Presidential elections are the epitome of spectator sports. We chose sides, wear our colors and try to latch onto the winner (I mean who wants to admit they voted for a loser).
So, now at the front of the GOP we have the Reality-TV version of Ronald Reagan — Donald Trump. Trump, a marketing genius with a well-crafted message for those who believe he is on their side, is steamrolling through the Primary process. And, in the same way Reagan mastered the medium of TV and created quote-worthy sound-bites (Government is the problem — as Reagan added more than 300,000 positions to the federal payroll), Trump has mastered the 140-character world of Twitter and social media. He has said a lot. His non-stop blathering has definitely kept his name front and center, leaving in his wake a long list of GOP casualties, but what has been said about Trump is just as good.
Here are some of my favorite quotes about the man who calls himself — the Uniter.
- He’s a clown — literally, he could be in the circus. When comparing intellects, Trump falls to the bottom of the pile compared to Noam Chomsky. Chomsky, unlike Trump, actually knows a thing or two about America’s history and political structure — and has extensively written about it.
- Trump was born on third, but imagines he hit a triple. Although economic columnist Paul Krugman does not take credit for the quote, he uses it in a recent column. The succinct, Twitter-worthy remarks sums up all you need to know about Trump, but Krugman continues: He (Trump) inherited a fortune, and it’s far from clear that he has expanded that fortune any more than he would have if he had simply parked the money in an index fund.
- “What kind of a man roots for people to get thrown out of their house?” Few modern politicians have a true connection to the working class, but Elizabeth Warren does, and she has sparred repeatedly with Trump via social media. Warren, whose father was a Sears salesman and her mother a teacher, wasn’t born on third, she actually had to face the pitcher. She did, and hit her way onto base through her own efforts. Now, she fights for the ‘common man.’
- Make Donald Drumpf Again. Few people have the biting wit and comedic stamina of John Oliver, but in his nearly 20-minute rant on The Donald, he ends with a plea to return The Donald to his original family surname since, Oliver believes, surely no one would ever vote for a man named Drumpf.
But the best quote may be from Trump himself. As he notes in his About Me section on his website,
Donald Trump is the very definition of the American success story.
That definition of success flies in the face of those who have succeeded — like these 15 billionaires who were born ‘dirt’ poor and had to get a hit on their own. But Trump’s self-delusion is catching on — some people just love a ‘winner’ — regardless of how he plays them or the game.
Charlie R. Claywell 