Ex-Cruz Supporter Urges Conservatives to Unite Around Donald Trump

Scott Pinkster leaned Ted Cruz during the GOP Primaries. He is now urging Conservatives unite around Donald Trump.

Pinkster writes

True conservatism is more than what you believe in a theoretical vacuum.  Conservatism is also what you care about – what stirs your passions, what you’re willing to fight for – and most importantly, what you’re capable of implementing.

Theories are fine, but outcomes are what matters.

Pundits are vexed by Trump’s political success, but what has fueled his rise were five critical conclusions that his supporters had reached – and these conclusions weren’t unreasonable:

1. Traditional conservatives have failed to implement conservative outcomes.  Instead, things have gotten worse.  And we’re tired of doubling-down on an unsuccessful paradigm.
2. Most politicians are dishonest, incompetent and self-serving. They cave, “go native” and become coopted by the DC culture.  And since they’re all going to cave anyway, doesn’t it make sense to support the candidate with the most extreme positions, since his/her acquiescing would sacrifice less ground?
3. Donald Trump is demonstrably passionate about what he believes. On a visceral, emotional level, he “gets it” in a way that others do not.
4. As a business executive who has succeeded in multiple arenas – real estate, sales, special events, marketing, books, licensing, media, etc. – Trump has a lifetime of experience in getting things done.  It’s time for a warrior, not a philosopher.
5. There’s a distinct possibility that an unattached outsider is better-suited to achieve certain outcomes than another byproduct of a dysfunctional political system.

The establishment media (including, unfortunately, the conservative media) portrays Trump as a smoke-and-mirror demagogue, wielding a Svengali-like hold over a gullible, “low-information” electorate, but I suspect the majority of Trump’s supporters harbor few illusions: Undoubtedly, Trump was a Machiavellian businessman for most of his career, singularly motivated by self-love and self-interest.  His business life (and personal life) had many impressive peaks, and many cringe-worthy valleys.  He’s extraordinarily wealthy, but not as wealthy as he claims.  Trump is crass, vulgar and pompous, and it’s more unsettling than endearing for a 69-year-old man to initiate flame-wars on Twitter.

If space aliens landed on earth and asked to speak to the most moral man on the planet, the people wearing “Make America Great Again!” caps probably wouldn’t direct the space aliens to the top of Trump Tower.

But Trump also fights like hell for what he believes in.  He understands how to market and sell a vast array of goods, concepts and services, and he’s demonstrated an uncanny knack for transforming our 24/7 media culture into his personal Ottoman cushion.  He’s staked his most precious commodity – his reputation – on stopping illegal immigration, crushing ISIS, rebuilding the economy, streamlining the federal government, reining-in waste, promoting a conservative judiciary, diminishing the power of liberals, negotiating better agreements, and achieving conservative outcomes.

Question: If you’re an ideological conservative, would you prefer a chief executive who goes Medieval on his political opponents to achieve 75 percent of what you believe, or an unaccomplished philosopher-king who agrees with you 100 percent of the time, but lacks the skill-set to implement any of it?

Like many conservatives, my personal ideology overlapped with Cruz more than Trump.  But it did concern me that Cruz completely lacked any executive experience and was almost entirely lacking business experience.  For Cruz, capitalism was a philosophy, not a real-word application.

People like him exist in a world of ideas.

That’s laudable, but after the systematic gains of the left, it’s time for actions, not abstractions.  And more than anything else, this is the fundamental appeal of Trump’s candidacy: It represents a generational opportunity for conservatives to stop being a theoretical movement, and finally become a vehicle for real, demonstrative change.

Ted Cruz is quite proficient at drawing within the boundaries established by other conservative philosophers.  He’d be a wonderful jurist.  But as a CEO or as a leader, his cupboard is bare.

By contrast, Donald Trump is a forward-thinking CEO who’s obsessed with outcomes: Shortly after graduating from the Wharton School of Business, he borrowed $1 million from his father, because he anticipated an opening in Manhattan high-end real estate.  At the time, the “smart money” was fleeing the Big Apple and investing elsewhere.  Almost immediately, Trump’s business instincts proved prescient: He repaid the loan while still in his 20s (with interest), and quickly established himself as one of the wealthiest, most successful entrepreneurs in America.  Then he overreached: In the early 1990s, Trump came close to crashing and was forced to reinvent himself.  And he did so by becoming the leading name in luxury real estate, a billionaire developer, a branding juggernaut, a TV star/executive producer, a multimillion-dollar seller of goods, special events and services, a bestselling author, and, today, a successful candidate at the highest level of government.

That’s an impressive list of substantive outcomes in a vast array of industries.

And to be fair, Trump’s philosophy isn’t exactly left-leaning: He’s pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, supports state’s rights, vows to slash government growth, backs a revamped military, and holds Antonin Scalia as his judicial model.

By any subjective standard, that’s a fairly conservative worldview.

Trump is not a philosopher-king conservative.  He’s not a purist.  Instead, he’s a mercurial, Machiavellian executive who sidesteps obstacles, cuts corners, manipulates loopholes, gouges eyeballs and leverages positional assets to achieve what he wants.  His focus is on outcomes – on winning – not on ideology.

But if you agree with his outcomes, to quote Secretary Clinton, “What difference does it make?”

For conservatives – and for our country, which is rapidly approaching a tipping-point – it could make all the difference in the world.

It’s time for conservatives to consolidate for Trump.

H/T – Breitbart News

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