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Why Donald Trump Matters
RedState ^ | June 16, 2015 | Erick Erickson

Posted on 06/17/2015 3:53:11 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

A friend works for a radio personality who will go nameless. The radio personality has been, off air, a person of deep faith and a listener of problems. But as the personality’s radio career has grown and with it an on air personality that is best known for pointed, direct, and unvarnished advice to callers, so too has the off air personality grown that way.

The friend told me that now the mild mannered person of faith no longer really listens, but interjects advice into conversations and comes across off air like the on air personality. What had been a different person off the airwaves was now the caricature of the on air personality.

Donald Trump strikes me in the same way. Though I enjoyed the spectacle of his 2012 “campaign,” Donald Trump comes across as a personality, not a person. His negatives within the GOP are massive. Even people perceived as establishmentarians like Jeb Bush have higher positives with the base. His advisers and he directly did himself a disservice by playing for bombast and not statesman.

The truth is Donald Trump will not be a winner so much as a spoiler. And in so spoiling the chances of others, he might drag others to hyperbole to stand out in ways that might help them in the primary, but hurt them in the general. The goal of running for President is to get elected President, not to get nominated as a party’s Presidential candidate. The candidates have to keep that in mind.

There is also a reality about Donald Trump’s candidacy that you should also not underestimate. People hate Washington, they hate politicians, and they are perfectly happy to champion a candidate who tells politicians to go to hell and provides creative directions on the path there. Donald Trump’s candidacy does not exist in a nation where people think the politicians actually care about making the country great again. It only exists in a nation of cynics who think the powers that be want to manage decline and profit from it.

Donald Trump is the disrespectful candidate for people who disrespect the process. He’ll be rude. He’ll be loud. He’ll be confrontational. And he won’t get the nomination. But along the way, he will speak to the fears and hopes of a lot of people who no longer connect with Washington or trust the government to get it right.

For a lot of people who hate politicians who go to Washington to get rich off the system like Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), they can trust that Donald Trump is already a billionaire so will not need to enrich himself off the treasury. Trump’s campaign, like Ben Carson’s, makes no sense in an age when people respect Washington. But it makes a hell of a lot of sense in an age when people no longer think their vote matters, but they sure want the crap kicked out of all the politicians they blame for making their vote meaningless.

The people who no longer think they can win in America will side with a guy even they don’t think can win, just to watch him strike the match and burn down all they feel betrayed them. And that, ironically, can give him staying power when coupled with his money.

We’ll see if he actually files a federal financial disclosure.

There is one more thing I want you to know about Donald Trump. I’ve met him and interviewed him before. When the camera was not on and the interview was not going, he was not The Donald. He was a guy who cared deeply for his staff and the people who merely walked in the front door of his building. I want you to know that the Donald Trump I’ve seen in private is not the Donald Trump you see on stage because I think we are not going to see that Trump. It’s our loss and it will be his own loss. The person, a separate entity from the personality, is a good man.

The reason I don’t much care for Rick Santorum is that I’ve seen him, off camera and behind the scenes when no one was supposed to be watching, behave like a spoiled and entitled rich kid snapping at people in a lower position than himself when he did not need to. It’s also why I have a soft spot for Trump. From the same vantage point, I’ve seen him behave kindly to people far lower on the rung of life than him when he did not have to. Character when the camera isn’t rolling counts in my book.

Unfortunately for Trump, The Donald does not come across in public the way Mr. Trump does behind the scenes.


TOPICS: Campaign News; Issues; Parties
KEYWORDS: carson; gop; santorum; trump
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Comments?
1 posted on 06/17/2015 3:53:11 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m more interested in who the radio personality is.


2 posted on 06/17/2015 3:54:31 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard the Third: "I should like to drive away not only the Turks (moslims) but all my foes.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Donald Trump exposes the farce of the Republican Party.


3 posted on 06/17/2015 3:55:53 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - Classical Christian Approach to Homeschool ])
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The goal of running for President is to get elected President, not to get nominated as a party’s Presidential candidate. The candidates have to keep that in mind.

Stopped reading right there.

4 posted on 06/17/2015 3:55:58 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: miss marmelstein

Well, “giving advice” on everything doesn’t sound like Rusty, so probably a little further down the food chain.


5 posted on 06/17/2015 3:56:03 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Santorum is well past his best by date.


6 posted on 06/17/2015 3:56:58 PM PDT by Paladin2 (Ive given up on aphostrophys and spell chek on my current device...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I believe that The Donald is being encouraged by Hillary and others in that camp to run. He is a spoiler and evil.


7 posted on 06/17/2015 3:58:01 PM PDT by Mercat (Donate to Stop the HildeKraken PAC)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Donald Trump matters like Ben Carson matters.


8 posted on 06/17/2015 3:59:26 PM PDT by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why is Erick using imaginary friends to base his hit story, about Trump, on?


9 posted on 06/17/2015 4:00:06 PM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
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To: central_va

But, but, Eric is an influential “Tea Partier” and you and I are just some wing-nuts on a forum! Sit back and soak up his knowledge and wisdom... LOL


10 posted on 06/17/2015 4:00:55 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Pro-gun" liar Donald Trump talks out of both sides of his mouth as he praises gun-grabber Michael Bloomberg
11 posted on 06/17/2015 4:01:12 PM PDT by South40 (Hillary Clinton was a "great secretary of state". - Texas Governor Rick Perry)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Trumps only purpose is to plow the road for Christie. Mexican walls and resurrecting Patton are simply wild statements the, “more reasonable” Christie can observe to see which way the wind will take then and then adopt the more popular when Trump conveniently drops out for “business reasons”


12 posted on 06/17/2015 4:03:19 PM PDT by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

He matters because he has a sh!tload of money.

And he doesn’t mix words. He can take the other so called candidates down a notch or two just because he can.


13 posted on 06/17/2015 4:03:58 PM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They sycophantic ramblings of some so-called conservative FReepers when it comes to Trump is amazing. Of course, these same delusional morons think McConnell and Boehner are MUCH BETTER than Reid and Pelosi. No amount of evidence to the contrary can shake them from their RINO loving ways.


14 posted on 06/17/2015 4:07:14 PM PDT by Fledermaus (NO RINO 2016 or I stay home. Shove it FR RINO lovers.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Looks like “The Donald” had a little paid help for his big rollout.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-trump-campaign-offered-actors-803161


15 posted on 06/17/2015 4:07:24 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Sad fact, most people just want a candidate to tell them what they want to hear)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Trump said all the right things.
That simply cannot be tolerated.
Only our people are permitted to say all the right things.
(which thus far they haven’t)


16 posted on 06/17/2015 4:09:55 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: SpaceBar
Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Mao and Stalin said “all the right things” that their people wanted to hear. How’d that work out?
17 posted on 06/17/2015 4:14:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: cripplecreek

Not only that:

There’s Something Odd About Donald Trump’s Facebook Page
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3301116/posts


18 posted on 06/17/2015 4:16:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: muir_redwoods

Trump conveniently drops out to spend more time with his hair.


19 posted on 06/17/2015 4:18:26 PM PDT by RetSignman (Obama is the walking, talking middle finger in the face of America)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Trump’s now Hitler!


20 posted on 06/17/2015 4:19:02 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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