Trumping America

"It's amazing to me. A guy with the worst spray tan in America is attacking me for putting on makeup.”  "Donald is not going to 'Make America Great.' He's going to make America orange!"

~ Marco Rubio on Donald Trump

Historically presidential election years are characterized by truths and half-truths, partisanship, accusations, a fair bit of slander and enough melodrama to fill up several seasons of daytime TV.  They’re a Machiavellian daytime soap.  It’s popular to look back longingly at elections past and glorify them for having the dignity that never was.  And so we always try to lean on that nostalgia and the pretense that each upcoming election will rediscover statesmanship.  Yeah this election has squashed any hope of decorum. This election year a process that has at least historically pretended to having dignity has all of the decorum of a rolling barrel of random trash.  And that barrel was set in motion by the antics of one Donald J. Trump.  He came onto the political scene with all of the grace and tact of an exploding gasoline truck. 

It’s now become a weird combination of Animal House food fight and orangutans throwing poop.  Nothing made that clearer than the 10^th Republican debate held at the University of Houston.  By  the time it was all done I felt the need to take a cleansing shower and call in the fumigation boys to sanitize the house.  If there was anything of substance in that mayhem you’d have to get Ben Carson to sharpen his scalpel and do some surgical digging.  Better that he go back to surgery than run for president because he is clearly way, way, WAY in over his head.  What became crystal clear very early in that melee was that there would be no meat on the bones; bones that were used to bash each other over the head.  Pathetic doesn’t even begin to describe the spectacle. 

The American people are being hoodwinked by folks who are vying to be the most powerful person on the planet.  And complicit in all of this is the media.  The elections are a shameless money game; not that they haven’t been for decades.  But now the game is clearly out of control. For decades, since I can remember, candidates have sold souls and whatever principles they had for cash.  But it’s clear now that the media has become complicit in a dash for cash.

To his credit, Ben Carson started off the debate with a bit of whimsy, saying that the race isn’t about the candidates, it’s “about the American people.” From there it didn’t just go downhill; hell it plunged into an abyss of libel, slander and childish tantrums.  It only took a few minutes and the first topic, immigration, for the candidates to essentially say “to hell with the American people” and let the event degenerate into a family feud with accusations flying and candidates talking over each other.  Moderator Wolf Blitzer seemed perfectly willing to let the fur fly because you don’t get ratings from intellectual debate.  You garner numbers from providing a view into a train wreck.  And so nearly from the start a debate turned into a 2 hour fracas of name calling, accusations, cross talk, whining, tap dancing around the truth and outright lying.  The American people learned nothing.  And I’m wondering if Americans want to learn anything or just want to watch a fracas.  Because Americans love a fracas, CNN knows that Americans love a fracas and so the so-called news network didn’t close the valve that might have stopped the uncontrolled flow of bile. Moderator Wolf Blitzer didn’t moderate a fucking thing; he was less wolf and more lamb when it came to controlling the nonsense. There were no tough follow up questions and maybe that’s because there were no tough initial questions. My sense is that this was due more to a CNN decision to allow a spectacle than Blitzer’s lack of testicular fortitude. 

And that is where CNN has become complicit in the money game of elections; more dirty laundry equates to more viewers which equates to more money.  The very format panders to the laziness of Americans and the shallowness of candidates.  Each candidate in the recent debate got a whopping 30 seconds for opening remarks.  And so we got opening statements that contained as much essence as a tub of day old dishwater.  For example Ted Cruz regaled the world with;

“Here, Texas provided my family with hope. Here, my mom became the first in her family ever to go to college. Here, my dad fled Cuba and washed dishes, making 50 cents an hour to pay his way through the University of Texas. I graduated from high school at Second Baptist not too far away from here. When I ran for Senate, I promised 27 million Texans I would fight for you every day, and not for the Washington bosses.  And, I'll tell you, as I travel the state, Democrats tell me I didn't vote for you, but you're doing what you said you would do. And, as president, I will do the same.”

I suppose that’s fine if you’re running for junior class president of your high school.

Go back to the Nixon – Kennedy debates of 1960 and you’ll see opening statements that lasted ten minutes or more.  It was a format that compelled substantive comments and required the candidate to exhibit some knowledge of the issues of the day.  Even candidate Nixon, who I loathe, who was outclassed in the first debate and who would ultimately be disgraced, would be a big step up from any of the clowns that took to the stage during any of the debates this election year.  Maybe the candidates and the CNN brass are aware that Americans don’t have the staying power to watch a 10 minute opening statement.  Maybe these candidates know that they don’t have 10 minutes worth of substantive goods to deliver.  Maybe the corporate sponsors are aware of both the former and the latter and have no interest in the notion that the eyes of a million viewers would glaze over 4 minutes into a 10 speech.  Maybe it’s all of the above.  And all of the above present a sad commentary on politics, the media and the American electorate.

The opening statements in the 1960 debates were more substantive than the entire two hours of the recent travesty.  But why take my word for it.  Here are some prime examples from the spectacle of Houston:

On the Trump wall between Mexico and the U.S.:

RUBIO: Yeah, a couple points. If he builds the wall the way he built Trump Towers, he'll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it. The second...

TRUMP: Such a cute sound bite.

RUBIO: But it -- no, it's not a sound bite. It's a fact. Again, go online and Google it. Donald Trump, Polish workers. You'll see it.

The second thing, about the trade war -- I don't understand, because your ties and the clothes you make is made in Mexico and in China. So you're gonna be starting a trade war against your own ties and your own suits.

TRUMP: All right, you know what?

RUBIO: Why don't you make them in America?

TRUMP: Because they devalue their currency -- they devalue their currencies...

RUBIO: Well, then make them in America.

TRUMP: ... that makes it -- well, you don't know a thing about business. You lose on everything...

RUBIO: Well, make them in America.

TRUMP: Let me just tell you -- they de-value their currency. They de-value their currencies.

RUBIO: Well then, make them in America.

TRUMP: That makes it -- well, you don't know a thing about business. You lose on everything you do.

RUBIO: Well, make them in America.

TRUMP: Let me just tell you, they de-value their currencies. China, Mexico, everybody. Japan with the cars. They de-value their currencies to such an extent that our businesses cannot compete with them, our workers lose their jobs...

RUBIO: And so you make them in China and in Russia.

TRUMP: But you wouldn't know anything about it because you're a lousy businessman.

RUBIO: Well, I don't know anything about bankrupting four companies. You've bankrupted..

TRUMP: No, I -- and you know why? You know why?

RUBIO: I don't know anything about...

TRUMP: You know why?

RUBIO: ... starting a university, and that was a fake university.

A discussion about ISIS, one of the greatest threats to peace turned into:

CRUZ: Donald -- Donald, relax.

TRUMP: Go ahead. I'm relaxed. You're the basket case.

(CROSSTALK) Go ahead.

CRUZ: Donald...

TRUMP: Go ahead. Don't get nervous.

CRUZ: (inaudible)...

TRUMP: Go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

CRUZ: I promise you, Donald, there's nothing about you...

TRUMP: I've seen you.

CRUZ: ... that makes anyone nervous.

TRUMP: You're losing so badly you -- I want to...

CRUZ: You know, people are actually watching this at home.

TRUMP: ... I -- you don't know what's happening.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Gentlemen, gentlemen.

CRUZ: Wolf, I'm going to ask my time not be deducted when he's yelling at me.

BLITZER: You've gotta stop this.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: The latest debate -- gentlemen, please.

CRUZ: Hold on, I'm going to get my answer. He doesn't get to yell the whole time.

These are the guys who are asking to be handed the keys to the nuclear arsenal.  Yeah that nuclear arsenal; the one that can vaporize the Earth. 

And speaking of the nukes, in a December interview Hugh Hewitt asked, "Mr. Trump, Dr. Carson just referenced the single most important job of the president, the command, the control and the care of our nuclear forces. And he mentioned the triad. The B-52s are older than I am. The missiles are old. The submarines are aging out. It's an executive order. It's a commander-in-chief decision.

"What's your priority among our nuclear triad?"

Trump stammered and stumbled over some sort of nonsensical response.  Nonsensical because he clearly didn’t understand the question. 

What’s troubling, as regards both Trump in particular and the GOP race in general is a mainstream media that refuses to probe.  On the subject of prescription drug costs Trump stated:

“We are not allowed to negotiate drug prices. Can you believe it? We pay about $300 billion more than we are supposed to, than if we negotiated the price. So there’s $300 billion on day one we solve.”

Trump has used that figure more than a few times; 300 billion per year.  The only problem is that in 2014 Medicare drug costs totaled 78 billion.  It’s a great idea if he can pull it off because it means that my wife, who is on Medicare, could conceivably get paid every time she gets a prescription. 

Why has this never been mentioned in a debate? Hell, under the Trump plan I could get my wife to turn into a junkie and we could make money.

Trump has been the guy to instigate the degeneration of a process that by its nature is nasty to begin with. He was perceived as a sideshow that would lose an audience once the shtick got old.  But the shtick hasn’t gotten old; it’s gained momentum. It’s the proverbial snowball rolling downhill. Nothing seems to shake the loyalty of the Trump faithful.  It doesn’t care that Trump’s Make America Great caps are adorned by tags that say Made in China, or that Trump employed foreign workers in the construction of the Trump Tower or that he often speaks out of both sides of his face or that in one minute he can change from tough talker who’ll bomb ISIS, to a whiner complaining about being treated unfairly by the media.  He blusters in a profane, insulting and defamatory manner and language that he will do this and eliminate that while refusing to present anything resembling a plan.  He is a mockery of the American political system.  And maybe it’s these latter two that keep the Trump train rolling.  Nothing sticks because he presents a plan that has all the depth of a kiddie pool but plays to the emotions of the paranoid, the xenophobic, the racist and most importantly to the folks who feel have been betrayed and marginalized by their party and government.  And maybe most significantly of all; he’s the mouth that’s given voice to those who feel have been gagged by political correctness and a Socialist, godless state.  And while Trump is the instigator du jour he’s simply the culmination of years and decades of government dysfunction.  A Trump has been in our future now for some time.  That it’s this particular odious character is irrelevant.  This is a monster that was created by two political parties that shamelessly went about the business of not doing the business they were elected to do.  The parties, both of them, set aside the needs of the people in favor of the needs of the parties and their patrons; banks, big business, Wall Street, the military-industrial complex and all of the special interests that politicians have been whores to.  The Trump monster was created in the mad laboratory of Washington DC and it will likely tear down one of the two major parties.  I don’t know that the dissolution of one party is a good thing.  The nation was built and has survived on the idea that all ideas make up a system of checks and balances and the destruction of one side can tilt the balance.  I’ve liberal friends who would love nothing more than to see the destruction of the GOP.  I think we’re better served by a restructured GOP that provides a counterpoint to the Democrats.  What good might come of this is that Washington and the American people might actually wake up and come around.

America; here is your country to do what you wish for it.