Every time I turn the TV to CNN to catch up the news of the day and leave it on that channel for more than 15 minutes Donald Trump will appear on the screen and I am really getting sick of it. It may be a clip from one of his town halls, or a report of tweet where he said something outrageous about one of his opponents, or maybe it’s a cut away to speech where he is addressing a huge crowd, or maybe it’s a live interview. The media seems to be drawn to Trump like flies to cow paddies; they simply can’t seem to help themselves.
I understood at first; much as we would like to deny it, we can’t keep from watching train wreaks. From my perspective Trump has been doing an excellent job of wrecking the Republican Party’s chances of electing the next President of the United States. The future Republican nominee, whoever that may be, has to do a better job of attracting several large groups of voters which Trump has been going out of his way to alienate. In addition Trump is ruining his own chances of winning the Presidency by making totally outrageous claims about what he will do when he is victorious and he has been viciously attacking his fellow Republican candidates and stealing their limelight.
One has to take particular pleasure in the manner in which The Donald has gone about insuring that the future Republican nominee will probably be unable to repair the further damage he has done to the Republican brand among Hispanics and women. Instead of catering to the Hispanic vote Trump has referred to illegal immigrates as drug runners and rapists. He has also indicated that he is willing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to round up all eleven million to deport them and build an unscalable wall to keep them out. (Never mind that neither proposal is remotely feasible.)
Trump’s insults know no bounds. The contempt he has shown in labeling female celebrities (Bette Midler “grotesque”, Arianna Huffington “a dog”, Rosie O’Donnell’s “disgusting”, Cher “a loser”, Megyn Kelly “a bimbo”) has been taken by many female voters as an offense again all women. However, more indicative of his attitudes towards women is his insinuation that Megyn Kelly was difficult because she was menstruating during the Fox New debate and his quote in the New York magazine, “Women: You have to treat ’em like shit.” It hasn’t helped that his ex-wife accused him of rape during their divorce proceedings, even though she has since recanted.
Republican insiders who swear by Ronald Reagan’s “11th commandment” can’t be happy with Trump’s vicious attempts to tear down his Republican rivals. He has called Rand Paul “a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain” and said that George W. Bush “lacks energy” and “is no Einstein”, Ted Cruz “is a wacko bird” and referred to Lindsey Graham as “what a stiff”. Nor can the Republican establishment be happy with his attacks on Republican icons: “Karl Rove is a total loser.” George Will is a “moron.” “John McCain is no hero.” All of this is hurting the Republican brand and the Party’s chance of being successful in November 2016.
Yet despite all of this Trump is still currently leading the overcrowded Republican field by a wide margin. In an average of the last three national polls, Trump was the favorite of 26% of the probable Republican voters. That is more than doubled the total of his closest rival, Ben Carson – 11% and the establishment candidate previously given the best chance of securing the nomination, Jeb Bush – 10%. In addition, he drew huge crowds at recent rallies at the Iowa State Fair, in Phoenix, and in Mobile, AL. All of which has to have many sane Americans wondering what kind of idiots make up such a large percentage for the GOP voters. The other Republican candidates now have the difficult choice of repudiating Trump and alienating his voters in the primaries, and risking his fierce retaliation, or siding with Trump and alienating independents in the general election.
It’s been a fun ride, but enough is enough. While Trump evidently thinks he is very handsome, I for one am sick and tired turning on the TV and seeing his grim face topped by that enormous head of hair swept into what looks to be an outrageous comb over. He is evidently a smart man, but his country sized ego and pompous attitude are starting to make me nauseous. And why does he have to continuously remind us that he is fabulously rich despite the fact that in the last 18 years he has thrown four of his corporations worth hundreds of millions of dollars into bankruptcy.
What has kept him in the spotlight is his outrageous behavior, which is getting very tiresome, and the big lead he enjoys among the Republican contenders. However, we need to remember that Republican and Independents that tend to vote Republican make up just 42% of American voters so the 26% supporting Trump translates to just 11% of the total electorate. It seems absurd to give a clown who has the support of just one out of every ten American voters that much publicity. Then when you consider the apparent mental make up of that 11%, the attention that Trump becomes even more unexplainable.
Of course news channels are all about ratings and undeniably until now the wreaking ball slash train wreak that has been Trump’s candidacy has drawn viewers. However, after you have seen a continuous series train wreaks, eventually you have to turn away from the carnage.
Cajun 8/30/15