He is as divisive as he is loud and unafraid. He speaks his mind and is unapologetic about his no-holds barred campaign, and it might just pay off.
Even if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump doesn’t reach the White House, his 2016 campaign has disrupted the landscape of the American political scene, to the point where it might signal a change in the way Americans view politics in the future.
He has been called everything from hero to lunatic, as millions of people have witnessed his campaign rooted in the mantra “Make America Great Again!”
At the outset of his campaign, national pundits brushed off the bid as little more than a grab at publicity for the businessman who turned his business into a national TV competition.
“We believe true conservatives really think Donald Trump is an opportunist more than anything,” president of Spartans for Cruz Joshua Rimatzki said. “He’s been a very successful businessman and he’s been on the record many times saying he’s done what he’s had to do be successful, and (we) believe he’d do the same in politics. What he says now might change drastically later on.”
But the more he speaks, and the more his face is seen on multiple platforms, his bid for a spot at the Republican table becomes a bid for the front-runner position, a position that has become increasingly solidified with each primary result — no matter what he says.
He’s over many Americans and has been able to win all but the Iowa Caucus so far with his hard-line approach to immigration and fighting a global terrorism threat. But he’s done little in furthering those plans, MSU associate professor of constitutional democracy Ben Kleinerman said.
“Traditionally, candidates have a clear set of beliefs and governing principles on which they run,” Kleinerman said. “Donald Trump’s governing principle seems to be that he, Donald Trump, will be president. There’s not much beyond that in terms of policies and proposals and the policy ideas are somewhat far-fetched, headline-generating policy ideas, but not much else.”
This is something not traditionally seen in the political realm. At every turn Trump has broken the mold of the traditional politician, Kleinerman said.
“I don’t know if a ‘mockery’ is the word I’d use,” Kleinerman said. “He’s made a mockery of the typical standards of that we’d see. I don’t know if that means a mockery of the whole election process, it’s at least a mockery of the things that usually constrain people. He’s made an attempt to mock (the election process) every step of the way.”
Trump as a front-runner has stoked the fires of fear mongering that have led many to see fixable problems as substantial issues that need a hard and fast fix, Stabenow said.
“Trump reflects a lot of our media world today,” U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow said. “A lot of politics have come of age around hate radio, hate TV, dividing people, looking for somebody to blame, having us be afraid of each other. Those are all so destructive if we’re going to have a strong country. But I think all that gets amplified through what Donald Trump is saying.”
Trump’s speeches, coupled with his active presence on social media, have been marked with bombastic claims and a unique way of communicating, sparking many to criticize him for racial undertones and scapegoating.
"@ilduce2016: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” – @realDonaldTrump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2016
His public image appears new in the American political world but, Stabenow said, some may try to copy his methods which appear to be working.
“We’re definitely going to see it from Donald Trump, but in politics people repeat what works,” Stabenow said. “If we demonstrate that that doesn’t work, then they’ll stop doing it. If it works, then they’ll do more of it.”
If Trump is successful in this election, he’ll have shifted the political spectrum and more candidates like him will become front-runners.
