General Discussion

eridani

(51,907 posts) Fri Jul 31, 2015, 02:21 AM Jul 2015

Why Donald Trump Is Winning

http://www.thenation.com/article/why-donald-trump-is-winning/

While it’s tempting to laugh Trump off as an eccentric celebrity gadfly—or relegate coverage of his campaign to the entertainment pages, as the Huffington Post recently did in an unusually earnest fit of pique—there’s a reason why Trump is so far setting the tone for the Republican primary: More than any other candidate, he cynically and shamelessly panders to the party’s increasingly paranoid style. This element, sadly, can no longer be considered a fringe collection of refuseniks, denialists, birthers, repealers, and conspiracy-mongers; it’s now firmly in the GOP mainstream. While Trump was playing the militiaman in Laredo, Texas, for example, 235 House Republicans voted to pass the Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act (dubbed the “Donald Trump Act” by Democrats), which would block these cities from receiving federal law-enforcement aid—despite the fact that sanctuary cities are safer than others, and despite the fact that, pace Trump, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

As long as Republican leaders continue to rely on such demagoguery, it’s hard to see why conservative voters would prefer the C-SPAN version over the full Trump. And if the GOP does find itself with Donald Trump as its standard-bearer in the general election, it will have finally reaped what it has sown.