When a Billionaire Muddies Politics

Rand Paul is ugly. Columba Bush is a “lovely woman” with a Macbethian control over her husband’s views on immigration. Megyn Kelly has blood coming from her “wherever.” I am not going to waste time talking about my plans to move to Canada if Donald Trump were elected president (the overwhelming majority of this school understands why). Living in Choate’s liberal bubble, we have no trouble seeing through Donald Trump’s repeated publicity stunts. They are nothing more than a circus. Yet too much of rest of the country is falling prey to his ridiculousness.

Granted, there is a certain appeal to a candidate who speaks without a filter. Surrounded by overwhelming political correctness, Trump seems to be a welcome change of scenery. Offensive and repulsive as his comments may be, there is no denying, in the minds of many Americans, that Trump unequivocally believes in what he says at the podium. Whether he’s a passionate populist or a demanding demagogue, this is up for debate. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the rest of the candidates on both sides of the aisle, most of whom are already considered demagogues. If Hilary Clinton and Ted Cruz seem untrustworthy or disingenuous, it’s hard to say that Donald Trump does not truly believe in building a wall on our southern border. His brand of honesty resonates with voters with a general mistrust of anything to do with Washington politics. Though his plans are detached from reality, Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail is powerful.

Nevertheless, Trump is dragging the Republicans through the mud. The Grand Old Party, increasingly in recent months, has developed into the “out of touch party.” What better way to prove that than nominate a man whose border security platform is more akin to 1960s Berlin or Ming Dynasty China than to 21st century America?

Trump represents the crisis of leadership within the Republican party. Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Scott Walker, the expected frontrunners just a few months ago, have problems with stubborn idealism or an unfortunate last name. This field of politicians is the reason that two non-politicians command more than 50% of the polls. It is this lack of leadership that misconstrues Republican ideology as more extremist than it is. Radical views on taxation and income inequality in a primarily fiscally oriented election draw attention from pragmatic conservative fiscal thought. Any Republican nominee will struggle to convince the country to overturn every Supreme Court decision in the last year.

It is as clear to me that Trump’s true impact on this race won’t involve him sitting in the Oval Office in 2016. The Republican Party grows weaker every day that Trump claims that an entire ethnicity of people loves him. Every day that he turns a debate into a reality show, the Republican candidates look worse. And every day that he and an inexperienced surgeon continue to command the polls, Hilary Clinton looks better and better. Donald Trump will not be the next president of the United States, and, so far, he is ensuring that no other Republican will either.

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