Donald Trump might have written The Art of the Deal, but the title he should peruse today is Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. His more vocal supporters, and by that I mean those who act out on the internet precisely as Donald does on the stump, should pick up a copy as well. Both the candidate and his hard-core supporters have missed the idea that it is the job of the winner to unite a party.
Oddly the Trumpists defend their offensive and insulting demeanor by saying that neither John McCain nor Mitt Romney reached out to voters like them. Uh, well maybe…and how did that work out again? And Trump has not learned this lesson to date.
Consider: while many in the Republican Party rally to his side -– albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm -- Trump continues to make it almost impossible for large swaths of the party's voters to join the Trump train. He is maybe the sorest winner in American political history. Sore losers are one thing, but sore winners are an entirely different sub-species.
The Donald sees an open microphone and he just can't help himself -- insulting people he desperately needs to defeat Hillary Clinton (or whomever.) At a California rally, where the leftists against Trump where showing their true hate filled colors by rioting and shouting F-bombs outside, Trump was showing his legitimately unsavory colors inside by once again going to the "lyin Ted" and "Mitt's a loser" memes.
"Poor Mitt Romney" he said of his predecessor as presidential nominee, "He begged for my endorsement! And now all he does is badmouth me … You know, once a choker, always a choker … And now he walks like a penguin onto the stage -- like a penguin!"
Really Donald? There was a tremendous unifying opportunity going on outside the doors, but you had to go there? That is, shall we say, sub strategic. And penguin?
But he was not done.
"Lyin' Ted…holds that Bible high, puts it down and then he lies" cackled Trump. "Lyin' Ted. Well, I'm going to retire that from Ted -- I'm not going to call Ted that anymore."
And yet, he just did. Not only that, he made sure he revved up the venom meter with the totally gratuitous Bible held up high reference. He never got around to saying exactly what Lyin' Ted lied about either, but the salient point is that he is a sore, sore winner; and moreover, he has inspired millions in this regard.
Now, chances are that the most visible Trump supporters, defined above simply as one who behaves on social media as Donald himself behaves on the stump and on Twitter, will probably arrogantly and ignorantly insist that their hero does not need Lyin' Ted or choker Mitt to beat the Democrats. Such unawareness is unseemly and demonstrates stupefying shallowness.
Trump may not need the literal single votes of Ted Cruz or Mitt Romney in November, but he damned sure needs the votes of many who voted for each man. For all of Trump's success so far, Mitt (whom I did not support in the 2012 primary) has received some 61 million votes for President. Trump to date has tallied 11.5 million. Before you get all indignant, the narrow context here is not an apples to apples comparison, it's merely a way to hammer the point that Trump absolutely needs those 50 million people to have a chance to win.
Yes I realize that many assume Donald will swamp Mitt's total in November, and he might, but as of this moment that is merely a theory. The fact that those who voted for Trump were far more enthusiastic matters only so much.
And then there are the Cruz supporters, who make up a good part of the limited government heart of the GOP base. For all of Trump's successes, Cruz still got more than twice the votes in Texas than Trump got in all of massively populated New York State. Cruz's home is absolutely necessary for Republicans -- while New York will not matter a bit and will go Democrat, period.
For the record, I was one of those Cruz supporters, and had made the Hobson's choice that since I vote in purple North Carolina, I will likely take an airsick bag into the booth and pull the lever for the liberal New York son over the liberal New York witch. So call me #NauseousTrump. And pardon my language, but thanks to Trump, that's all part of the acceptable political lexicon today. At least I didn't use an f-bomb.
My decision to pull the Trump lever is ironic given that Trump clearly doesn't want my vote. After all, I was one of those stupid rubes who supported Lyin Ted and cheered him for "holding the Bible up high" and then lying. That would make me Lyin Edmund, I suppose, one among millions of lyin' voters. In so many words, Trump is the one telling the nearly 8 million of us to go pound sand. (You can insert f-bomb here).
And in the spirit of unity, I won't even mention that many of those 8 million were fighting Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton and the Gang of Eight while Trump was funding them. I'm going to retire that. I'm not going to mention that Trump was kissing up to them while we were fighting them. Nope. It's time to stop saying that. It's retired. I won't mention it ever again, except of course to say that I'm not going to say it.
Moreover, Trump clearly doesn't want the voters for choker Mitt either. He paints Mitt as a loser who came on bended knee to Trump Tower to beg for his endorsement. That's not how it happened, nor would it be relevant if it had. The fact is, even though Mitt was way too harsh on illegal Mexican invaders for Trump's tastes, Trump endorsed Mitt after it became a fait accompli that Mitt was going to win.
I well remember the awkward press conference in Las Vegas where that took place. It meant absolutely nothing in the scope of the primary season then, and certainly means nothing now. Yet Trump can't let it go. If I were disposed to being catty, I would mention that Mitt gave away his entire inheritance while Trump used his as a running head start. But I won't. Neither will I bring up the fact that the bankruptcy protection scoreboard reads Trump 4 Mitt 0. That would be untoward. I'm retiring that too.
No, if I were to Drudge all that up -– I mean dredge all that up -– it would make me look like I'm #NeverTrump. And I'm not. However, it's clear Trump and many of his supporters want voters like me to be just that. He insults many of the people he needs behind every microphone, and his followers take to the socials to do the same. If the #NeverTrump camp hangs around long enough to impact the election, Trump and his supporters -- those who act out just like their hero does -- will have no one to blame but themselves. And the consequences, at least with regard to the Supreme Court, will be devastating and perhaps history altering.
So a word to Donald and his followers: right now there are more of us than there are of you. We don't want our rear ends smooched, but we are justified in conditioning our support on your stopping the vile and childish insults.
Edmund Wright is a contributor to American Thinker, Breitbart, Newsmax TV and Talk Radio Network, and author of an Amazon Elections Best-Seller.
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