Ann Coulter

Syndicated Columnist

Did you ever think you'd live to see anchor babies discussed on TV every night? H1-B visas replacing American workers? Illegal alien murderers? Mexican rapists?

Could you ever have imagined that instead of Republicans weeping over illegal aliens "living in the shadows," we'd see them assailing one another for having once supported amnesty?

It's all Trump. Everything we've been begging politicians to talk about for the past decade, Donald Trump has brought up with a roar.

But the conservative Miss Grundys complain that Trump isn't satisfactory. They say he's "not a serious person"; he's "a clown," a "vulgarian"; he's not a "constitutional conservative" — you know, like the people who ignore the Constitution on "natural born citizen."

This is not an election about who can check off the most boxes on a conservative policy list, or even about who is the best or nicest person. This is an election about saving the concept of America, an existential election like no other has ever been. Anyone who doesn't grasp this is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

The nitpickers are like the cartoon of Diogenes looking over the man before him, and saying: "I was hoping for a taller honest man."

You're not getting a "taller honest man." Trump is our only shot to save America, if there's still time.

Only a TV reality show celebrity, self-financing brash billionaire, who is perfectly comfortable in front of a gaggle of microphones and loves to hit back, could do what Trump is doing.

Until Trump rose like a phoenix, Mitt Romney was the best we ever had on immigration. Close your eyes and try to imagine Romney saying the things Trump is about immigration. It quickly becomes apparent why no one else could wage this campaign and survive the attacks — except Trump.

After endless betrayals on immigration, including by half the current GOP field, I trust no one. But Trump is starting to convince me!

At the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2013 — about the same time the Republican National Committee was paying $10 million for a report instructing the GOP to "embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform" — there were only two speakers who opposed amnesty: moi — and Trump. (And that was only because the organizers didn't know what we were going to say, so they couldn't stop us.)

Ted Cruz spoke at that CPAC. But not a word against amnesty.

In more than a dozen tweets that year — the very year that Marco Rubio nearly destroyed the nation with his amnesty bill, as the "conservative" media cheered him on — Trump repeatedly denounced the maniacal push for amnesty:

— "Immigration reform is fine — but don't rush to give away our country! Sounds like that's what's happening." (Jan. 30, 2013)

— "Amnesty is suicide for Republicans. Not one of those 12 million who broke our laws will vote Republican. Obama is laughing at @GOP." (March 19, 2013)

— "Now AP is banning the term 'illegal immigrants.' What should we call them? 'Americans'?! This country's political press is amazing!" (April 3, 2013)

— "TRUMP: IMMIGRATION BILL A REPUBLICAN 'DEATH WISH'"; bit.ly/18QRQjA via @BreitbartNews by @mboyle1 (June 4, 2013)

Two years later, Trump announced he was running for president in a speech about "Mexican rapists," pledging to deport illegal aliens and build a wall.

That speech was the biggest one-address bombshell since Sen. Joe McCarthy waved the list of 57 (not 206) Communists at the Wheeling, West Virginia, Lincoln Day Dinner in 1950. McCarthy bought this country another half-century of survival, and that's exactly what Trump is doing right now.

Can you remember a single speech from any of the other candidates? Quick: Within five, how many Republicans are still running for president?

Since that speech, I've felt like I'm dreaming. The networks are suddenly bristling with discussions of all the topics previously banned from television (unless I sneaked it in during a segment on ISIS). Manifestly, the voters are solidly with Trump. No wonder the networks never allowed immigration to be discussed.

Trump didn't propose a "virtual" wall, something "better than" a wall, a "high-tech" wall or any of the usual deflections that mean: open borders. He said he'd build a wall. The more his Republican opponents claimed it couldn't be done, the more details Trump gave about the wall's precise specifications.

When Trump first started talking about anchor babies, the entire media needed smelling salts, leading to this exchange with ABC's Tom Llamas:

LLAMAS: That's an offensive term. People find that hurtful.

TRUMP: You mean it's not politically correct and yet everybody uses it.

LLAMAS: Look it up in the dictionary, it's offensive.

TRUMP: I'll use the word anchor baby. Excuse me, I'll use the word anchor baby.

Now, everybody says "anchor baby." It turns out that if Republicans don't immediately go prostrate and apologize for failing to adhere to the Nation magazine's stylebook, the word police don't have a "Plan B."

After San Bernardino, Trump proposed a temporary ban on Muslim immigration, and the media reacted as if he'd flown two planes into the World Trade Center. He didn't budge. It turned out that no one who is not a sanctimonious douche was offended.

Trump keeps saying these things — and he's not exactly getting kudos from the media. (Except on my webpage, where he's a huge hit!) He's never backed down. I'm beginning to think he believes what he says. Maybe it's time to stop believing what the "conservative" media says.

Ann Coulter is a syndicated columnist. Contact her through her website at www.anncoulter.com.