It reads like a thriller novel: a convoluted, intricate conspiracy created to undermine the Presidency and paralyze the nation. Far-left socialist radicals hiding in the alleyways of Chicago, a city of corruption and deception. A campaign launched in a terrorist’s living room. A Kenyan fooling America into believing he is a citizen, and launching himself to the Presidency.
And not an ounce of it is true, of course. The degree of paranoia that surrounds President Obama’s rise to the White House is insulting not only to our leader, but to the very office which he holds, and to the sensibility of millions of Americans nationwide. Politicians on both sides of the aisle know this. It has been proved time and time again that President Obama was born in Hawaii, as much a state as any other. He legitimately won the Presidency, as the nation witnessed on November 4th, 2008, and the politicians against his policies know that the fallacious conspiracy regarding his identity does not deserve an ounce of anyone’s time.
But the problem isn’t with the politicians. It’s with a new class of individuals with zero political experience and a surprising amount of self-confidence who have infiltrated our political discourse. No, it’s not Obama who is sabotaging our democracy – it is men like Donald Trump. Mr. Trump, who has slandered the President with the most heinous accusation – doubting that he is an American – has never held a political office before, nor has he run a campaign. Suddenly, he sees himself fit to be the leader of the free world. This is a man who has experienced bankruptcy several times first-hand – and yet, he thinks he can heal the economy.
And to top it all off, he’s polling well. Trump, surprisingly, seems to have energized the most misguided part of the conservative base. Not one other credible career statesman endorses his outrageous claims.
What is concerning is not only that Trump has skewed the discourse in a shameless direction, but also the fact that he lacks the necessary qualifications and the humility necessary when leading the world. You need experience to be President. Firing people on day one will not restore jobs. Trump’s attention-seeking statements undermine the rest of the GOP as well, a group of individuals who is working hard to bring the country back on track in the way they think is best. As others push forth economic proposals, foreign policy solutions, and relevant answers as to what should be done about the debt, non-politicians like Donald Trump and Herman Cain are playing the “un-American” card, slandering people they do not agree with in order to de-legitimize them. Unfortunately, their actions de-legitimize the very real efforts of Republican politicians nationwide.
We need to not give non-politicians the microphone they need to distract us all from what’s really important. Prospective candidates like Trump, lavishing in a richesse that disconnects them from the average American, make the GOP look like a disoriented political train wreck, and make the Democrats look like an anti-American conspiracy plotting to corrupt and destroy the nation. It is candidates that have no sense of what being a candidate means that influence the discourse in such a negative direction. Mr. Trump seems never to have taken the basic “Running a Good Campaign 101” class that all politicians go through in their first race. And any real politician’s first race is never for the nation’s highest office. The fact that Obama currently leads Trump 52-34 shows that his tactics, though they may be working for his base, are not working with the rest of America.
So, where is Sarah Palin again? Her supporters now seem a lot more reasonable.
Photo credit: Michele Sandberg via Wikimedia Commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DonaldTrumpFeb09.jpg
© 2024 Harvard Political Review. All rights reserved.