Note: In this essay, I generalized a handful of the topics mentioned in the Aug. 6, 2015 Republican presidential debate. I did not go into great depth on each candidate or on each topic in order to give a broad idea, mostly on one candidate, to readers who had not seen the debate.
In the past few days, America has seen the first debate for the 2016 presidential election season. The Republican debate in Cleveland, Ohio, featured the top 10 candidates from the Republican party and discussed many key conservative topics while leaving out many that the general public wanted to hear. One of the candidates that has been causing a hot fuss in the political field since he announced his presidential ticket is mulit-billionaire and business mogul Donald Trump. Trump has been seen as an outspoken kind of anti-politician who doesn't have to rely on the wealth of backers to get elected and feels he can say what he thinks without using a political filter on his speech. This was tested in full as the values Trump is running on were tested during the debate.
To begin, Trump alienated much of the Republican party by stating that, if he does not win the primary election next year, he may run a third party campaign. This sort of third party ballot would split the Republican party into two parties and ruin any chance for a Republican president to emerge victorious in the 2016 election. Many die hard Republicans would rather see any Republican in the White House than a Democrat, seeing the election as a party dispute. After the debate moderator Bret Beir informed Trump that his third party ballot would ensure a Democratic presidency in 2016, Trump still stood behind his decision. This leaves many Republican party members to see that he does not care for the good of the party as they do, resulting in lost support.
Another blunder that Trump made was the over generalizing of the population that comes over the Mexican border to be Mexican criminals that the Mexican government sent over because the government did not want to be liable in paying for these citizens. Trump stated in the debate that he had visited the border where he talked with border patrol guards who somehow know as fact that the Mexican government is sending these "criminals" across the border since the U.S. will take them in. With his generalization of Latino immigrants who come to the U.S. every day as "Mexican criminals," Trump has alienated and possibly lost the little bit of Mexican and other Latino votes that he could have gotten as a Republican candidate. Also, in using the one-on-one talks that Trump has had with the border patrol guards as his big proof that the Mexican government has been sending illegal immigrants to the states, Trump has once again shown his incompetence and ignorance in foreign policy that any successful president needs to have. This idea that the border patrol guards know more about the inner workings of the Mexican government than our own government is nothing more than ridiculous. It seems far-fetched at best and like the mutterings of a crazed conspiracy theorist at worst. And he expects the Republican and independent parties to believe this is viable proof for his statements.
Another flip-flop he made was going from being for to being against socialized health care. In the debate, he stated that, in the early 2000s, he was for a socialized health care system much like the ones that are successfully in place in Scotland and Canada but not since Obamacare. He states that Obamacare is a "horrible disaster." (On a personal note, I hope you read this Trump statement in a really bad Brooklyn accent.) Trump went on to say that the socialized health care system could've worked in a different time and place than America. This flip could be a way to gain popularity that a Republican politician has to have in order to gain office, but it shows that Trump is not the grand anti-politician his followers view him to be.
In short, Trump is extremely under qualified for the presidency. He would make America look like a fool on the world stage. He would show the world that we're all the ignorant greater-than-thou people that most of the world views us as. Along with this, Trump in the White House would result in a rough four years. Though I only listed three of his flaws that were highlighted in the Fox News Republican debate, there were many more to be sighted, and I implore you, the reader, to watch the debate in full to know all you can about the candidates for the upcoming election. And watch the hilarity of Trump and Senator Rand Paul. And others.
