Trump and the Party of “Stupid”

Donald Trump continues to slide his way across the political landscape, and media pundits are confused. Most media and political commentators dismissed Trump, but now they are now eating crow as Trump continues to climb in polls of GOP voters after every offensive “gaffe.”

Most people dismissed Trump because of his obvious appeal to xenophobia, misogyny, and other aspects of American society that had been relegated to bar conversations and exchanges among friends in private. The current media theory is that Trump is somehow capturing an “anti-establishment,” “anti-political” or “anti-political correctness” sentiment among voters angered at the alleged ineptitude of government. I have a different theory about why Trump polls so well with GOP voters.

A poll this past week found that over 54 percent of self-identified GOP voters believe that President Obama is a Muslim, and nearly the same number believe that he was not born in the United States. You expect that a certain percentage of people believe this nonsense, after all the bell-curve on intelligence proves that at least 15 percent of the population falls into the mentally impaired range. However, over half of GOP voters believe in ideas that have been proven untrue and scientifically impossible (e.g. the universe is only 10,000 years old, global warming is a fraud, etc, etc, etc.)

I believe that Trump resonates with GOP voters not because of bigotry and absurd policy positions (a “wall,” really?) , I believe they support Trump because much of the GOP is composed of people who actually believe the stuff Trump espouses. There are a majority of GOP voters who believe that Mexicans crossing the border are rapists and drug dealers. They believe that surrounding oil fields and taking the oil from a sovereign country would end ISIS. And it’s not just a poll of GOP voters illustrating a disturbing level of profound ignorance. They have proven their character with votes.

If you read some of the positions of GOP Representatives in Congress on climate change, trickle-down economics, and other policy issues where the science and facts are indisputable, you can understand why the GOP has been labelled the party of “stupid” ( a word Trump is especially fond of using). Maybe it’s time to recognize that Trump represents the best and brightest of the GOP …  and get really scared for our country.