We need to take Trump seriously.
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I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating.
Whenever I talk to a non-Trump supporter about the possibility of Trump becoming president, I usually run into some sort of disclaimer. “I’m a little worried, but it’s never going to happen.” “This is getting scary, but obviously he isn’t likely to become president.” “I mean, even if he does become president, it isn’t like he’d be able to get anything done.”
Normally this is the part of the article where I’d cite various expert analyses and predictions, but therein lies the rub. Trump’s campaign has repeatedly and consistently disproved the experts. This means that, instead of being able to rely on the prognostications of the talking heads, the only safe route is to look at the indisputable facts. These are:
- Trump has a commanding lead in the Republican presidential primary. At this point, the best hope for stopping him from getting nominated would be a brokered convention, and the GOP hasn’t had one of those in more than seventy years.
- Assuming Trump gets nominated, he would most likely run against Hillary Clinton, a Democrat with incredibly high unfavorability ratings, a litany of scandals, and a base rendered unenthusiastic by her vicious primary campaign against Bernie Sanders.
- Right now Clinton holds a high single digit lead over Trump – an advantage, to be sure, but hardly an insurmountable one for the likely Republican candidate.
In short, there is no sound reason to believe that Clinton is guaranteed to best Trump in a general election. On the other hand, there is ample precedent to suspect that whichever candidate wins this election will sweep congressmen from their party into both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the process. If that happens in the event of a Trump victory, this will most likely give him supermajorities with which to enact his legislative agenda – as well as a fresh Supreme Court pick of his very own.
Do I believe this is the most likely outcome? No, but it defies common sense at this point to argue that it isn’t a distinct possibility. Less than one year from today, America could have Donald Trump in the White House, a Republican Congress that feels politically obligated to do his bidding, and a Supreme Court with at least one judge who will likewise feel beholden to him.
I write all of this because, if the people who oppose Trump are going to stop him from taking over America, NOW is the time to take this threat seriously. We can no longer afford to assume that things will work themselves out simply because they have always done so in the past, or because it seems inconceivable that America would really be this stupid. I have no idea what Trump would do if elevated to the highest office in the land – the man has been wildly inconsistent in his policy positions, so your guess is as good as mine – but I do know that, based on his rhetoric, there is a chilling possibility that he will force Muslims to wear ID badges, expel all undocumented Mexican immigrants, violate the First Amendment rights of journalists who criticize him, and cater to the whims of the white supremacists who have been flocking behind his campaign. Symbolically, his election will create a narrative in which America’s first black president was replaced by a man who openly fanned the flames of racism against him throughout his presidency (if you don’t think birtherism is racist, you’re beyond hope), and who defeated our potential first female president despite appealing to gross misogynistic stereotypes throughout his career.
In short, there is a possibility that much of the progress America has made over the last few generations is about to be wiped out. So yeah, people, it’s time to start taking this shit seriously.
Source: 30dB.com – Donald Trump
Can’t see how “Drumpf” could be an accident… There is no spell check the would cause it. Perhaps the author finds it funny to make fun of a foreign sounding name? My family name was changed to avoid negative association in this country. Either own up to bad judgement or stand by it.
It’s too true. In 1930s Germany they thought Hitler and his fanatics had no chance of taking the election. It sounds eerily reminscent…
Thank you, one million times over for writing his name as Drumpf every single time. Very well written article. A lot of truth in here about why we should be afraid.
That was actually an accident, one that I have subsequently corrected.
I’m personally happy to read that, Matthew.
I was able to go back and understand, with clarity, your contention.
Who is “Drumpf?” Did I miss something somewhere? Am I to take this article serious?”
“I write all of this because, if the people who oppose Drumpf are going to stop him from taking over America”, Rather disappointing if this is the best you can do but it does give those who “may” vote for him, some comfort that this is how the other side handles him.
My bad. An absent-minded moment.
And no bitherism isn’t racist. Cruz is white and trump questioned Cruz as equally as he did Barry. Barry you’ll note though waited a long time and never did produce his birth certificate himself. Hawaii did finally. But Barry never did. I don’t care what the left thinks. I think there’s still a cloud on that. In Hillary’s words, what does it matter nownow? But it does matter because of that cloud. Because you call it racist when clearly it’s not. The left has been corrupted Matt as much as you say the right has. It’s an evil stink that… Read more »
There is an article on here that goes deep into the whole denial of citizenship for Cruz.
So, your attempt to belittle President Obama involves baseless accusations and referring to him by a diminutive nickname? Real mature, “Marky.”
As a union organizer said around 1927. First they laugh at you. Then they ignore you. Then they hate you and then you win. Be strong in your conviction in what’s right for the time.
You laughed at Don, Matt . Then you dismissed him. You’ve descended into vitriol now. What’s the next step, Matt, according to history? You know it as well as I. From the mouth of one you’d have heartily supported in his view.
I’m stealing that saying, Mark.
Not only stealing it, but making up t-shirts for every day of the week!
I think the saying needs to be amended to include: “Then they call you Hitler.”
The “Godwining” present in the politics section is omnipresent these days.
a Ph.D candidate resorting to derogatory name calling. That caused me to take serious the message being delivered…
..and it may very well be not that he is taking over America, but taking it back for the rest of the American People . Distinct possibility.
Are you going to call me a name for that opinion also?
What’s really sad is that, in other contexts, Matthew probably supports the right of individuals to define their own labels and titles. But not here. No, Matthew has so de-humanize Donald Trump that he’s happy to deny him the same common courtesies and rights that he would grant others without question.
But is that really what we should be doing? Dehumanizing our opponents? Isn’t that maybe why things have gotten so bad in the first place?