Trump is losing me, a lifelong Republican
Politics is not always so much about what a candidate says as how he says it, and Donald Trump’s antic style – hyperbole, bravado and belligerence – is making him an impossibility for many.
Trump’s core message is not far off from most mainstream conservative thinking. Our national borders are too porous. America projects an aura of weakness in a world that respects strength. We don’t win often enough in a game of international trade stacked by product dumping and unfair practices by our ostensible trade “partners.”
The problem is Trump’s muscular political style and lack of details suggests an autocrat, not a leader.
In the best-run companies, the CEO encourages frank advice and honest appraisals from subordinates. In the worst-run firms, employees are afraid of the boss to point out even fatal flaws in a plan. One has to wonder whether Trump’s advisers are willing to speak the truth to him.
So let me be direct.
I’m a lifelong Republican and conservative. Yet, if Donald Trump doesn’t trim his rhetorical sails and provide more policy substance, I won’t be joining him on the journey, should he win the nomination. His core message, however salient, is being obscured by a rhetoric that suggests he won’t be able to build working coalitions to make good on his promises.
Confrontation is useful in limited instances. With Trump, it appears to be a default setting. Gridlock is what we are attempting to overcome, and that’s not done by ramping up divisive rhetoric and demonizing the opposition.
For instance, how does Trump seriously hope to defeat Islamic terrorism without help from moderate Muslims? While his proposed ban on all Muslims from our shores has campaign appeal, he can’t make such a proposal and reasonably expect to gain the assistance of moderate leaders in Turkey, Jordan and Egypt to fight terrorism at its source. It is not a serious solution, it is a recipe for continued failure.
Recently, Trump was asked on national television to condemn the racists and extremists who have latched onto his campaign, notably the Ku Klux Klan. He said he’d get back to us. Seriously? What is so difficult about denouncing the Ku Klux Klan? As important, if he wants people like me and others he needs to win in November, he must stop using rhetoric that draws racists to his cause.
Trump’s degrading remarks about women, his poking fun at a disabled reporter and his juvenile use of words such as “loser” and “liar” from the debate podium, have debased the electoral process on levels not seen since the 19th century.
Refraining from such talk is not political correctness, it is common decency. How does he expect parents like me to teach our kids about treating others with respect and then turn around and cast a ballot for him? He needs to dial it back before lifetime Republicans like me disconnect from him.
Ron Francis is Gulf War veteran, a former member of Allegheny County Council, and a partner specializing in international mergers and acquisitions at Reed Smith LLP.