"We're not gonna lose. We're gonna starting winning again, and we're gonna win bigly!".
Witness the novel grandiloquence of one Donald J. Trump, soon to be the Nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States. This declaration of his after winning the Indiana Primary summarized both his projections for his Primary campaign, and his analysis that the country was losing and that it would win bigly with his leadership. His followers cheered him. His opponents laughed at him. And those who entertain noble hopes for the future of America and the positive role she must play in world affairs let out a collective gasp.
Trump took Indiana in the Primaries, and now he has taken that State's Governor, Mike Pence, as his Vice Presidential running mate. To compensate for his inability to make a coherent presentation on any aspect of American life and his lack of charisma, he conjures up an unsettling pomposity. Donald J. Trump parades his affluence with a grossness unbecoming of one who would lead a nation where the top one percent own more wealth that the bottom ninety percent. His "trophies", from Mara Lago to Trump Tower, all declare:
If you are not me, you are a loser! Look at how bigly I have succeeded... and how miserably the rest of you have failed!
Trump's pseudo-verbosity is devoid of meaningfulness. In terms of what we should expect of a presidential candidate and a world leader, he is the proverbial "empty suit". He insists that he is not a politician... of that we are sure. If by politician we mean: a person experienced in the science of government, or one engaged in conducting the business of government; then we are most certainly not speaking of Mr Donald Trump. He has demonstrated no real grasp of what is entailed in the position for which he lusts. Everything we have seen so far tells us that he possesses neither the temperament nor the character to be Commander In Chief.
What Trump lacks in substance he makes up for in bluster. He has demonstrated no fluency in any of the issues that demand the attention of an occupant of the Oval Office. What Mr Trump is very fluent in are the gross insults and indecent aspersions that he carelessly discharges at anyone who dares to require him to speak intelligently and cogently to any issue. "Lyin Ted!". "Little Marco". "Low energy Jeb!". "Crooked Hillary!". This is the sum of the Trump critique of his opponents... coupled of course with National Enquireresque insinuations to match. In place of any effort to be a meaningfully articulate candidate, what we have in Trump is a carnival barker.
Given his current negatives among most polled demographics, his chances of being elected to the Presidency are close to zero. Of course there are the knights of the White Nationalist sect, ready to ride with him. He is their declared messiah, their one true hope, their prospect to make America hate again! Candidate Trump's dog whistles to racist elements in the national body politic have become full blown clarion calls. So much so, that these elements show up at his rallies ready to punch African Americans in their faces...with the promise that he will defend them.
Trump is perceived as being such a liability to the GOP that many of their most prominent officials have vowed never to vote for him. Many Republicans are shaking in their political boots at the down-ticket implications of an election that has him at the head of the ticket. No living former Republican President will show up for his convention. Mitt Romney will not be there. McCain will miss it. Paul Ryan will hold his nose and do his duty as Party leader. And the list of Congress persons that will take a pass on sitting in Trump's shadow in Cleveland, Ohio, keeps growing.
All considered, Trump's ascendance to the the top of the Republican ticket is in fact the ultimate expression of political poetic justice. This is the chicken that the GOP has hatched after seven years of roosting with a reactionary TeaParty. They now find themselves in the awkward position of desperately wanting to defeather their own hatchling. This is without doubt a painful existential moment for the Grand Ole Party. When they look at the face of this bombastic offspring of their own reactionary overindulgence they see themselves... And it is not a pretty sight. They would love to snuff out his political breath, or put a cork in his outrageous mouth... but it is too late. Short of breaking his proverbial wings with the blunt force of some kind of obstructive maneuver, they are helpless. They are at the mercy of his bombast and bluster. The GOP is now left to tend to its own self-inflicted wounds.
In Donald Trump the nation is presented with the choice of rising with the audacity of Hope, or flailing around in the stranglehold of Hate. To be clear, his candidacy is indicative of the latter. The time to boo and snicker is past. What is at stake here is more than just the usual promoted-for-profit theatrics of American political life. Let us not become victims of our own complacency. In the words of two-term President Barack Obama... "Don't boo. Vote!"
"Don't Boo. Vote" for sure man!! These are interesting times man!
ReplyDelete