Why Trump Will Triumph
Published in Marietta Daily Journal Oct. 9, 2016
How many times did columnists, commentators,
and competing candidates assert that Donald Trump was a flash in the pan?
In spite of all of his deniers,
Trump is the Republican nominee and continues to draw crowds in the thousands.
To his critics’ dismay, Trump is now in a very competitive, winnable race. There are at least four political realities
that point to a Trump victory.
First, populism is in the air and it
is thick. Populism still means “of the
people.” A political term and outlook,
it extols the virtues and addresses the plight of the common man. Simply put, it focuses on the little guy as
opposed to catering to big banks, big corporations, big oil, crony capitalism,
and political elites.
The American political landscape is
sprinkled with figures who were bona fide populists. Andrew Jackson, William Jennings Bryan, and
George Wallace come to mind. But so
should the 1972 liberal Democratic candidate George McGovern who proved that
some populists lean left. On the cover
of Time Magazine, McGovern, U.S. senator from South Dakota, was dubbed “the
prairie populist.”
All populists, of whatever stripe, have
addressed the concerns of factory workers, farmers, small businesspeople, and
manual laborers. Donald Trump is not the
first wealthy presidential candidate to do so.
Theodore Roosevelt was also “to the manor born” but built his career on
opposing the railroads and banks and courting America’s working class.
Trump’s
base, with its thousands of rally goers, is a resurgence of the silent
majority, the moral majority, the Tea Party, independents, libertarians, and
even Democrats who are barely left of center.
This resurgence spreads over the nation like a blanket. It constitutes a band of Americans who simply
think “America First” makes sense for both their own interests and for other
nations that still need America’s example of a city on a hill.
Secondly,
Trump will win because evangelicals are practicing what they preach. Often
ill-defined, evangelicals are Christians of many different denominations who
believe in evangelism, that is, sharing their faith. Following the example of Christ, they also
believe in the expression “hate the sin, but love the sinner.” This phrase itself is why countless well-known
evangelical leaders have refused to let Donald Trump’s sins keep them from
endorsing him. They know that they, too,
are sinners. Their Bible says so.
Not
all evangelicals support Trump, but an impressive number does, 76% according to
Pew Research Center. Evangelicals have
constituted a large voting bloc since the 1970s. Often accused of self-righteousness,
evangelicals have certainly not been self-righteous regarding Trump. Some
evangelicals are embarrassed by Trump, unlike many Democrats who never seemed
too bothered by Bill Clinton’s White House shenanigans or his Arkansas
escapades. Even so, Hillary Clinton’s
stance on abortion and homosexual marriage has tethered evangelicals to Donald Trump.
Thirdly,
the nation’s deplorables may not all have college degrees, but they aren’t dumb
and far outnumber intellectuals. Already
effectively wooed by outsider Trump, deplorables were getting registered to
vote long before Hillary Clinton so labeled them. Intellectuals make their living with
words. Deplorables make their living
with their hands. They care little about
any candidate’s faculty lounge pedigree or decades of governmental experience.
One
intellectual, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, couldn’t defeat North
Vietnam. Another intellectual, constitutional
scholar Barack Obama, can’t defeat ISIS.
But a deplorable Missouri haberdasher, Harry Truman, decisively ended a
major world war. Such realities are what
led conservative columnist William F. Buckley to say he would rather be
governed by the first 100 names in the telephone book (deplorables, that is)
than by the Harvard faculty.
Lastly,
Trump will triumph because there is a healthy rebellious spirit in the
land. It is a rebellion against globalism,
loss of jobs, border insecurity, and denigration of law enforcement; against a
hypocritical media that approves of Hollywood’s vulgarity but is apoplectic of
Donald Trump’s, and against a conservative party that, while in control of both
houses of Congress, has fought timidly, if at all, for conservative measures.
Trump
understands that Hillary Clinton’s deplorables are actually the nation’s
ignored citizens. Many party regulars
think Trump’s strategy of appealing to the ignored is dumb. Actually it is politically astute.
Populism
is not hovering; it’s spreading.
Evangelicals are not waiting for a perfect candidate; they’re praying
for the one who will best represent their strongly held beliefs. The deplorables are not humiliated by Hillary
Clinton’s characterization of them; they’re wearing it on their t-shirts. And
amongst voters there is an appetite for what we might call sufficient anger.
Donald
Trump has tapped that sufficient anger and he will be rewarded.
Roger
Hines
10/5/16
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