It hurts to say it, but sometimes Donald Trump speaks the truth

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/20/donald-trump-republican-truthteller

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Donald Trump offends entire voting blocks at will, constantly gets his facts wrong, and most of his policy positions are either contradictory or insane. Yet, on some issues, he’s also right.

His deliberate forays into xenophobia and arrogance on immigration and foreign policy certainly remain awful and ugly, but there’s also another reason he continues to sit atop the Republican polls: he speaks a particular kind of truth about some issues the way only someone with no filter can. These days, his venom particularly stinging to other Republicans, whom he has no problem attacking with a delightful abandon that is usually considered sacrilegious in inter-party primaries.

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Or as Jon Stewart described it: “Trump has no control over the projectile vomit of dickishness that comes out of his mouth every time he opens it. It was inevitable that some of his word-puke was going to get on [Republicans].” And sometimes it’s just fun to watch. You can despise the man and dread his presidency, but still enjoy the show.

His criticism of “frontrunner” Jeb Bush – who is really only the frontrunner in the minds of billionaires – have been spot on, yet not something any of the other candidates would dare say for fear of denigrating the last two Republican presidents, Jeb’s brother and father. Trump took credit for the record audience during the first GOP debate by remarking, “Who do you think they were watching? Jeb Bush?” He’s right – Bush is boring. And I don’t mean boring in the technocratic, attention-to-details way. I mean he is mind-numbingly unoriginal and can’t even express those unoriginal ideas in a politically adept manner.

Trump has not minced words on George W Bush’s Iraq War, either, calling it the “disaster” that it was and is, and hammering Jeb for his stumbling defense of his brother’s war and its decade-long aftermath.

And when Trump posted a mash-up video on of the Bush family presidency on Instagram saying “Enough is enough - no more Bushes!” he nailed it. (Granted, Trump’s “solutions” for the second and third Iraq wars is beyond reckless and borderline sociopathic. For Isis, he prescribes re-invading Iraq and “stealing” all of their oil fields, and he claims “we should’ve invaded Mexico” instead of Iraq the first time.)

And then there are the Super Pacs. Has there ever been a more effective criticism of money in politics than Donald Trump? No one has shed more light on the money-funneling mechanisms for legally bribing politicians since Stephen Colbert. Trump knows wealthy people have inordinate power to influence elections, because he is usually one of them.

When questioned and criticized for donating to Hillary Clinton and other democrats, Trump didn’t hide from it or apologize; he openly bragged about it: of course he donated to Democrats, because he was buying access and the politicians therefore had to kowtow to him.

Trump has no problem brazenly calling out the other Republican candidates, who spend their time sucking up to billionaires, either. “I wish good luck to all of the Republican candidates that traveled to California to beg for money etc. from the Koch Brothers. Puppets?” he tweeted. You’re not going to find more truth in any statement this election in 140 characters or fewer.

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Trump also doesn’t try to hide his support for Social Security and Medicare, or pretend he’d push for massive cuts of two of the most popular social welfare programs that have ever existed, unlike almost all of his fellow Republicans. Instead, he scolded his opponents for even considering it: “I am actually disappointed with a lot of the Republican politicians,” he said. “Whether it is we are going to cut Social Security, because that’s what they are saying. Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, they want to do it on Medicare, they want to do it on Medicaid,” he continued. “And we can’t do that. And it’s not fair to the people that have been paying in for years and now all of the sudden they want to be cut.”

His opponents may brand him a “moderate” or “Rino”. But what does Trump care? Support for those social programs is a really popular position, even within the Republican party. As the National Journal reported in April, “A United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection poll from January of 2012 found that among white working-class men and women, the bedrock of the GOP base, more than 80% said they didn’t think the program should be cut to ease the deficit.”

Even some of his more childish insults of other candidates have some truth. He demanded that the Republican Party issue an IQ test to Rick Perry before letting him enter the debate. Say what you want about The Donald’s own intellect; he’s right that Perry is so dumb he should be disqualified from the presidency.

And when Donald Trump said Lindsay Graham “doesn’t seem like a very bright guy...I think Rick Perry honestly is smarter than Lindsey Graham,” he might be right, too. While Lindsay Graham certainly talks a better game than Rick Perry, he has been wrong – and many times unhinged – on almost every issue on foreign policy in the last decade, a subject which is supposedly his only strength.

In the coming weeks, Trump will inevitably say something horribly offensive to a particular person or group – that’s what he always does. But when the conventional wisdom machine then proclaims his campaign can’t possibly survive, remember there is a reason they will once again likely be wrong.