Is America Smart Enough To Not Vote for Him?

Dropping bombs here and there, and closing the borders: This is Donald Trump’s new world. Before, you could be sure that this would not achieve a majority in the U.S. Is this still true?

In the U.S., opinions differ over him. Donald Trump insults everybody: his Republican opponents, Mexicans, Muslims, even Chancellor Merkel. Even so, he is getting closer to his aim.

In the summer America’s left-wing commentariat asserted he was a narcissistic tomfool, with a haircut resembling a swallow’s nest. Donald Trump would implode due to his political ignorance, or at a push, due to litigable presumptuousness.

The Americans are supposed to be too smart to be taken in by the Country Club Clown. A grave error: Donald John Trump (69), real estate tycoon, is still far ahead of all the other Republicans.

The hubris of underestimating a man who the polls have shown to be the favorite Republican nominee by far for months now has given way to disillusion. Now, even if a little hesitant, the leading Republicans, who admired Trump’s fishing from the right, worry about their party’s reputation.

“Not helpful,” “unhappy,” “not what America stands for.” It is only now that Trump is demanding to block all Muslims without a U.S. passport from entering the U.S. that they say this; they remained silent when he insulted Hispanic migrants as “rapists.”

Love Trumps Hate

The Democrats are getting more explicit: Martin O’Malley, a former governor, called Trump a “fascist demagogue” candidate. Hillary Clinton responded with a weak pun: “Love trumps hate.” Only rarely.

However, it is actually about the reputation, credibility and leadership ability of the world’s oldest democracy. London and Paris have realized that enough is enough; Berlin has not. David Cameron called Trump’s promise of Fortress America “divisive, … and simply wrong”; Manuel Valls said Trump’s xenophobic stir-up fuels hatred.

However, Angela Merkel, who has repeatedly been deeply insulted by Trump, remains silent. The chancellery is obviously keeping to its comment among friends to not get involved in current election campaigns. This might be applicable in normal circumstances. However, a Marine Le Pen with prospects of a presidency is bad enough. Le Trump would be an unaffordable luxury for the American-led West.

It is time for Europeans to get this across to sensible Americans, but not in the hope of changing the opinion of Trump’s followers. They worship him for his impertinence: Finally, a trainer who uses his whip in the circus that is Washington.

Since Obama, the Country Is More Divided Than Ever

Aspiration is an old American flaw. The country has seen racist rabble-rousers such as George Wallace, governor of Alabama, as well as reactionaries such as Barry Goldwater and Pat Buchanan, and in a somewhat watered-down form, Ross Perot, who impeded George Bush Senior’s re-election in 1992. Buchanan’s followers brought pitchforks to his appearances. All of this was very strange, deplorable, but never really a threat.

Then the nation twice voted the black son of a Kenyan to the White House, and many believed that America was healed from its dark aspirations. In the end, the smart majority of the voters living on the coasts would put any extremist in their place. You cannot be sure of that anymore.

Never has the country been more divided in Congress, in the media, and on social networks. Dialogue is under suspicion of treason, just like the political compromise. A populist without scruples, such as Donald Trump, draws strength from fear. An attack like the one in Paris, and a bugaboo who boasts “I’ve always been a winner my entire life,” can take the place of the home country’s protector.

Dropping bombs here and there — why not Tehran, for example — and closing America’s borders: This is Trump’s new world. It is high time that this man lost.