Like him or not, Donald Trump has his fingers on the pulse of the American people. He knows what they want, and he knows how to get it to them. I don’t know if you could call him the “greatest showman who ever lived,” but you can’t deny that he is by far the man who can spin heads in his direction, and he can make headlines. There is no doubt that, like Barnum, he is a “master showman.”
The political class is as disoriented by Trump as an anthill that has been stepped on. They don’t know what to think of him in the political arena, and every time they pontificate about how he will self-destruct, they are caught flat-footed with their mouths agape when he doesn’t.
Both the media and politicians were smug and self-righteous last week when Trump was asked a question about Sen. John McCain being a war hero. When Trump answered the question in his usual unfiltered way, the media and other political talking heads, including some running for president, were aghast and counted the hours to his demise. The majority of them said that he could never survive a faux pas like that and that the American people would begin to shun him.
They could not have been more wrong. Not only did his comments not collapse his candidacy, they actually bolstered it. Trump knows what he is doing, and he is channeling a quote attributed to Barnum who said, “The public is wiser than many imagine.”
Many in the “old school media” and many “academic and political scholars” don’t get it – but Trump does. So do some of the Democratic elites that molded Obama into a shiny bright new star full of “razzle dazzle.” Obama had smart handlers who took a shiny new penny and sold it to America as a piece of gold. No one really knew who Obama was, and they didn’t realize that he was all smoke and mirrors, blather with no substance – but it worked to put Obama in power. The people bought it hook, line and sinker, and the results have been devastating.
So the bottom line is that when the majority of American voters are fed-up with Washington, they look for an alternative. Trump knows how to grab their attention. It’s all about show business, it’s all about whom people are talking about – and right now they are talking about Trump. He knows that to get the attention needed to be a contender in this race he has to emerge as something different and tap in to what the American people are hungry for. He is doing that. Trump is playing this game of running for president as if it were a reality show called “The Great Race to the White House.” He has people hooked on what he is saying, and he is waking them up to issues no one else will tackle. Before Trump, no one in the Republican Party would even speak about illegal immigration or sanctuary cities; it was tabled until some far off date in the future. Those who did take a stand on issues that were important to the voters were dismissed or ignored by the mainstream media and the “do-nothing Republicans.”
But no one ignores Trump. Like P.T. Barnum, he is the modern-day patron saint of promoters, and the media can’t help but follow his every word. It is a political reality show with something new every week.
Trump has been the best thing to happen to the Republican Party in a long time. He may not and probably won’t make it to the finals in this race, but there is no doubt that he has succeeded in making every other Republican candidate step up to the plate, put on their big boy or girl pants and try to hit it out of the park. You can already see the results with Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham beginning to catch on to the game with their current ads showing Graham destroying his cell phone and Paul taking a chainsaw to the U.S. tax code. That is the way you have to play the game these days. Look what it did for Sen. Joni Ernst in Iowa when she threatened to castrate Washington. She won, didn’t she?
Everyone tries to make us believe that politics is such a “serious” business. Yes, it is when major decisions are being decided, but not when the race is being run. The election process is all a game, and whoever is better at the game wins. The old rules don’t apply anymore; it is a brave new world and the stakes are high. The old and tired candidates like Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush are going to find it harder than they thought to just waltz in and win this one, and they are beginning to see that. Today, you have to be “controversial” or “sexy” or “outrageous” to grab the attention of the voters. If you don’t stand out, it doesn’t matter how great of a governor, senator or congressman you are, you will just be lost in the shuffle. Trump gets it. One can only hope that for the sake of this country the candidate who does finally win will be a true leader and not just an empty suit.
Maybe for a moment Trump has turned the political system on its head – but just be honest: Wouldn’t you love to see him win the nomination, debate Hillary, go on to win the White House and on Inauguration Day politely say to Barack Obama – “YOU’RE FIRED!”?
I would “pay” to see that!
Media wishing to interview Morgan Brittany, please contact [email protected].
|
