Reason's Matt Welch reviews the Donald's Freedom Fest screed in Las Vegas:
This is the single dumbest speech I have witnessed in 17 years of covering American politics. Not just the lies, the policy positions (such that they existed), or even the dizzying heights [of] self-regard, but the level of basic human intelligence and decency. For a guy who complains that the media only quotes "half-sentences," Trump's real adversary is the full-length transcript. These aren't speeches, they're seizures.
I'm now convinced that Donald Trump is executing the slickest political charade since Huey Long's extraordinary, "Share Our Wealth" bamboozlement of the hayseeds and crackers. The Louisiana demagogue's economic "program" was utterly incomprehensible and hopelessly indefensible, thus Huey never even attempted a reconciliation of vision and reality. His act was a naked fraud, and no one laughed harder at it than Huey himself. He was cunning, a whore for publicity, a brilliant exploiter of mass gullibility. Not for a moment did he give any actual thought to what he vomited from the pit of his cure-alls. Huey Long was all showman, and the gallery's credulity never ceased to amaze him.
Had a bullet not stopped him, his show would have gone on until a radical, tactical shift became necessary — that is, just to keep the juices and self-entertainment flowing. And at that critical point, Long might well have opted for unveiling the showman behind the curtain. "What, you people swallowed that crap? Get a fucking grip."
Showman that he is, I'm now also three-quarters convinced that Donald Trump will, in due course, pull back the curtain and laugh at the swarming rubes of modern Republicanism. "For weeks and months I let rip the most outrageous malarkey I could think of," he'll say, "and a vertiable army of imbeciles bought it. We all know the partisan self-identification of these cretins, and I consider my act of exposing their bottomless boobery to be the grandest public service in the history of American politics."
Trump would become the overnight hero of the left, an admired object of centrism, and the last gasping straw of an already staggering Republicanism.
Matt Welch? He need take only one step farther:
As a politically independent journalist and small-l libertarian, all of my incentives point toward propping up, not tearing down, Donald Trump. I am certainly not invested in the GOP, and it's materially helpful when ideological adversaries have such a clumsy, off-putting grasp on basic facts and argumentation. That some Republicans look at those same incentives and choose Trumpmentum is this week's most amazing, and damning, political development.
It's not damning. It's liberating. And it could be that Trump is our liberator.
Small-l libertarian Welch seems to feel Rand Paul was slighted by Trump only mentioning that he likes him. Rand is lucky. If he were a target worth taking a shot at, Trump would have mentioned the 45 minute meeting Paul had with cranky deadbeat rancher and federal agent targeter Cliven Bundy last month. Multiple sources report they discussed federal land management, states’ rights and education policy. Rand makes Trump look like a statesman and a genius.
Posted by: Bob | July 14, 2015 at 01:28 PM
The greatest thing about Trump is that is does not matter if he believes what he says or not. The effects will be the same.
Posted by: Peter G | July 14, 2015 at 04:03 PM
This is too rich not to share. http://www.redstate.com/2015/07/14/nothing-quite-american-wehrmacht/ Apparently whoever does the graphics for Mr Trump has an acute sense of humor. The soldiers depicted in the graphic of Trump's star spangled face are Waffen SS.
Posted by: Peter G | July 14, 2015 at 04:34 PM
I was starting to think that Donald Trump is hail mary pass by some group like La Raza or other Latino/immigrant rights organization to finally get people to start talking seriously about immigration reform. This guy is not only full of it, he makes a big show out of being full of it. And according to polls, they're eating up every bite of it.
Posted by: Anne J | July 15, 2015 at 09:22 AM
It's not a red rubber nose, but it will do.
Posted by: Bob | July 15, 2015 at 09:44 AM