Many Republican entertainers are clearly smitten with former reality TV star Donald Trump, but for conservative commentator Glenn Beck, this makes no sense.
Trump, a longtime crony capitalist, supports many liberal positions, including increased gun control and single-payer healthcare. The leading 2016 Republican presidential candidate has also donated thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates.
So why are “smart” commentators like Ann Coulter, whose previous picks for president include Hillary Clinton, Gov. Chris Christie and Mitt Romney, rooting for Trump, Beck asked this week.
“I get it if you are tired of politicians, a Republican progressive, or you are only about winning,” Beck wrote in a message posted to Facebook. “Perhaps you are angry and you just want to make someone pay or just want something done and you don’t care how it gets done, but what PRINCIPLES does he have that they are attracted to?”
“I really want to understand,” he added.
Beck listed off a handful of reasons why conservatives should cringe at the thought of Trump’s candidacy.
“[Trump] said he identifies his ‘policies more as a Democrat’; he makes President Obama look truly humble; he was very pro abortion until very recently; he still says ‘don’t defund Planned Parenthood’; he is pro ‘assault weapon ban’; he is in favor of a wealth tax that would just ‘take money out of people’s bank accounts’; he is for boots on the ground in Iraq and ‘taking the oil’ from the Iraqi people; he is a progressive ‘Republican’; he says single payer health care works; he said he would give people more than just Obama care,” Beck wrote.
“[T]he First Lady would be the first to have posed nude in lesbian porno shots; he said that he keeps all the bibles he is given in a ‘special place’ outside the city – and he only goes to church on Christmas and Easter; he is generally not a likable guy; he has around 16% favorability with Hispanics and he has gone bankrupt 4 times,” he added.
Turning his attention again to the right’s pro-Trump entertainment wing, which includes Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, Beck wrote, “These are smart people. What am I missing? Just based on his favorability ratings he could never win in a general.”
“Are they just trying to hold on to those disenfranchised Republicans and keep them in the fold? I think that is a good goal, but that doesn’t seem to ring true to me as they are actually fighting for him,” he asked.
Referring to Trump, he added, “I really do want him to be heard as I think it is important to discuss the things like the border. I wish he would bring up the fed and money printing. But I just don’t understand those who claim conservative, small government values and principles saying he is their man.”
Beck asked his audience to “have a respectful dialogue” on Trump’s sudden an unexpected ascendency.
“I am not trying to tear him down, I am stating my opinion. Can we actually have a civil discourse based on facts? Not on emotion or feelings,” he wrote.
[Full disclosure: This author wrote for Beck’s TheBlaze from 2011 through 2014.]
(h/t Mediaite)
