Trump has confounded pundits who have repeatedly predicted his demise. There are a few reasons why he resonates so well with Americans. Even though the other candidates aren’t Trump, there are tips they could use for connecting in a Trump-like manner with the American people.
I have always maintained in my writing and speeches that there is no such thing as a social issue – that it is hyperbole imposed by statists to make conservatives’ winning issues off limits for debate. All issues are fiscal issues, I believe, because they all have fiscal impact. Take abortion, for example, the most quintessential “social issue” of the day. The Planned Parenthood videos show that money is the motivation behind aborting babies to sell their body parts. Also, when taxpayers fund Planned Parenthood to the tune of $1.5 million per day, that can hardly be relegated to a social issue. That is very definitely a fiscal issue, as well.
On our tour for our bestselling book, “What Women Really Want,” we asked women what they really want. They said they wanted national security, economic security and constitutional solvency. Ironically, that was the same thing men really wanted. Even more ironically, most women didn’t feel like the issues being discussed in the media were the things that really mattered to them (birth control, abortion access, equal pay), and they were more inclined to believe there was a war on men in the U.S., than a war on women.
Women did agree that there is absolutely a war on women, but they believed that it was being waged by Islam around the world, not conservatives in America.
Had other politicians listened (and to a degree, others have, and they are doing well in the polls, too), they would be the Trump of the day. Hiding from social issues because Karl Rove said to was the mistake that cost long-time presidential hopefuls the most. Here’s why:
1) Politicians have attempted to emasculate men. Trump stands contrary to that.
As we wrote in our book, “What Women Really Want,” women really do want a John Wayne-style hero to fearlessly ride in and defend what is sacred to them. Men want the same thing. Men want permission to be men again, and Trump’s cavalier, no-apologies approach to the issues of the day harkens back to a day when men could be men without being emasculated, and women could trust that a man would stand in the face of threat.
2) Politicians have repeatedly broken trust. Trump made a deal with the American people.
Concepts like honor and trust are biblical. Politicians have repeatedly tried to brush them aside in favor of societal experiments like diversity and tolerance. It has failed, and has led only to more division. Many acknowledge that a basic moral foundation is necessary to a functional government and republic. Trump seems to understand those concepts of honor and trust, and he has managed to establish both with the American people, so far.
3) Politicians are defending and pandering to all of the politically correct groups while throwing Christians under the bus.
Trump said just before he announced his candidacy, “Believe me, if I run and I win, I will be the greatest representative of the Christians they’ve had in a long time.”
Donald Trump has a great way of putting complex issues into soundbites and making conservative Christian arguments without sounding preachy as he did in this statement: “If you’re a Christian living in Syria, you can’t come into this country. Yet, if you are a Muslim living in Syria, who are not under attack, they can come in.”
Trump has no problem calling out the ridiculous antics of the left in plain-spoken, politically incorrect terms. And there is no doubt that a President Trump would fearlessly defend a small-business owner against the attacks of the militant LGBT activists and tell them where they can stick their protests and boycotts.
4) Politicians have weakened on gun regulations, even though it has been proven, repeatedly, that guns do save lives.
Trump has not only spoken up for the Second Amendment, he has behaved in a manner that is indicative of someone who understands peace through strength, as Reagan did. That speaks to the heart of what we said mattered to American women and men in our book, “What Women Really Want” –national security.
Trump said in a recent interview with my friend, AWR Hawkins, “It is so important that we maintain the Second Amendment and that we maintain it strongly. And one of the main reasons is because the good people, the upstanding people, follow laws and norms, but the bad ones don’t.”
5) Politicians have refused to stand for legal citizens against the feel-good propaganda of the illegal immigrants. Trump has called it like he sees it.
Trump has taken hit after hit, even being horribly misquoted and vilified for saying what the American people are thinking about illegal immigration. This gave him the one psychological component that did not come naturally to him: the sympathy factor.
While politicians, and even foreign governments were attacking him and threatening his life, the American people not only felt sympathy for him, but rose to defend him. Thus, the already committed relationship between Trump and his supporters deepened. On this issue in particular, he has illustrated for all conservatives how to take the attacks of the left and use them to his advantage.
6) Politicians have refused to stand for life. Not only has Trump pledged to defund Planned Parenthood, but he described his transition from being pro-abortion to pro-life in a way that connects with all Americans.
Trump has told the story of his transition on the issue of abortion many times during this primary season, but has been telling it for years. This is from a four-year-old interview:
“One of the reasons I changed — one of the primary reasons — a friend of mine’s wife was pregnant, in this case married. She was pregnant and he didn’t really want the baby. And he was telling me the story. … He was crying as he was telling me the story. He ends up having the baby and the baby is the apple of his eye. It’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him. And you know here’s a baby that wasn’t going to be let into life. And I heard this, and some other stories, and I am pro-life.”
That is a conversion story that can be told whether he is in front of a church or on a reality show in prime time. That is the kind of story that shut down the argument of any pro-abortion advocate and even cause them to question their position.
Those who’ve said Republicans must attract the squishy middle to win have been shut down by Trump’s candidacy. Conservatives always knew they were not merely fringe, but when motivated, they are a middle America ready to elect a president. Now Trump is not only winning the GOP vote handily; his numbers against Hillary are strong. He is attracting the groups of people that pundits said were not winnable without pandering, yet he hasn’t pandered to those groups. He has simply stated what he believes, even when it is unpopular, and that has made him believable.
The election is still too far away to predict, but those who support Trump are emboldened by a raw honesty that won’t go away, even if Trump does. The giant has awakened, and the tide is turning. Politicians would be wise to wake up to the power of the social issues. If current trends are any prediction, one can’t win the GOP nomination without them.
