In general, I think this is a great article on Trump (http://www.vox.com/2016/7/21/12218136/donald-trump-nomination-afraid) but I feel it’s wrong.
Folks who support Trump will not change their point of view based on this. Trump is using a great strategy of contradiction. A strategy which by its very definition will allow everyone to agree and disagree with him.
On the one hand he’ll talk Muslims should not come into the country, on the other hand he’ll talk about how he meant people from certain regions (where those regions are predominantly Muslim) should not come into the country.
This contradiction tends to short-circuit people’s convictions. If you hate Muslims, you definitely agree with Trump. If you are Muslim, you see Trump offering an olive branch to you in the form of him saying he meant Regions. In either case, you’re forced to want to believe and therefore the contradicting statement gets filed in your brain as “that’s just something he has to say to appease the other folks”…
Most important, he purposely… yes, I mean purposely, does not respond in complete sentences. This is not because he does not know what he wants to say. No. This a because by not providing complete sentences and/or details, it allows you, the listener, to fill-in the details.
If you are a supporter of Trump, you will inadvertently and subconsciously fill-in the gaps with words, ideas, notions, which move your point of view forward.
Politicians are normally known for their ability to lie on a dime. Trump is able to turn nonsensical statements from nonsense, into “truths” in his supporter’s minds.
So where do I stand on Trump? On the one hand we had a contradicting and controversial figure. On the other we have the same-old political option.
In a sad way, we’re close to a no-win situation. If Trump loses, his followers, who follow him because they feel they have been hurt by the system. Will have further proof the system is bad (to which I don’t disagree, I just don’t feel Trump is truly planning to do anything about it) and in 2020 things will get worse.
If Trump wins, he will have a hell of a hard time getting folks to work with him (remember, the President is not a CEO, or chairman, even if he continues to make those associations). And I believe he’ll fall back to his current strategy of contradiction. A strategy that will continue to divide folks even farther apart and will paint a bad 2020 election.
What to do? I don’t know. What I do know is that our choices are bad and bad-er 🙁