Marcus Brown
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As much as I love highlighting the continuously evolving absurdity that is the Donald Trump phenomenon, I must take a moment to acknowledge a point where he has diverged drastically from the traditional Republican stance. On Sundayduring an episode of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump came out in support of Planned Parenthood’s work, with the exception of its abortion practices.
In the midst of his usual nonsensical and xenophobic rhetoric, Trump offered up a moment that appeared thoughtful and moderate by telling the show’s host Chuck Todd that he has “many friends who are women who understand Planned Parenthood better than you or I will ever understand it.” Trump even went on to commend some of the services offered by Planned Parenthood.
I say it appeared thoughtful and moderate because, while I am appreciative for this momentary reprieve from Trump’s lunacy, it is not enough to persuade me from my belief that Trump is a demagogue. Trump happened to say something sensible, but from a probability standpoint, it had to happen eventually, given how many times he opens his mouth and words come out. What’s troubling for me is the oscillation that can be observed between Trump’s inciting, far-right tendencies and moments of pseudo-moderate ideology sprinkled in between. I like my demagogues the same way I like my racists: upfront and hard to miss, because at least that way I know what I’m dealing with.
The only thing more dangerous than a demagogue is a manipulative, opportunistic demagogue who can momentarily bend his ideologies to the beliefs of the electorate. My opinion of Trump’s presidential campaign has begun to shift from wry amusement to tangible fear because it’s becoming clear that Trump actually has a strategy to become a legitimate threat. I believed that while the radical fringes of the Republican constituency would remain steadfast in their support for Trump, a number of sensible Americans would be able recognize this moment in American political history as one that we will be laughing at in 50 years or so.
I assumed that the number of people who love Trump for his outlandishness would be counterbalanced by the number of people who hate him for it. The fallacy in my logic was believing that Trump would stick to his aspiring-dictator script and not attempt to camouflage himself in a shroud of seemingly moderate positions.
Trump does not need to promote himself as less radical as much as he needs to promote himself as relatively sane. If Trump is loved by half of the population for his outrageous positions and hesitantly tolerated by even a small margin of those in the other half who do not outright support him, Trump would win. Of course, this is a broad generalization of the precarious political climate, but the fear of an extremist wolf hiding in a moderate sheep’s clothes is very real to me. I genuinely hope that the American people will not come together and walk Trump through the front door of the White House, but it has become clear that he still has a chance to go around through the back.
