Apparently Thursday night’s GOP presidential debate was the most viewed ever. I heard that there were 24 million who viewed it. What made it so popular? Sadly, it was the entertainment factor—Donald Trump!
He’s a side show to the main event. I’m sure that few Americans really believe that Donald Trump has a serious chance at becoming the 45th president of the United States of America. Yet, there he is on center stage, as if! Why?
Yes, of course he’s “hit a nerve.” Yes, of course, he speaks his mind. Yes, of course, he dismisses political correctness. Yes, indeed, he’s entertaining. But is that what we want from our presidential debates—entertainment?!
What about substance, content, information? What about concrete and practical ideas with substantial action-plans reflecting actual steps for implementation? What about means to ends and/or statements that can be evaluated as to their potential applicability and viability? I heard none of that from Mr. Trump.
Our nation has the largest economy in the world, a position which China aims to overtake. What will be his approach to China’s growing economic and military strength? We have serious national internal social issues (poverty, racism, a shrinking middle class, a deteriorating infrastructure, tax inequality, class wars and culture wars, a clash of traditional values with progressive values, to name a few). How does he plan to unify us? Global warming is real. How does he plan to inspire our nation’s businesses and manage our nation’s resources so that we stand strong and become a leading nation for adaptation and innovation in the face of global warming’s effects? The Middle East is just one locale in the world’s international scene where instability reigns and conflict is raw and explosive, endangering whole regions. How easily, how readily, how willingly will Trump use American might to attempt to control these regions and at what cost, to what end, and for what kind of outcome?
When pressed for real detailed and concrete answers to such questions, it is clear that Trump is nothing more than awkwardly evasive at best and stubbornly caustic and offensive at worse. He has no idea. Yet, as reflected by the ratings from last Thursday evening’s GOP presidential debate, Americans still love to hear what he has to say.
How foolish we are. We want our ears tickled. We listen with our emotions. We’re fickle. We are also all or nothing, black and white thinkers. We want everything to be so easy and so simple. “Don’t get too complex on us” is what we effectively say to our politicians. “Dumb it down,” is the message. So, if our politicians are too serious, if they are too cool and reserved and too willing to see “both sides of the issue” with all its complexities and/or logical contradictions, we’ll have none of it. We want muscle not smarts, brawn not brains, ego not wisdom, shallow celebrity rather than cerebral intellect.
But of course, Trump has a point. We do need to stop this “political correctness” nonsense and learn to speak plainly and forthrightly, to speak our minds; but do so with complete respect for those with whom we speak, even if they are our opponents. But no, we Americans like a good fight. So we’re all too ready to see respect and politeness go by the wayside. Again, we like to be entertained. And besides, we’re lazy thinkers. We don’t want our politicians to make us think too hard.
This is why Donald Trump has been given center stage and has been so popular in the ratings—for now. He’s a good side show; he’s good entertainment as we begin to warm up for the real serious stuff ahead of us.
Our current issues seem more troublesome and more critically urgent than ever before, in the history of humanity? (Is that an overstatement?) So, will we elect a man or woman that has the depth of wisdom, the breadth of knowledge, the sharp skills and the quality of character, the expansive insight, the inner equilibrium and outer strength to lead well? Let’s hope so. But having the likes of a Donald Trump sharing the stage with other presidential hopefuls sure makes me wonder.
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