by Allen Clifton
I’m not going to lie, the more I study Trump the Republican
pretender candidate, the more I think he just might be an absolute
genius. Now don’t get me wrong, I still think he’s a vile human being,
but as a Republican pretender candidate he might just be brilliant.
Let’s start out with how this all came to be. For years Trump built a
solid following among conservatives as an anti-Obama birther who bashed
the president any chance he got. Not only that, but he dedicated quite a
lot of his time to attacking Hillary Clinton as well. And to wingnut voters, if you show unrelenting disdain toward those two,
they’ll pretty much worship you. Hell, he managed to get himself a
weekly feature on Fox News’ Fox & Friends where he was promoted (for
free) on America’s most-watched wingnut entertainment channel.
But when it comes to understanding the mind of wingnut voters, make
no mistake about it – Trump gets it. He knows that it doesn’t matter if
what he’s saying is true, just as long as it’s what conservatives want
to hear. Which is why when he called most Mexican immigrants criminals
and rapists, he didn’t hesitate and he sure as heck didn’t back down.
Why would he? That’s what most wingnuts wanted to hear. In fact,
had he walked back his comments it would have only hurt him in the
polls.
After that came his controversial comment about John McCain’s war
record. Now, even I was a bit unsure how this might play out for him.
Then he pulled out another “genius’ move by shifting the conversation
away from what he said about McCain to the ongoing issues facing our
veterans and our VA system. As we all know, that’s a go-to issue
Republicans like to harp on – even if they never do anything about it.
However, there’s also the reality that most conservatives don’t like
McCain anyway. They ran him through the mud in 2000 during the Republican cabal
pretender primary and couldn’t have cared much less about him in 2008
when he was trounced by President Obama. So, while Trump’s remarks were
off-putting for some who fiercely defend veterans, the fact he shifted
some of that focus to our government’s continued incompetence with
providing for our veterans, and how McCain has been a part of problem,
was a fairly intelligent political maneuver. Somehow he managed to mock a
war hero – and still went up in the polls.
Then there’s the fact that it’s almost impossible to really attack him
for anything. He’s proven time after time that if one of these other
Republican candidates comes after him, he has no problem saying whatever
he has to say to come out looking stronger and more “in charge” than
they do. He really doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him, and he
doesn’t have any sort of political career to protect like many of these
other candidates do. He’s rich, 69 years old and really has nothing to
lose. Even if his campaign fails, he’s still going to be a billionaire.
Aside from all of that, he’s also put the Republican cabal in a no-win
situation. The rnc sure as hell doesn’t want him to be their candidate.
But at the same time, they can’t just go after him to tear him down
because if they really tick him off he can run as a third-party
candidate and ruin any hope they might have at stealing the presidency in
2016.
