Donald Trump: Still A Danger to Our Unity?

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Elections within the GOP are in full swing now, with over 17 serious candidates having declared their intention to run for the presidency. Among these candidates, some better than others, are all threatened by the decision of Donald Trump to run. Donald Trump threatened the candidates of this election, but also the continued unity of the Republican Party.

Anyone who has been watching the news this summer knows that Donald Trump has made a variety of controversial statements. Trump’s statement on Mexican immigrants being murderers and rapist has caused many within and outside the Republican Party to question whether Trump was truly going to uphold this idea of a more inclusive Republican Party, which has been a prerogative of many of the establishment candidates. While these statements were ominous, few perhaps believed at this point that Trump was truly a serious contender, and many also believed that his rhetoric could be reeled in. Yet in this respect the Republican Party establishment has failed, and this is a serious problem.

There are various reasons why the party establishment has had trouble controlling Donald Trump. Following the statements against immigrants received a mixed response by the main candidates. While Lindsey Graham and Jeb Bush immediately opposed Trumps stance, candidates like Scott Walker and Ted Cruz were much more supportive. Additionally, big companies like Macy’s, the PGA, and NBC all cut their ties with Trump. While these companies dropping Trump will have little effect on his financial cargesse, they could have had other negative effects that are more serious to Trump.

Donald Trump’s entire image relies upon making himself out to be some kind of business strongman. His trademark line from his show, The Apprentice, “You’re fired,” is a clear indication of this. These companies distancing themselves from Trump has forced him to take harsh actions in order to maintain the voter’s belief in this image. If this image even falters slightly, Trump’s campaign will crumble quickly.

With this aspect in mind, his subsequent attacks on John McCain, while shocking, basically makes complete sense. With McCain calling his supporters “crazies”, Trump compelled to respond in the way he did. However, this comment against John McCain perhaps gives us a hint at how the Trump campaign will meet its demise.

The trick of Trump’s success has been his momentum. Each time he makes a seemingly candidacy ending comment, he follows it up with another outrageous comment, giving opponents little time for a coordinated and well constructed response. For instance, when Trump made the comments against immigrants and McCain, the other members of the party were unable to respond with a strong enough push back to deter people from accepting what Trump says. This has caused much of the right, as well as people who feel that the government has been ineffectual lately, to side with Trump.

Ultimately, one must look back to other strongmen like Mussolini in order to see the inevitable outcome of a Trump presidency. A strongman politician now will be a strongman leader on the international stage. The powder keg in international relations will be sparked by someone like Trump, much in the same way the actions of Kaiser Wilhelm ultimately played a key role in igniting World War I.

The problem arises in that Trump has now declared a strong inclination to run as a third party candidate and split off a large group of people who would have voted for establishment candidates. This would put the Republican Party on the defensive in the election against not only the Democratic candidate but also Trump, as well. The only action open to the Republican Party at this point is to dispatch Trump quickly. Before he has a chance to double and triple his strength with his charismatic strongman platform, which has proven popular amongst a portion of voters.