Why Donald Trump is the Best Thing for America
I know what you’re thinking, and no, I didn’t vote for Trump. Like you, I think he’s a rich, utterly inexperienced blowhard who has capitalized on fear mongering and faux-politics in order to (it appears) run away with the Republican nomination.
Realistically, however, Donald Trump’s candidacy is the culmination of a decades-long shift by the Republican Party from promoting actual politics to getting votes via hot-button social topics that really have nothing to do with the conservative political platform. The Republican Party has become the exact entity that it once broadly condemned.
As Republican Hero (and personal idol) Theodore Roosevelt once said: “The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.”
Leave it to Teddy to hit the nail on the head.
It’s unfortunate that in this day and age if I am to vote Republican (in a national election) I would also have to give up my morality and pledge my support to a party that doesn’t do what it says it does. I am a Constitutionalist who watches people that claim to be “Constitutionalists” rip apart the very fabric of our Constitution for their own personal gain (for example, members of Congress refusing to do the job given to them by the Constitution to approve the next Supreme Court Justice).
Meanwhile, the Republican spin machine has built political steam over the last two decades by fighting a losing battle against gay marriage, women’s rights, healthcare, the existence of climate change, all while firmly implying that anyone who disagrees with you is a liberal yahoo hellbent on destroying your way of life.
None of these are political issues. They are human rights issues spun as politics, a political machine built up on the premise of tearing other people down. These issues have nothing to do with economy or governance, they have to do with the very “unalienable Rights” that Thomas Jefferson so eloquently championed in the Declaration of Independence. To deny those rights is to deny the very premise of our country.
The demographic of people who buy the strongest into this farce — the rural poor — are also Trump’s strongest supporters. They are the ones who actually believe ridiculous claims like “the government is going to steal your guns,” when, in actuality, Democratic politics are much friendlier to small-town farmers than Republican politics. The Republican party has championed ignorance and fought against changes in our educational system that would provide voters with information to allow them to make an informed decision. Thus, they have created a loyal legion of followers who won’t be swayed by information both because citizens don’t take the time to educate themselves on the actual issues that affect them and because they’ve been successfully convinced that any information contesting the conservative viewpoint is drivel created by the “liberal media.”
It is out of this world that Trump rises. His campaign is a perfect example of how politics have become an afterthought. He has built his popularity on condemning wide swaths of people, making completely unrealistic proposals, and insulting everyone who stands against him. He is 100 percent bravado. He has no political experience and instead promises that his business acumen will allow him to fix our economy; his brash personality will intimidate foreign powers into bowing before the Might of America.
It’s as ridiculous as it is unrealistic.
Fortunately, I don’t think that Trump can win a general election. He has no crossover appeal, is unpopular with minorities, and will never win the moderate vote. He’s offended almost as many Republicans as he has Democrats, and the GOP scuffling its resources to attempt to defeat him has exposed a glaring weakness in their political platform: Trump exaggerates everything the party has become since Reagan, and a huge percentage of their voters care more about that than actual politics.
When you think about it, Trump is the logical culmination of a party based on decades of fear mongering, contrarian-ism, intolerance, and a denial of scientific progress.
Watching the GOP scramble to oppose Trump opens up a glimmering ray of light: the possibility of regaining a political platform. Maybe the GOP will learn its lesson and return to, you know, actual fiscal conservatism and actual small government policies. Maybe “deregulation” will mean “deregulation,” instead of only applying to weaponry and the economy and not to human rights or women’s bodies.
As Newt Gingrich said recently: “Trump is putting together a very unique coalition that’s rattled a lot of people who have made a living out of trying to win within a Republican structure which is now increasingly obsolete.”
There are plenty of Republicans who don’t fit the mold. Our governor in Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, is a fiscal conservative who puts premiums on social issues like education, while also making major efforts to combat government inefficiency and wanton spending. By the end of 2015, Baker had a 74 percent approval rating statewide — the highest of any sitting governor in the country — proving that fiscal conservatism combined with social liberalism is a tactic that can work even in one of America’s bluest states.
Maybe the GOP will begin to understand that to win an election, you have to appeal to the moderates — something the institution seems to patently refuse to do. Mitt Romney the Massachusetts Governor could/would have won the 2012 election. Mitt Romney the Republican Presidential Candidate never stood a chance.
Maybe, just maybe, the GOP will recognize the mockery Trump has made of their “increasingly obsolete” system. Perhaps they will realize that compromise and political discourse are the very foundation of our government. If we are lucky, we will look back on this election and recognize how the lunacy of Donald Trump led us back to a place where politics actually meant something.
