Throughout my injury I have been bemused by the continuing antics of Donald Trump. It has made me think and apparently I am not alone. Despite his politically incorrect, sometimes bigoted opinions he has apparently awoken the most feared of all voters…the ones who don’t vote. The result is he is leading the pack in most polls.
I am reminded of Archie Bunker, Patriarch of the family in Norman Lears Genius “All In The Family” I can all but hear Donald Trump saying “There’s a little bit of me in all of you.”
I think there are a large number of alienated voters saying, hey at least this Trump guy tells it like he sees it, with him I know what I am getting.
That reminds me of many years ago. I was a teenager in Georgia and Georgia was holding an election for governor, as I recall this was 1970. One of the candidates was a white supremacist named J.B. Stoner. Stoner was as bigoted and as racist as anyone who ever walked the face of the earth. During this campaign, where he called himself the “candidate of love”, he described Adolf Hitler as “too moderate,” black people as an extension of the ape family, and Jews as “vipers of hell.” The primary was won by civil rights supporter and future President Jimmy Carter.
I was in my early teens and used to fish at a local lake called “Burdells Lake.” There were several regulars who hike into the woods and fish the lake and one was an old black man, we would often talk and on this particular day I felt comfortable enough to ask him what he thought of J.B. Stoner. His reply has stuck with me my entire life.
He said Mike, I know where that man stands, I know what is in his heart and I know what he would do to me and my kind if he were to be elected governor. He said, it ain’t him I worry about. It’s these other guys running, he says I don’t know where they really stand, I know what they say, but what they say usually dont match up with what they do.
Now bringing us back to 2015 and looking at Donald Trump, I remember that conversation and it occurs to me that Trump, as unlikely as it may seem, is resonating with a lot of people who are tired of being lied to. I dont think anyone questions that Trump believes what he says, how many of the other candidates can you say that about?
Do I think Trump will win? Not a chance. Do I think Trump can be the single biggest influence in who does win? Absolutely.
Think about this for a moment if every single republican who voted republican and every democrat who voted democrat and every independent voted however they voted in the last election all vote accordingly. Now if half the people who were eligible and didnt vote last election vote for Trump, Trump will be elected president in 2016.
Trump has another thing going for him, I don’t think anyone sees him as beholden to the religious right. Nor do I think he is perceived as eager to go to war, he certainly seems to have the idea that we should be fixing things here instead.
I wouldn’t vote for him or any other Republican on the ticket (maybe Rand Paul) nor will I be voting for Hillary or Sanders, but If Trump can keep his foot out of mouth (close obviously dont count) This is going to be one interesting race, specially the debates.
7 Responses
Trumping The Republican Party http://t.co/53xco3aYli
@MikeSouth1226 Great insight re @realDonaldTrump who tells it like he believes.
One thing is for sure… lots of dangerous gangs and cartels have made their way into the US. No one is dealing with the problem.
Trump is definitely having an impact on this election cycle. And your points about his vitriol being something people are identifying with are definitely true. Not to get too political, but before you get too cozy with Rand, ask yourself what your aged black friend from the lake would say about him. He’s clear on a couple of issues, and like his “love-her-but-not-my-namesake” Ayn, it’s not really clear that he can identify with much of this country, especially minorities. At least we know that The Donald is against Mexican rapists, for sure, I hear.
Actually, Donald Trump is perhaps the best thing that could every happen to the Republican party. With him, they have to face the reality of who they are and who they stand for: the rich, the powerful, the bigoted, and the insensitive. Save for a shortage of “praise the lord and pass the hand grenades” religious spew, he is the perfect Republican, and the perfect explanation why they should never be left to run the country.
If you have ever worked closely with Paul Chaplin of Bluebird Films, anything Trump says wouldn’t surprise you. They are incredibly similar in that aspect … you never know what the fuck is going to come out of their mouth.
I live in New Hampshire and while no one I know, even among my Republican friends, says they are a Trump supporter, he is now leading in the polls here.
Now, to put that in perspective, New Hampshire used to be known as the most Republican of states, but that really wasn’t the case then nor is it the case now. We have always been a libertarian state with a conservative streak. What I mean is that while we once had among the least stringent gun laws in the country (and a very high per capita gun ownership rate) we also had very lax abortion laws. We have no state sales or income tax (which means we have very little in the way of state services). Basically, we don’t want the state government telling us what to do with our guns or in our bedrooms. My favorite New Hampshire anecdote is that it is lawful to be completely naked on the town square in many communities (including the one I live in) provided you’re not lascivious about it. A few years ago, a group of citizens held a right to bare arms march in my downtown, where everyone showed up armed to the teeth; a number of the women in the march also took off their shirts and bras to bare their breasts. That’s New Hampshire. For years, the John Birch Society could be counted on to do well here.
Today, we’re a straight down the middle 50/50 state when it comes to Dems and Republicans, but there’s a huge number of independent voters because you can declare your party affiliation on election day.
With that perspective, its no surprise that the Tea Party did very very well here initially, including a sweep of the state in 2010 – they proceeded to toss out the establishment, including Republican establishment. But …… they also went too far and did some really, really stupid things. For one, they lowered the cigarette tax to encourage the sale of cigarettes – the idea was that we already sell cheap booze, which attracts folks from Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts. Let’s sell them cheap cigarettes too and revenue will take off like a rocket ship. It didn’t – first year, tax revenue from cigarette sales was down by $150 million, so they cut funding to hospitals and the university system to make up for it.
The result: In 2012, we voted the bums out and voted establishment candidates back in, including replacing a Republican governor with a Democratic governor.
My point in all of this: Right now, that independent, libertarian, contrarian New Hampshire voter who went gaga over the Tea Party in 2010 is enamored of Trump. But, just as that voter reverted to the norm when the Tea Party over-reached and went back to the establishment, they could easily turn on Trump over the next 15 months as this thing goes on.