Flirting with Disaster
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“Flirting with Disaster”
Michael Lujan Bevacqua
5/12/2011
The Marianas Variety
Donald Trump isn’t running anymore for the Republican
nomination for the Presidency in 2012. It’s a shame really. Technically, he
never was really running, but rather participating in what seems to be the
current national pastime of leaders in the Republican Party, flirting with the
idea of running for President. It is a lucrative game and one which takes clear
advantage of the problem that the Republican party lacks a clear leader or
vision for their brand in the next election.
Trump’s candidacy was ridiculous but had to be taken
seriously for a few weeks because the media and opinion polls ended up turning
the mere idea that someone could be running, into a series of polls and stories
which actually made it seem not just that he might run, but that he might win. The
idea that Donald Trump could be elected on the Republican side of the ballot
had little to do with reality, but rather fantasies of how interesting he would
make things. No doubt his temporary surge in the polls stemmed from people
imagining that on inauguration day 2013 he would say “you’re fired” to Obama’s
face. He is a household name, one loathed far more than loved, but his
confidence, craziness and willingness to say ridiculous things to keep him in
the spotlight made him unable to resist. Can you imagine him in a debate with
Obama and when a question of foreign policy comes up? Obama sarcastically
challenges Trump by stating that dealing with Kim Jong Ill and Gaddafi isn’t
like dealing with Meatloaf and Gary Busey.
For the next few months we can expect more Trumps to appear,
in an attempt for the Republican Party to fill its message vacuum, sort through
a huge field of possible candidates and inspire its deeply divided base. In the
2008 election Democrats were faced with a similar huge list of candidates and
the electorate was treated to an endless string of debate-o-drome forums, which
sometimes, because of the sheer number of candidates were reduced to rounds of
yes-and-no-please-raise-your-hand-style questions. The difference for Democrats
was that their long list of candidates contained two historic choices, or two
contenders who promised to not only change the election but the country if
elected. Although the party seemed at time on the verge of imploding at times,
the choice between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and the chance to help
make either make history, was still an enviable choice.
Republicans in this election have just as many potential
candidates out there, but a list of lackluster options. The exciting and almost
forbidden exception to this is Sarah Palin, who is the ultimate Republican
Party crush; a candidate that they are so desperately infatuated with, and
stare dreamily at, but cannot accept as being real. After losing the 2008
election with John McCain, party insiders told her to start studying, gain some
real political experience, develop a good relationship with the Washington
press corps and work on being more consistent, and if she did this, she’d have
a great shot at defeating Obama in 2012 She did none of these things, and
instead became addicted to Facebook and Twitter and has become an almost
laughable, winking, talking point machine.
Republicans while high off of their 2010 pulverizing of the
Democrats in the 2010 Congressional races now have to contend with the fact
that the country has changed without them. In a post-Obama world, where there
is much economic uncertainty, the Republican brand, which still has so much
residue of being white, male, Christian and against social and ethnic
minorities, can only go so far. The rise of the Tea Party has shown that the
Republicans can still inspire at the local level and crush Democrats whose message
isn’t strong enough for those who want to see some sort of action, but whether
this works at the national level remains unlikely. The Republican primary will
be an event to watch with some guaranteed fireworks, but the ones who will
enjoy it the most will probably be Democrats, in particular the current
President.
The problems with the Republican Party may lead to a recent Saturday Night Live skit coming true. In
it a mock debate is held between the slate of unofficial Republican candidates
who hold power over the party, but who are fundamentally those “you wish you
knew less about.” In the skit, Sarah Palin, Trump, Minnesota Congresswoman
Michele Bachmann and former Speaker Newt Gingrich are all reduced to caricatures
of why they are unelectable. Once finished, the moderator thanks each for their
participation and closes by congratulating Barack Obama on his re-election as
President of the United States.
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