(Caricature of Donald Trump is by DonkeyHotey.)Back in the mid-eighties, a hamburger chain ran a series of ads with an elderly woman demanding to know "Where's the beef?". I think the same could be asked of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. He has the bun (his candidacy) and the trimmings (his outrageous statements), but where you lift up that bun there's no beef (plan to accomplish his goals). Right now, he's a burger that only a vegetarian could love.
And I'm not alone in that assessment. The traditionally conservative Dallas Morning News thinks it is time for Trump to back up his bombastic statements with a real plan. Here's what they had to say in a September 15th editorial:
Let’s get serious about Donald Trump. The GOP presidential frontrunner’s appearance before an estimated 15,000 Dallas supporters and gawkers on Monday underscores Trump’s magnetic star quality. But for him to be taken seriously as a potential White House occupant, Trump must begin articulating his positions and putting real substance behind populist slogans. His supporters must demand it instead of blindly cheering when he makes bombastic pronouncements that aren’t grounded in reality. Take, for example, Trump’s pledge to tackle illegal immigration. “We have to do it,” he declared Monday. Well, he’s right. In fact, this newspaper has been making that same point — we have to do it — since President George W. Bush outlined a bold, bipartisan plan for comprehensive immigration reform in 2007. It was a plan with specifics, and we certainly didn’t agree with all of it. But no one can dispute that Bush was at least offering a route toward a solution. That’s what leaders do. Trump, instead, offers slogans. He panders to the masses with ridiculous characterizations of Mexicans as “criminals” and “rapists” who are swarming across the border and turning America into a “dumping ground.” The truth is that net migration from Mexico is zero. In addition, since fiscal 2013, the Obama administration has deported more than 680,000 immigrants, more than half of whom were criminals. How would Trump improve on that record level? He doesn’t say. Trump pledges to organize a mass deportation of the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants here, a bold idea that ignores that there aren’t enough planes, trains, buses, boats or dollars to make it happen. He would build a great wall along the border, and Mexico would magically pay for it. “Someday, when I’m gone, they’re going to name that wall after Trump,” he declared Monday. This plan, again, bumps headlong into reality: Congress and the courts would never consent to such unbridled presidential power. Trump would neither receive the authority nor funding to accomplish what he proposes. This newspaper agrees, however, with the sense of frustration his supporters voice. Immigration reform requires action — and it’s Congress’ job to make that happen. Congress has failed repeatedly to devise a workable comprehensive reform package that establishes better routes to legal migration, meets employers’ needs for low-cost labor, and creates a path to regularized status for those already here. It’s a job only Congress can accomplish. Trump’s supporters must stop confusing bombast and brashness with leadership and demand that he outline the specifics. A man without a plan has no place in the White House.
