Donald Trump has been the front runner of the Republican Party for months now, which shocks many due to his outrageous comments and impossible policy proposals. The most recent of his never-ending stream of outbursts includes proposing to exclude all Muslims (even those who are US citizens) from coming/returning to the country, and making fun of a disabled boy. According to patterns, every time Trump says something shocking, he goes up in the polls. This is most confusing because in a survey taken at the beginning of the campaigns, voters expressed interest in candidates with very different characteristics than Trump. For example, "they wanted a moderate over a strong conservative," and the least important quality was "a very successful, self-made businessman."
Some theorists believe that Trump's supporters do not really agree with anything he has to say. They simply know that he will be heard by the entire nation because the media is constantly on him, so they want to use him as a mouthpiece to get their issues heard. According to theory, no voters actually believe he will be an effective president, who is able to not only get the issues heard, but resolve them. For this reason, many believe that Cruz or Rubio are the Republican candidates who will get the majority vote in the primaries.
Do you agree that Trump is simply a mouthpiece for voters to be heard?
Do you think another Republican candidate will win the primary despite Trump being the current front runner?
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/12/10/why-donald-trump-isnt-real-gop-frontrunner.html
5 comments:
I absolutely agree that Trump is simply an entity for extremist voters to grab onto. As Ms. Fox addressed in class, it almost seems as though Trump is trying to allow the Democratic frontrunner to win in a roundabout way. Perhaps a "closet liberal" underneath his whole facade, there is no denying that Trump is still currently maintaining his status as an intensely conservative candidate at the moment. However, what with the centrist majority of American voters currently holding the most weight in elections, Trump's future looks grim. Despite Trump being the current frontrunner, I do think that a more moderate candidate will end up winning over Trump. While we're on the matter, I also think that Huckabee, Cruz, and Carson are too far right-wing to win the nomination. I truly do believe that a moderate candidate, like Marco Rubio for example, will prevail. On the other hand, John Kasich- who is easily the Republican party's most moderate candidate- does not seem to stand a chance of winning the nomination either, simply because he comes across as too liberal.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/opinion/sunday/rubio-the-unusual-front-runner.html?_r=0
I completely agree with Hannah's comment. I've said it before and I'll say it again and again (until Trump drops out of the race): he is not fit to run our country. I hope, for the sake of every Republican that is not a Trump supporter, that he does not win the nomination. It would, quite simply, be disastrous. Though there is a fairly strong "Anyone but Hillary" camp, there is an undeniably larger bias against Trump. Just from the personal experience of reading comments on Bernie Sanders' Facebook posts, many traditional conservatives are saying things like "Trump might just get me to switch sides". I believe this is an entirely fair contention, as I cannot see anyone in their right mind actively and consciously voting for Donald Trump to be the next leader of the free world.
The theory that Trump supporters are merely using him as a mouthpiece is an interesting one, but one I'm not sure I agree with entirely. It's possible that some supporters back him for this reason, but he does not seem to be a logical candidate to support solely for his media attention. He does not seem moldable in the slightest. Therefore, I believe it would be very difficult for his constituents to shape him and guide him to say the things that they want to be heard. Unfortunately, I believe that much of his appeal comes from his novelty. He is, to some extent, saying things that a portion of America wants to hear. It just so happens that he is saying them in an offensive way. He has great appeal with people who are sick of the so-called "politically correct" culture we have now. Many of his supporters are also part of older generations, who tend to be more heavily conservative in general. That said, I think that the theory is viable for a portion of his supporters, but, unfortunately, much of his support comes from people who genuinely believe what he says.
As Hannah said, I am hopeful that a more moderate candidate like Rubio will earn the Republican nomination.
I think that while Trump is in fact a very opinionated person who doesn’t filter his thoughts before saying them out loud to the nation, he is a strong candidate in his supporter’s eyes for other reasons. One of those reasons being that he wants radical change for the nation and voices his views on how the country should be improving; which is why his followers support him. He is not supported just because he has a large, unfiltered mouth. I think that Trump has some good points and has brought up some important but by saying that he wants to exclude all Muslims is crossing the line into something that the United States doesn’t stand for. For the time being, and under the circumstances, the people of the United States don’t need what they call a “very successful, self-made business” as the Commander in Chief.
I think that it is quite possible for another Republican candidate to win the primary mainly due to Trump’s radical views. While other candidates are more toward the middle of the party scale, he is definitely more right-winged and that is going to cost his valuable votes at the poles.
To build off of what Hannah said, Ms. Fox did rightfully bring up the point that he is just allowing the Democratic candidate to gain the lead by saying such opinionated and subjective comments to the American people. We need a leader that will guide us to peace and justice, not someone who is looking to divide our population due to a religion.
Trump as a mouth piece is essentially just a malfunctioning megaphone. He's not fighting for what anyone believes in and he's either doing it for ratings or because he wants a Democrat to win the race. Trump is so gone from any sort of moderate that there simply just no way he can continue for much longer. I strongly believe and hope another Republican candidate will win the primary. Trump is the current front runner because his name is out there so often, that many of these polls may be affected by name recognition alone. It's time people stopped allowing Trump to make these absolutely outrageous comments. As Peter Fenn, the owner of Fenn Communications Group, a political and public affairs media firm, said in a U.S. News & World Report opinion piece, "the American people will get the joke: Donald Trump is not emotionally or substantively fit to be president of the United States" (Fenn). What I think will happen is it will finally get narrowed down to Trump and one other Republican and that Republican will get the full nomination. I just don't think that America can stand Trump for much longer.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-fenn/2015/08/31/donald-trump-will-never-be-president
I am shocked that Trump is the Republican front runner. Trump definitely does not have a filter. He constantly makes loud, obnoxious and crazy comments about what he would want to accomplish as President of the United States. I strongly believe that Trump gets away with a lot of the things he says because of the reputation he has throughout the country as a business mogul. If any other candidate said any of his outlandish comments, Americans would be completely caught off guard. However, because Trump is a figure that has been in the press for decades, Americans know him and his personality more. Moreover, I completely agree with maybesarah's opinion on Trump. I also hope he does not win the nomination. Although he has been a successful businessman and made a name for himself, I DO NOT trust him to lead the US. I also agree with raswaglia and her opinion that a more moderate candidate, like Marco Rubio will prevail in the presidential race. Marco Rubio is a younger candidate who can implement new and creative ideas as Obama has been serving the White House since 2008. I hope Rubio will win the nomination and give the country a fresh start!
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