Finally! A great, unifying figure emerges in American politics to bring the endlessly bickering factions here in Washington back together again.
Not since 9/11 has everyone in Washington rallied in such unison as they do now — vehemently opposed to the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. But unlike 9/11, the sophisticates and kleptocrats in both parties of Washington find themselves wildly out of step with actual American voters.
People in both parties and even those resolutely unaffiliated here in Washington twitch and tremble at the mere mention of the Trump name. Refer to him as “President Trump” or repeatedly reference “the Trump administration,” and these people go into a smoldering tailspin.
Eyes bug out of heads. Professional Republicans denounce him. Conservative commentators mock him and insist he is no part of the Grand Old Party. Professional Democrats abhor him and smear him as a racist boob. Liberal commentators predict that he will destroy the Republican Party.
Truth is, the fact that people here in Washington fear and loathe Mr. Trump so much is final proof that these people here in Washington fear and loathe you; the great unwashed voters of America.
People here in Washington despise voters and think you are stupid and not to be taken seriously. You are rude and vulgar and uneducated.
Take Mr. Trump’s comments about the illegals streaming across the border from Mexico who commit these heinous crimes.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” he said in announcing his campaign. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
This was not a polite thing to say. But it is absolutely, incontrovertibly true. Just ask the grieving family of Kathryn Steinle out in California. And polls show that American voters in both parties agree with Mr. Trump and desperately want the crisis to be fixed.
But in this ever-lying world of Washington politics, it is wrong to speak the truth if it is shocking or unpleasant. Which, of course, is how this country has gotten into the terrible fix we are in today.
So Mr. Trump is denounced from every corner, branded as a racist and excommunicated by proper politicos of every stripe.
Even the “severely conservative” Republican Mitt Romney got into the game, saying: “I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican-Americans.”
Whoaaaaah, Nelly! Who said anything about legal “Mexican-Americans?” Nobody is talking about people of Mexican extraction who are living and working legally in America. This is about illegal Mexicans illegally crossing the border and illegally committing atrocious crimes, in many cases even after they have been deported — repeatedly! It is about a broken border and a broken immigration system.
Americans are not anti-Hispanic or anti-Mexican. They are simply anti-insanity!
And shame on you, Mr. Romney, for insulting all the good *legal* Mexican-Americans who have been immigrating to this country legally for centuries and smearing them with the unspeakable illegal deeds of rotten outlaws who should be rounded up and booted from the country for good.
Yet, somehow, Mr. Trump is the racist and nobody says one word about Mr. Romney’s wicked calumny.
Another thing that Mr. Trump is proving is that American voters do not hate rich people, any more than they hate legal Hispanics.
They just dislike rich people who talk like robots, such as always misusing the word “severely.” They dislike rich people who talk gleefully about how much they enjoy firing people. They dislike rich people who think knowing the owners of racing car teams makes you a NASCAR fan.
In other words, they dislike Mitt Romney. (See: Election, 2012.)
Now comes Donald Trump; Republicans and voters love him. What are you going to do about it this time?
Charles Hurt can be reached at charleshurt@live.com and on Twitter at @charleshurt.
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