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Trying to explain Trump’s rise to the top

This week, I am determined to take on what most people find an impossible task. I am trying to make sense of Donald Trump’s rise to the top of the Republican Party.
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This week, I am determined to take on what most people find an impossible task.

I am trying to make sense of Donald Trump’s rise to the top of the Republican Party.

This week marks the start of political convention season in the United States as the Republican National Convention takes place in Cleveland, Ohio.

It is here where Trump will officially cap his remarkable rise with the acceptance of his party’s nomination for president of the United States, much to the bewilderment and alarm of many  in his own party.

Indeed, when Trump first set out on his campaign to be president, in a crowded field against 16  rivals, nobody took him seriously. People figured his campaign would be a carnival act similar to his reality TV show appearances on The Apprentice.

The New York Daily News put up on their front page a picture of Trump in makeup and a rubber nose, with the headline “Clown runs for president.”

And then his campaign began, and right from the get go the bloodbath was on, with Trump going after one arch foe after another.

Trump started by going after Mexico and promising to build a wall at the border that Mexico would pay for. In his remarks launching his campaign, in fact, Trump trashed Mexicans entering the United States by referring to them as rapists and drug dealers.

These remarks caused an international incident, prompting countries to pull out of Miss Universe and prompting NBC to drop the pageants Trump owned.

In December, Trump was at it again. In response to the San Bernardino killings, Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.

Not “some” Muslims, the whole religion. So much for freedom of worship.

Trump also publicly went after one individual after another including, but not limited to: (a) Megyn Kelly, for going after him on his attitudes towards women during the Fox News debate; (b) Pope Francis, because he spoke against his talk of building “walls;” and (c) his GOP opponents.

He trashed Jeb Bush repeatedly for his “low energy.” He’d call Marco Rubio “Little Marco” and Ted Cruz “Lyin’ Ted.” I watched a Trump rally on live streaming, and he even spelled it out: “L-Y-I-N.”

Trump also trashed previous nominees including John McCain, whom he accused of not being a real war hero because he was captured, and Mitt Romney for losing the last election. Trump publicly called Romney a “loser.”  

No wonder Republicans are aghast! Trump is literally running against his own party, from the inside.

Yet, this “wild man” persona has worked.

Trump, despite his clown-show theatrics and name-calling, has taken some definitive stands on the issues. He has repeatedly shown a willingness to take on people on the issues he cares about. 

Trump has taken strong stances against terrorism, with a pledge to “bomb the hell out of ISIS.” He has been vocal against political correctness, which has ravaged free speech in the United States. He is a strong supporter of gun rights and the Second Amendment. And he also been particularly strong on trade issues, promising to rip up and renegotiate trade deals like NAFTA.   

The timing has been excellent. His tough stances on terror coincided with devastating attacks on American soil by domestic terrorists. His trade stance resonated with laid-off blue-collar workers fed up with globalism — even more when video emerged of workers at a Carrier plant in Indiana being told their jobs were being shipped off to Mexico.

No wonder Trump has support. People are fed up.

Helping matters has been his gifts as a campaigner. Trump has been electric on the stump. His rallies, live-streamed on YouTube almost every night, have been a sight to behold, the political equivalent of rock concerts. And based on some of the fights in the crowds, unruly as well. 

You would think, based on the reports, these Trump rallies would be totally negative with lots of anger spewed by the candidate.

Not so. There truly does seem to be a “happy warrior” quality about Trump on the stump. He seems to genuinely enjoy giving hell to the other candidates and to countries like Mexico and China, while also promising to take care of the veterans and pledging that America will start winning again. His slogan is to “make America great again.” 

The only political rallies to rival this excitement in 2016 have been the Bernie Sanders efforts on the Democratic side. His was another upstart campaign that challenged the status quo.

The difference is that Hillary Clinton had the Democratic establishment firmly in her corner. She had the “super-delegates” with her from day one, so Sanders never stood a chance for the Democratic nomination.  

Quite honestly, I thought the same thing would happen to Trump.

Trump is not exactly a religious social-conservative. In fact, there was a time when many Republicans opposed Trump because they thought that, on social issues, he was too liberal!

Trump also opposed policies establishment Republicans had always stood for, such as NAFTA and the Iraq War.

Add to that his insult style of politicking, which runs counter to Ronald Reagan’s famous credo “never speak ill of a fellow Republican.”

I was certain the GOP establishment and the rank and file would be motivated to get off their rear ends and coalesce around whichever candidate emerged in the primaries as the alternative to Trump.    

Here’s what I forgot to factor into the equation: this is the Republican Party we are talking about.

This party, and its leadership under bumbling former Speaker John Boehner and now Paul Ryan, are seen by the Republican base as having caved in on one issue after another to the Democrats. They’ve cut deal after deal, and handed one victory in Congress after another to Barack Obama and his party, including the last two presidential elections.

It stands to reason establishment Republicans, and everyone else, would fail to get their act together in stopping Trump.

This week, Trump will go into the home of the NBA world champion Cleveland Cavaliers to claim the GOP nomination for president. We all should have seen this moment coming.