DONALD TRUMP, CIVILITY AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
Full disclosure: As goes election 2016, I’m decidedly not in the Donald Trump camp. To compare Trump to Ronald Reagan, as some have done, is like comparing a Hostess Ding Dong to a seven course meal at Osteria Francescana. Though each may please the palate, the latter offers both substance and sustenance, while the former, a quick endorphin fix and empty calories.
Trump is no conservative. He’s a big-government, tax-and-spend liberal who has spent most his life supporting Democrats and Democratic causes. Mr. Trump’s moral compass lacks due north. Its needle spins faster than Hillary Clinton on a Tilt-A-Whirl. Donald Trump believes what Donald Trump believes because he’s Donald Trump – not because what he believes has any basis in fact.
Like many liberals, the Donald is prone to engage in the ad hominem attack when pushed into a corner on questions of substance (e.g., a propensity to mock the physical appearance of his detractors). Such personal insults are shallow, juvenile and, rather than representing a challenge to the dictates of political correctness, show a boorish lack of civility and decorum.
Still, don’t get me wrong. In some ways, and like millions of Americans, I find Trump both endearing and entertaining. I believe his conventional-wisdom-defying rise in the polls can be attributed, primarily, to three things:
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Matt Barber is founder and editor-in chief of BarbWire.com. He is an author, columnist, cultural analyst and an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. Having retired as an undefeated heavyweight professional boxer, Matt has taken his fight from the ring to the culture war. (Follow Matt on Twitter: @jmattbarber)
