Ken Berwitz
We were fortunate enough to be out with friends during most of last night\’s Republican debate.
When we got home, put the TV on and watched “highlights”, we were disgusted by it.
Donald Trump is doing to the Republican Party what he did to the United States Football League (for some reason, almost no one talks about Trump\’s actions and tactics in that league and how it contributed to the league\’s demise – but Ben Terris, writing for the Washington Post, did provided an excellent analysis last October).
Trump\’s game – then and now – is blustering, bullying, attacking, and essentially destroying everything in his wake. He did it to the USFL then, and he\’s doing it to the Republican Party now.
If you want to see Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in the White House, Donald Trump is doing everything he can to make it happen.
Yes, we are all glad that someone is talking without a script or focus group-tested cutesy slogans. But when someone does that in the quest to be President, it is necessary that what comes out of his mouth is more than vile attack-dog vomit, with nothing about how he would accomplish any presidential goal other than a recital of how great he is and variations on the “don\’t worry, I\’ll get it done” theme.
From what we saw, there was little to that debate other than Donald Trump drawing attention to himself any and every way he could, but mostly by attacking others – especially Jeb Bush, who he has decided it is the most fun to personally, viciously insult….with some nasty interplay between Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz mixed in.
If Republican primary voters are intelligent enough to see this (and, frankly, it doesn\’t require a lot of intelligence), they will finally perform the long-overdue job of exorcising this disgrace on legs with their votes.
If they don\’t, if they are so “impressed” with this barroom loudmouth, it is an excellent bet that Hillary Clinton, or another Democrat, will be in the White House next year at this time. And while Ms. Clinton or Mr. Sanders will be picking three or four new supreme court justices, Trump will go back to his “for rich people only” life, while assuring us that he is still just as great as always, everyone loves him, and the loss was everyone else\’s fault.
If that\’s what Republicans want, it is right there in front of them for the taking. Do they?
