Why we can’t have a Republican president, until the party starts behaving.

America and much of the world is on high alert due to recent terrorist attacks and plots, a stable but fragile world economy, and a hotbed of other political issues driving wedges between Americans and making for an uncertain future.  Adding to much of the hostility, anger, and fear of this political climate has been Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.  His comments regarding Mexicans, Muslims and women have offended many but changed the minds of very few Republican voters.  At a rally in Worcester, MA, a Black Lives Matter protestor was assaulted and Donald Trump later defended the actions of those who were kicking and choking a man speaking his mind.  How can this behavior possibly be tolerated let alone accepted by not only the brass of the GOP but by the entire conservative voting public?  It has to stop.

Meanwhile, the runner-up to Trump in the national polls, Ben Carson has repeatedly lied about his own life and personal story leading many to wonder whether anything he says is true.  Now, it might be said of the two candidates exceeding everyone’s expectations that “Hey, Mr. Trump and Mr. Carson are just stunt men in this for publicity” or “Their reign at the top of polls and news headlines is bound to end once rational Republican voters start to examine their policies.”  Well, the time for this prophesied slip by the men widely believed amongst the political community to be the least qualified has, I believe, come and gone.  Primary season is fast-approaching, but I get the feeling that come February, candidates like Carson and Trump won’t cool down.

Currently, 27 percent of all eligible Republican voters think that Donald Trump should be the next POTUS, and 20 percent think it should be Ben Carson.  That means that a near majority of Republican voters are considering a vote for a candidate with no political experience, no integrity when it comes to telling the truth or examining facts, and no respect for the concerns or opinions of their opponents who are mostly minority groups like African-Americans and Latinos, but also Muslims and women.
 
The polls, the behavior of voters like those at the Trump rally in Worcester, and the candidates’ policies and opinions all indicate that this is indeed what the conservatives in this country want.  Let's give voters some credit.  They pay attention and are informed, to a degree, and this race has drawn some heavy viewership in part because of the times themselves.  I mean for God's sakes 25 million people tuned in for the first Republican presidential debate on CNN.  That's totally unprecedented in American politics.  So, there is no reason to think Republican voters are sheep or slaves to their basest emotions and blindly following the loud frontrunner with the flashy suit and shiny gold everything.  They are not being fooled or tricked into thinking they are supporting a good-but-secretly-corrupt candidate.  They are paying attention to the issues at hand and know they are being fed the very sincere personality of a very disingenuous man, and gobbling it up just in time for Thanksgiving.

To say that Trump is an outcast or an outsider to the Republican field is also, I think, inaccurate.  The GOP has been a divided, broken, incompetent, and insensitive Party since the rise of its extreme right-wing faction the Tea Party in the 2010 midterm elections.  For candidates or political experts to claim that the very divisive, destructive, inexperienced, and bigoted Mr. Trump or Mr. Carson do not represent the Republican Party as a whole is downright false.  The opposite could not be truer.  Americans ought to take the complete inability for Republicans to govern effectively and peaceably over the country or even their own nomination process into account when the voting starts a year from now, whether or not you like Hillary Clinton's policy.