In a matter of only two months, business mogul and Reality-TV eccentric Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has gone from “a collective eye roll and a laugh” (Washington Post, June 16th) to a “Trump Tsunami” (Time.com, August 17th). His meteoric rise from quaint outsider to front-runner has left his Republican challengers scratching their heads in disbelief; with GOP apparatchiks bemoaning what was shaping up to be a gentlemanly and substantive duel between an Establishment candidate (read, “Jeb Bush”) and several sort-of-Establishment, and non-Establishment candidates (read, “everyone else”), turning into a bar room brawl, in which Trump is winning.
While the GOP ponders the why and how of Trump’s ascendancy, in reality, the party need look no further than the closest mirror. Trump is the GOP’s Rosemary’s Baby -- a phenomenon of the Republican Party’s own making; the result of years of failed leadership, broken promises and spineless decisions.
As Pogo said eloquently, “we have met the enemy and it is us.”
Leaders of the GOP inside and outside the Washington Beltway can blame Trump all they want for the deep-seated rage that is his fuel. But such blame falls hollow at Trump’s feet; he did not create this acrid environment -- they did. Trump is simply taking advantage of it. In a sense, it was only a matter of time before someone came along with the unbridled chutzpah and unlimited money of a Donald Trump, to cash in on the anti-Establishment anger that has long-simmered among the voting electorate.
In fact, a Donald Trump was forewarned us a century ago by the political satirist, H. L. Mencken. As the acid-tongued essayist from Baltimore noted, in an emotionally-driven and rationality-starved environment such as we find ourselves in today, “all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.”
To restate the obvious, Trump is not a conservative; he barely qualifies as a Republican. He is, as the National Review’s Charles Cooke pointed out recently in a debate with Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity, “a man in the Republican debate who praises single-payer . . . [who is] still talking about funding Planned Parenthood . . . who has flip-flopped perhaps on the wealth tax and on gun control . . . who on any other circumstances, would have been laughed at through the primary.” The problem for the GOP is, these are not any other circumstances; these are circumstances tailor-made for a candidate like Trump, who is a master of knowing how to game the masses – and the conservative media itself -- for the purposes of raising his own profile.
This is no longer the stuff of entertainment. Trump has become dangerously viable.
And what exactly has he offered in exchange for this outpouring of support?
He proudly refuses to offer substance; avoiding interviews that may actually challenge him to provide a fact-based vision for a Trump Administration. He proclaims himself the “world’s greatest negotiator,” but what does he “negotiate” aside from self-aggrandizement and fulfillment? He mouths inane statements loudly and repeatedly – such as “forcing” Mexico to pay for the massive and impenetrable border wall he will construct -- and crowds cheer him because he “doesn't back down” and “tells it like it is.” Doesn't “back down” from telling what “like it is” -- nonsensical blustering?
And still, people of otherwise rational mind flock to him because “he isn’t a politician”; as if not being a “politician” is now far more important than possessing a philosophy guided by the Constitution and a commitment to individual freedom.
Perhaps this is what Trumps represents most of all -- not a reflection of “discontent” among conservatives, but the willingness of so-called “conservatives” to abandon all semblance of logic, reason, and fidelity to the values that first “made America great,” in exchange for whomever simply barks the loudest that they will “make America great again.”
This signals a depressing shift in what we value as intellectual and moral leadership in the conservative movement; where we no longer are guided by the scholarly wisdom from the likes of William F. Buckley, but instead by the facile and superficial talking points mouthed by high-paid pundits. In this landscape devoid of high ideas and understanding, it is “The Donald,” not Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan, who serves as the standard bearer for “rebellion” against the status quo.
This is not progress. It is regression; and further serves the point that Mencken was trying to make -- that as the mob continues to feed upon its hysteria, eventually it “will reach [its] heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” Whether the GOP can stem this tide by changing its ways, thereby putting an end the source of unrest among its voters, is a question that goes to the very heart of what the Republican Party stands for . . . if anything.
Replies
Just my opinion on a poorly written article.
I stand firmly with you, Michael - NO MORE ENTRENCHED POLITICIANS!!!! I am also done with the lot and would willingly vote for Trump!
Hey Bob wake up from your long sleep...Trump is winning because the American people trust him and they believe he will do what he says...MORON really Bob? Multibillion dollar moron! He loves America and does not owe anyone a darn thing..So who cares if circumstances make him look like Rosemarys baby..If he saves America that is good enough for me and it should be good enough for everyone else who claims to be a PATRIOT...
You know what Trump could get elected..Build the wall..Stop illegal immigration...Get rid of ISIS..Straighten out the VA...And get our economy rolling and the establishment folks would still be calling him a moron...LET IT GO..WAKE UP..And yes Michael is correct a whole bunch of us used to be demorats..Then we woke up..
I just hope this keeps snowballing until election time.. And watch this: these Dems who want Trumps name taken off a building he owns!! This is going to backfire on their accumulated socialist asses. Even the ill informed can see through this. I say keep it up Dems dig your graves alittle deeper. Nd just to top it off, I hope the stock market tanks come election time!!!!
Who the heck is Bob Barr anyway? Obviously he is an establishment mouth piece..A new Rasmussen poll says that over 50% of repubs support Mr. Trump now...How about we let the people decide instead of paid LIARS...YES FOR TRUMP..
Going Rouge.. This is your statement: You just forgot one thing: "Who is this well-mannered person who will politely share the sandbox with others. Who won't step on anyone's shoes... Who knows how to govern"? Sounds like you want a spineless chamillion who is afraid to speak his mind and would have to go along to get along. Neville Chamberlin come to mind. I think your living in la la land. Tell me the last time the two parties worked together for any length of time on ANYTHING? As for my ill take someone who will speak his mind consiquenses be damned. That's someone you will know at least where he's coming from instead of one who will tell you what they think you want to hear. You need to remember we are in a war to save this country and war is ugly.
Right on Michael....TRUMP WILL HANDLE THINGS JUST FINE....We have had to much going along to get along..And corruptness to get rich..