I was wrong about Trump
By M.B. Mathews
AmericanThinker.com
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.
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.