IN CASE YOU MISSED IT LAST WEEK, Frank Cagle’s Must-Read Column On The GOP and Trump:
What I don’t understand about the Republican establishment these days is that they fail to recognize that Trump uses outrageous statements to garner attention, but he taps into issues of real concern to the American people. But if you want to stop Trump, don’t attack him; appeal to the people who support him. Offer sensible solutions to problems he has identified, rather than his half-baked, unrealistic rhetoric.
For example, when the Syrian refugee controversy erupted Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz suggested that maybe we could take only Christian refugees from the Middle East. They were excoriated for the idea. President Barack Obama stood in the Oval Office and said America could not have a religious test for admission and it was un-American. He should know better.
The 1965 immigration reform act, which still governs, has specific criteria for the admission of refugees: people fleeing religious persecution. Who is facing more religious persecution than the Christians in Syria and other areas controlled by ISIS? Beheading, buried alive, machine gunned. Any country has the right to decide who can be admitted and who cannot. Until 1965 Third World immigration was prohibited. There are Christian relief agencies in the Middle East that could help vet refugees facing persecution and help them resettle here.
Did Bush double down, make the case and provide an alternative to Trump’s bellicosity? No, he just attacked Trump’s idea to stop Muslim immigration temporarily, instead of making the issue his own. Trump’s plan? How would that work? Offer anybody getting on the plane a ham sandwich and bar anybody who didn’t eat it? His half-baked idea is about as practical as his plan to have Mexico pay for the border wall.
I think a Trump presidency would be a disaster. While he talks a good game, he has no practical way to carry out his promises. Like Cas, he will say anything to grab attention, get a headline and get on television. But his success should be a warning to the political establishment. The American people are fed up with political correctness, and if you do not provide sensible solutions to the issues Trump has raised, don’t be surprised when he stand on the podium as the GOP nominee.
Jeb’s not the guy to do this, it appears.