This past week hosted one of the most telling moments in the presidential race so far, the New York Primary. After an enormous amount of campaigning throughout the state of New York, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump came out ahead last week, on top of all of the other Presidential candidates. From the overwhelming amount of support shown over the past few weeks surrounding the day, it seems that Donald Trump has the most core following out of all of the campaigners from the Republican Party.
Sure, Trump is a successful business mogul who has been a public icon for years, but is that all people are looking for in a presidential candidate? While business skills are important in helping our economy, there are so many other jobs a president is required to do.
For a candidate in the lead of his party, he has absolutely no experience in politics, in comparison to other candidates such as John Kasich, who has experience in the House of Representatives and has been a Governor and Senator for the state of Ohio, and Ted Cruz who has been a senator and a domestic policy advisor for the Bush presidential campaign. Both candidates have so much more experience, yet fall so behind. It seems the most important factor in Trump's success so far, is his billion dollar name.
In today's culture, there is an alarming obsession with the rich and the famous. Reality television has spiked over the past ten years, with huge amounts of views for shows such as "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" and "The Real Housewives." This has elevated the interest in the personalities behind the television shows, and combined with social media being such a heavy presence in our society, leads us to always be able to see what celebrities are doing and closely follow their luxurious lives. A type of worship has been associated with such personalities, demonstrated in the millions of followers the Kardashian's have across all forms of social media. Where does the basis of this obsession lie?
Before the Kardashian's show started, their only claim to fame was their wealth, which was secured to them by their father representing O.J. Simpson in his infamous trial. While the wealth hasn't what started the interest in the family, which can be credited to the release of Kim Kardashian's sex tape, it was their luxurious lives that kept viewers hooked and brought them where they are now. That's not to say they have no talent, with supermodels and beauty gurus now among the sisters, but it was not their original interesting qualities.
With this celebrity obsessed culture that now is a huge characteristic of our country, it seems like Donald Trump is the Kim Kardashian of the political world. In addition to all of his business ventures, Trump hosted the wildly popular reality show, "The Apprentice," for over a decade, further perpetuating his image as not only a successful businessman, but an icon of money. Sure, he may have ideas that sound fantastic to some people, but his original means of fame is the wealth he was born into and nurtured into something even bigger.
So with this love of famous, wealthy public figures, how could a huge chunk of people not support Trump? With our economy in the state that it is, a national figure of wealth is definitely going to seem appealing to those who have known him for 30+ years, and for any republican who doesn't know anything about this year's candidates, the sheer familiarity with his name can secure votes.
What this year's Presidential campaign is going to come down to, is not only going to be a new leader for the next four years. This campaign could make or break who we are as a country. Without criticizing Trump or any other republican candidate's policy, we can see that there is a problem when Trump gains 60.4% of the votes and 89 delegates in what is considered one of the most progressive areas of the country.
If you are able to get rid of the image surrounding him, and break it down to what he can do for us as president, you will see that only having business skills for a political position is ludicrous. Would you hire a doctor who's only qualifications was owning a prominent hospital and has never once even diagnosed a patient?
