DONALD J. TRUMP IS A POLITICAL EXTREMIST

…Another way to look at the “Trumpster”

 

It’s looking like words like “Fascist” can easily be applied to “The Donald”.

 

For weeks I have been trying to come up with an explanation of Donald J. Trump.

 

At first, I referred to him as most everyone did.  He was the head clown driving the GOP Clown Car and he was going to be another Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain or Michele Bachmann.  You know, a Republican “Flash-in-the Pan”.  Here today, gone tomorrow.

 

But instead, the more outrageous Trump’s positions have become, the higher his poll ratings have gone.

 

Now, before everybody misunderstands what’s going on with the Republican voters, let’s try to put things into a proper perspective.  Trump may have been leading the large pack of Republican candidates since last Summer, that doesn’t mean he has anywhere near a majority of the party’s support.

 

As an example, if Donald Trump has a national poll where he is at say, 25%, and his competitors are all at least 10% below Trump, Trump talks about how, “way far ahead of the other candidates he is”.  According to him, “They [the voters] all love me!”

 

But just what does that 25% really stand for this early in the big picture?

 

The current poll ratings come from when they asked opinions of a slice of those that call themselves Republican voters.  Now remember, the Republican party is substantially smaller than the Democratic party.  So, if we say 40% of all the nation’s voters are Republican, and if the polls say that Trump has 25% of the Republican voters, just how many of the available American voters does Trump actually have?

 

Let’s do the math and assume for demonstration purposes that the total of all the voters in both parties in America is 100 million voters.  If 40% or 40 Million voters are Republicans, and Donald Trump has an estimated poll percentage of 25% of GOP voters, that means 25% of 40 million voters. 

 

 

In other words, of all the possible 100 million voters of both parties, Donald Trump’s 25% poll rating means he has a possible commitment of only 10 million of the total 100 million voters.

 

I’m not saying that today’s poll numbers aren’t important.  I’m just saying that this early in the race, being in the lead but stuck in the 25% to 35% poll position, while not increasing that percentage for 6 months running, that is not an outstanding campaign performance.  Being in the lead position for as long as Trump has, but not improving your poll numbers means that you’re not increasing your position with the voters.  They could still go for another candidate in a heart beat.

 

The real issue is that Trump is still at the top of the pile, but what is that saying about where the Republican voters are today?

 

Does this all just demonstrate something like the statement made by the 1970’s, Norman Beale character from the movie “Network”?  That’s where Beale and his fictional American TV audience were all yelling about the government that, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

 

Are all those that support Trump today just demonstrating how mad they are at Washington and the do-nothing Republican US Congress that currently has an approval rating of 9%?  A percentage that just happens to be the lowest ever congressional approval rating.

 

Now that the GOP voters, and the outrageous Trump, are where they are today, who could we compare this Donald J. Trump to, when we look back at former political world leaders.

 

So far, the only one that I know about to compare Trump to that makes any sense is the former WWII Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini.  Mussolini was a racist, a bigot and a demagogue, just like Donald Trump.

 

And apparently, I’m not alone in that comparison as the conservative military historian Max Boot has tweeted: “Trump is a fascist. And that’s not a term I use loosely or often. But he’s earned it.”

 

Boot was referring to Trump’s latest rant where he floats the idea of making emigrant’s entry into the United States contingent on their religion.  You know, Trump’s idea that, “Muslims not allowed in America.”  (Don't let the issue that Trump's idea is totally unconstitutional get in the way.)

First, Trump went with his pledge to round up and deport millions of illegal Hispanic immigrants.  Then later Trump said he would consider forcing Muslims in the United States to register in a database.  Now, he's going after all the Muslims.

 

As with Mussolini, Trump has endorsed violence being done to dissenters at some of his rallies, but so far, Trump hasn’t gone as far as Benito did during the war.

 

If this all sounds a bit too much, a quantitative analysis of Trump’s speeches was done by the New York Times and they found that Trump echoes what historians said were “the appeals of some demagogues of the past century”.  Just as with Mussolini, Trump’s continued repetition of “divisive phrases, harsh words and violent imagery” are very consistent with sociopaths and demagogues.

 

Even the new House Speaker, Paul Ryan (R-WI) ,who usually stays away from making comments about the presidential candidates, Ryan broke his silence.  Per Ryan, about Trump and his anti-Muslim comments, “This is not conservatism.  What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for,” Ryan added.

 

Absolutely correct, it is total fascism.

 

Even the other GOP leaders, such as Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), have condemned Trump’s proposed Muslim ban. But, with few exceptions, they still pretend that he could be the Republican standard-bearer.  (All the current Republican presidential candidates say they will support the eventual Republican nominee because they don’t think it will be Donald Trump.  As it looks today, they may have to go back on that pledge of support.)

 

Overall, it’s a pretty sad situation when you seriously look at the current Republican presidential campaign debacle.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2015