National Review: Christie and Sessions are Prostitutes for Supporting Trump

Republican Trump Now the Enemy of Establishment Republicans

Republican leaders refused to listen to their constituencies about illegal immigration, about actually building the wall they promised to build but did not, about fighting Obama where it counted; in their pocketbook. When Trump came along, he focused first on just those issues, and it worked. He recognized that a flood of illegal aliens was a threat to the job security and the safety of ordinary citizens, and he promised to do something as radical as actually enforcing the immigration laws that Obama has violated and Republicans ignored. Now the few Republican candidates who repeat that mantra are simply “Johnny Come Latelies.”

Trump is definitely NOT a conservative, and his positions should be troubling to all conservatives because they are certainly not consistent with that philosophy. But the fact that Trump is not a politician, does not bow to the politically correct requirements of politicians, describes a vision of better days coming and a stronger America, and especially that immigrants will play by the rules and will not overwhelm our country with their numbers or demands, gathers supporters from many different parts of the electorate, and makes the establishment mad with fear of losing their power and influence. And so they must attack Trump, as well as any politicians who see the handwriting on the wall and are moving to support him.

The establishment claims and denunciations are getting more desperate and outrageous by the day. And while Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should be the target of their anger, it seems that Obama, Clinton and the establishment Republicans are all part of the same club and are determined to keep the “riffraff” out. Below are some of the panicked, obnoxious caterwauls from the establishment Republicans describing the sky-is-falling scenario of a successful Trump campaign and presidency.

On Friday, New Jersey governor Chris Christie endorsed Donald Trump in what was surely the most transparent display of affection since Judas Iscariot’s Gethsemane smooch. Not only had Christie spent the last several months blasting his tri-state opponent on the campaign trail — for, among other things, his absurd promise to make Mexico pay for a wall on the United States’ southern border, his proposed ban on Muslims entering the country, and his refusal to address entitlement reform — he reportedly told the New Hampshire Union Leader’s publisher, Joe McQuaid, that he would “never” endorse Trump. Christie says McQuaid is misremembering.

Presumably, Christie thinks an endorsement will increase the likelihood of his securing a position in a Trump administration (and given Trump’s financial history, that is a likelier prospect than his receiving 30 pieces of silver). But he has agreed to be, for the next several months, willingly at the end of Trump’s leash, evidence of which was Trump and Christie’s brief exchange after Christie’s speech in Arkansas: “Get on the plane and go home,” Trump said, caught on a hot mic. “It’s over. Go home.” There are pimps and prostitutes with more equitable relationships. The Republican party is full of people who care more about power than about conservatism.

Speaking of prostitutes: On Sunday, Alabama senator Jeff Sessions offered Trump his own endorsement. Sessions is, of course, the Republican party’s famous immigration hawk — a fierce, and fiercely intelligent, opponent of unchecked immigration, of amnesty, and of the various abuses of visa programs that large businesses use to undermine American labor. So, naturally, he endorsed the candidate who has proposed a de-facto amnesty in which the federal government would first expend astronomical quantities of money and labor to round up 11 million illegal immigrants residing in the country, escort them to their home countries — and then let them back in (provided, of course, that they’re sufficiently “terrific”); he endorsed the candidate who has abused the H-2B visa system to import foreign workers to do “jobs Americans won’t do” — like model fashion; and he endorsed the candidate who has employed illegal immigrants on his building projects as recently as July of last year.

So, the Trump fans are right. The Republican party is full of people who care more about power than about conservatism. How do we know? Because many of them are choosing to support Donald J. Trump. After all, there’s nothing conservative about Donald Trump. He’s a Dorito-tinted proto-fascist who admires Vladimir Putin and Saddam Hussein, a conspiracy theorist who accuses George W. Bush of deceiving the nation into war, and a cad who brags about bedding “top women.” He’s advocated relaxing libel laws so that, when he’s president, he can more easily sue his critics. He’s touted “the good parts” of Planned Parenthood. He’s praised single-payer health care.

The virtue of the Republican party, recall, is that it has been the country’s conservative party — a counterweight to the liberalism of Democrats. And a vibrant conservatism has been a salubrious force in American politics. But a Republican party that backs Donald Trump would not be a conservative party any longer. It would be merely a second left-leaning party that from time to time makes adulatory noises about Ronald Reagan. What would be the raison d’être of such an organization?

There are points of light in the Republican party, of course. Nebraska senator Ben Sasse has said that he will never vote for Donald Trump, and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s endorsement of Marco Rubio was accompanied by a vigorous rejection of Trump. The Republican party has members committed to conservative principles, not just party survival. But the next weeks — and, if Donald Trump is the nominee, the next several months — portend a crisis of conscience. Are we defending the permanent things? Or are we defending the Republican party? Because without the former, the latter is utterly pointless.