We’ve reached that point in the laugh. The shock value and humor have waned, but the punch line refuses to dissipate. Any responsible citizen should be terrified by what they see in the Republican field. Before unpacking the reasons, let’s examine the current state of the race.
Last week had a slew of new polls. The ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Wednesday shows Donald Trump leading the Republican pack with 32 percent, followed by Ben Carson at 22 percent, and Marco Rubio holding a distant third with 10 percent. A Monmouth poll released Tuesday essentially confirmed these numbers, showing Donald Trump at 28 percent, Ben Carson at 18 percent, but Ted Cruz in place of Rubio. The ABC News/Washington Post poll also revealed that among leaned Republicans, 42 percent expect Donald Trump to win the GOP nomination with Ben Carson trailing second at 16 percent. However, the latest Quinnipiac poll released Thursday shows Ben Carson leading Donald Trump 28 – 20 percent among Iowa’s likely Republican caucus participants. Of course, the last two winners of the Iowa caucuses in 2008 and 2012 did not go on to win the nomination—which went to Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, respectively—so excessive predictions are unnecessary, but it’s justifiably unsettling. The numbers are telling a story: Donald Trump and Ben Carson currently command about half of the Republican electorate and are leading this race.
When one looks at Donald Trump’s policy positions and statements, it’s somewhat perplexing to see him heading the GOP. His views are either mainstream conservative (in the context of today’s polarized GOP) or outright moderate. Mr. Trump has praised the single-payer healthcare systems in Canada and Scotland, favors higher tariffs on imported goods in order to insulate American businesses, highlights his longstanding opposition to the Iraq War, supports exceptions to abortion bans in cases of rape, incest and life of the mother, and has spoken out against Kim Davis’ dereliction of duty, just to name a few examples of his more moderate tendencies. It’s not so much his policy positions that make him unelectable (though they make a strong case), but rather his loose-lipped rhetoric, inexcusable temperament, and breathtaking ignorance.
To start, The Donald has made some squalidly racist comments. There’s not quite enough room in this piece for a compendium of these remarks, but this Huffington Post article by Carolina Moreno chronicles some of his anti-Latino statements, which included describing Mexican immigrants as “rapists,” and insisting that Mexico pay for a wall on our shared border. Furthermore, Mr. Trump has been a slanderous purveyor of the racially charged doubts regarding President Obama’s birth, and yet still remains unconvinced. The real estate mogul has also made disparaging remarks about women: insulting Carly Fiorina’s looks, criticizing Hillary Clinton for her husband’s infidelity, making the infamous Megyn Kelly “blood” comment, and the list goes on. Continuing along the lines of ignorance, Donald Trump has repeatedly asserted that global warming is a hoax, one of his tweets actually saying: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” To be fair, many of the Republican candidates are skeptics of climate change (though the Chinese conspiracy theory appears unique to The Donald), but I daresay this is an indictment of the party rather than an exculpation of Mr. Trump. These radical beliefs will have consequences in the realm of decision-making, an area where he has already revealed a potentially dangerous incompetence.
(via YouTube / CNN)
One of the first major decisions that a president-elect must make is in regards to his or her Cabinet and administration. Who are going to be the trusted advisors that the president will call upon in times of extraordinary stress, fantastic complexity, enormous consequence and incredible finesse? Who ought to bear responsibilities of this magnitude? For Donald Trump, one such person he would turn to: Sarah Palin. According to Politico, when Trump was asked “Whether he would seek the former Alaska governor’s advice as president or appoint her to an executive-branch position, Trump said, ‘I’d love that,’” and continued, “She’s really somebody who knows what’s happening.” If the idea of President Trump didn’t scare you enough, then I’ll see your President Trump and raise you Sarah Palin in the Cabinet advising President Trump. If that doesn’t flush the color from your face, then I haven’t the foggiest of what will. Though if I had to guess, examining the other polling GOP frontrunner may just do the trick.
When one looks at Dr. Ben Carson, it’s hard not to shudder with the thought of him in the Oval Office. He is a religious fanatic who outright disqualifies himself to manage a Waffle House, let alone the White House. Exhibit A, showing his religious fanaticism: Dr. Carson has asserted that those who believe in evolution “dismiss ethics.” So according to this retired neurosurgeon, if you are not a creationist, then you are essentially a nihilist and have no regard or foundation for morality. Moreover, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Chuck Todd asked Dr. Carson, “Does the Bible have authority over the Constitution?” Dr. Carson appeared a bit flustered, and responded saying, “I think probably what you have to do is ask a very specific question about a specific passage of the Bible and a specific portion of the Constitution. I don't think you can answer that question other than out of very specific contexts.” This is the wrong answer. It is objectively abhorrent for a U.S. presidential candidate to say that the Bible may take precedence over the Constitution under any circumstances. The United States was founded as a secular government with a Constitution that separates church and state in order to guard against theocratic tendencies—like those of Dr. Carson. Perhaps his radical statement would have inspired more of a reaction if he were a Muslim and claimed that the authority of the Quran in relation to the Constitution was a complicated matter. As it is, he is a fundamentalist Christian, and the widespread pernicious delusion that this country was founded as a Christian nation is still not cured—thus Dr. Carson gets away with it.
(via YouTube / American Atheists)
Staying in Islam, a further incident on a different episode of “Meet the Press” again argues for disqualification, since Dr. Carson stated, “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.” Besides revealing himself to be bigoted against Muslims, the retired neurosurgeon exemplifies either an utter disdain for, or a complete ignorance of, the U.S. Constitution, which states under Article VI, paragraph three, that: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” The language here is lucid, so the relevant question becomes: should the public support a candidate who doesn’t desire a secular state?
With Jeb Bush’s candidacy fading into irrelevance, the combined numbers of Donald Trump and Ben Carson become increasingly significant. More reasonable Republican candidates like Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, or George Pataki have yet to contend with the support enjoyed by the two frontrunners. One of said frontrunners is a pugnacious television personality who has made racist, sexist and flatly ridiculous remarks while considering Sarah Palin for a position in the White House, and believes that global warming is a Chinese hoax. The other is an anti-Muslim, bigoted Biblical literalist who implies that the Bible should take supremacy over the Constitution in some situations, and asserts that those who believe in evolution “dismiss ethics.”
The purpose here is to neither excuse nor extol the Democrats—their candidates aren’t perfect. The trustworthiness of the frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, is an exigent concern for her candidacy. However, emigrating to Europe would not be my first thought should the former Secretary of State emerge as president—I cannot say the same for Trump or Carson. The Iowa caucuses take place in less than four months. I’m not one for fearmongering, and a lot can (and likely will) change between now and then. However, looking at the current state of the Republican race, I am terrified, and with good reason.
