Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made an interesting pitch to voters on Thursday night. No doubt many loved every word that he said.
But Trump lost this voter with one sentence: “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
Trump was referring to a political system that he said is rigged against average Americans. Any republic’s system is bound to have flaws and can always be improved. But the idea that Trump can fix it by himself is comical.
Neither Trump nor any other president can wave a magic wand — or sign an executive order — to change the system. There are 535 members of Congress who might want to chip in their two cents. There is also a Supreme Court that, as Chief Justice John Marshall memorably wrote two centuries ago, emphatically gets to say what the law is.
Any candidate’s speech to a convention can be forgiven for a bit of excessive rhetoric. But it was no surprise that Trump’s speech was full of statements that simply are not true:
• Illegal immigration: Trump said more families have crossed the border this year than in all of last year. Politico.com says the Border Patrol reports 29,682 people in families have been caught crossing the border since January. The number for 2015 was 51,152.
• Crime is rising under President Obama: Trump said homicides in 2015 were up 17 percent in our 50 largest cities. Politico says that figure apparently came from an analysis by The Washington Post (ironically, a paper Trump despises). But FBI statistics say national murder rates are down 16 percent since Obama took office. The Associated Press that in the 50 cities in the Post study, only half as many people were homicide victims in 2015 compared to 1991.
• 50 percent more police officers have been killed this year: The AP cites the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which says 67 officers have died on duty through July 20 compared to 62 through the same day in 2015. And the 109 law enforcement fatalities in 2013 were the lowest since 1956.
• “America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world:” Not even close to being accurate, whether you are measuring the percentage of income paid for taxes, or taxes as a share of gross domestic product.
There’s more to critique. It’s more than enough to realize that Trump has become just like most of the politicians he typically mocks. He will say anything to win an election.
Even so, the hunch here is that, over the next three months, Trump will pull even with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and perhaps even take the lead in polls.
Clinton has plenty of issues of her own, especially the sense by many voters that her career is an ethical minefield. It is sure to be a close election, one that may come down to a late season mistake by whichever candidate panics first.
But one more point about Trump. Introducing him on Thursday night, his daughter Ivanka tried to reassure voters that he is a good man. She said the American people should look at the values Trump has instilled in his children to know what kind of person he is.
Using that measuring stick, it seems that Chelsea Clinton has turned out pretty well, too. Given her parentage, it can in fact be argued that two wrongs sometimes do make a right.
Voters are not selecting a Parent of the Year in November. Trump’s children are good-looking and well spoken and all that, so the real question is why their big-mouth daddy doesn’t behave half as normally as they do.
This week, it’s Clinton’s turn to make the sale. While The Apprentice flubbed his chance as only he alone could do, there’s no reason to think Clinton will do much better.
