Trump is on a roll, no doubt about it. Despite, or maybe because of, all the things about him that are under normal conditions considered gauche and crass and just plain mean, he has become the darling of the political scene. The media lie in wait for their opportunity for a “Trumpism” or a gotcha moment. They have quit covering anyone but Trump in real time because you just can’t script this stuff.
You either love him or love to hate him.
P.T. Barnum has been credited with the phrase “there’s a sucker born every minute.” It appears that he wasn’t too far off the mark and sadly Mississippi has fallen prey to the sideshow like most of the GOP voting landscape.
If you remember the old westerns there would be the episode with an unprincipled traveling salesman. Inevitably the sheriff recognized the danger the snake oil salesman posed to his town he would warn him to move along. The townspeople would protest and at the end of the episode the sheriff would be proven correct and all would be well. Mob mentality would be overcome by common sense.
Where is our wise sheriff? The GOP who pride themselves on being the party of good business and good sense, seem to have fallen for the snake oil Trump is peddling.
He is a regular topic of discussion in tones of disbelief and disgust. I listen to the political talking heads who postulate and hypothesize and blunder about trying to understand and then articulate why Americans are so enamored with his buffoonery.
The recurring theme is that the American voter is so mad they are looking for outsiders with no ties to the Washington beltway.
What?
Let’s take a little responsibility, shall we?
The only reason Washington is what Washington is would be because we keep voting the same quality of characters back into office. Does that mean we are mad at ourselves and Trump is our method of self-flagellation?
Even more unbelievable is that we might consider Trump an outsider! He has made it his business to be an insider and buy everyone who was for sale, which to hear him tell it, was pretty much the whole kit and kaboodle.
We created the problem and now we are potentially compounding it by putting in someone who is as big a charlatan as has ever sold the public a bill of goods. The order of magnitude for this charade far exceeds the Bernie Madoff scam.
One can only conclude our valuation of entertainment now rises to those issues that were once considered the purview of serious people with serious ideas.
The name calling and the deliberate attempt to bully his opponents is political mud-wrestling the like of which we have never seen. It isn’t even a discussion of ideas that have been elevated by passion. When you don’t have any answers apparently it is enough to say it will be “really great.”
I can’t imagine that we would accept that silly answer from our local elected officials. Heaven forbid that we would accept it from our national leaders.
The other prevalent theory is they are supporting someone who is verbalizing what they are thinking.
Let me get this straight. We are looking for someone to lie to us because it is what we want to hear, not because it is something they can actually do. I want to meet the person who truly believes in his heart of hearts “the Donald” is going to build the “Great Wall of Mexico” and then get Mexico to pay for it.
And when you think about it why build a wall when a frequent method of getting across the border from Mexico into the United States is by a tunnel? Another point of note would be why build a wall when the net immigration from Mexico is now a negative number?
Of course, if Trump were to win, Mexico and Canada might feel it necessary to put up a wall to keep us out.
I spoke with some friends who normally vote on the Democratic side of the table and was fascinated to learn they had voted in the Republican primary solely for the reason of voting against Trump. It reminded me of the city election a few years ago when members of the local Republican Executive committee voted in the Democratic Primary in order to vote against an incumbent.
When we drop all pretense of upholding our principles in order to get a “win”, who are we?
Lynn Spruill, a former commercial airline pilot, elected official and city administrator owns and manages Spruill Property Management in Starkville. Her email address is [email protected].
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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