Suppose a renegade candidate emerged in the primaries. A candidate who says things — sometimes off the wall things — and like the Energizer Bunny keeps on ticking despite the firestorms of controversy that result. What would the media, entertainment industry, and the progressive world in general do with a candidate like that?
Jon Stewart showed us recently. With Barack Obama seated across from him, Stewart described Trump’s candidacy as a positive one. Why? Because, Stewart snarked, Trump makes the GOP look “less crazy”.
That’s the tactic emerging from left of center in an attempt to influence middle of the road moderate, independent voters. Take the other dozen or so Republican contenders for the nomination and make them appear as raging lunatics when compared with Trump and his lunatic statements (ie, saying McCain isn’t a war hero, giving out Sen. Graham’s phone number, etc). Portray Trump as the only “normal” candidate in a field blessed with strong candidates who bring strong track records to the table.
Progressives know Trump won’t remain in the race for the long haul. There’s no reason to believe he will be. He didn’t stick around in 1988, 2000, or 2004 when he made moves on the White House. He’ll hang out, generate some media buzz for a while, and then bow out later on when it suits him. The GOP will then present terrific candidates like Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Dr. Ben Carson, etc — and the notion in many minds will view each as being nutjobs when compared with Trump. “It was stupid of Republicans to let Trump walk away from it”, many will say.
While all this is going on, and while Trump is being showered with media attention, where are the Democrat candidates? Hillary hasn’t been seen or heard from in how long? Where’s Bernie Sanders” O’Malley? Chaffee? Are they running or aren’t they? And among their number, which one is “less crazy”?
Is it Sanders with his bizarre article back in the 1970s in which he advocated rape? O’Malley who kicked off his campaign with a still smoldering Baltimore as his personal benchmark of success? Lincoln Chaffee, who thinks George W Bush is still in office going on his fifth term? Or how about Hillary who ran her own personal server farm to handle her email because evidently a state.gov email address was too complicated for her to deal with – not that being President entails dealing with things that are complex or anything.
So that’s the narrative. Perfectly normal Democrats running against a party who’s sanity is being measured against the rants of Donald Trump. Thanks, Donald.
Image: http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Hillary_Blames_Trump_For_Charleston_
Shootings_Is_She_Right
