Guest AuthorAs the primary season continues and we near the GOP convention in July, one thing has become certain. Whether the GOP likes it or not, Donald Trump will be the Republican presidential nominee.
Trump has brilliantly capitalized on the anger and frustration of many Americans that has resulted in GOP voters, and many other Americans, enthusiastically embracing Trump’s bombastic, reality-TV rhetoric.
He couches his dialogue in realistic and politically incorrect terms that many Americans feel but won’t express themselves. That in turn has allowed the billionaire to obliterate a large field of “mainstream” Republicans, from traditional stalwarts like Jeb Bush and John Kasich to fringe contestants like Rand Paul and Ben Carson.
What’s not certain is whether Trump the GOP nominee, or if elected president, will build on his brilliant exploitation of dissatisfaction to seize a moment in history to rebuild the American political system.
It’s quite popular among out-of-touch Republican conservatives to mischaracterize Trump’s success as destructive to the country. He’s being called the “anti-Republican” Republican.
Columnist George Will, in characterizing Trump in a recent column as the “most anticonservative presidential candidate in its history,” lamented how badly Trump is destroying the Republican Party.
Will wrote that Trump will be one of “the most unpopular presidential candidates ever” and that he will lose “by a landslide.”
Talk about being out of touch!
Sorry George, but as the last few months have shown, Trump is the ultimate Teflon candidate. He continues to build momentum despite all the efforts of both the GOP and the mainstream press to destroy his candidacy.
The success of Trump’s candidacy, as well as the strong challenge by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, portends a great need to change the American political system to ward off a growing, and potentially dangerous, dissatisfaction with how our country is governed.
In the next few months, if he runs against another statist candidate Hillary Clinton, Trump needs to rephrase his argument against statism.
In the short term, President Barack Obama’s legacy has already been defined in how leftist governance and rhetoric was mainstreamed into the American psyche.
Trump is already succeeding in attacking such a legacy, but so far only with antagonistic rhetoric.
Trump must begin to translate his off-the-cuff visceral speech into more intelligent and realistic messaging against both Obamaism and the dysfunctional behavior of the GOP. Republicans use outdated rhetoric in their fight between what are termed moderates and arch-conservatives.
Trump must also translate his realistic dialogue into a vision to not capture the White House, but also to take control of the GOP and build a Grand New Party too.
Indeed, Trump needs to continue to argue on issues such as immigration, trade, defense and economic growth by capturing the hearts and minds of many Americans (even those he has insulted).
He must do so with a new Republican “realism” that will allow him and GOP candidates across the nation to build on his success.
That realism should redefine policy, rhetoric, and governance. It also should urge a new individualism that would re-awaken an America spirit of ingenuity, productivity, and most importantly hope to better one’s plight.
Trump has an opportunity to take over a philosophically bankrupt Grand Old Party and transform it into a revitalized party that leads a new movement of 21st century pragmatism against overblown government and the moral and economic failures of leftist Obamaism.
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Steven Kurlander blogs at Kurly’s Kommentary (stevenkurlander.com) and writes for Context Florida and The Huffington Post and can be found on Twitter @Kurlykomments. He lives in Monticello, New York. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
