Ned Gardner: Trump feeds off ugliness
In his June 19 column “N.C. Republicans face Trump test,” Ned Barnett said Republican leaders should have stopped Donald Trump. Why didn’t they? Because they couldn’t. Because Trump speaks the truth.
Don’t misunderstand me. My view is that Trump is a pathological liar, as befits his narcissistic personality. But he has spoken the “truth” for a large segment of the voting populous in the United States. They are angry and fearful – in a word, ugly. Barnett and others opposed to Trump need to recognize and accept the existence and strength of this ugliness.
Trump didn’t invent the ugliness. He just has quite ingeniously channeled it into an overt, unfettered political movement glorifying Trump. Republican office holders, whether they embrace the ugliness themselves or try to deny that the ugliness is why they have their political power in the first place, cannot oppose the Trump phenomenon. The voters (Republican primary voters, that is) have spoken loud and clear.
Those of us opposed to Trump would do well to respect how prominent and powerful this ugliness is. It’s the truth about America. It will take an unrelenting effort to deny Trump the White House.
Ned Gardner
Apex
This story was originally published July 2, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Ned Gardner: Trump feeds off ugliness."