Your Normal Everyday Donald
Published in Sueddeutsche Zeitung
(Germany) on 26 May 2016
by Nicolas Richter (link to original)
(Germany) on 26 May 2016
by Nicolas Richter (link to original)
Translated from
by Ron Argentati.
Edited by Danielle Tezcan.
It wasn't so long ago that many Republicans were determined to prevent Donald Trump from becoming their party's candidate for the presidency. Those voices have gone silent.
The billionaire and part-time hobby politician Donald Trump is being viewed increasingly as normal in the USA. In the battle for the White House, he's seen in many opinion polls as being in a dead heat with millionaire and full-time professional politician, Hillary Clinton. Six months prior to the presidential election, such polls are hardly decisive and in the end it's not so much the nationwide numbers that count as the mood of swing voters in a dozen states. But the trend is nonetheless very disturbing: More and more Americans are apparently prepared to view Trump – despite his attacks on foreigners and his grim threats of trade wars – as a completely normal presidential candidate and a politician just like any other.
Anyone who thinks I'm being alarmist needs only look at how easily Trump conquered the Republican Party. Just a few weeks ago, America's conservatives wanted to prevent him from being nominated, by adding a third candidate to the general election if necessary. But they couldn't come up with a third candidate. No one wanted to be accused of helping Democrat Clinton gain the White House. In the name of party expediency and chronic aversion to anyone named Clinton, Republicans chose to rally behind Trump. The party that formerly held staunchly to its principles thus embraced a leader who recently bragged on television about the size of his manhood.
A president Trump would set the United Sates on a perilous course; the man is unpredictable, rails against minorities, has zero tolerance for criticism and possesses neither convictions nor a plan for governing. His opponents urgently need to remember this right now and not wait until next fall. Now – in early summer – the broader public will start to turn its thoughts to the election. It was around that time four years ago when the Democrats defined Republican candidate Mitt Romney as a cold capitalist, an image he was never able to shake off. In contrast, Trump seems to be shaking off the current caveats.
It's Disturbing How Easily the Republicans Are Knuckling Under
Hillary Clinton's foibles are also partly responsible for Trump's “normalization.” Unlike Trump, she's not yet her party's designated nominee and must still battle against liberal populist Bernie Sanders. Unlike Trump, she has yet to unify her party behind her. Then there's her notorious weakness as a campaigner. She still comes off as uptight, affected and resentful. Many Americans think she's dishonest, and they don't trust her because she's been in power for so long and now the biggest prize is so close. She personifies the despised “Washington System.” So the last politician capable of keeping the unpopular Donald Trump out of the Oval Office is herself pretty unpopular.
In the final analysis, the presidency will be decided less by which candidate the voters like most than by which they find less objectionable. It's long been accepted that in such a contest, Clinton would win because of Trump's manifestly inappropriate temperament. But Clinton herself has to contend with a persistent disadvantage: She's been the politician Hillary Clinton for so long that she will always remain the politician Hillary Clinton. No one seriously believes she will ever change or is even capable of changing.
The ever-changing Trump on the other hand trusts that a sufficiently large enough number of undecided voters will overlook his history of excesses to perhaps enable him to star in a more elegant role. Americans have short memories, so perhaps they'll fall for the most daring promise super-salesman Trump has ever made: That he could be a competent, responsible president.
The billionaire and part-time hobby politician Donald Trump is being viewed increasingly as normal in the USA. In the battle for the White House, he's seen in many opinion polls as being in a dead heat with millionaire and full-time professional politician, Hillary Clinton. Six months prior to the presidential election, such polls are hardly decisive and in the end it's not so much the nationwide numbers that count as the mood of swing voters in a dozen states. But the trend is nonetheless very disturbing: More and more Americans are apparently prepared to view Trump – despite his attacks on foreigners and his grim threats of trade wars – as a completely normal presidential candidate and a politician just like any other.
Anyone who thinks I'm being alarmist needs only look at how easily Trump conquered the Republican Party. Just a few weeks ago, America's conservatives wanted to prevent him from being nominated, by adding a third candidate to the general election if necessary. But they couldn't come up with a third candidate. No one wanted to be accused of helping Democrat Clinton gain the White House. In the name of party expediency and chronic aversion to anyone named Clinton, Republicans chose to rally behind Trump. The party that formerly held staunchly to its principles thus embraced a leader who recently bragged on television about the size of his manhood.
A president Trump would set the United Sates on a perilous course; the man is unpredictable, rails against minorities, has zero tolerance for criticism and possesses neither convictions nor a plan for governing. His opponents urgently need to remember this right now and not wait until next fall. Now – in early summer – the broader public will start to turn its thoughts to the election. It was around that time four years ago when the Democrats defined Republican candidate Mitt Romney as a cold capitalist, an image he was never able to shake off. In contrast, Trump seems to be shaking off the current caveats.
It's Disturbing How Easily the Republicans Are Knuckling Under
Hillary Clinton's foibles are also partly responsible for Trump's “normalization.” Unlike Trump, she's not yet her party's designated nominee and must still battle against liberal populist Bernie Sanders. Unlike Trump, she has yet to unify her party behind her. Then there's her notorious weakness as a campaigner. She still comes off as uptight, affected and resentful. Many Americans think she's dishonest, and they don't trust her because she's been in power for so long and now the biggest prize is so close. She personifies the despised “Washington System.” So the last politician capable of keeping the unpopular Donald Trump out of the Oval Office is herself pretty unpopular.
In the final analysis, the presidency will be decided less by which candidate the voters like most than by which they find less objectionable. It's long been accepted that in such a contest, Clinton would win because of Trump's manifestly inappropriate temperament. But Clinton herself has to contend with a persistent disadvantage: She's been the politician Hillary Clinton for so long that she will always remain the politician Hillary Clinton. No one seriously believes she will ever change or is even capable of changing.
The ever-changing Trump on the other hand trusts that a sufficiently large enough number of undecided voters will overlook his history of excesses to perhaps enable him to star in a more elegant role. Americans have short memories, so perhaps they'll fall for the most daring promise super-salesman Trump has ever made: That he could be a competent, responsible president.