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The Summer of Trump is Over

And Donald Trump is here…

Still.

So said Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents Dinner back in April 2015.

Notwithstanding the fond wishes of liberal intellectuals such as Arianna Huffington for Trump to get have his Sarah Palin moment and die, Donald Trump is not gone yet. While most political commentators wrote him off from the get go, predicting that the “summer of Trump” would pass, and that his campaign was just a publicity stunt, we have passed Fall and entered Winter and he is leading the Republican field.

Still.

According to Politico, Trump has cracked 40% support in the latest national poll.

Each of his “gaffes” have been seized upon by liberal intellectuals as heralding Trump’s End. There was the ravaging of Senator McCain’s claim to be a war hero, the bleeding of Megan, the wall of Mexico and now there is the Muslim lockout. Trump has survived and thrived because of his gaffes. They are his hallmark. Like burning phosphorous they suck oxygen from the buttoned-up, poll-driven, focus-group centric campaigns of blah his opponents are running. He shoots from the hip. He is prepared to brawl and he constantly draws the debate back to his core strengths: decisiveness, blunt speaking, the fact he wrote the book on negotiation and that America is not great because it is losing and he, the great negotiator, can make it great again.

To suggest in 2015 that Donald Trump cannot win the office of US President in 2016 is starting to look as politically clueless as suggesting that Adolf Hitler could not win elections in Germany. Hitler did win elections before the passing the Enabling Act and dispensing with the services of the German parliament. Prior to becoming dictator of a totalitarian state, he campaigned as a regular democratic candidate and won several times.

Trump America's Hitler

Now this is not to compare Trump to Hitler though some Muslims and liberals have started doing this. They are asking where does Trump go after the national database of Muslims (digital yellow stars?), a ban on Muslim travel and his proposal of an alliance with Vladimir Putin to deal with ISIS. Does he expel Muslims? Intern them? Engage on a Crusade? Proscribe Islam?

Certainly Trump is willing to say what rednecks are thinking. He is willing to wear a redneck cap atop his impeccably tailored suits. His campaign slogan is the same as Reagan’s: Make America Great Again. It’s a platform plenty of politicians run on because it works.

Trump Red Cap

Running on a nationalist platform does not make you a Nazi. The thing about Trump is that he understands the language of the “top end of town” – the art of the deal – and yet understands what the bottom end wants to hear – reality TV.

A fundamental reality of democratic politics is that the set of voters of below average IQ have exactly the same number of votes as the set with above average IQ. This is true by definition. Trump gets this and pitches his message accordingly.

Trump is not a Nazi. He is a casino operator and a reality TV star. He has a genius for self-promotion and for reciting lines that “cut through” the gigabytes of carefully calibrated PC blah that saturate the networks. Like Hitler, he has the bull-headed drive, the willingness to brawl, the fire in the belly, and the ability to sell a message.

Like Hitler, he has an angry and irrational electorate willing to buy the message he is selling.

Unlike Hitler he has deep pockets, filled with his own money. This gives him independence which he happily rubs in the faces of those Republican "bachelors" who must “seek red roses” from high-profile Republican donors like the Koch brothers.

Trump Bachelors seeking Red Roses

It remains to be seen whether Trump goes all the way, but on form to date, he is not likely to be “voted off the island” of Republican nominees any time soon.

© Prince Flood Dec 2015