covered the Israeli General’s 1980s landmark libel suit.
Action Line: You don’t have to be a Trump voter to recognize that his candidacy and presidency set off a mood change for the GOP, and for America. Keep your eyes on the November midterm elections with me, and see how Trump responds.
