In response to an FT article by Jacob Weisberg on 8th April 2016, entitled 'A wounded Donald Trump can still fatally floor the Republicans'
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/88f70e6c-fc21-11e5-b5f5-070dca6d0a0d.html#ixzz45JaYi0yh
Shocking! A politician who is oblivious to the real world around him, impervious to the wants and needs of the people he claims to care about. One who carries on jawboning school kids when they want to ice skate. Next you'll be telling us there are politicians who inflict kisses on screaming babies or pretend to be interested in the school work of nine year olds in a classroom full of cameras and idiot PR men pleading 'just one more with the disabled/black/Latino kid'.
Yes - Donald Trump is indeed a deeply flawed and uncontrollable character. But the real problem for the establishment whingers and whiners looking for an excuse to disregard the views of the people who are voting for him is this: they prefer deeply flawed controllable characters. They want a member of the club in the White House. A stooge who will not upset the status quo or interrupt the 'pork barrel' conveyor belt system; the 'guns, butter and banking' scams so remunerative for their friends...I'm sorry that should have said 'campaign contributors'. People like, for example:
a) Mittens 'let's face it the poor are scroungers' Romney would be ideal
b) Even Ted 'God by day and Goldman by night' Cruz would be preferable
c) But the emerging favourite of the left and right alike is the one who sums it up the best. When push comes to shove, the GOP will turn to Hillary 'Who cares about my integrity, it's my turn' Clinton...to be the saviour of cronyism.
Finally, if you're going to attack Donald Trump for disregarding the views of frustrated skaters Mr. Weisberg, best not to do it at the beginning of an article that concludes with this:
"It turns out there is no convention rule requiring the party to commit suicide simply to serve Mr. Trump’s egomania"
Neither, apparently, is there any convention rule requiring the party to respect the wishes of the largest voting constituency.
You don't need a better candidate Mr. Weisberg - you need a mirror.
***
A fellow reader replied:
Do you honestly believe Trump is fit for the highest US office? Is Trump really the best that the USA can offer? As much as I find Cruz and Clinton unsavoury (don't know enough about Sander's to include him here), either of them would be safer to fill the role of president until a more suitable candidates can be found.
MarkGB:
No, he is definitely not the best the US has to offer. The problem is systemic. The 'best that the US has to offer' will not surface in this system - in short, snakes do better than mammals in a reptile house.
In more detail - Donald Trump is a symptom of the fact that a growing, and now significant, number of people are sick to the back teeth with the crony capitalist/socialism for the rich establishment 'club' that runs Washington on one hand, and benefits from a corrupt monetary system run from Wall Street, on the other.
This is globally systemic - it's expressing itself through the rise of fringe parties and calls for referenda across the globe. Many of the establishment elites don't get that yet, the ones that do are scared - but they all agree that Trump must be stopped. Some of the biggest beneficiaries of the system are throwing lots of money at their 'problem'. If they do manage to 'steal' the nomination from Trump, they will be unleashing a bigger 'problem' - there will be an army of Trumps in the mid-terms.
Ultimately this is about the collapse of a corrupt system. It's messy. But the alternative is for the 'insiders' to reform the system - history has shown repeatedly that this doesn't happen. They will not look in the mirror until it's too late.