Remember the village idiot? He was the only one person who watched the naked emperor parade down the street and pointed out that the emperor wasn't wearing clothes. Everyone else fumfered and mumbled and looked at their feet.
Only the village idiot dared mouth what everyone else was thinking.
Apparently I'm the village idiot because I don't see anyone else pointing out the simple truth. Regardless of what he says to the contrary, Donald Trump is not running for president.
Would Donald Trump like to be president? I'll bet he would. I'm even sure the Donald thinks he'd make a helluva good chief executive. He's probably created extensive and exquisite fantasies about how he would travel around the world out-negotiating our allies, bullying other countries into submission, and generally pushing America's weight around.
I'll bet the “Big D” is already picturing what a great robotic character he'd make in Disney World's Hall of Presidents, what with his trademark pink satin ties and Daniel Boone raccoon cap of fluorescent yellow hair. Disney could probably just copy their Grover Cleveland android, dress it in a gray suit and a garish tie, swap the bushy moustache for a fiberglass toupee and they'd be all set.
Only problem is Donald Trump is not running for president.
You see, Donald Trump doesn't care about the country and doesn't care about the presidency. If he did, he wouldn't say such inane and offensive things and he wouldn't defile such an important undertaking with his nonsense.
When he announced his candidacy, Donald Trump…
- Listed several foreign threats he said were “beating America.” His list included China, Japan, and Mexico (which he said was sending immigrants across the border who were “not the right people and brought disease”), and Islamic terrorism.
- Insisted that he would “…be the greatest jobs president that God ever created.”
- Said that he was “…in competition with (ISIS because) they just built a hotel in Syria.”
And that was just in one speech.
But of course none of this blathering matters. Donald Trump is not running for president.
What is Donald Trump doing? Besides having a good time, Donald Trump is building awareness and increasing his brand value. By throwing his hat into the ring, Trump will be on every news program, every newspaper, every magazine, every blog (guilty as charged), every social media site, and every other information distribution vehicle that exists.
Worse, he'll raise tens of millions of dollars from supporters who sincerely think they're helping to change the conversation and the course of the country. But all they're actually doing is giving Donald Trump a tax-free way to fund his awareness campaign.
Republicans should be pissed. Because besides making the rest of the field look like a bunch of buffoons, Trump's media popularity will actually mean that some other deserving candidate might not make it to the debates and their valuable input won't be aired.
But all Americans should be pissed too because Trump's candidacy makes a mockery of what should be a very serious undertaking. By using the presidential electoral system to simply increase his brand awareness and ultimately pad his net worth, Donald Trump devalues and debases one of the fundamentals of The United States of America – our free election system.
Of course, some will see a confirmation of strength in the simple fact that Trump's sleazy hair gel can't stain our elections for long. And while it's true the Donald is not powerful enough to really damage the system, one of the real reasons he doesn't matter is because Donald Trump is not running for president.