I pledged some time ago to eschew commenting on the WWE-style battle royale masquerading as a fight for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. But reports on Donald Trump’s latest rant against President Obama hit a nerve, which is saying a lot given his record of racist taunts about Obama’s birth certificate and college transcript.
Before I get to it, though, let me state for the record that Trump does not stand a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning the Republican nomination.
That he’s leading all polls today only reflects the abiding interest of that wacko twenty-five percent of the Republican Party who had Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, and Michele Bachmann leading similar polls during the last cycle (Remember them?), until sensible Republicans nominated Mitt Romney.
So when you hear reporters and pundits making much ado about Trump leading all Republican candidates with twenty-five percent of the vote, bear in mind that this means seventy-five percent of Republican voters still think he’s a jerk. Not to mention the truly sobering fact that the vast majority of those being polled probably couldn’t name the three branches of the U.S. government, let alone the three factions fighting for control of Iraq. Which, of course, is why they are so susceptible to Trump’s cocksure schtick.
The reason Trump won’t win the Republican nomination, let alone the presidency, is that his unfavorable numbers are so high it’s hard to see support for any of the candidates who fall by the wayside redounding to his favor. As this process unfolds, however, don’t be surprised if he emulates the likes of wannabe presidents Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee by winning the Iowa Caucus and a primary or two. Republican voters in some states really are that stupid.
Unfortunately for the Republican Party, no matter how “fairly” it treats Trump, he’s bound to flirt with a third party campaign. After all, this would be the only way to continue getting the media attention that seems to give his life meaning. Of course the media will duly oblige. Not least because watching political carnival barkers and flamethrowers is the TV equivalent of rubbernecking at roadside accidents. In other words, Trump is to ratings what fuel is to fire….
That said, in June, when Trump vilified Mexican immigrants as a menacing swarm of drug dealers, rapists, and murderers, he exposed himself as an ignorant racist (think Archie Bunker).
Yesterday, when he fired a campaign staffer for posting racist rants on Facebook, he exposed himself as a political hypocrite (think Mr. Krabs):
‘Effective immediately, Sam Nunberg, a low-level political adviser, is no longer associated with the Donald Trump For president campaign,’ Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said in an interview.
In one post, Nunberg allegedly called the Rev. Al Sharpton’s daughter a “n[igger].” In another, he allegedly called President Obama a ‘Socialist Marxist Islamo Fascist Nazi Appeaser’ and mocked Obama’s proposal for ‘Kenyan’ health-care reform….
(Washington Post, August 2, 2015)
Frankly, Trump firing this political adviser for posting racist rants on Facebook is every bit as hypocritical as Vince McMahon (head of World Wrestling Entertainment) firing Hulk Hogan for hurling racist rants on secret video recordings. Indeed, given the litany of racial epithets that have been attributed them, a match between Trump and McMahon to determine who is the biggest racist would probably end in a tie. But, think whatever you will of McMahon, he’s sensible enough not to include running for president of the United States among his PR stunts.
This brings me to the Trump rant that hit a nerve. Here, in part, is how the Huffington Post reported it yesterday:
Donald Trump thinks the United States will not see another Black president for some time because Barack Obama has ‘set a very poor standard,’ the billionaire businessman, entertainer and Republican presidential candidate told ABC News on Sunday. Trump — who has questioned whether Obama was born in the United States and was once sued by the Justice Department because the management of his apartment complexes allegedly discriminated against black tenants — also thinks he’ll win the Black vote.
Trump responded to a question on the show about a tweet he sent last year saying America would not see another Black president for generations because of how poorly he thought Obama had done.
Clearly, in addition to being a raving racist and a brazen hypocrite, Trump is a delusional fool. It is equally clear, though, that his popularity among Republican primary voters says more about how stupid they are than how foolish he is. I mean, who in his right mind would actually vote for a candidate who not only reacts to but actually thinks about everything as if he were the boorish, loudmouthed drunk at your local bar?
But here is why his tweet about Obama being such a disappointment that Americans won’t vote for another Black as president for generations hit a nerve; never mind what it betrays about his regard for the candidacy of fellow Republican, the Black Dr. Ben Carson:
[Republicans] would prefer economic Armageddon to what they have deluded themselves into thinking is Obama’s (Black-nationalist/Muslim-inspired) plan to turn America into a socialist, Greek-style banana republic — ignoring the ironic fact that nobody is doing more towards this end than they.
Their hatred of Obama is so irrational, one could be forgiven the suspicion that their dark, ulterior motive is to see America become so dysfunctional and humiliated under his leadership that Americans would not even consider electing another Black person as president for at least another 100 years.
(“S&P Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating,” The iPINIONS Journal, August 8, 2011)
Pretty uncanny, eh?
Of course, despite their open and notorious efforts, Republicans failed to make Obama a one-term president:
On November 6, 2012, Obama captured about 51% of the popular vote to Mitt Romney’s 47% [karmic, given his infamous remark about the poor, unwashed 47%], making him the seventh president to win a majority of the popular vote in at least two victories…
In doing so, he joined Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan.
(Encyclopedia Britannica.org, January 18, 2013)
Except that Obama’s record of accomplishments has belied the Republican narrative about him being a failed president so comprehensively, only a fool like Trump would continue trumpeting this narrative as fact.
Indeed, it should suffice in this respect to cite the fact that Obama’s policies brought the unemployment rate down from a high of 10 percent during the first year of his presidency to 5.3 percent this year, and raised stock values on Wall Street up from 7,062 during the first year of his presidency to 18,132 this year. But then there are his legacy items, most notably killing bin Laden, launching Obamacare, normalizing relations with Cuba, preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and combating climate change.
Interestingly enough, earlier this year, in its February 16 edition, the Washington Post published the latest ranking of U.S. presidents, which placed Obama in the top twenty. But this was before he had what the Post hailed, in its June 26 edition, as “the best week of his presidency.”
That, you may recall, was the week he won transformational trade promotion authority, which nobody thought was possible; the Supreme Court upheld the subsidies for low and middle-income Americans he provided to help them buy health insurance; the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide based on actions his administration took to champion it as a fundamental right; and he comforted the nation, like no president ever did or could, in the wake of the mass shooting at that historic Black church in Charleston, delivering what has been universally hailed as the best speech of his presidency – complete with a stirring rendition of “Amazing Grace.”
Arguably, if eminent historians were to participate in a similar survey today, they would rank Obama in the top ten, along with such notables as Washington, Lincoln, and FDR.
So, again, it’s uncanny that Trump is saying today what I feared most people would be saying if Republicans succeeded in their treasonous/racist mission to make Obama a failed, one-term president. But he’s too wrapped up in his own delusional bombast to appreciate that the most disappointing aspects of Obama’s presidency is the way it brought so many racists, like him, out of the closet. Trust me folks, Trump represents an insidious faction of White Americans who were hell-bent on destroying his presidency to such degree that liberal Whites would be so disappointed and Blacks so embarrassed they wouldn’t vote for another Black president for at least another 100 years.
And don’t get me started on the racist double standard inherent in thinking this way. After all, if whatever standard of excellence Trump has in mind had been applied to White, male presidents, Americans would not have voted for another White male for generations after the presidency of Warren G. Harding in 1923 or, even earlier, that of John Tyler in 1845.
Enough said?
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