Required Reading

(AP photo)

Rand Paul on The Donald:

I honestly have no idea what Mr. Trump’s real philosophy is. He was liberal before he was conservative, and has openly professed for decades that his views are those of a Democrat.

In 1990, he said if he ever ran for office, he’d do better as a Democrat. He became an independent briefly in 1999 before he switched back to registering as a Democrat. In 2004, he identified more of his beliefs as those of a Democrat, especially on economic policy, stating on CNN that“it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans.” He only registered as a Republican in 2009 before dropping the party again in 2011, only to re-register in 2012.

This is a guy who said in 1999 that he was a strong supporter of the United Nations. He was for partial birth abortion before he was against it. He lavished praise on the bank bailouts. He was for Obamacare before he was against it and has said he’s “liberal on health care.”

Read the whole thing — it’s required.

Trump is a single-issue mock-conservative, who appeals to the Nativist wing of the American electorate, which comes to the forefront during economic slump. Trump’s in-your-face attitude also appeals to the chunk of the GOP grassroots which is rightfully sick and tired of RINO candidates and political correctness.

There’s no convincing the Nativists otherwise, because Trump owns their number one issue. It isn’t always a pretty issue, sometimes bordering on racism — or (even less often) crossing that line. But Nativism is a natural response to this lousy economy and President Obama’s shocking (“Shocked, shocked!”) use of racial and religious division.

But GOP voters getting sucked into the Trump Vortex have got to educate themselves and wake up to the fact that Trump is simply not a conservative.