‘Trumpmania’ a conspiracy?

THE EDITOR, Sir: THERE WAS a time when, as a boy, I didn’t eat pumpkin. Well, that was until pumpkin was the only thing that was available for dinner one evening. Crushed in butter, while still steaming hot, I never had pumpkin so good. See, I was hungry.

As I try to make sense of the ‘Trumpmania’ that is dominating the United States presidential election, I can only think that there has to be a definite conspiracy at work: Either Trump is secretly working for the Democrats, or the Republicans are hoping to make America so turned off by Donald Trump (equivalent to my intense childhood hunger) that when a more ‘reasonable’ choice is offered, he/she will, hopefully, be seen as being so much better than they would otherwise have been.

Trump’s popularity is likely related to the fact that he does speak to a number of things that have concerned many Americans for a long time. The trouble is, though, that he’s saying a whole lot of other things as well; things many Americans are not in support of.

His dip in the polls now is very likely the proverbial cute child growing up, and is losing its childish cuteness. People are now worried that this unconventionally brash, erratic, shallow bigot(?) might actually become president of the USA. Shuddering thought!

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Trump replaced by a more ‘likeable’ person who could, within a short time, outdo Hillary at the polls, and may win the election. This ‘Trumpkin’ strategy could actually be genius. We’ll see. CHARLES EVANS charles.evans@ncu.edu.jm Northern Caribbean University