A Return to Political Sanity
“A complete and total ban on all Muslims entering the United States, until our country’s leaders can figure out what the heck is going on.” Those were the always wise words of Donald Trump. But perhaps what is even more disgusting, is not only the xenophobic proposal itself, but the fact that Mr. Trump actually got applause for such a statement. One or two lunatics in society is common, and maybe even helps in keeping our society in check, but when that lunatic is running for President of the United States, the leader of the free world, and winning, it makes you lose faith in our political system.
Perhaps Mr. Trump’s lead is an indictment of our political system, and how we treat it like a reality show, with candidates becoming contestants, voted off round by round, while the mainstream media plays the host. Give Trump credit-he knows how to manipulate the media better than anyone else. He manages to stay in the spotlight, albeit for the wrong reasons. In these cases, the media is actually enabling Trump-giving him 24/7 coverage, leaving other, more qualified, candidates behind. Trump doesn’t need ads like others do, he’s getting free publicity, and if the time ever comes where the media forgets him, he has $10 billion in personal wealth to use as a political war chest.
In these ways, candidates dream of being Trump-he gets all the airtime he wants, for free, doesn’t need a Super PAC, and doesn’t need to cozy up to special interests. But more importantly, however, Trump is running in an election cycle where voters are fed up with Washington politics. That, more than anything else, has contributed to the rise of Trump, and to a lesser extent, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina.
But we need to put an end to this.
Muslims aren’t the problem. Illegal immigrants aren’t the problem. Trump’s the problem. His inflammatory rhetoric hurts us in the international arena, which is probably why Putin endorsed him. Counterintuitively, his supposed show of strength, being the alpha male in the room, makes us weaker across the world. It feeds the message of ISIS, of Boko Haram, of Al-Qaeda.
Maybe the only way to defeat Trump will be to debate him in a step-by-step, substantive, policy debate, which is something we just don’t get when Trump’s a part. The debate shifts from trying to solve the terrorism problem, to calling Jeb Bush a loser. If you start playing Trump’s game of name-calling and of hating on Hillary Clinton, you get nowhere, and that may be the reason why these debates really haven’t mattered much, because Trump gets the largest portion of speaking time, and shifts a productive conversation in a destructive direction.
If you look at the debates, the overall winner has been Marco Rubio, and yet he hasn’t done that well in the polls. Sure, he’s gained a few points here or there, but look at the bigger picture: from the beginning of the debates, Trump’s been winning, and at the end of the debates, Trump’s been winning, even after performing poorly in many debates.
Yet most candidates don’t want to go after Trump, because they are afraid of alienating his supporters, voters these candidates want for themselves, and everyone who’s attacked Trump has gone down in the polls (think Rick Perry, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich, Rand Paul, and Jeb Bush). To beat Trump, some major candidate, like a Ted Cruz, or a Marco Rubio, has to go after Trump to knock him down. These 2 candidates have the kind of support other candidates like Rand Paul or Lindsey Graham don’t have.
But more importantly, the American voter needs to have a discussion with themselves on what they really want to vote for. Most voters, especially, Republicans, are tired and angry, and want change. They think Obama’s weak, and so look to an alpha male, to a “tough guy”, to someone with new policies, which should be politically incorrect. And who is this alpha male, this “tough guy” with politically incorrect policy proposals? You guessed it, Donald Trump.
Today, what we need is a proven leader with the right policy ideas. So, my fellow Americans, let’s look at what the candidates have to say, and more importantly, what they intend to do, and ask, is it consistent with your values? Is it consistent with the values of America, the values of freedom, social inclusiveness, and tolerance? Then, and only then, can we have a return to political sanity.