Turning the Trump Debate Back to Real Issues
August 20, 2015
Donald Trumps rude and vulgar
manner as disdainful Fox News Sunday panel member George Will insists
on labeling it means he cant cant possibly win the
Republican nomination, let alone become president. Thats the conclusion
of a fairly significant majority of recent political commentaries Ive
read despite his increasing popularity as measured by the crowds
he draws when he makes a personal appearance and the spike in TV viewership
whenever he is interviewed.
On this topic, William Sullivan didnt mince words:
[U]ltimately, if we can continue to do no better than elect a guy
who loves the media limelight, who is all the while being given airtime
by the media for its own purpose of promoting his celebrity, the republic
will be truly lost.
In addition, Trumps critics are fond of looking
back over his political backsliding, the way hes changed
his mind, how hes contributed to causes and candidates no self-respecting
conservative would dare to approach. To this point, early as it is in
the electoral process, J.R. Dunn issued a warning about the 2016 election
that dramatically misrepresented Trumps politics: Dont
kid yourselves: if you support Trump, you are supporting the Democrats,
you are supporting liberalism, you are supporting the elite.
It may, though, finally be starting to become a bit clearer
to Trumps denouncers that Americans are fed up with the Republican
establishment, the same group of politicians that have given up every
gain made during the Reagan years in a go-along-to-get-along performance
that has not only alienated conservatives, but affected the way even political
moderates are looking at the current presidential campaign. They might
be closer to understanding that Trump is speaking not just for conservatives,
but for a significant majority of the American people on many issues.
Ill keep the focus here on illegal immigration,
an issue Trump brought to the forefront of Americas collective consciousness,
and one on which his campaign has spoken officially.
Heres what polling firm Paragon Insights found the
people of America think about one aspect of the immigration issue:
When asked about President Obamas executive
action allowing as many as four million undocumented immigrants to avoid
deportation and seek jobs in the United States, 58% of registered
voters say they oppose this measure, while only 36% are in support of
the measure. . . . Even further, more than seven-in-ten respondents are
in support of Congress passing new legislation that would strengthen laws
making it illegal for businesses in the United States to hire illegal
immigrants.
Recently released data the most disturbing Ive
ever seen about what American immigration policy is doing to the citizens
of our country provides background as to why so many feel this
way:
Since 2008, in Texas alone illegal aliens have committed
more than 600,000 crimes. Nearly 3,000 of those crimes were murders.
It doesnt stop there.
Since 2008, illegal aliens committed and were convicted
of 38 percent of all murders a total of more than 7,000 killings
in California, Texas, Arizona, Florida, and New York. Illegals
make up less than six percent of the population in those states.
The statistics were overwhelmingly ignored by network
news media. Only Fox News Channels Bill OReilly cited the
Texas data in one of his broadcasts, as far as Im aware.
In the wake of the Trump campaigns publication of
its Immigration Plan, Rasmussen Reports published some enlightening poll
results indicating how Americans feel about the issue of illegal immigration:
Among all likely voters, 51% favor building a wall on
the border; 37% disagree, and 12% are not sure. Eighty percent (80%) support
the deportation of all illegal immigrants convicted of a felony; only
11% are opposed. 70% of Likely Republican Voters agree with the GOP presidential
hopeful [Trump] that the United States should build a wall along the Mexican
border to help stop illegal immigration. Seventeen percent (17%) of GOP
voters disagree, while 13% are undecided. Ninety-two percent (92%) of
Republicans agree that the United States should deport all illegal immigrants
who have been convicted of a felony in this country. Only four percent
(4%) disagree. (Italics mine.)
Its all well and good for his critics to trumpet
generalities about how Trumps immigration policies are too expensive
to implement and how it would be impossible to actually round up all those
illegal immigrants and herd them out of the country, as if thats
how it would be done. His political and journalistic opponents are fond
of spouting such absurdities, perhaps in the hope of making people think
that the author of The Art of the Deal is not smart enough to understand
that implementing his immigration policies might not happen overnight,
but might actually take some time. His critics may well be whistling past
the political graveyard if they think Americans are going to listen to
such nonsense as theyre currently hearing from all too many public
commentators.
Trump is redefining what the term mainstream
means. Its my sense that his adversaries are about to discover that
in fact its they who are no longer in the mainstream, and theyre
going to have to swim like hell to catch up.
What they and all of us need to do is to
take Trump seriously. His instincts are dead on. The issues he focuses
on are the very issues that are important to the American people. The
way he expresses himself resonates with the American electorate in a way
that most politicians, entrapped as they are in a collective political-speak
cocoon, simply cant understand, let alone come close to matching.
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