Trump 2016: A Cleansing Fire?

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I endorse Donald Trump for GOP nominee. Nearly every other candidate represents a safer choice, but Trump provides a unique opportunity.

As The Donald ascends, seasoned political thinkers throw their hands up in despair. Normal campaign rules do not apply to Trump. He speaks brashly, seems immune to gaffes, and deploys a vocabulary tiny even for American politics. According to ThinkProgress article “What Language Experts Find So Strange About Donald Trump,” his favorite word by usage is “I.” His fourth favorite is “Trump.” Other favorites include “very” and “money.”

His success elicits genuine fear, and for good reason: Some writers have pointed out the eerie parallels between Trump’s campaign and the campaigns of 20th-century fascists. Acknowledging the risk of shrillness embedded in this claim, Salon emphasizes the parallel between Mussolini, who made Italian Jews wear badges, and Trump, who wants to “register Muslims in a database.”
People know precisely what’s wrong with Trump, yet he remains. Further, he may be a necessary next step for American politics.

In retrospect, his rise seems predictable. Trump’s populist sensibilities recommend him to a portion of the American electorate who feel scorned, left out, and exploited by politicians. His coarse approach to nuanced problems (we need to “get tough” with China, for example) wins him trust and support from these voters. While Trump’s approach may seem singular, it’s unique only in its intensity.

Indeed, Trump only escalates GOP rhetoric as recent candidates have already molded it: Combative, mudslinging, and increasingly dependent on catch phrases (“Make America Great Again,” “Build a Wall,” “You’re Fired,” etc.). In this sense, the GOP created Trump.

The pithiest account of Trump’s campaigning style comes from language theorist Jennifer Sclafani: “He’s turning political discourse into reality TV.” She goes on to explain that Trump’s recursive speech patterns, expansive body language, and petulant insults compel viewers in the same way. Sclafani is right, but I would add that political discourse was already approaching reality TV. Trump just helped it get there.

So why do I endorse Trump?

Consider the following sequence of events: Trump garners the GOP nomination, and then America elects Trump president. At this point, one of two scenarios would play out. Either the presidency would reveal Trump as an ineffectual blusterer, or he would fulfill his campaign promises and drag the country into crisis. The first scenario would demonstrate to voters the impotence of the presidency, allowing them to gain an insight into the balance of power in the federal government.

In the second scenario, Trump might wreak enough political havoc to implode the GOP, forcing it to slow down, rebuild, rethink, and engage in serious reflection. Each party badly needs such reflection.

These scenarios are dark, but it seems reasonable to assert that the American party system has decayed morally and intellectually to such a point that the best cure becomes to burn away the rot.

Republican leaders hate Donald Trump, but they should thank him. In his campaign he embodies everything allegedly wrong with the party (misogyny, jingoism, racism), providing the GOP with a chance to point to it, name it “Trump,” and burn it away. The resulting ashes might nourish a more thoughtful, humble conservatism.

Thomas Jefferson said that blood must periodically refresh the tree of liberty, but perhaps he omitted the idea that occasional fires must cleanse the political and rhetorical vines that choke its branches. Donald Trump, scourge of reason, has become such a fire. The Republican Party ought to step away from the fire it started and let it burn.

Each election cycle brings the average citizen close to the pinnacle of hyperbole, but this election seems to bring us closer than usual. “These candidates are all insane,” a friend said recently. This claim, though medically untrue, suggests the elevated pitch of voter anxiety during this particular cycle. Trump may be the cure. If elected, he would scorch the very structures of American politics, allowing voters to see the political landscape afresh. With this idea and the tree of liberty in mind, I propose a new campaign slogan. Trump 2016: A Cleansing Fire.