LET’S TALK TRUMP

Because there is an argument out there that, for a writer, your perceived intelligence is negatively correlated to the amount of time you spend discussing the subject I’m about to address, I’d like to make this as short as possible.

Though I’m fairly convinced his current status will prove fleeting, another week has passed with presidential candidate Donald Trump making absurd, offensive statements only to be rewarded with high poll numbers. The Trump road show continues to draw large crowds of fervent supporters. On the big fiscal and social issues — healthcare, taxes, war, gay marriage — he seems to dispassionately check the conservative boxes. He has no legislative agenda. His foreign policy experience is nil.

So what’s attractive about a reign of The Donald?

His supporters say he is not afraid to be politically incorrect. And Trump, in tweet after tweet, agrees. After calling Mexicans rapists, after criticizing John McCain for being captured in a war, after calling Lindsey Graham a stiff and giving the senator’s phone number out on television, Trump, instead of clarifying or adding context to his perceived missteps, doubled down — insinuating that what he says is controversial only because others are afraid to speak in such terms.

A politician claiming he or she “tells it like it is” would be nothing new. Think John McCain’s “Straight Talk Express,” or the entirety of Chris Christie’s appeal. Trump’s shtick is different, though. Rather than intentional or even emotional, his choice of words is sloppy.

Take The Donald’s recent visit with influential evangelicals — you know the ones most responsible for getting that last Republican guy into the White House? Answering questions at the July 18 Family Leadership Summit, Trump cursed a couple of times and described his relationship with the holy sacraments thusly: “We I take [sic], when we go, and church [sic] and when I drink my little wine — which is about the only wine I drink — and have my little cracker, I guess that’s a form of asking for forgiveness, and I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed, OK?”

Reports abound of evangelicals cringing as The Donald fumbled, but the media attention quickly shifted as Trump dropped his infamous McCain-slam shortly thereafter.

At the conference, though, Donald didn’t purposely not say the right thing. He referred to sacred Christian traditions as “the little cracker” and “the little wine” because he is a dumbass. He followed that up by saying “I like people who weren’t captured,” because he is (to use his words) a moron; that he doesn’t give a shit is secondary.

But the fact that people across the country identify with the idea that political correctness is, in and of itself, a kind of un-American obscenity is undeniable; Trump has certainly ridden a wave of such sentiment. Apparently, there’s a tremendous number of people who feel they are (unjustly) expending an exorbitant amount of energy taking other people’s feelings into consideration. Sadly for Republicans, to have any chance in the general election, they cannot waste time placating this group (i.e. their base).

But in our democratic system (possibly the least-worst system of political organization), these presidential primaries serve as a test lab for talking points and potential policy initiatives that can be used to galvanize voters in the general election. So in a few months, when Donald Trump is no longer a part of the pack of prospective Republican presidential nominees, even if he hasn’t contributed a single sound policy initiative, he has certainly contributed a surefire talking point. That is to say, if you are a presidential candidate, ignoring political correctness will endear you to a certain bloc of voters. Even if your doing so is done out of ignorance.