Is anyone else enjoying the Donald Trump show as much as I am? I’m not talking about NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice (which in any case is less entertaining since Gary Busey got whacked). I’m talking about the show where His Donald-ness drops by every conceivable televised news outlet and says things that you are absolutely not supposed to say, leaving his liberal interlocutors in fits of sputtering rage and apoplexia. Some of the unspeakable things the Donald has dared to speak include:
1) China is ripping us off. No question about that, is there? The Middle Kingdom has long manipulated its currency (the yuan) to the detriment of U.S. manufacturers, a de facto trade war which U.S. officials have often ignored because we need China to finance our debt (to fund ObamaCare and other socialist travesties because, you know, we don’t actually have the money). Recently a bipartisan congressional delegation led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid met with Chinese leaders to broach this exact issue, discreetly, no doubt, and ever-so politely. Trump calls it a disgrace and promises to retaliate in kind.
2) The Libya war is a disaster. Trump wants to know, and he’s not the only one: What are we doing in Libya? Who are the rebels we are supporting? Are they any better than Gaddafi? The confused and confusing “kinetic military action” in Libya is exactly what one would expect from a commander-in-chief with a conflicted view of America’s role in the world, a reflexive antagonism towards our military, and a foolish fetish for international consensus. Trump’s take? “I’m only interested in Libya if we take the oil.” Be still my heart.
3) Obama has not produced his original, long-form birth certificate. Talk about an inconvenient truth! Though this is an absolute fact, liberal journalists find it astonishing that anyone would find it suspicious. Indeed the media is more interested in portraying anyone interested in this issue as crazy (not to mention racist), than in actually investigating the issue itself.
This last is especially troublesome for the media: On the one hand, they are eager to book Trump, a colorful character who brings ratings and attention, but in doing so give him a platform for the “outrageous” views they find offensive.
Recently, some of these liberal journalists, like ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, have tried to square this circle by having Trump on, then aggressively trying to rebut his points so as to make his seem like the loon they take him to be. Trouble is — it’s not working. Trump has a knack of pushing back with maddening confidence and alacrity. And to the horror of the establishment on the left and the right, Trump makes a great deal of sense to a lot of Americans, and not just on the birth certificate issue.
In fact, Donald Trump has provided a more concise and devastating critique of the Obama administration than anyone else in the thin GOP presidential bench. He lambasts the disastrous economic policies which have driven up gas prices, unemployment, and inflation. From someone whose candidacy is supposed to be a joke, it is a remarkably effective approach.
What’s more, Trump laments the loss of U.S. prestige in the world, and connects viscerally when he vows that, if he were elected president, America would be respected again. When he says the Trump doctrine would be “We take care of ourselves first,” he quenches the deep and abiding thirst of countless Americans who have longed to hear such naked, unashamed sentiments from our politicians.
Across the country, the sense has settled in that America is in drastic decline. Trump boldly proclaims that, not only can this downward trajectory be reversed, it should be reversed, and in doing so speaks to the fervent fears and desperate hopes of a vast and terrified electorate.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member