Anchor Struck

What a glorious run U.S. progressives are on.  Last week alone, the Supreme Court approved gay marriage, upheld a major tenet of Obamacare, and maintained checks on housing discrimination.  This week, advocates of alternative energy have discovered a boundless source of wind power.  In announcing his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump spewed enough hot air to keep wind turbines from Texas to Canada whirling indefinitely.

His fact-free, stream-of-consciousness diatribe and inevitable defense of such reminded me of my days working on psych lock-ups.  I miss those folks in a way, even envied them at times for their lack of concern for coherence.  Trump’s inability to back down from his bluster is like a child trying to cover up a cookie theft with escalating lies.  Endearing, yes — if you’re five or younger.

The Donald accused the (nonexistent) hordes of Mexicans crossing into the U.S. of being drug-toting rapists, then tempered this outrageous statement by speculating that some of them are possibly “good”.  Given a chance to walk that back, the best he could do is say that he loved Mexico.  That should mollify those peons.

We all know that Trump will stir up a tsunami of bullshit, then quit the race.  And it will be someone’s else fault, most likely the Hitlerian Obama.  The 2012 crop of GOP hopefuls included Trump and Herman Cain.  Cain, though, played it like the joke every one knew it was.  Everyone except the Republican base.  Both of them were front-runners at some point.

This time, Trump is second only to Jeb “I’m not really a” Bush.  I find this both troubling and heartening.  Troubling that so many people could find any value in Trump’s delusional trumpetings.  Heartening that this mindset is a rapidly-growing millstone for Republicans in a country yearning to be diverse.

None of Trump’s opponents had the cajones (or whatever the female equivalent would be for Carly Fiorina) to call him on his racism.  Bush, who has a Hispanic wife, meekly disagreed with The Donald.  Ted Cruz actually agreed with him; but, then again, Cruz is Canadian.

The initial response to Trump’s preposterous statements has been rigorous.  Business partners are bailing on him.  Hispanic leaders have lauded him for galvanizing their base.  A million Hispanic people a year in the U.S. become eligible to vote.  Do the math, the Donald.

Of course, the GOP will be able to suppress some of that vote with their bogus voter fraud laws.  However, the clock is ticking.  The power of white, straight Christians who equate the Constitution with the Bible and the Founding Fathers with the Apostles is dying.  But, man, is it dying ugly.