Easy chair debate

Long, hard day remodeling.  I spent the evening sitting in my easy chair watching the Republican debate.  My Ted Cruz did quite well.  I prayed that he not get into a donnybrook with Donald, since that only drags one into the mud and one doesn’t look Presidential.  But Ted didn’t.  He took questions from Martha Radicalass which had false premises and Ted patiently turned the question around and answered with 4 or 5 fabulous points on what we must do. That’s what we look for in a Prez! 

But the media hardly mentioned his name afterwards.  They were continually obsessed with Christie pouncing on Rubio and the donnybrook between Bush and Trump.  They replayed those exchanges over and over like a major polio vaccine discovery, so every pundit panelist could give detailed analysis.  Later, Howard Kurtz of Fox was asked what he thought of the performances of various candidates and when it came to Cruz, he just shrugged and gave him a B+.  No A, I guess, because he didn’t stir up anything crazy. 

And it occurs to me how differently the guys in the easy chairs think from the media.  Guys in easy chairs are looking for a future President, a person with answers for the problems of our time, with level head and wise judgment.  Media wants entertainment.  They want he-said-she-said and “blood coming out of her whatever” and “what difference does it make!”  Because in their world it doesn’t make any difference unless it’s entertaining, emotional, or erotic. 

It is for this reason, they secretly love Trump.  He’s entertaining and a certain portion of Republicans are so angry over Washington that they like Trump. The pollsters and media pump up his numbers.  13 straight polls had him atop Iowa when he wasn’t at all.  But has anyone, among the learned pundits, pointed out the following?  First, Trump has the highest negatives since Gallup began polling opinion on like/don’t like.  Trump is 60%.  Bernie is 31% (Nobody knows much about Bernie yet; just a nice old man who the kids like.). Rubio is 36%. Cruz is 39%.  All the failed Republicans who ran for President since 1972 have been in the 40’s. Hillary is 52%.  What Trump’s negatives mean is that for every supporter he gains, he gains almost 2 R’s who don’t like him and probably 3 D’s who hate his guts.  You can’t win with numbers like that. Likewise Hillary is in disastrous shape.

Trump has no policy statements.  Beyond his bombastic comments he has nothing about what he’d really do either on his website or in his books.  From this, we cannot know what he stands for.  Thirdly, even in his recent statements, he espouses practices that are unconstitutional and un-Republican—banning a religious group from travel back into this country, raising taxes, and doing a trade war with China.  Fourthly, he’s narcissic like Obama.  All the horrible, merciless dictators in history since Caligula have been narcissic characters and we should be on guard for them. Such a guy is unelectable.  But the media loves his “bullying” and edgy dialog and they keep the cameras trained on him continually.

I just pray that there are enough thoughtful guys sitting in easy chairs after a hard day’s work.