Trump’s Amazing Triumph

Thanks to Donald Trump’s dominance, the Republican primary campaign has already degenerated into a clown show as evidenced by the first debate. The longer he remains in the race, the less likely it is that a Republican will be elected president.

Oh, how the Republicans in the United States have waited for this moment—President Obama’s second term is drawing to a close, and after taking back the House of Representatives and the Senate, they now have a shot at recapturing the White House. A beautiful prospect after the two bitter election losses Republicans had to suffer at the hands of the hated Obama, the president who stands for everything American conservatives hate: Trailblazing health care reform that is no less than the most significant social reform of the last half century, a more liberal immigration policy, stricter gun control, marriage rights for all, environmental protection, military restraint and diplomatic solutions to differences with archenemies, Cuba and Iran.

It was just starting to look like the Republicans could turn all that around, and now this show instead of a primary election in which contenders can compete for voter support and tout their nifty biographies showing how far they have come from their simple homespun roots; the reason they want to give something back to the nation – a motif nearly mandatory in every campaign speech. But instead of an exchange of punches between political opponents, this primary campaign has already degenerated into a clown show. This time, the Republicans didn’t need nearly as many candidates to fill the seats in the clown car as they did four years ago. Back then, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich all attracted great attention and made it to the top of the heap in the opinion polls before their campaigns, and thanks to some really embarrassing appearances, imploded faster than an old black-and-white tube television set.

Panic Among the White Lower Classes

This kind of spectacle harmed the party and later its leading candidate Mitt Romney so seriously that many Republicans feared recovery might be impossible. Then Donald Trump, the egomaniac, the multibillionaire and successful host of a TV reality show, declared his candidacy. Trump is a man incapable of embarrassment whose party colleagues criticize sometimes as a clown, occasionally as a loser or grotesque-looking, and a man who has no fear whatsoever of joking around with the wealthy elite because he’s at home in their company. Besides, he’s convinced he’s a genius.

Trump’s appearances dominate the media, much to the delight of the voters. He leads all of the opinion polls by a mile. His opponents, on the other hand, struggle to get their message out to the voters. Accordingly, the first Republican debate was a one-man Donald Trump show. Nine professional politicians tried to expose Trump as a charlatan and were all sent to the corner like first-graders by the media genius.

Trump’s success doesn’t just come out of the blue, however. His resentment of immigrants and social “losers” mirrors current Republican orthodoxy. For decades, the Republican Party has stood for social exclusion and has fought against social assistance programs, mainly because they benefit minorities, i.e., blacks and Latinos. With his tirades, Trump exploits the fears of a white lower class that is largely uneducated and to some extent rightly fears losing jobs to immigrant labor. His polemics convince Republican voters all the more because they emanate from a political outsider independent of the Washington establishment. Because he’s “really rich” and successful, 70 percent of potential voters trust his economic competence. These voters think it’s more important for Trump to say what he thinks rather than whether he can actually win against the Democrats.

Tailored for Wit and Originality

Trump’s political rise is due to something else as well: The trend toward “politainment,” the mixture of politics and entertainment. If Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy was the exception, politicians have nevertheless tried to reach voters by appearing in entertainment venues, just as Bill Clinton did with his saxophone number on the Arsenio Hall show in 1992. A quick-witted set on talk shows like David Letterman or Jimmy Fallon takes the place of a good speech before Congress. No one understands that better than Barack Obama who has made eight appearances with Letterman, seven with Jon Stewart and even one with Zach Galifianakis, whose stand-up comedy is seen only on the Internet, but who has attracted a large following. That show gave Obama the opportunity to push his health care reform program, and he was able to see the results the following day after thousands of new people had signed up for Obamacare.

Politainment definitely has its upside. The downside is Donald Trump. Now that the public is more oriented toward wit and originality as desirable political attributes, the winners will be those that offer them. Currently, nobody is trying harder than Trump to corner that market. If he continues his candidacy, he’ll drive the Republicans to distraction as they watch their chances to win the White House further diminish day by day.