Donald Trump supporters, hear me out.
I come to this debate as someone who has voted for Republicans George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney in the past three presidential elections; I’m not part of the alleged “liberal media” your man keeps warning you about.
But I just don’t see the appeal in Trump’s ego-heavy, policy-weak, fear-mongering candidacy.
He repeatedly emphasized during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention July 21 that he’s the “law and order” candidate. What does that mean? What powers — presumably conservatives would want them to be constitutionally authorized powers — does the president have to implement law and order? I want details.
The fact is Trump has no specifics to back it up because it’s not a substantive policy platform; it’s just intended to stoke panic.
The New York Times nailed the spirit of the speech in saying, “With dark imagery and an almost angry tone, Mr. Trump portrayed the United States as a diminished and even humiliated nation, and offered himself as an all-powerful savior who could resurrect the country’s standing in the eyes of both enemies and law-abiding Americans.”
Trump’s platform, as far as I can tell, now encompasses three things: “law and order,” “build a wall” and “Make America great again.” I put those in quotes because Trump repeats them ad nauseum, and they’re more appropriate as catchphrases than descriptions of real policy.
The failing of Trump’s “plan” is that it’s not based in real threats to America but manufactured ones designed to get a rise out of people.
You could preach law and order if you were running for office in Syria or Iraq or any place torn by perpetual violence, but that’s not the reality in the United States.
There’s not a threat of widespread crime here, despite certain highly publicized killings, and there’s not a legitimate harm to citizens’ safety or livelihood by illegal Mexican immigrants.
My prediction is that lack of true substance will cost Trump in the general election. Our economy is still generally strong and our communities safe; we’re still the most prosperous nation in the world.
The reason Trump’s brand of politics is able to gain traction, though, is because Americans really do see signs that we may have peaked and are heading downhill. But Trump made little mention of conservative ideals — economic, religious and political freedom — that the country needs to overcome that.
A problem for the nation’s continued prosperity is a growing dependency on government. Eventually there is going to be a tipping point where those who pay in are less than those who take out. That applies to benefit programs like Social Security, which began paying out more than it took in 2010 and continues to do so. That’s not sustainable, and the only two solutions are both difficult: cut benefits or increase taxes, one of which offends elderly voters and the other workers paying in.
Trump offers nothing to address such concerns, and in fact speaks the opposite of the conservative mantra that free markets are more efficient than top-down control. His message is, “I’m so great that I’ll singlehandedly wield the necessary government power to make everything else as great as I am.”
It’s a cult of personality.
Trump’s appeal is not about what he really believes that country needs; it’s all a cynical pandering to what he thinks certain demographic groups want to hear to vote for him.
In the primary, he got by on “build a wall” and “make America great again” to attract white voters, who gobbled it up like naive Trump University students cutting checks to find out how to make it big in real estate.
In his acceptance speech, he expanded his various pleas to include “LGBTQ citizens,” union workers, Hispanics and blacks, all of whom Republicans have struggled to gain support from. I doubt Trump will make much headway either.
But maybe he will. If nothing else, the man knows how to sell.
Let the buyer beware.
