The Trump Appeal

Okay, I’ll admit it. I was charmed by The Donald last night. Trump was the only candidate in the Republican debate whose father wasn’t a poor coal miner. Whose mother didn’t stay up all night darning socks to build the American dream. When Trump lied (and everything he said was a lie), he did so with sweeping authority, not with mealy-mouthed statistics.

What a sad lot they all are. Two or three of them are Christian ministers, who proudly admit to taking their marching orders directly from Jesus Christ. A bunch of them think the biggest problem facing the United States is Planned Parenthood. All of them are clean-scrubbed, blow-dried and lily white (except Ben Carson).

Compared to Trump, even my own governor Chris Christie was a pipsqueak. Christie has nearly driven New Jersey into bankruptcy, but he disingenuously spun the numbers to show that everything is perfect here. Scott Walker did the same thing with Wisconsin. But last night Christie was a shadow of his former self – no longer the big bully because the bigger bully had arrived in town.

Nobody on the podium dared to attack Trump. Are they all afraid of him? Do they fear they may lose votes because he is so popular? Maybe, as Trump himself claims, he is contributing to all of their campaigns and they do not want to turn off the spigot.

Watching him last night was like watching Jerry Springer in the old days. The spectacle revved up my basest instincts. Oooh, who was going to be skewered? How much would he bleed? I haven’t had so much fun since Sarah Palin, but at least she was attractive.

More than two centuries ago, the French diplomat Joseph de Maistre observed that “every country has the government it deserves.” Let’s hope America deserves better than this Trump buffoon.