"Trump for President, huh?"

The other day I had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine. This friend resides in a rural part of the country and this time of year is fair season. My friend, being a helpful sort of person, decided to assist a local Republican group with their booth at his county fair. My friend told me that during the course of the evening they received nothing but smiles and support from the passers-by (what you might expect in a rural area).

However, at one point, a woman came by the booth with her granddaughter (who is apparently attending college for a degree in political science). My friend told me that the grandmother was a Republican and came by the booth expressly to pick up a “Trump 2016” pin.

The granddaughter, on the other hand, looked down at the pins and said, quite wryly, “Trump for president, huh?”

My friend was manning the booth with two women, Republicans, who also happened to be grandmothers. My friend, seeing that the granddaughter was obviously turned off by Trump, let her know that, even though he was helping out with the Republican booth, that did not mean that he supported Trump at all. He told her that he was there to support the local and state candidates.

The two women helping with the booth took a different tact. They inquired of the college student granddaughter what her main issue was with Trump. The college student granddaughter said that her biggest concern was LGBT and transgender rights. According to my friend, it was quite obvious Trump, in this young woman’s mind, was every bit the bigot and hater the media makes him out to be.

The two women helping with the booth (talking over each other), attempted to challenge the college student granddaughter on this, saying that “Actually, Trump supports that!”, and “You need to listen to such-and-such speech by Trump”, and “Don’t you know that Hillary Clinton is…”, etc. etc.

My friend said you could instantly see the young woman recoil. She pulled back into her shell and said that she didn’t want to get into a conversation about LGBT and transgender rights with a “bunch of Republicans”.

A little while later, that same young college student granddaughter could be seen conversing happily with the people manning the Democrat party’s booth. That college student granddaughter will be voting for Hillary Clinton in November. The boxes on her ballot will be straight down the line Democrat.

My friend’s story struck me and really got me thinking. Three things came to mind. First, we have a major communication problem. Second, the younger generation is gone unless something drastic happens. And third, Trump is destroying the conservative movement and the Republican party.*

Talking Past Each Other

The older generation of conservatives have absolutely no idea how to relate to, let alone convince the younger generation. It’s an old saw, that the “old fogies” don’t have a clue when it comes to the “hip crowd”. But my friend’s story demonstrates it in a painfully obvious way.

But perhaps our communication problem goes even deeper than a generation gap. Perhaps it’s that conservatives don’t know how to talk to liberals (and visa versa).

You’ve probably heard it said that liberals progressives think with their heart, and Constitutional conservatives with their head. This is very accurate.

We’ve discussed this before, and it is the reason that socialism and communism have such a strong appeal to liberal progressives. Have the government help everybody, so everyone is equal. It just feels right.

On the other hand, you have conservatives looking at the actual words and intent of the Constitution, saying “Wait a minute, that’s not the purpose of government. Plus, it doesn’t say that the government has the power to do that in here. Plus we don’t have the money.” Logical, but stale and emotionless.

If the Constitutional conservative message is presented correctly, most people will realize that deep down, they want what that ideology offers - life, liberty and the ability to pursue their own happiness without the government getting in the way.

If the liberal ideology is presented honestly - unattainable material equality, government control, the destruction of rights, most people will realize that they really aren’t too jazzed about what that ideology has to offer.

But we are talking past each other.

Falling Into the Generation Gap

Take a young, impressionable child, give them 12 years of a liberal public education, then take the product of those 12 years and give them at least 4 more years in a college or university with nearly universally liberal ( or sometimes straight up socialist or communist) teachers, just for good measure, and what do you get? A college student granddaughter with a degree in political science who also happens to be a liberal Democrat who is voting for Hillary Clinton.

Anyone surprised?

Now, obviously this is not always the case. However, this appears to be the general rule in 2016.

Trying to argue logic and facts is not working. As shown above, if conservatives find a way to appeal to the hearts and the minds of young people, clearly laying out what true freedom looks like and how it is the principles of the Constitution and Declaration that are the key to reaching that true freedom, we will be able to have a conversation.

But we must first of all know those principles ourselves. We also must have integrity to back up what we say. Which leads nicely into my final point.

The Stigma of Trump

The part of my friend’s story that probably hit me the hardest was what the college student granddaughter’s introductory statement - “Trump for President, huh?” If that doesn’t say it all….

Trump’s standing in the polls make it clear that many, many Americans are feeling the same way. 330 MILLION people in this country, and our options are Trump or Clinton??

My friend told me he felt like Henry Ford attempting to sell someone a Chevy as he tried to discuss the Constitution and conservative principles with a Donald Trump campaign sign on the wall behind him. Then when his fellow booth-mate, attempting to woo a prospective voter, said essentially “Don’t worry, Trump is exactly like Clinton in that area!” Not only was a prospective voter turned off by the head of the Republican ticket, our best line to try and get them back was “he’s not different than Clinton”.

I have great empathy for those who feel that they have no other choice, and therefore support Trump out of the necessity of stopping Clinton. It is an awful predicament. However, Republicans and so-called conservatives who gladly, enthusiastically support Donald Trump have lost all credibility and need to stop pretending they hold to the principles of the Declaration and the Constitution. Because they don’t.

If there’s anything left of the Republican Party and the conservative movement after Donald Trump gets done pretending to be a part of them, I sincerely hope we are able to fix our communication problems. I hope we are able to show people how good freedom is, how the principles of the Declaration and the Constitution are the key, and how the liberal ideology and the Democrat Party are the problem and not the solution.

So Donald, just leave the pieces when you go. I’m thinking we’ll have about 8 years to get it figured out before we have another shot.

Jonathan Paine

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*Please note, that I used the terms Republican and conservative separately. Being a Republican in no way whatsoever makes one a conservative. *coughdonaldtrumpcough* Titles and labels are meaningless. It’s all about the guiding principles that a person truly, actively believes.