Why Republicans Cannot Launch an Effective Campaign Against Trump

I try—very hard—to remain cut off from all things political in the U.S. and abroad. It’s not that I particularly enjoy being in ignorance, but rather that I don’t trust any of the sources of ‘news’ with which we try to remedy our ignorance. We live in a world of personal choices. We don’t know truth. We can only act on what we believe.

So, it is with great hesitance that I launch this, not as a political discussion so much as an analysis of what has brought us to the point of believing that a man who has been the brunt of our scorn and derision for over two decades can be considered a viable candidate for President of the United States. And it has to do with why there are no effective Republican campaigns against him in the nominating process.

It's an old Biblical adage: You reap what you sow.

For the past twenty years—maybe more—the U.S. political system has systematically focused on the sowing of fear. I do not hold Democrats blameless in this any more than Republicans. Whether we spread the fear of Muslims, gays, climate change, economic disaster, terrorism, the one percent, Wall Street, Mexicans, women’s rights, the loss of our guns, Syrians, or of someone simply taking advantage of our generosity, our modus operandi in the political sphere is fear.

For years, Republicans have fought against anything that threatened their power structure. They have promoted the denial of scientific evidence that the climate is changing, supported the building of a ‘Berlin Wall’ between the U.S. and Mexico (but only in Arizona), painted gay rights as a threat to non-gay marriage, and called for a religious state based on scriptural beliefs—exactly the same message that Muslim states declare.

Now there is Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the embodiment of all we fear.

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” So said Franklin D. Roosevelt in his inaugural address of 1933. In an odd twist, we have imbued Donald Trump with the title of “Fear”. We fear fear itself. Democrats are futilely combatting the Republican Party with dire predictions of what will happen if someone like Trump is elected. What makes us think that Canada will accept the flood of American refugees that is predicted? When President Obama has been thwarted in every effort to launch progressive legislature by an obstructionist Republican Congress, why do we believe that Trump would be more effective if we placed an equally obstructionist Democratic Congress in office with him? Fear.

And Republicans cannot effectively campaign against Trump because he embodies the very fears they have promoted for two decades. How can they speak out on Trump’s stand on immigration? On women’s rights? On welfare? On a corporate state? On racial equality? On social services? On healthcare? His stance is perfectly in keeping with the established party stance that has so carefully been built by the party.

And imbued with that special touch of hatred and anger.

For fear is only a breath away from those two emotions.

Republicans cannot launch an effective campaign against Trump’s nomination without denying what they have worked so hard to achieve. In for a penny, in for a pound, so to speak. We can’t back out of our stance, so the only thing to do is invest more in our failing endeavor. The only way to keep a murder from being discovered is to murder all who might discover it, and all who might discover them, and all…

Paralyzing our efforts to convert retreat into advance.

I have less interest in the presidential campaigns this year than in the congressional campaigns. The presidency of Barack Obama has shown that Congress can completely prevent the effectiveness of a president’s leadership. Repeatedly dragging the same tired arguments forward that have been tried time and again, refusing to act on such fundamental constitutional issues as affirming a Supreme Court justice, acting with impunity to usurp the power of the President in dealing with foreign powers… If the most idealistic of our presidential candidates is elected without a congress to back him, he will fail just as Barack Obama has failed. If the most horrific of our presidential candidates is elected without a congress to back him, he will fail as well.

I live every day in fear. I am traveling the world alone, an American fluent in only one language traveling where I don’t understand anyone and depend on their understanding of me. I’m traveling to places that are Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, and Secular. I am traveling to where there are volcanoes, terrorists, immigrants and refugees, economic upheaval, and social unrest. I am afraid. But I refuse to let my fears control my actions any longer. I’m sick and tired of being afraid all the time.

Republicans cannot launch an effective campaign against Trump. It is doubtful that Democrats can, simply because they are prey to all the same fears.

And in fearing them, we bring our fears to pass.

Now, here's a pretty picture of my bungalow retreat in Chiang Mai, Thailand where I'm listening to the fountains outside my door and allowing this fear to pass.