Trump must expect Jeb to find his dehumanization of illegal immigrants repulsive. But like any good bully, he can smell fear. He knows that Jeb, like most of the other Republican presidential candidates, fears the animal spirits he has awoken inside the GOP base
.. The problem with Trump’s ideas about Mexican American illegal immigrants isn’t that they’re “unrealistic” or “expensive” or “not conservative,” whatever that means. It’s that they’re despicable.
.. Calling Trump a bigot misses the point. It implies that he has genuine convictions. He’s an opportunist using bigotry to feed his megalomania.
Why not Donald Trump?
Trump has articulated a vision of what the president’s job is, and that is to be the chief negotiator for the United States. If that’s the job, who, among his competition, looks like he or she would do it better?
.. it’s not surprising to me that no competing candidate has suffered more from Trump’s ascent than Walker has.
.. Though immigration is the major issue that brought Trump greater attention, Trump’s appeal is not primarily issues-based. Amusingly but unsurprisingly, it’s character-based. Trump calls himself a winner, and presents himself as someone who truly lives by the old “Red” Sanders credo. If you think many of our national problems are due to refusing to think in “we win-they lose” terms, then why not elect someone who plainly thinks that way
Beware the Crusaders
But we must consider what a president is supposed to be—and why Trump is not suited for that office. Beyond issues of gentlemanliness, decorum, and diplomacy—skills in which he’s sadly lacking—Trump also lacks a necessary humility and appreciation of limits. The executive branch of our government is not meant to be dictatorial
.. When a character such as Trump avows that he has changed from his more liberal days—yet says and does nothing to explain such a substantial transformation—it seems best to distrust him.
The Trump Doctrine: “We Want Deal”
When he talks about Mexico “sending people that have lots of problems,” including drugs, crime, and “rapists,” he echoes Francis Walker, the administrator of the 1870 and 1880 censuses, who described new arrivals as “beaten men from beaten races, representing the worst failures in the struggle for existence.”
.. But, for the moment, he remains consistent, and faithful to the political credo of Roger Stone, the former Nixon aide who has advised Trump over the years (and who left the campaign earlier this month). Stone likes to say, “Hate is a stronger motivator than love.”