Wall Street Journal (Op-Ed)
By Doug Heye
July 22, 2015
The
condemnations of Donald Trump‘s attack on Sen. John McCain’s war
record, the calls for apologies, and a scathing Des Moines Register
editorial demanding that Mr. Trump
withdraw from the 2016 presidential campaign have had no effect other
than to keep the absurdity going. Mr. Trump is acting the part of a
professional wrestling heel, designed to provoke an audience
reaction–and as long as the media and his Republican opponents
treat him in this fashion the circus will continue.
A
more useful thing to focus on is how Mr. Trump’s remarks at the Family
Leadership Summit over the weekend and his reaction to the coverage that
followed point up what
could be his undoing.
While
interviewing a Trump spokesman on Monday, CNN’s Chris Cuomo asked
specific questions about reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs.
This should not be a remarkable
thing. But the answers exposed Mr. Trump’s lack of policy chops and
seriousness.
That’s
the road to dumping Trump: On issue after issue, pin him down on
specifics. On immigration, how, specifically, would a President Trump
seal our southern border,
what would it cost, and how would he pay for that (i.e., would he raise
taxes)? On abortion, does he support the 20-week cutoff? On the
economy: What are his specific plans to reduce unemployment and increase
take-home pay? On health care: What aspects of
a Canadian-style single-payer system did he find most appealing?
A
stumped Trump would not be able to repeat talking points on these or
other topics; in speeches, he has eschewed issues for insults, and his
campaign Web site does not
have an issues page.
Questions
to Mr. Trump should be pointed and detailed, for example documenting
his years of financial support for Democrats such as Hillary Clinton,
Harry Reid and John
Kerry. Then there are his statements in support of choice when asked
about partial-birth abortion, or his support for tax increases. How
about his praise of Barack Obama as a “strong leader” who “understands
how the economy works on a comprehensive level,”
or his compliments of Mrs. Clinton’s work as secretary of state?
Evangelicals, including those in the early-voting states of Iowa and
South Carolina, may want to know what Mr. Trump meant when he referred
to receiving the Eucharist (or having “my little wine”
and “my little cracker“) as a form of seeking forgiveness from God.
As much attention as Mr. Trump has received, serious scrutiny has been scant. And his undoing could well be in the details.
Parents
often tell misbehaving children that if they act like a child, they
will be treated like a child. Mr. Trump has been treated like a child in
that more kicking
and screaming has led to more attention. What if everyone treated Mr.
Trump as the thing he is not: a serious-minded candidate for president
of the United States? It would quickly become clear that the emperor has
no clothes.
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