Posted on 07/13/2015 7:06:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Las Vegas — It’s the height of political fashion to bash Donald Trump, and I’ve done my share. It’s harder to understand his appeal, but it’s absolutely necessary if we are to come to terms with the political times we live in.
Anyone who watched Trump’s speech to 2,000 attendees of FreedomFest in Las Vegas on Saturday could easily lampoon his bizarre, meandering, and egomaniacal delivery. But by the time he left the stage, a big chunk of the audience approved of him, and many expressed a willingness to vote for him.
“Trump was upbeat, and, unlike other candidates, he’s a man of action,” Barbara Carter, of Las Vegas, told me after the speech. She is considering voting for Trump. A former resident of Wasilla, Alaska, she was a fan of Sarah Palin’s when Palin was mayor there. She says that both Palin and Trump cut through the politically correct rhetoric of our day and speak plain truths. When I pointed out that Trump never presents any evidence for his charges that the Mexican government deliberately sends rapists and killers to the U.S., she agreed that both Palin and Trump “may have been pushed onto the national stage before they were ready.”
Kate Wright, a writer from Los Angeles, isn’t a likely Trump voter. But she says that the GOP establishment has underestimated the depth of contempt that many conservatives have for the party’s leaders in Congress. “Trump scored big when he said the GOP in Congress complains about Benghazi and the IRS scandal but then seems to forget about them,” she told me. Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina echoed that same theme today when she said on ABC’s This Week: “People are angry at a professional political class of both parties that talks a good game, gives good speeches, but somehow nothing ever really changes.” She has elsewhere noted that Trump benefits from conservative resentment of a media double standard that lets extremists such as Al Sharpton and socialist Bernie Sanders get away with inflammatory statements.
“Trump hits a nerve when he talks about crime by illegal immigrants in Arizona,” Don Edwards, a retired economics professor from Surprise, Ariz., tells me. “He demonstrates that the issue has been ignored because of political correctness, and so he is there to fill the vacuum.” Nonetheless, Edwards isn’t close to considering Trump for president. “He’s economically wrong and uninformed. . . . [He]answered a question on the Federal Reserve by swerving into one-liners about the debt.”
But even some attendees who know enough to be wary of Trump’s Patent Medicine prescriptions are impressed by him. “He is forthright, clear speaking, and he shows leadership,” says Lloyd Nirenberg, a Californian who has a Ph.D. in science and runs a company specializing in rocketry. “I’ve been so disillusioned by other candidates. He is refreshing to listen to.”
Other people I spoke with in Las Vegas said that while Trump is a very entertaining speaker — “He’s like watching a train wreck; you know you shouldn’t look, but you do anyway” — he will probably hit a natural ceiling on his support. They noted the mean streak that lies just under the surface of every speech he makes. He opened his speech by emphasizing that the FreedomFest hosts had to apologize for a scheduling misunderstanding, which made them “semi-honorable” in his view. He then alternated between insulting companies he’s done business with and proclaiming: “I’m a nice guy, really.”
But he reached his low point during a truncated Q&A session with the audience. Roberto Salinas, a respected free-market economist from Mexico, told Trump he was insulted by his remarks about Mexico and asked if he would build walls around every state to prevent criminals from crossing those borders. “I was waiting for this,” Trump snapped. “Did the government of Mexico ask you to come up here and say this?” He then cut off Salinas’s response and called for a wall across the entire southern border. A happy warrior Trump is not.
Donald Trump is not the “rodeo clown” depicted by columnist Charles Krauthammer and others. He is the P. T. Barnum of American politics, a brilliant self-promoter who knows exactly what he’s doing and who changes his opinions constantly to match what he thinks audiences want to hear, much as Barnum used to switch out circus acts between towns on his tour. Barnum, incidentally, entered politics late in life and served as a state legislator and mayor of Bridgeport, Conn.
But even the great showman who was able to fool so many people sometimes went so far out on the edge that he fell off. In the 1850s, Barnum inserted into his shows an elaborate hoax in which he fooled audiences with a weed that would supposedly turn black people white. Some said he even came to half-believe such a thing was possible. Angry customers eventually forced him to drop the hoax, after costing him much business.
Like P. T. Barnum, Donald Trump might well believe everything he is saying in the moment. But, with his Las Vegas speech, Trump showed that while he can attract an audience, he, like P. T. Barnum, lacks the discipline and charm to pull off the Big Sting.
— John Fund is national-affairs correspondent for National Review Online.
I am amazed at the “conservatives” getting suck into the BS hype of the moment. There is no one to the left of this man except Elizabeth Warren.
Hello, National Review, we are sick of the traitorous Republicans in Congress. We are sick of the whining and blaming from the Left. Trump is a fresh voice who is speaking plainly to an audience that is starved for plain-speaking. Quit wallowing around trying to figure it out. That’s it.
What I don’t understand is how these lock-jawed, white bread writers don’t understand The Donald’s wonderfully droll sense of humor - it is classic NYC, Jewish humor with a bit of street smarts and Rush Limbaugh-like egotism thrown in for good measure. The pearl-clutching and fainting-couch collapses are either a sign of humorlessness that is expected in Washington circles or a cynical attempt to convince voters not to pay attention to Trump. I’m not voting for the guy but he breaks me up. He’s always made me laugh. He’s a very funny guy.
I think he had a come-to-Jesus moment. I know I have. After watching what’s going on in recent years, yes I have.
Amazing and sad. Donald Trump has a well-documented record as being a lifelong liberal. He says a few things these people want to hear and he's apparently supposed to be this country's savior. I'm fine with the discussion of ILLEGAL immigration, we need it. But any serious consideration of this liberal for the Republican nomination is just insanity.
Bingo. A bunch of FReepers have lost their FReepin' minds over another lib republican.
And Donald, what the hell have you done outside of running your trap now that you are running for president?
Some. Others have just been liberals all along. But since this is High School, they get to sit at the conservative kids table because they claim to be what actions prove they aren’t.
I know, I was flabbergasted when he came out as a republican.
Yeah, it is almost the same as the obamabots.
Really? Is it the job of "reporters" to point out their agenda? Perhaps that is why we almost never hear any criticism of obummer.
I should add that I do not regard Trump as presidential material, even if he is helping to clear the air on the immigration issue.
At some point people are too angry to bother voting anymore.
RE: At some point people are too angry to bother voting anymore.
Well, if they do that, they have just surrendered the country without a fight.
RE: At some point people are too angry to bother voting anymore.
EDIT TO ADD: Maybe that’s the plan of the Democrats ... pile one outrage after another until decent people simply give up and say .. it’s not worth it anymore.
Saul Alinsky is smiling in hell....
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