OK, let’s give him his due.
Businessman and reality TV host Donald Trump has titillated the Republican electorate and has talked forthrightly about hot-button issues in a way that other candidates only seem to pussyfoot around.
He has name recognition, brass and money. But that’s about it.
Trump also has a marked lack of couth, no political experience and has not been a consistent conservative.
It’s clear, having lived under a president for nearly seven years who governs against the will of the people, skirts Congress and seems to have contempt for much the country holds dear, the electorate is seeking something out of the ordinary.
Trump is out of the ordinary, but so is almost the entire field of Republican candidates. Only former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum have run for president before, and neither one of them are likely to get very far this time around.
But what is most troubling about the candidate who has been the front-runner in many GOP polls since July, beyond a bombastic naivety on foreign policy and a lack of specifics on domestic issues, is an utter lack of decorum.
For sure, the GOP electorate is seeking candidates who will stand up for what they believe in, will go toe to toe with Democrats and will vow to overturn the wrongs they believe have been visited on the country by President Obama. But a candidate who campaigns by insult is in fact an insult to the campaign.
Trump may have toned down his rhetoric a bit since he began his campaign with an unnecessary insult to Mexican immigrants, but his bombast in no way has stopped.
During just the month of October, he seemed to take a swipe at candidate Dr. Ben Carson’s faith, said 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney authored a “choke loss to Obama,” tabbed former George W. Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen “a third-rate talent,” called political analyst Bill Kristol “dopey” and said he has “lost all credibility,” referred to radio host Glenn Beck as “a real nut job” and said candidate Jeb Bush was pathetic.
His September jabs, of course, included his infamous “Look at that face” remark about candidate Carly Fiorina.
And those were all Republicans he was ripping. His utterances broke – more like shattered – former President Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”
Trump said he is a “counterpuncher” and “only takes aim at people who have slugged him first.” That’s both disingenuous and shows a lack of maturity in being able to handle criticism that – like it or not – is the mother’s milk of a bruising political campaign.
The job of president of the United States should be a bully pulpit, a position in which the most powerful person in the country can inspire, explain, cajole and buck up the country. It should not be the pulpit for a bully.
We long, after these past seven years, for someone who is one of us, someone who has the genuine faith of Jimmy Carter, the self-deprecation of Ronald Reagan, the familial love of George H.W. Bush and the keen intellect of Bill Clinton.
Donald Trump, let’s face it, is not one of us.
Last week, he talked about a “small” $1 million loan from his father. He inherited part of his father’s more than $200 million net worth. He has received protection from bankruptcy courts in excess of $100 million.
Trump has never worried about the rising price of groceries, the affordability of senior care for a parent, transportation to a job or the cost of putting children through college.
If the Republican electorate wants a businessman, he certainly fits the bill. But his businesses are not like yours or your neighbor’s. He’s never agonized over adding one more employee, about whether his business could offer benefits or if there would be enough for the family to live on since so much money had to go back into the business.
Trump for the last three months has been the GOP’s summer romance, the one you have fun with before you settle down, the one you date but don’t marry.
With only a year until the 2016 presidential election, it’s time to be serious. It’s time to realize this front-runner can’t just rely on his managerial skills, as he says, to deport 11 million illegal immigrants; that the situation in the Middle East is beyond simply allowing Russia to bomb Syria; and that “something terrific” that he’d “work out with hospitals across the country” is not the answer to a replacement for the Affordable Care Act.
It’s time to stop dating Donald Trump and look for a keeper.