Watch Donald Trump demonstrate inflation with Tic Tacs
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump held up two packs of Tic Tacs, suggesting that inflation is leading to smaller packages.
Martin Gottlieb has retired after 27 years as an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily NewsHe is the author of two books, including “Lincoln’s Northern Nemesis: The War Opposition and Exile of Ohio’s Clement Vallandigham.”
Republican politicians must start saying publicly that Donald Trump is delusional.
And they must focus their energies on gaining control of Congress, arguing that President Kamala Harris must be thwarted. Given the outcome of our midterm elections, people seem open to the idea that the presidency and Congress should be in the hands of different parties.
The Democrats had to face the truth about their presidential candidate. It was hard. They all hated doing it. But they did it.
Now it’s the Republicans’ turn.
Some say Republicans should have replaced the man at the top of their ticket. It’s too late for that. But there’s still time to voice your opinion.
The reason for Republicans should not be that Trump could lose. It should be that he could win.
That’s a possibility Republicans have to face. If he wins, they will have been the ones who gave a delusional man the codes for nuclear war because they didn’t want to upset other Republicans. Is that something they want to live with?
Their voices must be heard because they enjoy more credibility with Republican voters than elected Democrats or voices in the media.
Trump’s delusions were clearly visible
When Trump says no one came to a Harris rally when thousands were there; when he insists that a woman who attended Howard University and is a member of a black fraternity had not previously declared her black identity; when he tells 162 falsehoods in a single press conference (as counted by NPR); when he says evangelical Christians won’t have to vote in 2028 because he’ll have fixed everything by then; when he still talks about “stopping the steal”; when he says “nobody has any idea” what Harris’s last name is; and when he claims Biden is angry and plans to steal the nomination from Harris — to name just a few of the delusions he has expressed — he must be credited with being far out of touch with reality, whatever people may have previously thought about his connection to reality.
What if Trump was not delusional but calculating?
The only other reasonable interpretation of his ludicrous claims is that he is making them not to win the election but to mobilize part of his voting base for the post-election deception that the election was stolen.
He assumes that some people will believe everything he says, no matter what.
But if that is the explanation for his nonsense, then the charge against him is much stronger than the charge of delusion. It is full-blown anti-democratic, anti-truth, and anti-American depravity.
Let’s choose the delusion. The enormity of these delusions cannot be overstated. Take, for example, the idea that no one goes to a Harris campaign speech. If this were not advocated by the Republican presidential candidate, it would be laughed at across the political spectrum as the fantastical imagination of some internet nutcase. (Apparently the idea did indeed originate on the internet.)
But it Is the presidential candidate we are talking about.
Trump and some other Republicans talk about the 2024 election as if a Democratic victory would mean the end of America as we know it.
Of course, this is just another ridiculous delusion, if anyone believes it.
But if Republicans are truly concerned about what Harris would do in office, they can greatly diminish her influence by electing a Republican Congress. If she tries to bypass Congress through executive action, the Republican-leaning Supreme Court will be there.
The responsible message to Republican politicians now must be that they must minimize the damage caused by Harris’ presidency and stay alive to fight another day.
Otherwise, they would go down in history as people who knowingly sacrificed the well-being of their country because they did not want to be defeated in the primaries.
Martin Gottlieb has retired after 27 years as an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily NewsHe is the author of two books, including “Lincoln’s Northern Nemesis: The War Opposition and Exile of Ohio’s Clement Vallandigham.”
