Last night, March 10th, 2016, was yet another Republican debate. The field has been whittled down to 4 from the original 22 (though 10 withdrew before Primary voting started... leaving an even dozen). The rhetoric, however, has been elevated to unfathomable levels of purely emotional populist beliefs that flies in the face of reality. During New York Times' live coverage of the debates, Alan Rappeport posted "So far, Trump has flip-flopped on troop levels to fight ISIS, praised Putin and sounded lost on Cuba. Probably won't matter", and that note of resignations just about sums up the trajectory of the Trump run so far.
Trump's appeals to the fears and worries of a certain segment of America has resounded beyond our wildest dreams (though not his... his dreams, even at the tamest, are "huuuuuuge"). This is a segment of America that will truly forgive him if he were to "stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody" (Trump, Sioux Center rally, Iowa Jan 24th, 2016). This is a segment of America that truly believes that Trump is a successful businessman. Trump's business successes grew his net worth from 200 million in 1984 to his current self declared worth of 8.7 billion. However, this growth is just in line with the performance of the S&P 500 since 1982. Meaning, if i had 200 million in 1982 and invested in the S&P 500, in the eyes of Trump supporters, i would be a successful businessman for doing absolutely no business and creating absolutely no jobs whatsoever. There are more inaccuracies in his statements of pseudo-policy and "fact" that we can go into and debunk, but, like Alan Rappeport stated last night, it "[p]robably won't matter" to the Trump supporters.
That is exactly the power of pushing the correct emotional buttons. It completely bypasses logical thought and analysis of facts. When one is harnessed by emotion, one begins to explain away inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and outright lies with an emotionally approved narrative: blame "the lame stream media", "the American hating Muslims", "the illegal immigrants", "the Japanese, taking all our jobs" (yes, a throw back to the 80's that is amazingly resurrected yet again... but with added flavors of China sprinkled about), and "that Barack Obama" (who Trump compared to Putin during last night's debate and stated that, unlike Putin, who has made Russia great again -- with the ruble in the rubble and the oil based economy in the toilet -- Obama has done nothing for America -- with the economy being one of the world's strongest, having recovered from the economic breakdown of the housing market and wall street melt down, all the while fighting wars on multiple fronts in the Middle East).
Emotion is a strong implement, but a blunt implement, and one that is very easy to loose control of. When emotions are fanned and harnessed, it can often lead to nights of long knives and broken glass. Oh, there are winners who sups on the collective emotional outcry. But the down side is that of a country in turmoil and a society broken down by segregation.
i worry about two things. One, Trump winning the Presidency. Two, and more worryingly, the after affects on the American society regardless of who wins the Presidency. One can make the case that Trump is the fruit of the GOP labor of political stagnation and "blame the Democrats and that Barack Obama". Certainly that effort and various GOP miss-steps in domestic policy lead to the rise of the Tea Party, and Trump is essentially the direct result of the populous emotions that birthed the Tea Party, having faced stagnation in D.C. for 8 years, completely mutated and Hulked out in the being of Donald Trump.
And just like the Hulk, once released, it is very hard to restrain. No matter what the outcome of the race is, once the emotions unleashed freely by Trump feels victorious or defeated, it will keep agitating along its emotionally constructed reality until everything has been burnt out around it or it has grasped the world in its hands and choked all opposition from its being.
That, above all, is what i fear the most.
