Donald Trump, legal alien
We need sensible center-right and center-left parties that seek real solutions
I’ve finally got a label for Donald Trump: He is a “legal alien.” That’s right, the man who has spent the last year railing against the “illegal aliens” supposedly wreaking havoc on our country turns out to be someone born in America but whose values are completely alien to all that has made this country great.
Who do you know who has denigrated immigrants, the disabled, Muslims and Mexicans; trashed all our recent trade agreements; mounted a fraudulent campaign claiming our president was not born in this country; insulted the whole presidential selection process by running for the highest office without doing a bit of homework; boasted of grabbing women by their genitals; disparaged NATO allies; praised the dictatorial president of Russia and encouraged him to hack Democratic Party emails; vowed to prosecute his rival if he got elected; threatened to curb the freedom of the press; suggested that gunrights advocates might take the law into their own hands if Hillary Clinton won; insulted the parents of a slain Iraq war hero; been accused by 11 women of sexual assault or other unwelcome physical advances; sought to undermine America’s electoral system by claiming, without a shred of evidence, that it is so “rigged” he can’t promise to concede if he loses; and been cited for lying about more things more times in more ways on more days than any presidential aspirant in history?
This cocktail of toxic behaviors and attitudes is alien to anyone who has ever run for president. But that is who Mr. Trump is. The big question is, who are the rest of us?
1) The American people. Who are we? Hopefully, an overwhelming majority will crush Mr. Trump at the polls and send the message that he is the one who needs to be morally deported.
If Mr. Trump loses and decides to start a media company or otherwise keep injecting his conspiratorial venom into the veins of U.S. politics, he will pay dearly. Trump Ink will blacken Trump Inc.
People already are avoiding Trump hotels and golf courses because of his poisonous behavior. The PGA just moved one of its tournaments from Mr. Trump’s Doral course in Miami to a course in … Mexico!
2) The Republican Party. Whose party is this? Almost all GOP leaders have stood with Mr. Trump because they love their jobs more than their country. If Mr. Trump loses, will they chase that big chunk of the party base that went with Mr. Trump and become an alt-right party, or will the GOP fracture and the decent conservatives go off and form a new, healthy Republican Party?
The country desperately needs a healthy center-right party that embraces the full rainbow of American society, promotes market-based solutions for climate change, celebrates risk-taking over redistribution, pushes for smaller government, expands trade that benefits the many but takes care of those hurt by it, invests in infrastructure, offers tax and entitlement reforms — and liberates itself from right-wing thought police like Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Grover Norquist, who have prevented the GOP from compromising and being a governing party.
3) The Democratic Party. Whose party is this? Bernie Sanders’ movement fractured the Democratic Party almost as much as Mr. Trump did the GOP, but the fissure has been obscured for now by the overriding need to defeat Mr. Trump.
If Ms. Clinton wins, that fissure will quickly reopen and basic questions will have to be answered: Do Democrats support any trade expansion? Do Democrats believe in the principled use of force? Do they believe that America’s risktakers who create jobs are a profit engine to be unleashed or a menace only to be regulated and taxed? Do they believe we need to expand safety nets in this age of accelerating change but also control entitlements so they will be sustainable?
How does the Democratic Party process the fact that Trump supporters are neighbors. They need to be heard, and, where possible, helped. But they also need to be challenged to learn faster and make good choices, because the world is not slowing down for them.
Bottom line: We’re in the middle of a massive technological shift. It’s changing every job, workplace and community. Government can help, but there is no quick fix, and a lot more will depend on what Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn, calls “the start-up of you.” You need a plan to succeed today.
To the extent that the center-left and the center-right can come together on programs to help every American get the most out of this world and cushion the worst, we’ll all be better off. But the more we get tribally divided, the more the American dream will become an alien concept to us all.