Frank Rich: Donald Trump Is Saving Our Democracy

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/32519-focus-donald-trump-is-saving-our-democracy

There is indeed a lighter way to look at Trump’s rise and his impact on the country. Far from being an apocalyptic harbinger of the end-times, it’s possible that his buffoonery poses no lasting danger. Quite the contrary: His unexpected monopoly of center stage may well be the best thing to happen to our politics since the arrival of Barack Obama.

In the short time since Trump declared his candidacy, he has performed a public service by exposing, however crudely and at times inadvertently, the posturings of both the Republicans and the Democrats and the foolishness and obsolescence of much of the political culture they share. He is, as many say, making a mockery of the entire political process with his bull-in-a-china-shop antics. But the mockery in this case may be overdue, highly warranted, and ultimately a spur to reform rather than the crime against civic order that has scandalized those who see him, in the words of the former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, as “dangerous to democracy.”

Trump may be injecting American democracy with steroids. No one, after all, is arguing that the debates among the GOP presidential contenders would be drawing remotely their Game of Thrones-scale audiences if the marquee stars were Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. When most of the field — minus Trump — appeared ahead of the first debate at a New Hampshire forum broadcast on C-SPAN, it caused little more stir than a soporific pageant of congressional backbenchers addressing the empty floor of the House. Without Trump, even a relatively tame Trump, would anyone have sat through even a third of the three-hour-plus trainwreck that CNN passed off as the second debate?

What has made him more entertaining than his peers is not his superficial similarities to any historical analogues or his shopworn celebrity. His passport to political stardom has been his uncanny resemblance to a provocative fictional comic archetype that has been an invigorating staple of American movies since Vietnam and Watergate ushered in wholesale disillusionment with Washington four decades ago. That character is a direct descendant of Twain’s 19th-century confidence men: the unhinged charlatan who decides to blow up the system by running for office — often the presidency — on a platform of outrageous pronouncements and boorish behavior. Trump has taken that role, the antithesis of the idealist politicians enshrined by Frank Capra and Aaron Sorkin, and run with it. He bestrides our current political landscape like the reincarnation not of Joe McCarthy (that would be Ted Cruz) but of Jay Billington Bulworth.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

1. Frank Rich's background

in theater and cinema serves him well. Being off the NYT payroll doesn't hurt him either.

K&R

[bvf]

2. He does have a way with words.

My favorite line:

When most of the field — minus Trump — appeared ahead of the first debate at a New Hampshire forum broadcast on C-SPAN, it caused little more stir than a soporific pageant of congressional backbenchers addressing the empty floor of the House.

Good read.

[Geronimoe]

3. Trump is running on the failure

The failure of both Parties, to address real concerns, such as global warming, income inequality, endless wars, influence of lobbyists and special interests. etc.

[edhopper]

7. You do realize

Those are the main issues in Bernie Sanders campaign.

[trumad]

9. He's also running on deporting 11 million mexican immigrants...

Defunding Planned Parenthood, anti-climate rules---etc...etc...etc....

You should have mentioned that.

[pampango]

4. "crudely and ... inadvertently". Indeed Trump is not intentionally

providing a 'public service' but his buffoonery and right-wing populism, provided he does not win anything, may serve a purpose.

While even in defeat, his "15 minutes" of partisan fame may provide long-term encouragement for the wackos in the republican base, his success (if, hopefully, fleeting) in the republican primary may wake someone up to the depths to which a major party has sunk. Not likely, I know. But possible?

[n2doc]

5. Charles Pierce Responds:

Steve M at No More Mister Nice Blog largely puts paid to the dilettante's wet dream that Frank Rich has loosed upon the world on the subject of the Libidinous Visitor. (There's a reason they set Guys and Dolls in New York. There are more obvious marks walking around there than anywhere else in the world.) But there's more rancid meat on the decaying bone to be examined. There is, for example, this passage, which Rich apparently wrote from an office in the Op-Ed department of Neverland.

(It took me a while to get this far through the piece because I nearly drowned in movie references.)

Another change Trump may bring about is a GOP rethinking of its embrace of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision unleashing unlimited campaign contributions. Citizens United was supposed to be a weapon wielded mainly against Democrats, but Trump is using it as a club to bludgeon Republicans. "I'm using my own money," he said when announcing his candidacy. "I'm not using lobbyists, I'm not using donors. I don't care. I'm really rich." By Washington etiquette, it's a no-no for a presidential candidate to gloat about his wealth. Especially if you're a wealthy Republican, it's axiomatic that you follow the George H.W. Bush template of pretending to savor pork rinds. But Trump has made a virtue of flaunting his fortune and glitzy lifestyle — and not just because that's the authentic Trump. His self-funding campaign may make him more effective than any Democrat in turning Citizens United into a political albatross for those who are enslaved to it.

In addition to being a complete non sequitur, this argument also is all my bollocks. How exactly does Trump's tasteless flaunting of his wealth work against the politics created by the destruction of our tepid campaign-finance laws? Look, Donald Trump is a tasteless clown. That means we should knuckle the Koch Brothers and elect Bernie Sanders, who has made repealing Citizens United a litmus test for his judicial appointments? Does any human actually think this way? Also, does Rich think that the people are supporting Trump because of their disgust with money in politics? Or because they realize that all politics is a sham of a façade? People are supporting Trump because he says the right nasty things about the people who scare them. Period. If and when he loses, those people will move on to the next shrewd bigot who steps up to the mic.

I stopped reading when Rich got to the point where he argued that the Trump candidacy would have an equal (if opposite) effect on American politics that the failed Goldwater campaign did in 1964. Frank Rich looks at a freak show and sees a movement. That is such a New York thing to do. But his peroration certainly rang familiar.

If that's entertainment, so be it. If Hillary Clinton's campaign or the Republican Party is reduced to rubble along the way, we can live with it. Trump will not make America great again, but there's at least a chance that the chaos he sows will clear the way for those who can.

Back during the 2000 campaign, Rich was similarly distressed with the state of American politics, especially by the presence of Al Gore, that boring twerp, on the ballot.

more
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a38106/frank-rich-donald-trump-campaign-finance/

[Fumesucker]

6. Trump is no Bulworth

Bulworth was a long time political insider who decided to go feral and tell the truth about the system.

Trump is a well connected but not a political insider con man spouting things he for the most part doesn't believe.

[mopinko]

8. i basically agree. he is the dark heart of conservative politics, unleashed.

no more dog whistles, he uses a bullhorn. he makes it impossible for them to pretend any more. he has ripped off the mask.
i expect him to sink soon. but the longer he is out there, the more obvious the cruelty and stupidity of the republican base becomes.

[liberal from boston]

10. Frank Rich

Lawrence had Frank Rich on last night. Great segment!!!!

[2banon]

11. Interesting Analysis, I take his point but I wouldn't compare Trump to Bullworth!

Bulworth is my hero and forever be he shall.

Although it's unfortunate Bulworth was assassinated, it seems to happen to all my heroes.