Donald Trump’s ‘Revolution’ Isn’t Crazy, It’s Disgusting
Donald Trump says things that sound insane, but I don’t think he is a stupid man. With that in mind, I believe the businessman-who-would-be-dictator has figured out his chance of winning the election is roughly equivalent to a Cleveland Browns Super Bowl run.
Out of that realization has come Plan B.
(Cue the Beatles for background music): You say you want a revolution….
This Trump talk of rigged elections rings especially loud in Florida, where we know a thing or two about controversy at the polls. I mean, you haven’t forgotten the 2000 election with George W. Bush and Al Gore, have you? The Florida electorate certainly hasn’t.
For now, though, let’s focus on Trump’s crazy game and his non-stop jabbering about crooked elections and media collusions.
It could just a plea to stick with him, or a ready-made excuse when Election Night goes south. His message can be dangerous, though. It would only take a few over-zealous believers to make revolution in the streets a reality – and then what?
What we can say for sure is that Trump really has fired up the faithful in ways seldom seen. Take this, for instance: Over the weekend, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. in Wisconsin tweeted: “It’s incredible that our institutions of gov, WH, Congress, DOJ and big media are corrupt. Pitchforks and torches time.”
Clarke, remember, gave a fiery speech at the Republican National Convention and is an outspoken Trump supporter. He is also sworn to uphold the law, which I’m reasonably sure doesn’t include riots in the streets if the election doesn’t go their way. Handled poorly, this thing could get seriously out of control.
It’s take-a-deep-breath time.
Trump won’t lose the election because “they” (whoever “they” are) rigged it. He will lose because of the incredibly offensive way he has run his campaign. He will lose because too often he has made no sense. Trump supporters can’t seem to understand that. Trashing millions of people and labeling them in sexist or demeaning ways is going to have an impact.
So maybe deep inside the catacombs at Trump Tower, that message has gotten through and they feel the election slipping away. Does anyone believe he will go quietly though? If he is losing badly, it’s 50-50 whether he even makes the traditional concession phone call on the night of the election.
The far greater likelihood is that Trump does issue some sort of dog whistle tweet along the lines of, “We were robbed by crooked media, crooked Hillary, crooked …” You get the idea.
Then he will resurface with either his own cable channel or syndicated radio show, where he will bleat the same bile to the same adoring listeners until he gets bored or the sponsors abandon him.
It didn’t have to be this way.
On “Meet The Press” Sunday, host Chuck Todd had Vice President Joe Biden as a guest. Imagine the kind of campaign Biden would have run against a Republican challenge who didn’t fly in from the fringe. Jeb Bush maybe. Marco Rubio. John Kasich. Even Ted Cruz would be preferable to what we have.
Alas, it’s what we’ve got.
It’s not revolution. It’s just revolting.
