Trump: “Well, you’d be shocked if I said that in many cases I probably identify more as Democrat. And I think you’d probably be shocked…”
Donald Trump has recently launched into the stratosphere as the top polling candidate in the 2016 nomination Grand Royale™. While many are happy to jump on his bandwagon due to his willingness to attack The Washington Machine, he is not the saint that many paint him to be.
Donald Trump has changed his party affiliation – and policy positions — repeatedly. Even on his signature issue (for today, at least) – illegal immigration, Trump has been all over the map. As the Wall Street Journal notes:
Thursday night, Americans could see the Trump who criticized Mitt Romney in a November 2012 interview for his “crazy policy of self deportation which was maniacal. It sounded as bad as it was, and he lost all of the Latino vote. He lost the Asian vote. He lost everybody who is inspired to come into this country.”
In this same interview, this Trump said Republicans need to back comprehensive immigration reform “to take care of this incredible problem that we have with respect to immigration, with respect to people wanting to be wonderful productive citizens of this country.” Or viewers could see the Trump who characterized immigrants this way in June: “You have people coming in, and I’m not just saying Mexicans—I’m talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists, and they’re coming into this country.”
Many Trump supporters are willing look past all of this because the Republican savior Ronald Reagan was at one time a New Deal Democrat who at one time believed:
“…government could solve all our postwar problems just as it had ended the Depression and won the war. I didn’t trust big business. I thought government, not private companies, should own our big public utilities; if there wasn’t enough housing to shelter the American people, I thought government should build it; if we needed better medical care, the answer was socialized medicine.”
Ronald Reagan got his start in politics as head of the Screen Actors Guild. Once his film career started to plateau he landed a job hosting The General Electric Theater. This led to him shifting his views from that of a Liberal Democrat of that of a Conservative Republican. He would go on to change his political registration in 1961, when the Democratic party left fiscal conservatism behind. He would reach the national stage in 1964, when he gave a well-received speech for the Republican nominee Barry Goldwater ( R-AZ). Donald Trump would reach the national stage on Oct. 16, 1973 for his actions as president of The Trump Management Corporation.
Donald Trump has been a public figure for over forty years. With name identification that most politicians and celebrities would kill to have. But besides his larger than life persona, many are worried about his recent drastic switch in philosophy.
In interviews, Trump has been a defender of the Democratic party and its values. With the Presidency of the United States being the most powerful office in the world, it cannot be entrusted to just anyone. The position requires a statesman with honor and integrity. Republicans pride themselves of being the party of American values and way of life. In the trying times in which we live, we must not fall for a larger life persona and elect an opportunist. Trump is not the bold man that Ronald W. Reagan was.
