Chris Cillizza has an
entertaining piece on Donald Trump's entrance into the GOP race that makes little sense to me. He worries that Trump is "terrible for politics" because he's such a distraction from the
real GOP candidates.
He is the car-accident candidate. You know you shouldn't slow down to look but you know you will.
In actuality, Trump's just part and parcel of the GOP clown car—a slightly grander and more visible representation of the GOP's worst traits. Yes, he's hyperbole. No, he's not going to win. But he is quite more than just a punchline—he's a village idiot who unwittingly says a lot about the village.
Just look at his policy statements on immigrants, for instance.
"They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we're getting."
That's simply a reflection of the xenophobia that exists in a core part of the Republican base. It's why Marco Rubio started stressing
border security first after his ratings
plummeted due to his work on immigration reform. It's what fueled John McCain's desperate pitch to finally "
complete the danged fence" at the southern border, as if that's actually a solution to fixing our immigration system.
More Trump.
Mr. Trump’s policy views can be just as provocative as his demeanor. In the past, he has called climate change “a hoax” and said he has a “foolproof” plan to defeat the Islamic State that he will not reveal so as not to tip off the group.
Sure, his climate change claim is ludicrous, but it's consistent with the views of
59 percent of conservative Republicans. And that's no joke. It's exactly why Jeb—the supposed grown-up in the race—is now
equivocating on whether humans are contributing to the warming of the planet.
As for claiming to have a "foolproof" plan without providing any details—that's exactly what Republicans are claiming right now on Obamacare and have been claiming for five years. In fact, they essentially took over the House and the Senate on the notion that they had an answer to Obamacare—one they have yet to produce.
Trump may represent the lowest common denominator in the Republican Party, but it doesn't mean that common denominator doesn't exist. Every single GOP candidate is angling for a piece of it. Trump's just going to put an exclamation point on it.
