Views differ onimpact of DonaldTrump
About the only thing people seem able to agree on when Donald Trump’s name comes up is that few of us can remember anything quite like his sudden burst upon the presidential-politics spotlight. His fans consider him bravely outspoken. His critics consider him a buffoon. Trump, clearly, doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him — and he says he’s in the race to win. The rhetoric about him and his chances changed markedly after the first Republican debate in Cleveland earlier this month. Certainly, whatever happens to his candidacy, he’s having some sort of impact on his party; exactly what it turns out to be remains to be seen. Today, we offer a selection of observations from editorial boards and columnists around the nation. Your thoughts? Send them to rrollins@coxohio.com. — Ron Rollins
From the Washington Post
Where we part company with Mr. Trump is his apparent belief that calling people who disagree with him “pigs,” disparaging their looks or launching crude insinuations seemingly about their menstrual cycles amounts to some kind of brave rebellion against convention — rather than self-indulgent vulgarity. Mr. Trump seems to have confused political correctness with decency and civility; we need less of the former but more, much more, of the latter.
Keep that in mind the next time someone piously informs you that, whatever else you can say about him, Mr. Trump has touched a nerve, or tapped a feeling, or struck a chord. Frustration with politics transcends party these days, though in the case of Mr. Trump’s campaign, the nerves, feelings and chords in question belong to the much-aggrieved Republican Party “base.” It’s angry, we are told, because it sent a GOP majority toWashington which promptly betrayed its promise to repeal Obamacare and otherwise turn policy to the right.
A couple of points about Mr. Trump’s following and its anger: It does not represent a majority of the GOP, much less the country; 23 percent of Americans identify as Republicans, and Mr. Trump is the choice of about a quarter of them, for now. Furthermore, their anger is unfocused and, to the extent it’s rooted in racially tinged perceptions of illegal immigration or of the nation’s first black president, repellent. And finally, even the most justified political anger is not a political program.
Anyone — we’re tempted to say any moron — can grab a torch and run in front of the mob. What takes talent is what you might call political anger management: to identify legitimate complaints and turn them in a constructive direction, on behalf of a governing prescription. Mr. Trump ... shows no sign of possessing such a capability.
From the Chicago Sun-Times
Nothing here should have to be said.
Sen. John McCain is a war hero.
The vast majority of Mexican immigrants, legal or not, are not rapists or murderers.
There is no “real possibility” President Barack Obama was born in Kenya.
And Donald Trump, as a presidential candidate, is a flash in the plan.
God help us if we’re wrong about that last one.
Trump just says stuff — heartless, brainless, stupid stuff — and who cares what that says about him. So long as he never lives in the White House, where he would probably put a “Trump” sign on the roof.
But we should care what the phenomenon of a Donald Trump says about us. He is our nation’s “Portrait of Dorian Gray,” the notso-secret creation of our worst values. He confuses fame with accomplishment. He confuses personal wealth with personal worth. He confuses glitz with beauty. He confuses personal attacks with intelligent debate. He confuses prejudice with truth.
From the Wall Street Journal
The debate showed that the Republican Party has several accomplished conservatives who would be formidable candidates in 2016. Unlike Mr. Trump, they know something about the world and economic policy. They can make a political argument beyond calling everything “terrific” or “stupid.” They even look and act presidential. Yet with Donald Trump dominating media coverage, they aren’t getting the hearing they deserve. And Mr. Trump would guarantee GOP defeat next year if he runs as a third-party spoiler.
From the Weekly Standard
What might we learn from listening to Trump?
Trump understands that Americans aspire to greatness. His campaign slogan is “Make America Great Again.” Sound familiar? A prominent Ronald Reagan slogan in 1980 was “Let’s Make America Great Again.” In his announcement speech Trump repeated several times — and repetition may not be as foolish in politics as all the pundits who disapproved of Trump’s verbosity think — that “we are going to make our country great again.” And he concluded his remarks, “Sadly, the American dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and we will make America great again.” Politics is about dreams as much as it is about deliverables, about pride as much as it’s about pocketbooks. Trump understands that. It’s not clear most of the rest of the field does. ...
Trump understands that Americans like winning: “Our country is in serious trouble. We don’t have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don’t have them.” Trump is aware the public believes international politics is more zerosum than globalist elites like to think. “Our enemies are getting stronger and stronger, by the way, and we as a country are getting weaker.” ... Trump understands that many Americans believe winning isn’t everything, but it’s a good thing. A very good thing. It’s not clear most of the rest of the field does.
Trump understands that, in running for president, it is a major disadvantage to never have been elected to anything. But he’s a turn-lemons-into-lemonade type guy. So he goes after politicians. “I’ve watched the politicians. I’ve dealt with them all my life. If you can’t make a good deal with a politician, then there’s something wrong with you. You’re certainly not very good. And that’s what we have representing us. They will never make America great again.” Trump understands that Americans have deep doubts about the competence and probity of our political class. It’s not clear most of the rest of the field does.
From The Guardian
In terms of real-life, mainstream voting intentions, as opposed to snap polls among rightwing activists, (Trump’s) appeal is limited. His constituency is ignorance, which like Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate, he both shares and exploits. In this, he is heir to a long, inglorious American tradition, as Huffington Post columnist Geoffrey Dunn noted: “Like the late Huey Long and Joe McCarthy, both Trump and Palin have tapped into the deep anger and fear of a small but volatile slice of the American body politic. It’s a real and complicated demographic, largely misunderstood.” Like the worst elements of Germany’s neo-Nazi National Democrats, Greece’s Golden Dawn or France’s Front National, Trumpery thrives in the alienated margins.
Trump’s post-debate attack on Fox News’s Megyn Kelly exposed this darker side. He appeared to threaten her when she challenged his description of women as dogs, fat pigs and slobs, and suggested afterwards that she was a menstruating bimbo. This was too much for even the more rabid Republicans, who disowned him.
Trump will not win the party nomination. His campaign will remain an unsavoury sideshow. The threat he poses is more indirect, yet potentially dangerous. Already, other candidates have shifted rightwards on issues such as immigration and abortion. Jeb Bush, the presumed front runner, ducked his chance to confront Trump.
From the San Antonio Express-News, at mySA.com
Donald Trump may be good for the immigration debate after all.
Trump is a refreshing change from those in both parties who are too afraid to speak the truth about the jobs done by illegal immigrants. Also, Trump doesn’t let his opposition to illegal immigration interfere with his support for legal immigration. ...
Some will say that the real estate mogul’s stance on immigration is evolving, or that he’s moderating his tone, or that he’s trying to appear less sensational and more serious.
But something else might be happening here. Trump could simply be going beyond his inflammatory sound bites — about how the United States is a “dumping ground” for Mexico, about how our neighbor is “sending people that have lots of problems,” including criminals and rapists, about how he wants to “build a great, great wall” and stick Mexico with the bill, and about how “tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border.”
And now Trump is trying to complete his answer. He isn’t hedging, pandering or flip-flopping. Right-wingers bristled at his comments about American workers. Trump didn’t flinch — any more than he did when left-wingers criticized his comments about Mexico. Nomatter who is firing at him, he stands his ground.
If you’re pro legal immigration and honest enough to admit that you don’t condone illegal immigration, and you’re tired of being sold out by politicians who tell you what you want to hear and then leave you hanging, isn’t this kind of steadfastness exactly what you want in a leader?
It’s a crazyworld — one where you can be both pro-immigrant and proTrump.
From the Chattanooga Times Free Press
With billions of dollars of his own money behind him, Donald Trump believes he can be as politically incorrect, as bold, as inelegant and as in-your-face as he wants to be.
In the end, his remarks won’t buy him a presidential nomination, sensitivity awards or sympathy, but is it possible his offensive remarks could have a ring of truth in them? ...
Trump’s presidential primary opponents are right to criticize the bombast of the billionaire, but those who don’t get the intent of his message may be doomed to second-tier status in the primaries or, eventually, to a second-place finish in the presidential race. And in presidential politics, second-place is first loser.
Most Americans are less afraid of the jobs illegal immigrants take than the lack of inherent fairness in their being able to sneak across the border to win those jobs, benefits, driver’s licenses and permanent homes. Since it is not physically possible to round them all up, send them back to their countries of origin and have them apply for legal citizenship, something needs to be worked out.
The Republican who comes up with and can articulate such a solution, which would include a secure Southern border and citizenship for those staying but not until fines are paid and thresholds are met, will appeal to Hispanic voters who will be key to future GOP victories but also to Joe Sixpack Americans who have willing, open hearts but also believe in a sense of right and wrong.
Which all, in the final analysis, trumps Trump but good.
From Erick Erickson, at Red State
I want to beat Hillary Clinton next year. I want to beat her with a Republican who is not just another party apparatchik surrounded by lower-level party apparatchiks within the Republican Party.
But I know we cannot beat Hillary Clinton with this level of anger. We won’t be able to draw people to our side and our cause like this.
I get the anger. I do. I am angry at the betrayal and the repeated lies fromWashington Republicans who say they love children, but won’t even defund Planned Parenthood.
I get the anger of voters who sent men and women toWashington to fight Obama only to give him a blank check and keep Obamacare funded.
But ... the anger that flows out of Trump supporters, I do not think is sustainable. Yet it comes daily. It is poisonous to debate, to democracy, and to the soul itself.
Yes, Republican voters have been betrayed. But I do not think people who are angered at the present President demeaning the integrity of the Presidency will ultimately side with any candidate whose base of support generates rage and hate. I refuse to believe that the people angry atWashington and the GOP have let their anger consume them. ...
Those of you who see it within the ranks of the candidate you support, and not just with Trump supporters, need to try to channel the anger and draw out the happy warriors.
Conservatives must be happy warriors.
From Jacob Weisberg, at Slate
... Being a nonviable choice does not mean that Trump is not going to affect the outcome of the presidential race. Pat Buchanan, another unelectable Republican protest candidate, arguably cost President George H.W. Bush re-election in 1992. And should he choose to run as a third-party candidate after being denied the nomination, Trump would more or less guarantee victory for Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, much in the way that Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the presidency in 2000.
Another obvious explanation for the Trump phenomenon is that he appeals to people who dislike politics. Professional politicians often claim they are not professional politicians. Trump genuinely isn’t one. Politicians try to make friends, build constituencies, and avoid gaffes. Trump does the opposite, seeking out land mines in order to detonate them. At the point when any ordinary outsider candidates would begin conforming to conventions of political behavior, he continues to flout them. ...
Trump’s relationship to his own wealth conveys an honesty that his followers say they like. Though he built his empire out of his father’s empire, he has never suffered from the sense of decorum or noblesse oblige that sometimes accompany inherited money. His style isn’t even nouveau riche somuch as it is last-week-lottery-winner. ... His celebrity “brand” is an alpha-male fantasy of wealth and power, revolving around the pleasure he takes in firing and suing people who displease him. He is the only 69-year-old white guy in America who gets to live like a rap star.
Rather than creating envy, the public role Trump enacts validates the aspirations of his admirers. His popularity is an expression of reverse identity politics, which turns white males from defendants into plaintiffs in the contest of victims.