Trying to keep up with Donald Trump’s wild and careless pronouncements reminds me of Lucille Ball overwhelmed by the candy conveyor belt in an iconic I Love Lucy episode. Sorry for the arcane reference, but Lucy fans might appreciate the memory.
His latest contribution was last week’s assertion that Hillary Clinton is playing the “woman card” and that without that trick up her sleeve she’d not get 5 percent of the vote. Hillary is certainly playing the “woman card,” as you have to play the cards you’re dealt. She is a woman after all.
When it comes to cards, The Donald has been playing many cards in his effort to trump the opposition. He’s played the “misogynist card,” “racist card,” “religious bigot card,” “obscene card,” “anti-immigrant card,” “bully card,” and “pandering card” constantly. He’s certainly a “wild card.” And “Joker” comes to mind. He’s played so many “cards” it seems he no longer has a full deck, although I don’t know that he started with one.
If this weren’t so serious it would be quite amusing. Watching the Republican establishment and the political punditry going apoplectic is a grand show. “How did we go wrong?” “We should have stopped him months ago. It’s too late now.” “Our party will be in ruins.” They act as though Donald Trump crashed their otherwise civilized party, brought in a gang of rowdies with a couple of cases of Coors Lite, and now they can’t get back to the finger sandwiches and Chardonnay.
Trump is really just a front man. In politics, as in business, he has no substance. As many have documented, his business “success” is mostly a “Make America Great Again” hat and very few cattle. Most buildings that bear the Trump name have licensed the use of his “brand.” He wouldn’t know most of the things in his product line if he tripped over them. He just sells his infamy to any bidder who wishes to stick “Trump” on an over-priced product. And now he’s stuck his brand on the Republican Party.
Enjoy the party, my conservative friends. Trump is just dancing with the ones who brought him. He’s not an anomaly. He’s the inevitable consequence of decades of dog whistling. If you blow that whistle long enough, eventually a really aggressive pit bull will show up . . . and Trump is your man.
What did you Republicans think might happen when you encouraged the reprehensible narrative that the president of the United States is not a citizen? Latent and blatant racists all over America were empowered to take their ugly rhetoric from the barstool to the streets.
Many years of Republicans’ thinly veiled sarcasm about feminism and attempts to repress women’s reproductive rights have opened the door wide for Trump to stroll in with both misogynist barrels blazing. The feminist, normal-bodied Rosie O’Donnell is a “pig.” Look at Carly Fiorina’s face! Megyn Kelly was bleeding from “somewhere.” Hillary’s bathroom trip was “disgusting.” Yahoos from coast to coast now feel moral authority to declare their divine right to keep women in their place.
Conservatives have been railing against political correctness for decades. Empathy is political correctness. Compassion is political correctness. Civility is political correctness. Any talk of social justice is political correctness or “playing the victim card.” Here too, Trump has taken the steady hum of “political correctness run amok” and turned it into profanity, open racism, incivility and bullying. He’s given a segment of America free license to unleash inner resentments over women’s rights, affirmative action and other progressive challenges to social injustice.
Republicans are surprised that Trump has such a broad following? They act as though Trump created this phenomenon. Trump created nothing. The GOP has race-baited, subtly invited suspicion of immigrants and Muslims, and had a good laugh at the expense of social activists for decades. They enabled the Tea Party with its many regressive, anti-government views. The Trump constituency has been cultivated for many years.
Trump just happened to come along at the right time. I don’t know that he shares many of his supporters’ views. He doesn’t even have a view, but he sure knew a branding opportunity when he saw it. The last few decades of Republican rhetoric created a whole cadre of folks who were just waiting to wear the Trump brand on hats, T-shirts and other apparel. You reap what you sew.
Steve Nelson lives in Sharon and New York City, where he is the head of the Calhoun School, a private school. He can be reached at steve.nelson@calhoun.org.