We took a wrong turn
President Trump recently posted this to Truth Social and X. “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Napoleon Bonaparte apparently said the same thing declaring himself French Emperor in the 1800s.
Anyone confusing these two leaders should remember that Napoleon was the Emperor WITH clothes.
Anyway, Trump’s post reminds me of Sen. Barry Goldwater’s quote from the 1964 Republican Convention speech: “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
I almost attributed these two quotes to noted conservatives from different eras. But then I recalled this 2008 quote: “I think (Hillary Clinton’s) going to go down as a minimum as a great senator. I think she is a great wife to a president, and I think Bill Clinton was a great president.” That Joe Biden, he’ll say anything — or was it Barack Obama?
It was neither. Those were Donald Trump’s words. Does that sound like a traditional conservative to you? Even if you’re a longtime Trump supporter, did he ever impress you as anything but a political chameleon before 2015?
Did Sen. Goldwater’s staunch, conservative followers have anything in common with Trump’s supporters? Goldwater and his voters endured a humiliating defeat to Lyndon Johnson in 1964, then returned to their jobs — without storming the Capitol. By 1968, Republicans transitioned back to the White House peacefully. That was once the routine.
Where did we go wrong?
Jim Newton
Itasca