Donald Trump is surging. He’s tapped into the anger within the electorate about how Washington has failed to do anything about immigration. Yet, it’s really grounded in what voters see as a lack of the rule of law on this issue and many others, specifically Obamacare, coming from the Obama administration. The president’s delay of the employer mandate is arguably on the precipice of violating separation of powers, but that’s for another time. The Donald wants to “make America great again,” but he doesn’t want to tell you how he would do it. He has no issues section on his website, as Rare’s Corie W. Stephens noted yesterday. She also wrote that we shouldn’t be surprised:
Trump’s political speeches tend to be rambling, barely coherent declarations of self-promotion, often citing how rich he is and listing off people who allegedly ask him for favors. Trump has made vague policy commentary in the form of statements such as “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall, mark my words.”Trump also laid out a hypothetical scenario in which he will, “call up the head of Ford,” who will then wait until the next day to call him back, to “play it cool.” Suddenly, Ford will decide not to build a plant in Mexico and instead bring the jobs to the United States. Voila! How such lofty goals will miraculously be achieved is anybody’s guess. In Trump’s mind, he appears to have the magic touch, no policy analysis or political finesse required.
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Take what Trump wrote in his book “The America We Deserve” about health care. He called for a single-payer system that is further to the left of Obamacare, and reflects a position held by self-avowed socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. He also called for an “assault weapons ban” and described himself as pro-choice in the same book.
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Politicians can of course, have sincere and informed changes of heart from time to time. But Trump’s “evolution” and current lack of substance smacks of political opportunism. This is a man who went from hiring undocumented workers for his various real estate projects to fashioning himself as an immigration hardliner when he felt the political winds necessitated it.
Trump is a celebrity*, and a great entertainer.
That doesn’t mean he’s suited to be the next president. Nevertheless, Trump won’t be the 2016 Republican nominee, and he won’t be the next president. So, there’s that sobering fact.
*Don't get me wrong, the WWE bits are highly entertaining.