Truly Conservative principle: "The integrity of a nation's borders and the privilege of its citizenship is certainly a "truly conservative" principle'-Mark Steyn, 2/11/16

2/11/16, "Notes After New Hampshire," Mark Steyn

"Long, long ago-August 12th last year (2015), in fact-I wrote: 

"The integrity of a nation's borders and the privilege of its citizenship is certainly a "truly conservative" principle. More practically for this election, it may be the one on which all the others depend...And, as Ann Coulter says to the other candidates, if you don't like Trump, steal his issue."

According to exit polls, in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, two out of three GOP voters favor Trump's proposed temporary ban on all Muslim immigration - despite the universal reaction from the massed ranks of the politico-media class that this time he'd really gone too far. In other words, as I said all those months ago, it's the old Broadway saw: Nobody likes it but the public.

The only reason any pollster is even asking this question is because Donald Trump proposed it. As those numbers suggest, any of Trump's rivals could have helped themselves by "stealing his issue". And yet no other candidate has gone anywhere near it - or anything like it. Perhaps one reason why American elections have the lowest voter participation rate of almost any developed nation is because the political class mostly seems to be talking about its own peculiar preoccupations. Consider this astute observation by Steve Sailer:

"American citizens have turned in large numbers to old-white-guy candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. For all their differences, both give the impression that they are running for president of the United States, not president of Davos." [page 2, last sentence] 

I live in northern New Hampshire, where every town that isn't a ski resort is dead. They were pleasant, sleepy places in genteel decline 20 years ago. Now they're hollowed out by heroin and meth, and offering no economic opportunity beyond casual shifts at the KwikkiKrap. And when you listen to the Dems they're worried about micro-aggressions and transphobia and when you listen to Congressional Republicans they're talking about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The two-party one-party state has nothing to say to tens of millions of Americans. 
 
Trump won because he put real-world issues on the table. Nobody needs to be told that he "isn't a real Republican". That's the point of Trump. The Republican base loathes the Republican leadership far more than they love the vessel they've chosen to express their loathing.

There are contrasting approaches on offer:...Ted Cruz says he can bring back "Reagan Democrats", although I'd love to know what that term means in 2016 other than nonagenarian FDR voters; and Trump is promising to blow up the party. In New Hampshire, it's not hard to see why that last option won.

~Did Marco Rubio really destroy himself in that debate? Or is it the case that, after a week of fawning profiles post-Iowa...Marco Rubio policy-wise is offering the same old same old. I doubt there are enough takers for that to win the nomination this season. As for his promise of "a new American century", I said a few weeks ago:...

"In 2015, for many Americans, "malaise" is not a blip, but a permanent feature of life that has squeezed them out of the middle class. They're not in the mood for bromides about second American centuries: They'd like what's left of their own lifespan to be less worse."

The New Hampshire results bear that out."...

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Trump is running for president of US, not president of Davos, referenced above:

2/10/16, "The Ultimate Minority Right," Taki Magazine

(p. 2): "While they [American elites] find the ethical theory of open borders self-evident, they have no interest whatsoever in following out its logic to its conclusion: global democracy. Why not? Well, for one reason, in worldwide elections, foreigners would vote for their own kind, eliminating American elites’ American privilege.

So the future of America looks much like the present, only more so: It’ll be an increasingly lousy place to be an average American citizen, but an ever better place to be an American elite.

To the leadership caste’s surprise, however, American citizens have turned in large numbers to old-white-guy candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. For all their differences, both give the impression that they are running for president of the United States, not president of Davos."

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