Editorial: Praying earnestly for common sense
04/04/2016 01:59PM ● By J. ChamblessIf you've had your head buried under
the covers, trying to deny the existence of Donald Trump as a serious
contender for the Presidency of the United States, this past week
gives you some reason to peek out, just a bit.
There is a murmur that Trump may actually be falling apart. Yes, clear-thinking Americans have supposed the same thing in the past few months of Down-the-Rabbit-Hole politics, but perhaps this time, they are right.
Putting aside the past lunacies and insults of the orange-hued candidate with no governing experience, this week has seen his campaign manager charged with battery. Trump reacted by attacking the reporter, Michelle Fields, that the manager is accused of hurting. His long and documented history of misogyny was compounded when he pondered whether women should be legally punished for having an abortion if the procedure was banned.
But the worst news for Trump – and the best news for sanity – is that he has fallen behind Sen. Ted Cruz in the Wisconsin polls. A loss there on April 5 will derail Trump’s road to a delegate majority of 1,237. Cruz is no prize either, but at least he's not a TV huckster whose one and only response to challenges is to insult and threaten anyone in his path. Trump doesn't seem to know what he's thinking from one moment to the next, and his debate appearances have looked like someone in an improvisational game who is making things up as he goes along.
The scary part is that some people have supported him. Of course, a funny little man with big ideas promised to make a nation great again back in the 1930s. And we know how that turned out.
Trump is a human whoopie cushion. Yes, he's amusing at first for shock value, but then he's not funny anymore. Not even a little bit.
Has he survived longer than anyone thought? Yes he has. He could have strangled a baby in Times Square for the TV news crews and his backers would have applauded. Thankfully, it may not come to that. Faced with attacks from inside his own party, and from virtually every other side, Trump may finally be crumbling.
If he limps away from the race, he will no doubt smirk and call it a victory. But when it comes to the standing of the United States on the world stage, it will be a moment that evokes a huge sigh of relief. We are already a laughingstock to nations with clearer thinking politicians. Let us hope that this man who could not even convincingly sell used cars will endure the kind of defeat he has wished upon others.
His vague policy of hateful idiocy has no place in politics, and no place in the civilized world.