The case for Donald Trump

They say the best things come in small packages. Thus, a nice Christmas present arrived recently in the form of a small opinion piece by Dana Milbank (“Trump brings bigots out of hiding,” Tribune-Herald, Dec. 21).

Adding to a long litany of denunciations of Donald Trump by liberals, news media and the Republican establishment that is getting more bizarre by the day, Milbank in his essay avers that not only is Trump a bigot, but apparently credits him with having become the face of American conservatism.

Why? Because Milbank associates the rantings of the most extreme Trump defenders with political conservatism. This is like saying communism represents the face of liberalism because both stand for economic reform. By once again resorting to what has become the standard leftist tactic of political “guilt by association,” Milbank’s dishonest denunciation of conservatives sets up the best case yet for why America desperately needs a Donald Trump in politics right now.

If you think the only “haters” are “right-wingers” and that they represent conservative political thought, think again. Think of left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore (“White people scare the crap out of me” and “We as Americans think it OK to kill people”). How about Bill Maher? (“At least half of the Ten Commandments are stupid!”). And none other than Roseanne Barr said during an interview on Russia’s television network in 2011 that she favors using the guillotine on any bankers found guilty of a financial crime: “I first would allow the guilty bankers to pay, you know, the ability to pay back anything over $100 million personal wealth because I believe in a maximum wage of $100 million. And if they are unable to live on that amount then they should, you know, go to the re-education camps and if that doesn’t help, then being beheaded.” Yeah, “you know”… like the Soviet Gulag.

Left-wing extremists also are people who bear signs in public that read: “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon” and they refer disparagingly to “typical white folk” (leftist-speak for “bigots”) who “cling to their (Christian) religion and their guns.” Some speak on camera gleefully of trading in fetal body parts even as they conspire to silence pro-life opinions. As a liberal, do you “self-identify” with all these views, Mr. Milbank?

I won’t bore you with even more vile examples, but enter into a search engine a phrase like “hateful things said by liberals” and you will find a most disgusting array of hate speech, complete with f-bombs, r-bombs, death threats and worse directed by liberals against people who are not like them. Mature audiences only, viewer discretion advised.

When Milbank in his mock piety asks of Republicans, “Is this what you want conservatism, the Republican Party and America to be?” he unfairly tars and feathers ordinary Americans with legitimate political apprehensions as “haters.” But people on the extreme right are not “conservatives” any more than left-wing haters are “liberals.” Milbank apparently cannot, or won’t, tell the difference, and that weakens his own liberal credentials.

The point here is not to display a side-by side comparison of hatred by right-wing nut jobs versus left-wing nut jobs, but rather to illustrate the wide gap that exists between the American political “middle” and the two extreme wings of the American political spectrum. Neither liberals nor conservatives are especially comfortable with what some such as Milbank see as “their people” out on the wings.

Now the case for Donald Trump. Trump is a political bulldozer — a massive D-9 who, whether he realizes it or not, is clearing a huge space for free and honest debate for the American middle. He is clearing out the jungle that is political correctness and draining the swamp that is the political establishment.

Even if “extremists” have been among the first beneficiaries of this demolition work, the way has been cleared for the American middle to pour in and reclaim the political arena from both the extremists and the political class, if they choose to do so. If you don’t want The Donald to do this, then you and I, the American middle, have to do this or America will continue its decline into political chaos and division.

And that is why, even though I don’t agree with everything he says, nor do I always approve of the manner in which he says it, I am all-in for Trump in this election. In being the Not Politically Correct Candidate, he has become the fearless Politically Truthful Candidate and for that he is a legitimate part of the conversation.

Curtis Beck is a professional engineer licensed to practice in the state of Hawaii since 1984, though now semiretired. He lives in Hilo and remains active in civic and professional affairs. He writes an occasional column for the Tribune-Herald.