Sorry, Folks: Trump Ain’t Cooked Yet - By Michael Tomasky
Why the Donald’s comments about John McCain’s war record are unlikely to sink him.-snip-
So maybe he stepped in the quicksand here. But I think it’s worth wondering: what if he didn’t? What if, that is, he doesn’t plummet in the polls? What if the near-universal presumption in the political media that this is the beginning of the end winds up being more about media presumptions about how the GOP base thinks than, you know, how that base actually thinks? I believe there’s a sporting enough chance that this is the case that it’s certainly worth a column, so here I go.
Let’s start here. What’s brought Trump to the top of the GOP heap? Obviously, it’s his relentless and unhinged caterwauling about immigration. Some punditry I’ve noticed has tried to sugarcoat this, or note Trump’s universal name recognition. But he had universal name recognition when he was at 5 percent. Two weeks of talk about Mexican rapists and this alleged plot of the Mexican government to “send us” all their criminals has vaulted him to the top of the Republican field. As I write this, in fact, the new ABC/Washington Post poll, which was taken Thursday through Sunday, has Trump with 24 percent of the vote, compared to 13 percent for Walker and 12 percent for Bush.
There is no mystery here. Conservative Republican base voters hate undocumented immigration as much as they hate anything. So many hot buttons get pushed. So Trump couldn’t have chosen a better issue. But it hasn’t been just the issue; it’s the blunt way he talks about it. Because he is being so flagrantly and (to the base’s eyes) delightfully anti-politically correct. He’s rubbing the shit in everybody’s face, right up into their nostrils. They love this.
So that’s that. But now this primal urge collides head on with another one, the deep pro-military bias among these kinds of voters. This ardor is longer held, and it is more easily and widely understood by, oh, political reporters, for example. But is it definitely stronger than the anti-immigrant ardor?
The answer is we don’t know. I would argue that fear and loathing are generally better motivators in politics than love and enthusiasm, so I’d say yes, anti-immigrant anger probably trumps, so to speak, pro-military passion.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/21/sorry-folks-trump-ain-t-cooked-yet.html
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Yes, the rightwing portray themselves as hyper-patriotic, flag-waving supporters of our military to the core (or is that 'corps'). But is this sincere, or is this just another ploy which is to be exploited only when it brings political advantage?
The treatment of American military heroes like Kerry, Duckworth, and Clelland would argue that all Pro-Military bias vanishes when it comes to attacking a partisan foe. And the blocking of much-needed legislation to help returning veterans in dire need of medical and psychological care because WE CAN'T AFFORD IT, would argue that cash easily replaces their claims of patriotism.
Then take a politician like McCain, who is very impure by Tea Party standards, and is a rightwing disappointment, and political expediency easily replaces any "claim" of love for the military.
So Trump is on solid ground with his base, precisely because that "deep pro-military bias" is just a convenient affectation, rather than any deeply held principle. (To borrow one of their criticisms of Bill Clinton, that flag-waving military support is just "boob bait for the bubbas"
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I think he may actually be on our side working for Hillary. But then again I love a a good conspiracy theory.
