Donald Trump
'plays' us all
I had a dream. Billionaires Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos and brothers Charles and David Koch are sitting around a poker table. A newspaper at Trump's right foot carries a headline that Cruz has just announced he will seek the GOP nomination for president. The stacks of chips show Bezos is way up on Donald and the Kochs are fully out of contention.
Trump loses his temper:He throws his cards down and screams, "Look, Bezos, I'll give you all of this, but then we're going to make a real bet." He picks up the newspaper and yells, "Look at the headline: 'Crooked Cruz is running for president.' So even I can! I'll just see that Canadian's bet by beating his rear and by betting you $10 billion I can force the GOP to nominate me and then beat that [woman] the "Dems" will nominate.
"You know how? Showing just how stupid those folks from Mayberry, U.S.A., are. They're all idiots. Before I'm through they'll be screaming for me to be president."
Bezos has no idea if Donald is truly serious, but quietly accepts the angry bet.
Months later, my nightmare has played itself out in many ballot boxes, and the orange-haired, sneering buffoon has proved folks in Andy Griffith's Mayberry really are fools. Disillusioned and disappointed, but still fools.
We vote for a man who is a serial liar; says he loves women yet has married three times; tells Ms. Fiorina on national television that she is "too ugly" to be president; demands women who get abortions be jailed; states he will immediately deport tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of all Muslim sects and Mexicans, who are all "crooks." And he will compel the Mexican government build his 30-foot, or maybe 50-foot, wall. Oh, and he will "carpet bomb" ISIS -- regardless of the massive collateral damage issues.
He appeals to our wistfulness for an imagined time when all was wonderful, when there were not so many races or religions to cause discomfort, and no one ever used the word "gay." It was a time when no one had ever seen the now emotionally laden abbreviation "LGBT." And we were GREAT!
Many Mayberry folks really believe the U.S. was "in charge" in what they now see as the great era, i.e. post-World War II through 'Nam (which many experts say was foolishness on our part) and the two "Iraq wars" in 1990-91 and 2001-2003, one perhaps necessary, the other wholly of choice. Each under a president named Bush. Thus, we did dictate to other nations what they were going to do.
Many feel wonderful just imagining those "great" days. But they forget that was the time that gave us the expression "The Ugly American, "Woodstock," good Americans flocking to Canada, a future president arguably draft-dodging, and all of those lives lost in Iraq ... for oil? For Halliburton? Many knowledgeable people wonder. But, clearly, the greatness Trump trumpets never existed.
Should we Mayberry folks be ashamed Trump took us in? No, for we have not been alone in this stupidity.
And Bezos yet may win that bet.
Don Switzer
Rogers
Commentary on 04/30/2016