The response to Donald Trump’s candidacy for President has been met with extreme feelings from both sides of the aisle. His supporters seem to adore him and their ranks are growing as his straight-talk style seems to be winning over early polls. However, they need to be very careful.
Trump will implode. His pseudo-conservative views will catch up with him once he starts addressing issues that he’s already commented on in the past. He’ll either come across as too liberal on many subjects or he’ll be a waffler who’s saying just the right things now to get him the vote. Either way, it will spell doom for him in the long run and will prevent serious candidates from getting the attention they deserve.
His popularity early on was predictable. He would say things and voters would ask, “Wait, did he just say that? Is that allowed from a candidate?”
They love it. However, they’re currently liking the loudmouth variation of a candidate when in reality they probably want a Ted Cruz or Rand Paul who have the same type of bold sentiments tempered by practicality. In other words, they’re controversial because they want to get things done in Washington DC. Trump is controversial for the sake of being controversial.
His latest victim is Scott Walker, the only candidate currently beating him in Iowa. He ripped into the Wisconsin Governor after doing much of the same to John McCain and Lindsey Graham last week.
ABC News took a quote from the event that exemplifies the problem with Republicans supporting him:
“One thing I really like is he’s not afraid to say what he thinks and stand up for it,” said Karen Lambert of Des Moines, Iowa. “I’m tired of the Republicans just caving for pressure and they really need to stand their ground and I think that Trump is someone who will do that.”
The key in the statement is “stand up for it.” That’s not correct. Trump has a history of backing down when the heat is on. To see someone really standing up for something of importance, one needs to look at Cruz who goes beyond splashing newsworthy insults and takes it straight to the people who are failing the country. The latest version of this had the Senator going after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Paul, Cruz, or even Marco Rubio will never be as entertaining as Trump, but they are more likely to truly stand behind their words rather than giving sound bites to a media that is foaming at the mouth waiting for him to implode and hoping that it won’t be too soon.