So, on the subject of Donald J. Trump. Where do I begin? I'll tell you it certainly isn't going to be with the vague leftist generalizations about him being racist or sexist or bigoted, because honestly, I don't believe that Trump is genuinely any of those things. He is short-circuited and speaks whatever words come to his mind (don't mistake me, that isn't a good thing). I strongly believe that he simply doesn't care. About you, about me, about anyone but himself. However, this isn't anything new to politics. This week, Hillary Clinton explicitly lied about her emails being retroactively classified when FBI director James Comey stated that they were classified at the time in which they were sent. All in all, people in politics are generally wrapped in their own self-interest. So what makes “The Donald” so unappealing to a large part of the public? Part of this issue we can contribute to media bias. A large portion of the media exonerates Trump's failings whilst sweeping faults of the democratic party underneath the rug. At the DNC, very little coverage was done in response to the riots, protests, and flag burnings that followed the nomination of Hillary Clinton. Let's not kid ourselves, if that would've occurred at the RNC, the media would've had a heyday. The media, along with Republicans, instead shamed Ted Cruz for his lack of explicit endorsement of Trump after he clearly bashed Hillary for fifteen minutes and proceeded to tell Americans to vote their conscience. That was a quasi-endorsement of Trump, plain and simple.
However, beyond the media bias any nominated Republican has to sort through, there is a deeper issue with the RNC's nominee—the man cannot shut up. That interview mentioned earlier with Hillary could've easily helped Trump's polling numbers, but we have to remember, he's Trump. Instead of keeping quiet and letting Hillary destroy herself, he fell right for the DNC's bait. A family who happened to be Muslim tragically lost their son while he was defending our country in the military. Given Trump's position on Muslim immigration, they obviously had some harsh words for him stating that he had “sacrificed nothing.” While this statement is true in the sense of defending our nation, one would be foolish to say that it was not set up to set Trump off. He is a short-fused man out for revenge to anyone who dares look at him the wrong way. He did it to Cruz, and he did it to this family by poking at Islam and trying to get social revenge on a Gold Star family. While some people who believe Trump's rhetoric may think his speech detailing the various "sacrifices" was justified, let me remind you that the Republican party has seen this type of Leftist bait and switch before, and there is a way to properly handle it. Here is George W. Bush dealing with a similar issue with military mother Cindy Sheehan who tragically lost her son in 2005.
That is how it is to be handled. When dealing with the other side of the aisle politically, do not dare accuse or criticize those who have lost children defending our great nation, no matter how misaligned the two of you are politically. Do as classy leaders have in the past (whether you agreed with Bush or not, he was a classy president) and grieve the loss of their son with them. Assure them of policies you hope to implement that will prevent this from happening to other families, and above all, keep dissenting personal opinion out of it. Not only is respecting their loss the moral position, but it is a politically favorable one as well. I know, I know, he's Trump, and none of us really expected anything different, but even this was a pretty definite softball. All he had to do was shut up.
