Juan Salamanca/Contributing Writer
From gun toting government and minority fearing survivalists to libertarians seeking a neo-Gilded Age, to gung-ho pro-lifers to rationally clueless ivy league investment and security industry types, to the Cubans who tremble with rage if it smells even a little bit like Castro, I have met many Republicans throughout the course of my life. In the politics of 2016, I’ve observed three convictions that unite them: an unwavering if inconsistent fear of big government, a deep obsessive hatred towards Barack Obama and the notion that Donald Trump must absolutely not be the GOP nominee.
When I press them on why Donald Trump shouldn’t be the nominee, many simply reply that he is a “moron.”
They’re wrong. Trump is evil, not stupid. This is an important distinction.
By the time Fox’s Megyn Kelly broadsided Marco Rubio with several undeniable clips of the Florida senator’s shifting views on immigration over the past six years, it was clear that Trump had dodged a bullet, even given his apparent truthiness sorcery.
American punditry holds that Trump’s calculation was to sink Fox’s ratings and draw media controversy. They’re fools. It’s no wonder why he’s been able to co-opt the media with such ease.
Mr. Trump’s absence gave the rest of the field, with what should have been an ostensible opportunity to build Iowa’s support, a gauntlet of death with two equally damning paths; bring out the heavy artillery on Trump, hoping that not having to face his obscenity fueled counterattacks would give them an opening, or turn on each other to try to whittle down the field and consolidate establishment support.
In the case of the former, the debates end with the candidates fully trapped in the Trumpverse, even with all the hardest thrashing and bashing and politicking they’re able to conjure, they are unable to escape. In the latter case, the candidates implode into an impossible security dilemma, all unwittingly acting as suicidal attack dogs for the orange billionaire.
In the end, they tried having it both ways and both ended with favorable outcomes for Trump.
Rubio is now raw and on the defensive. Senator Ted Cruz, who was threatening Trump in Iowa at the beginning of January, is finding his moment grinding to a halt. Bush’s uninspiring and tired speech was insufficient to push his polling anywhere near Trump. The rest of the candidates are still inexplicably running. Trump’s competing event not only raised six million dollars for veterans, but it was also a surefire way to win the hearts of voters.
I cannot comment on what Trump seeks in the end game as his apparent ignorance on policy muddles the question of whether he actually wants the presidency. I can say with certainty that Trump saw the writing on the wall for the GOP and jumped at the opportunity.
His revival of the Birther conspiracy in 2011 was not just to hound the President for the color of his skin–it was an experiment.
A New York Times poll conducted after Trump demanded the President’s birth certificate found that 45 percent of Republicans believed that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. His hypothesis had support. With the GOP’s extreme, othering rhetoric came from a Republican base so angry and fearful for white America that they had become willingly susceptible to even the most outlandish ideas in defense of freedom and the “American way.”
There’s a reason that Trump asserted he could shoot someone and not lose voters and it’s not because he’s been doing so well in the polls.
The Post-Reagan GOP’s penchant for eschewing Democrat-style technocrat talk in favor of pithy sloganeering has been effective for the GOP. It has won them two Bush presidencies and fueled the rise of the Tea Party in 2010. It has convinced Republican voters to believe in free market alchemy and the phantom money of tax cuts despite the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
In the 2016 election, it will be their undoing, an Achilles’ heel for an impeccable charlatan to exploit and set the conservative world ablaze.
Those who dismiss Trump on grounds of stupidity demonstrate their own.
They’ve fallen for the fix. They wonder just why condemnations of revolting sentiments will not sink Trump’s campaign like it would ten other Republican campaigns. Meanwhile, Trump laughs all the way to the Republican National Convention.
It is madness, but there is method in it.
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The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of FIU Student Media Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.
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Yep, Trump is pretty awesome.