🇺🇸 Trump's Virtues Part I - Tom Klingenstein (Transcript in Details)

(7.6.22) Klingenstein: 'Trump revealed—not “caused”—the divide in this country. He shifted the overton window and gave his supporters the breathing room to voice their discontents. This may have been his most important achievement, made possible by qualities independent of policy. You cannot win a war unless you know you are in one.'

TRANSCRIPT:

Trump’s Virtues
Many leading Republicans and conservatives want someone other
than Donald Trump to run for President in 2024. They say we need
someone with Trump’s virtues but without his vices. Fair enough, but
that formulation does not get us very far unless we have a proper
accounting his virtues.
Other Republican politicians say some version of, “I like his policies
but don’t like the rest of him.” But this gets it almost backwards.
Although Trump advanced many important policies, it is the “rest of
him” that contains the virtues that inspired a movement.
Trump was born for the current crisis: the life and death struggle
against the totalitarian enemy I call “woke communism.” The “woke
comms” clench the Democratic party by the scruff of its neck. They
tell us lies and silence those who challenge the lies. Like most
totalitarian regimes, they have a scape goat (white males), a
narrative (America is systemically racist) and a utopian vision of
society where there are equal outcomes for all preferred identity
groups in every area of human life. The woke comms control all the
cultural, and economic centers of power in the country from where
they ruthlessly push their agenda. That agenda rests on the
conviction that America is thoroughly bad (systemically racist) and
must be destroyed. As Trump once said, “their goal is not a better
America, their goal is the end of America." Make no mistake, we are
in the midst of a cold civil war.
Trump awakened the public the public to this fact. You cannot win a
war unless you know you are in one.
Trump critics say he caused or exacerbated the divide in this
country. No, he did not. He revealed—not caused--the divide.
In war you must make a stand. For that we need strong men. Weak
men do anything to avoid admitting the hardest truths because they
lack the resolve to do what truth demands from them. Trump is a
manly man. In present times, when manhood is being stripped of its
masculinity, traditional manhood, even when flawed, has much
appeal.
Trump ripped apart people he thought were weak. Sometimes he
went overboard, but his supporters forgave his excesses because
strength is in such short supply.
Trump plays to win. When you're in the right, you have a moral duty,
not to just to fight but to win... and sometimes that means doing
distasteful things. There are no clean hands in a fist fight.
If there is one thing that the American people know about Donald
Trump is that he, unlike the woke comms, loves America and wishes
to preserve it. Trump is unreservedly, unquestionably pro-
American. He makes no apologies for America’s past. Trump is a
refreshing break from the guilt and self-loathing that mark our age.
The America Trump wants to recover is the America of his youth.
Not out of nostalgia, but because this was an America guided by
relentless optimism and supported by grit and determination. An
America which had done great things in the past and was eager to do
more. An America properly confident in itself.
Trump is still confident in America. In this time of national doubt
this too is just what the doctor ordered. Trump thinks America can
vanquish all comers if we just put our mind to it and he is right.
Trump has the courage to defend his own people--a large, and
impressive, political fact. Courage never demands perfection.
Trump stood up for America every time he violated the strictures of
political correctness. Trump has said over and over exactly what
political correctness prohibits one from saying: “We have our
culture, it’s exceptional, and that’s the way we want to keep it.”
Trump has made it clear that we have no duty to invite anyone into
this country, and that no one has a right to come here. This is our
country. And when we do allow foreigners the privilege to come
here then, as Trump once said, “they must share our values and love
our people.”
Trump said Haiti is a “shithole” and that Representative Maxine
Waters has a low IQ. These were not racist lies but uncouth,
politically incorrect observations that most people would agree with
but not dare say. Most of us, conservatives no less than liberals, are
reluctant to criticize black Americans for fear of being called a
racist. Trump, on the other hand, is an equal opportunity criticizer.
This is what we used to call “colorblindness.”
From morning to night we heard that Trump was a racist. That it was
repeated endlessly 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. As
Trump and his supporters know, political correctness cripples our
ability to think clearly and act decisively.
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of Trump’s fight
against political correctness, a fight in which most Republicans are
reluctant to engage. Only if Americans and their leaders stand up to
political correctness and show it the contempt it deserves is there a
chance of preserving the American way of life.
Trump treated the woke media with the same contempt he treated
political correctness, provoking their outrage and revealing their
utter corruption. It seems only Trump understands that the media
can be neither negotiated with, nor reformed. It must be defeated.
Unlike most politicians, Trump when he sees a problem goes out and
fixes it. He fixed our porous borders, moved our Israeli embassy to
Jerusalem, normalized relations between Arab countries and Israel,
eliminated hate-America Critical Race Theory in his administrative
agencies, developed a vaccine for the corona virus in record time,
achieved energy independence and much more.
Trump is guided by facts and common sense. He has no use for
theories. He knows that slavish devotion to theory can lead to
nonsensical beliefs; for instance, that children should be able to
change their sex; that police forces should be defunded; or that
biological boys should be able to compete against girls in athletics.
I’m certain Trump finds it impossible to believe a woman can be a “he.”
With Trump, what you see is what you get. Authenticity is something
you have or you don’t. But it takes courage and independence to live
authentically. And in politics, most find it almost impossible not to
be phony. Not Trump.
Trump taught us crucial things. For starters, that China is a mortal
enemy. Before his Presidency the public did not appreciate this.
Now it does. Likewise, free trade, accepted as dogma by both parties
before Trump, now is highly contested. These changes in public
sentiment are big accomplishments made possible by qualities
independent of policy.
Trump smoked rats out of their hiding places. Because of Trump we
now know that our intelligence agencies are corrupt. We know also
that the mainstream media is not just biased but 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 so-called “experts” who believe they know better
than the average American how to run the country. This distrust was
appealing to Trump’s base who believe, and with good reason, that it
is the “experts” who have created the despotic mess in which we find
ourselves.
Although his own administration sometimes made it difficult for him
to get done everything he promised, his supporters knew he was on
their side and was trying his damnedest not to let them down.
Against the advice of the most in his party, Trump has not let go of
the claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. His base backs
him. And well they should. They know Republicans will lose all
future elections unless we get to the bottom of the last one.
Trump connected with his audience as Reagan did, because each
spoke as a citizen to fellow citizens, without a trace of
condescension. It wasn't an act and Americans knew it. Trump may
not have worked on a construction site, but he knew his way around
one. One can imagine him swapping bawdy and sexist jokes with his
workers. Other Presidents have represented the middle class, but none
with Trump’s common touch.
Trump, understands, as does the outsourced American worker, that a
cheap smartphone is not a replacement for a meaningful job and the
life it supports. Trump also understands that what Americans of all
races and creeds desire are stable communities, and the opportunity
to raise their families in a culture that values industriousness, self-
reliance, patriotism, and freedom.
Some will say Trump is a bad man and that disqualifies him. I do not
believe that Trump is a bad man, but for those who do, I remind them
that a bad man can sometimes make a good President. If you are dying
of thirst and there is only one person offering water, you accept the
water gratefully, regardless of the character of your rescuer.
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. He has, like it or not,
defined the politics of our age. In 2016 and 2020 he was the political
leader most fit for war-like circumstances.
Trump inspired a movement that, if properly deployed, might really
challenge the woke comms, and God willing, save the country.
Republicans should not forget that it is his supporters and their
American spirit 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 fully understands, Trump’s virtues.
Nor I have 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. I am not suggesting that it is time for
everyone to make way for Trump; rather that it is much too early to
throw him overboard.
If Republicans do choose another candidate to lead the Trump
movement, they must do so in full confidence that he will embody
Trump’s virtues. If not Trump himself, his virtues must be the
standard by which we judge other candidates. Thank you.

SOURCE: https://tomklingenstein.com/video/trumps-virtues/

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VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-GAw1lLWJA