Just how wacky is this presidential campaign?
I cannot identify any single source, but it seems as though we can find some element of that wackiness in this scenario.
Donald J. Trump is getting pounded by foes on both ends of the spectrum as he continues to lead the way among the Republican Party presidential candidates.
Consider this, for instance.
Intellectual conservatives say Trump isn’t one of them. They point to his statements in favor of a woman’s right to choose an abortion; they take note of his stance in favor of universal health care; they question why he has said President Bush “lied” the nation into fighting the Iraq War.
He’s not a true Republican, let alone a conservative Republican, which is where the party establishment has been leaning for the past decade or two.
The party establishment cannot stomach the idea of Trump being the party nominee. They fear what that would mean for the party’s control of the U.S. Senate and in the many statewide races across the country. Trump cannot possibly lead the Republican slate of candidates, they say.
Then we have those on the other end. I’m one of those folks.
Trump’s public presence is a ghastly reminder of how ignorant he is about government. He doesn’t understand the limits of the presidency. Trump’s stated intention is to do all manner of things by himself, or so one could be led to assume.
Many of us are horrified at the insults he has hurled: at a TV news anchor, at disabled people, at a U.S. senator’s distinguished military service, at voters of Iowa, at all of his political foes, at Hispanics.
He recently actually threatened the speaker of the House of Representatives, fellow Republican Paul Ryan, by saying he could pay a price if he and Trump don’t get along.
And, oh yes, there’s that feigned ignorance of who ex-Klansman David Duke is and what the organization to which he once belonged stands for.
Those on the right and those on the left cannot stand this guy.
But he’s leading the race for the Republican Party presidential nomination. Who’s voting for him?
Evangelical voters are giving him a pass for his acknowledged extramarital affairs. Hard-core Republicans are backing him because he “tells it like it is.”
They’re fed up with “politics as usual.”
Well, what they’re likely to get with Donald Trump is a brand new kind of politics never before seen.
You want wackiness? This guy is delivering it.