Trump Could Win

March 2, 2016

I am not a Donald Trump fan. He is first and foremost a salesman, cherry picking issues that best inflame the population and giving vague or unworkable solutions. Pundits of all political stripes say he is unelectable and that Hillary Clinton will eat him alive. They are missing one point – Trump is well positioned on issues:

1. Trump supports tightening our borders and re-evaluating Muslim immigration. While America’s overclass is aghast, public opinion polls show that at least 50% of the population agrees. Even Latinos – the supposed subject of Trump’s opprobrium – are more concerned about jobs and the economy than immigration.

2. Trump opposes the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) and criticizes NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). While the theorists at National Review and The Wall Street Journal tout the wonders of free trade, American workers are not amused. Their wages have plummeted and the life spans of the white working class are decreasing due to an epidemic of alcoholism, drug abuse and depression. Hillary now opposes the TPP but once supported it. In fact, as Secretary of State, she negotiated many of its provisions. Her husband passed NAFTA. Trump will point this out and argue he will give American workers a better deal.

3. Trump is not a social conservative. Hillary’s plan is point out that with the Republicans in control of both Houses and with a looming Supreme Court pick, they will turn back the clock on abortion rights, gay rights and free birth control. This will cause a crucial swing vote, the upper middle class women (and their husbands if they don’t want to sleep on the couch) to click the Democratic lever by default. Trump claims to be “pro life” but given his past lifestyle, nobody believes him, not even his Evangelical supporters. He will certainly move to the middle on these volatile issues and gut one of Hillary’s most potent arguments. Remember, Trump is a salesman.

4. Trump is self-financing. The average worker is getting creamed with outrageous health care premiums, skyrocketing car and house insurance, over-priced housing, higher tolls and confiscatory taxes. Drug prices are soaring. The vested interests that are extorting the average worker have been bankrolling the Clintons for years. Trump is not beholden to them.

5. Trump vows not to cut Social Security or Medicare. This is one of the Democrats’ favorite arguments when they are desperate. How Trump is going to cut taxes and preserve these entitlements while decreasing the deficit without becoming Houdini is open to question; but Hillary will have a hard time attacking him on these points.

6. The voters are still outraged over the bail out of the Wall Street Welfare State. Hillary has taken huge bribes in the form of speaking fees ($225,000 for a half hour speech – nice work in you can get it) from Goldman Sachs and other banking interests in return for the promise of future bail outs. Trump has not.

7. Trump disagreed with the invasion of Iraq. During the debate in South Carolina, Trump eviscerated Jeb Bush on the wisdom on invading Iraq. Hillary Clinton, as a US Senator, voted to start this war. Furthermore, Trump has pointed out that the Obama Mid-East policy, implemented by Hillary as Secretary of State, has resulted in anarchy in Syria Libya and Yemen while giving the rise to ISIS.  Most Americans want the United States protected from attacks but see little sense in sticking our nose further into the unsolvable mid-East quagmire. Trump agrees.

Trump has made so many outrageous statements that his political opponents don’t know where to begin. If the Democrats picked a candidate such as Bernie Sanders or James Webb, Trump would be more vulnerable. But Hillary will be the nominee and she is not without her flaws. Trump has demonstrated that when somebody shoots at him, he does not just shoot back – he gets out the bazooka.

If Hillary wants to call him a sexist, Trump will respond that the only reason she is even politically viable is that she has been a doormat and enabler for her philandering husband who has been accused of raping and sexually harassing numerous women. Trump will not be afraid to accuse her husband of participating in the “Lolita Express,” raping young women with his political supporter and convicted pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. He may even bring up Yoko Ono’s claim that she had an affair with Hillary.

Trump will not stop there. He will point out that Hillary stole White House furniture that her husband pardoned Marc Rich who violated US law by doing business with Iran. And no matter how damaging Trump’s tax returns are, they pale in comparison to the financial shenanigans of the Clinton Foundation.

Perhaps we Republicans will sober up and nominate Rubio, Cruz or Kasich, but Trump supporters have a good case that he is the best candidate to beat Hillary. None of the other candidates have Trump’s visceral instinct for the jugular. Whether Trump will be any better than Hillary – or even worse – is another issue.