He is so outrageous and he'll say damn near anything.
I thought that Cruz's tongue-in-cheek response to Trump in the Iowa debate - that Trump skipped - was on point:
That may have been the best line of this political season."Let me say, I'm a maniac. And everyone on this stage is stupid, fat, and ugly. And, Ben, you're a terrible surgeon."
In any case, this piece is largely a response to the conversation initiated by Joseph, beneath the linked-to post, and furthered by Kate, Jeff, the Panther, and myself, concerning the likelihood of a Trump nomination for the Republican Party.
Things are shaping up to look like a Hillary / Donald race for the US presidency. In truth, despite the potential horrendous consequences, I find the prospect of a Hillary versus Trump race to be fascinating. Hillary represents the Democratic Old Guard, so to speak - as well as potentially the first female president of the United States - while Trump represents Trump.
Kate said:
Trump is not really a Republican, nor is he an actual conservative. He has, effectively, hijacked the Republican party for his own ambitions.My tendency is to agree with Kate's sense on this issue... although it is not an objective fact because none of us can read minds, as far as I know. Nonetheless, it may very well be the case that in his heart-of-hearts Trump honestly believes that a strong America is beneficial not only to those of us who happen to live here, but to the well-being of people throughout the world.
Perhaps.
I agree with Kate in that I suspect that Trump primarily stands for Trump. He is a populist and a demagogue, much like Pappy "Pass the Bisquits" O'Daniel who beat LBJ in his first run for the Senate in 1941 Texas and was the only human being in human history, aside from JFK in 1960, to defeat Lyndon Johnson in a political campaign for high office.
Unlike Obama, however, Trump is not an ideologue, but a pragmatist. Or, at least, I am pretty sure that is the way he sees himself. Trump wrote The Art of the Deal and, therefore, obviously sees himself as a negotiator par excellence.
He is also someone, like Bernie Sanders, who is looking to the past for inspiration. The difference is that Uncle Bernie is looking toward the good old days of the late 1960s, what with the riots and assassinations and blood in the streets, while Trump aspires to recreate 1957, or thereabouts.
Sanders, of course, is likely to soon become irrelevant, whereas Trump will probably go forward to become the Republican nominee... although there are current whisperings of the possibility of the first brokered Republican convention since 1948. There are also many people who claim that Trump is a racist, but I am not seeing it. Of course, there are many people in the Age of Obama who fling around charges of racism like it's confetti.
The Left has learned to use racism as a club, because it is effective.
{It should probably be noted that there are some people who would shoot this accusation at me, but I almost never accuse individuals of racism or anti-Semitism. I may sometimes point out the anti-Semitism of the Obama administration or the EU or the UN, but beyond Obama himself, I virtually never accuse specific individuals of racism.}
The only thing, in regards this particular question, that can be pinned on Trump is that he suggested a discontinuation of Muslim immigration into the United States until the government can figure out which of these people are simple migrants, avoiding war and poverty, and which are Jihadis desiring to kill Americans, infidels, and Jews.
Given the fact that I happen to be an American, an infidel, and a Jew, I have no particular problem with this proposition.
None of this, however, should be taken to represent advocacy for the Trump campaign.
Until fairly recently, I was a life-long Democrat, with a brief stint as a Green shortly before 9/11.
Today I am a pro-Israel, pro-democracy, pro-liberal moderate independent who believes that the American Democratic Party has thrown its central values in the toilet, with the encouragement of Barack Obama.
The Democratic Party and the progressive-left like to claim that they stand for social justice and universal human rights.
If this was ever actually the case, it no longer is.
When the Democratic Party turned its back on the Jewish people, by turning its back to the Jewish State of Israel, I knew that not only was it time to remove myself from their association, but also to conclude that in supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and Fatah that it was no longer supporting democracy, liberalism, women's rights, Gay rights, or anti-racism within the Middle East.
I may not support Donald Trump, but I will definitely oppose the racism and Judeophobia embedded within the Democratic Party and the Left.