Columnists

Dinner with the Trump man

Dinner with the Trump man went just fine. He paid, and I picked out the wine.

(Actually, it was Karen who chose the wine: a still, off-dry Vouvray from the middle of the list. She whispered her suggestion and allowed me to take credit for the selection. In retrospect, this might have been a concession to the Trump man's sensibilities; he's not a bad sort but he assumes decisions about shared alcohol are within the male purview.)

We had agreed not to talk politics which was OK with me, since politics ground fine is an intensely boring subject and the coarseness of current pop arguments are dis-spiriting. My take on the current presidential race is too nuanced to be expressed in a few words (or in a single column in the newspaper), and boiled down it sounds equivocal. With no array of clever soundbites to reach for, I'm happy to shut up about it whenever given the opportunity.

Our agreement lasted until the Vouvray was distributed and he offered a toast. Something on the order of "To good friends. And the end of radical Islam."

Sigh.

There's little to be gained by demonizing the religion bad people use as cover, and the American way defended by the illegal alien Superman and other patriots precludes discrimination on any doctrinal basis. Murderers also operate under the color of Christianity. Wherever a God appears, there will be those who seek His favor through violence. No one likes terrorists. But I didn't bother to tell the Trump man what I assume he already knows.

Because his views are at least as complicated as mine. He laments the fiasco that was the Republican nomination process. Like a lot of Republicans, he does not like Donald Trump's pro-wrasslin' persona and considers many of the candidate's pronouncements ridiculous. He does not like Trump's bully swagger or his rudeness. He's distressed by the man's refusal to release his income tax returns. (He would have preferred Tom Cotton.)

He doesn't admire Trump as a businessman. And, in a weird way, he agrees with Hillary Clinton that many of Trump supporters are "deplorable," angry people who are starved for attention and have little interest in moving America forward. A lot of them have rallied around Trump because they sense he is sympathetic to their racist and nationalistic causes.

The Trump man is not a bigot. But he has found common cause with the bigots because he cannot abide the thought of Hillary Clinton continuing Barack Obama's policies.

His reasons are his reasons. Some of them have some merit, others are the product of misinformation. But I'm not going to change his mind any more than he's going to change mine. He has reconciled himself to his candidate; while he doesn't pretend that he's not embarrassed by him, he sees Trump as the lesser evil.

Interestingly, he thinks the "deplorables" remark, while true, could be the political mistake that dooms Clinton's candidacy. I'm not so sure. The best way to deal with bullies is to confront them. In my life I have not done that as often as I should but I've never regretted it when I have--even if I got my lip bloodied for my trouble. What Clinton did was politically incorrect, which means it was out of character for a mainstream politician in the midst of a campaign, but I can't imagine it cost her any votes.

My analysis is that Trump has both a faithful base and a hard ceiling on the number of voters he can attract. I could be wrong, but I don't think he can get much more popular than he is, and he's still behind. But the Trump man doesn't think his candidate is behind.

We agree that most people who intend to vote long ago made up their minds. Trump man believes the polls are unreliable because a lot of people are like him--embarrassed by their candidate. He thinks this may cause them to mislead pollsters. He suspects that a lot of Trump voters are reluctant to put signs in their yards or bumper stickers on their cars. But when they are all alone in the voting booth, they will pull the lever for his man.

He believes Trump will win. He's not thrilled about the prospect of a Trump presidency, but he thinks the belligerent child will be constrained by cooler heads, that the demands of the office will force him to rely on people with practical experience. He shares my view that presidents are not so powerful as commonly believed, and that if Trump is elected he's likely to find himself frustrated and hamstrung by the implacable bureaucracy governance of a large, diverse and powerful country demands. He understands a lot of Trump's policy positions are fundamentally unworkable--there will be no great wall along our Southern border, nor will he be able to deport 11 million people.

And while he expects the stock market to flinch, he doesn't expect a Trump presidency will do him much harm economically. I'm not sure of that, but I imagine the effect on the finances of people like him--and like me, for that matter--is likely to be milder than it will be on many others, including a lot of the people who see Trump as their champion. He agrees with me that they are likely to be disillusioned with whoever becomes president; shouldering the discontent of most of the nation is part of what the president does.

We agree that this is a strange election, but it's rare that we have the chance to vote for someone we fully endorse. Much more often, it feels like we're voting in self-defense. Part of that is no doubt due to the diversity of American interests; nobody should get everything they want all the time no matter how much money they funnel to candidates. But increasingly it feels like a rigged game with predetermined winners. Which is why a lot of people think anything--even a vulgar con man--better than the status quo.

And I think the status quo is preferable to abandoning fundamental American principles and leaping into the abyss. But it is out of our hands, the Trump man and I agree, and no matter what happens, neither of us intends on moving to New Zealand. No matter who wins, next time it's my turn to pay.

pmartin@arkansasonline.com

www.blooddirtangels.com

Editorial on 09/25/2016

Upcoming Events