Why has Character Stopped Being First for Walberg?

Link to formatted, printable pdf: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NicDz8DttMupTbQB-O3j1cqHOcI7Vj2P/view?usp=sharing

Today marks exactly three years since the day during the 2015 Presidential primary when Walberg assessed the slate of candidates, and explained the single most important quality that he thought was needed for a President to be successful: Character.

Friday, September 18, 2015	WKHM (Radio Call-In) – Jackson, MI
Walberg [Speaking to Host, Greg O’Connor]: “This is a unique time in our history. Americans are looking for something that is promising and different, and I just tell people, don’t forget to look for character first. Personality is great, but in the end it’s the character that is going to carry the President through some very challenging times, and this next President, whoever it is, has an unenviable task of trying to rebuild a lot of crumbled foundations for this country. It’ll take a person with resolve, with character, and not just personality.” O’Connor: “We really need a leader.” Walberg: “We need a leader. A leader that has the ability to say, ‘I can’t do it on my own. I have to work with other people.’, but a leader also that says, ‘In the end, the buck stops here. Ya can’t blame anybody else. This is my responsibility.’ So, that’s something I hope that the citizens like myself will be looking at. Ya want someone in a Reagan with a personality, but, what a character. That’s my personal assessment of him. I’m sure there’s others that would disagree, but I saw him as an example of a person that understood what was proper, and right, and understood convictions he couldn’t violate, but in the process, he also understood that with the strength of his personality, he had to persuade people, and Reagan’s ability was to go directly to the American people and do that. So, I think this next President is gonna have to have that ability, cause, even in my district, in town hall meetings that I do on a very regular basis, people are concerned and frustrated, they’re angry, and many of them are worried, they’re apprehensive, and they want some hope.”
Audio (5:10 mark): https://www.wkhm.com/episode/area-congressman-tim-walberg/

In the past three years, Walberg has thrown his full support behind Donald Trump, and also urged us in this District to do so as well. Last month, the Michigan GOP, and Walberg have started using a new slogan for the midterm campaigns: “Results not Resistance”. Notice they don’t specify good results. Any aimless blunt force can achieve “results” [Newton’s first law of motion]. Corruption and government entropy are results if Walberg wants to be more specific in his resume.

The “resistance” part of the slogan sets Walberg apart from citizens who oppose Trump’s administration. That part of the slogan also identifies and affirms Walberg as wholly aligned with Trump: a vacuous, frictionless body exuding no resistance to Trump’s administration. Essentially telling us: 

WALBERG 2018 – STOP RESISTING!

Image from Walberg’s campaign Facebook page (with markup)

Walberg: “…has the ability to say, ‘I can’t do it on my own. I have to work with other people.’”

Thursday, July 21, 2016	GOP National Convention– Cleveland, OH
Donald Trump: “And when a Secretary of State illegally stores her emails on a private server, deletes 33,000 of them so the authorities can’t see her crime, puts our country at risk, lies about it in every different form and faces no consequence – I know that corruption has reached a level like never before.” “When the FBI Director says that the Secretary of State was ‘extremely careless’ and ‘negligent,’ in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible crimes.” “In fact, her single greatest accomplishment may be committing such an egregious crime and getting away with it – especially when others have paid so dearly. When that same Secretary of State rakes in millions of dollars trading access and favors to special interests and foreign powers I know the time for action has come.” “I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders – he never had a chance.”
Video and Transcript: https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/full-transcript-donald-trump-nomination-acceptance-speech-at-rnc-225974

Let’s imagine ourselves in that Convention arena, the elevating anticipation, reflecting on the history of wise and gracious party acceptance speeches from American luminaries, building to that ecstatic moment when Donald Trump will walk out, and our country will witness, and unanimously agree that, yes, there is the leader for us. Then Trump steps out, opens his mouth, and says: [see above]. Walberg knows better. So, why has he compromised his values for Donald Trump?

Walberg: “‘…the buck stops here. Ya can’t blame anybody else. This is my responsibility’.”

Official White House Statements from last week about Puerto Rico

So, not only is Trump incapable of accepting responsibility, he is incapable of accepting reality. I selected just one recent example above. There are virtually unlimited occurrences of Trump failing to accept responsibility for ongoing national problems that cross his desk. I would be happy if Walberg could cite just occurrence when Trump has ever accepted responsibility for a problem like that. I have only ever seen Trump blame other people, which is completely opposite of the quality Walberg specified that our country needed in a President.

During Walberg’s 2010 campaign, his website laid out a short list of principles. Walberg also read this list at every campaign event, and even asked for voters to hold him accountable to these principles. Among those principles, was to, “discourage bad behavior”.

Tim Walberg’s principles, posted in 2010, which he recited at every campaign event (with markup)

Reflections:

• Will Donald Trump’s behavior ever become so bad, that Tim Walberg will stop excusing it with whatever’s going on in the economy [Matthew 26:15]?
• When will Walberg live up to his campaign promise from 2010, and stand up to discourage Trump’s bad behavior?
• Why does Walberg support Trump, who exemplifies the exact opposite qualities of character that Walberg said that our country needed, exactly three years ago today?

Steven Meyer

Michigan’s 7^th District

Tuesday, September 18, 2018